An Apology, a Request and a Couple of Notes · 2:06am Dec 4th, 2013
1. I'm sorry I haven't been as active here lately as I had been. I've had health issues come up, but I hope to be over them soon. I'm looking forward to getting back to work on Shadow Day.
2. Let me throw a question out to those interested. I've been seriously considering revisiting my story The Boneyard. I originally wrote this story for a competition and the result, as many of you have commented, is a bit hurried. Moreover, there's a large chunk of the story, related to the impact of The Boneyard on the rest of Equestria, that only appears in truncated form in the story as published.
I've generally refrained from substantially revising a story once published. I feel it's kind of a cheat on the readers of the original. Still, this is one of my less-read stories and perhaps those of you have read it would enjoy the "director's cut" of the tale. Any thoughts or suggestions you might have regarding this would be appreciated.
3. I'm a little intimidated by Season Four, so far. The first three episodes are more "world-buildy" than I'm used to. Did you expect the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters to appear again so quickly, after the opening? And did you expect it to be a ninja house? I know I didn't!
4. And a random thought: this is probably just me, but is it possible that the Tree of Harmony is a veiled callback to the G3 movie, "A Princess Promenade"? If you've seen the film, Wysteria becomes a "princess" because she touches the "magic flower" hidden beneath Ponyville Castle. And here, beneath a castle, there's a suggestion that all of the Princesses have been empowered to some degree by the Tree That Blooms In Darkness. It might be a stretch, admitted. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Tree itself, with the Elements restored, becomes a significant character in the series.
Personally I really liked Boneyard and thought it looked at earth ponies and the history of Equestria. However, a really don't like stories that are heavily rewritten once they are published (although I'm probably going to re write one of my stories in similar way so I'm a hypocrite),I tend to find it confusing something of a cop out.
Personally if you are going to do something like that I think a separate story taking place at the same time might work better.
However, ultimately it's your story and you can do what want with it.
I think the best way to handle rewrites is to leave the original up and just post the revamp as a new chapter.
Do as most authors do.
Publish an "author's edition".
Also, was I the only one inspired by the star spiders?
You could do it the same way as the author of "The Incredibly Dense Mind of Rainbow Dash" nd have the original be one chapter and make a second chapter be the newer version. That way you keep both types of people happy and you can compare the two.
I would love to see a director's cut of 'The Boneyard' however you choose to do it.
Sure, a Director's Cut would be nice.
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I felt like the star spiders were laying ground (strands?) for a later episode.
I've never posted a story without revising it afterwards.
For Trust, I wrote an alternate middle section that took the interpretation a lot of readers mistakenly made of the original story. You read the alternate middle, plug it where it belongs into the full story, and it makes the original ending mean something different.
For Big Mac Reads Something Purple, I wrote 3 alternate endings, which gives the whole story a meta-dramatic-structure, where the first and second endings are like the first and second false climaxes in a conventional story, and the third is like the resolution.
For Long Distance I changed the Mayor's personality and conflict completely, to something which is less immediately emotionally biting, but plays more to Twilight's greatest fears. Then I moved the original version into a second chapter.
For Corpse Bride, I rewrote the middle section as per some reader suggestions without retaining the original. For longer stories, I always just rewrite. It's too confusing to have alternate versions for long stories unless they're completely different, eg choose-your-own-adventure.
(We should have more nonlinear fiction here.)
I have no respect for the idea that a story, once posted, is somehow canonical or definitive. That seems anal-retentive to me. Rewrite that sucker any time you want to. Unless your name is George Lucas. I want all my stories to be as good as I can make them, because I never know which one is going to be someone's first impression of me. The only reason I have not to change a story is if it's on EQD, and the change I have in mind would violate its policies.
I almost always let a story sit for a few weeks after it's "finished" before posting it. That cuts down a lot on extensive rewrites.
I think a director's cute of Boneyard would be really cool to see. Maybe put it as the first chapter and have the unedited version as the second so folks have the option of reading it?
Also yay! Can't wait to see more about the boneyard and don't apologize for not being around. Real life happens and it's okay *huggles*