Thoughts on Magic (Or Why The Queen in Stone hasn't been updated in ages) · 8:44pm Jun 20th, 2014
As some of you may be aware, it's been rather a long time since I updated one of my side-stories to Myths; Velvet Sparkle and the Queen in Stone. It's not that I didn't know what I wanted to happen next. I have a very clear plan. A leads to B leads to C leads to Denouement leads to the complete tag. But every time I begin to make headway, usually by deleting everything I'd written the previous time I made progress and starting over, something happens and the story is put aside again to languish weeks or months before work resumes. It's a bitter, vicious cycle.
I couldn't figure out what was wrong. What was causing me to lose the threads of the story and characters.
The answer came to me when I watched a certain video where the commentator goes into literary aspects and deconstructs them for the average reader or person.
Near the start of the video, the presenter asks the question; 'Why put a Wizard in (the story)?'
And just like that a light bulb lit in my head.
As I watched the video what at first had been a suspicion became more ingrained and I finally understood why I'm having trouble writing Velvet. It's got too much magic. Magic has lost its own magic and become humdrum and boring, or worse, threatens to overwhelm the narrative and story as I attempt to compete with other stories that have oodles of magic, with characters tossing dozens of fireballs in slow, exacting detail. The trouble wasn't even that I was trying to compete with other stories use of magic with even bigger explosions that do 10d6 of maximized damage or can Quick Cast Summon Monster VII. The trouble was that I had lost my grasp of who Velvet was as a character, what her purpose and role was within her own story.
At this point I don't know that I can find her again, not without doing what I now dread more than anything else in the universe except perhaps public speaking; A Rewrite.
Now, I don't believe that a rewrite is wholly necessary, and I am fairly certain that in the time I just took to refill my coffee I struck upon the core of her character; that of a Mother and Grandmother who doesn't want to fail or disappoint her children and grandchild.
So, that's why it's been half a year since I last updated Velvet Sparkle and the Queen in Stone. Hopefully, now that I've figured out the cause of my writer's block I can get back to making real progress on the story.
This video perhaps?
While personally I kinda like when magic is another science, in some stories at least. I can understand the appeal of more "Magic!" kind of type.
Anyway, I am glad you worked it out for yourself.
2222047
Maaaaaybe.... Okay, yes. While I don't agree with everything he says, it did get the gears chugging along and helped me realise what was causing the problems with writing the Queen in Stone.
...I'm sorry, I just saw "TUN" and I immediately thought of ZUN.
Am I bad pony?
2222319
No. Tuhus are awesome
Yes, I misspelled Touhou on purpose.
Well I would hate to lose all the magic that has happened thus far, with all the changes to Myths and Birthrights including the quite obvious fact that River has a very high probability this time of actually meeting her mother. A rewrite might not be unwise.
2223940
About all I plan to do "re-write" wise is change a few dates and mention some of the family members a bit earlier. Nothing of any significance.