• Member Since 11th Feb, 2012
  • offline last seen 1 hour ago

Tundara


Sea Otter, Tempest domain Cleric, Gamer, Writer. Currently nestled out on the east coast, watching icebergs float past. Discord: Tundara's Fanfiction Forum

More Blog Posts197

  • 7 weeks
    Winter Update for Sunset of Battle

    Going to be a short update.

    Chapters 15 and 16 are in the final editing phases now. I'm waiting to publish anything however until after chapters 17 and 18 are done so I have the latitude to tweak 15 and 16 as needed. Once the current story arc is finished I'll start posting the chapters on a weekly basis.

    That is all...

    Like I said; short update.

    XD

    2 comments · 101 views
  • 25 weeks
    A minor alteration...

    I made a minor edit to the most recent chapter. There were two little words that had become a massive pain in my arse working on the next chapter. They were, 'to her'. :twilightangry2: It was leading to rabbit holes of character arguments that spiraled into hellish domains where finding a feasible 'out' for Sunset grew dire indeed. After several attempts I've decided to just rip out the root

    Read More

    4 comments · 208 views
  • 31 weeks
    I Live!

    Title.

    That is all.

    I slink now back into my resumed writing.

    May I post again in less than ten months time...

    6 comments · 132 views
  • 116 weeks
    New Cover Art? Discord? A blog of some random thoughts...

    This blog will be a little more rambling than normal.

    Read More

    0 comments · 353 views
  • 118 weeks
    Nearing the end of Schola Arc, and future planning.

    So, as I begin to near the final rise in action for the schola arc of Sunset of Battle I'm looking more and more ahead to what I want to do with the story and where to go next. My general plan is to do a time-skip to when they are novitiates and start the next arc in-media res. But what to do and who to have as the antagonists?

    Read More

    34 comments · 284 views
Jun
20th
2014

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.

Comments ( 6 )

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. :twilightsmile:

2222047

Maaaaaybe.... :trixieshiftright: 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. :twilightblush:

...I'm sorry, I just saw "TUN" and I immediately thought of ZUN.

Am I bad pony?:applecry:

2222319
No. Tuhus are awesome

Yes, I misspelled Touhou on purpose. :derpytongue2:

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.

Login or register to comment