Why did Cadance In A Minor chapter 14 take so long!? · 7:33pm Oct 16th, 2014
This has been the most difficult chapter I have ever had to write. Took me AGES!
I'M SORRY!
This chapter has been nagging at me, teasing me, stressing me out all that time. Why? Because I had to write Cadance. It taught me a precious lesson: Do NOT think you understand a character and their motivations before you actually write them out. Also: Do NOT notice this 100k words into a story.
My major mess-up was that I hadn't thought of Cadance's side enough in the earlier parts of the story. I knew she had a lot of baggage on her, but now that I got right down to it, I couldn't find the words for it. I wrote her just as an antagonist, someone to drive the conflict in the story forward. Now that the conflict is on its merry way to being solved, I found out that I had a one-dimensional character. This chapter went through at least SIX different versions, all of them always going sour or ending up bittersweet while that was most definitely what I wanted the rest of the story to be. I want to show a happy, if confused, couple rebuilding their relationship on a strong foundation. Yet every time I tried to write her, it ended with her coming off as bitter, cold, and shallow. I finally found a way to continue through this therapy session, but it was NOT easy. I'm pretty darn happy how it turned out too. This is the Cadance I wanted to show all of you. Smart, compassionate, and strong-willed. Someone Shining Armor could totally fall for again.
I have the rest of the chapters (probably two more and an epilogue) well planned, but not written. I' won't make any promises or deadlines, it'll be done when it's done. I don't want to make empty promises.
Happy reading!
Damn those characters, always needing to be well-planned and realistic and three-dimensional and stuff. They always make stories such a pain.
Thanks for the extra effort to give her character. The fact that she doesn't come off as callous and comes off as controlling for a sympathetic reason that she can struggle with now is great.
Love what you did with her in the new chapter. The wait was worth it.
Don't forget that you can edit existing chapters, too. Plant the seeds that you need to have sprout at the end. Might not be quite so useful for those of us who have been reading as you post, but there will be plenty of future readers who start at the beginning (and fans who start over again once you're done and re-read it all) who will benefit.
Now to read. :)