HoaA Anniversary, potential sequels, and general status updates. · 8:02am Jan 25th, 2015
Howdy y'all.
It's now officially been 1 year since I posted the prologue and first chapter of of The Heart of an Author.
It all started with an unemployed me sitting around bored in my apartment and thinking "If I was going to cross over Umineko with ponies, how would I do it?"
Some of you might know this already, but this isn't the first time I've written an overly complicated mystery epic crossover with Umineko. Back in 2011, I wrote and finished an 80k word crossover between The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Umineko. It was my first attempt at fanfiction, and while I think storywise it turned out somewhat decent, my prose wasn't the greatest. Still, it taught me a lot, and informed a lot of what I would eventually do with HoaA
(Spoilers follow, if for whatever reason you haven't finished Heart of an Author yet)
So when I started idly playing with the idea of writing ponies, I naturally thought about doing things differently, as well as trying to figure out what would fit best with ponies in general. The method I used for my first fic (Due to various shenanigans, Twilight ends up on the Island of Rokkenjima and has to solve the mystery from Umineko) didn't seem particularly appealing. I considered doing it apocalyptic log style, where Twilight has to investigate the history of a Umineko-esque murder incident that happened 20 years ago, but I eventually decided on what you got.
Of all Umineko has to say on Murder, Mystery, Truth, and Fiction, one of its core values at the very heart is the concept of using storytelling as a medium as which to convey a message of ones deepest feelings and internal struggles.
Twilight was naturally suited for the role of protagonist and detective. But who would go out of their way to write a story like this? I had no particular attachment to the pairing at the time, but I found Fluttershy was the only one who fit the part, to be shy and conflicted enough to use such an insanely complicated method of baring her heart. In retrospect, I think it could have also worked with either Trixie or Luna, but that would have resulted in a greatly different story. Also possibly post RR Sunset Shimmer, though that would have required a time machine on my part.
My original brainstorming started with a much larger cast. (Umineko has eighteen(sorta) characters at the start, and it only goes up from there.) I had some vague ideas about making the setting more important, like a conference between Equestria and the griffon nations or something. A larger cast, especially with unknowns would have resulted in a lot higher tensions and suspects for murder, but I wasn't super keen on fleshing out a diverse cast of OCs (Especially since they would all just be red herrings anyway) and eventually decided to only include the Mane 6. (Plus the illusions of Celestia and Luna.)
So I started writing fanfiction again for the first time in 2 years. Some of my early ideas didn't really end up panning out and going anywhere. Basically all of the stuff with the dragon and Princess Wishlight in general. Sorry about that guys. If I was going to rewrite the whole thing, I'd probably drop that plot entirely. (I'd also do it as a proper Visual Novel, but that's besides the point. It'll never happen. (probably.)
I'll just blame Fluttershy for that one. It's really a convenient excuse.
Incidentally, my decision to have the Rarijack subplot, while it ended up being an important avenue for Fluttershy to explore her own misgivings about romance, existed in the first place because I needed a slight of hand to justify adding the romance tag without making it too obvious that it was all about Twishy. 
So here we are, 1 year and 140k words later. I can't say Heart of an Author is perfect, but damn if I'm not proud of it anyway, and I'm glad you guys enjoyed it enough to stick with it til the end.
So now, what you've probably all been waiting for, the potential sequel ideas I may or may not write someday. I don't know when or if I'll ever get around to any of these, but consider them potential catboxes for now. Nothing game changing or as big in scope as HoaA, but short followups.
1: Twilight and Fluttershy explore their relationship by writing each other cute short stories.
Of all the things I did with HoaA, as an actual TwiShy romance I think it falls kind of flat. Building on the basic themes of HoaA, this would just be some cute fluff about them writing each other as protagonists in various genres. (Daring Do style adventure, Space Opera, whatever)
2: Twilight and Fluttershy present a purple truth mystery to the rest of the mane 6.
Introducing a new mechanic and a new color, Anything spoken in purple is the truth, but the culprit can use it to lie.
Would involve a framing device of Twilight and Fluttershy presenting a mystery to the Mane 6 at a sleepover. The mystery itself would be mostly narrative less, consisting of a summary of events, and a number of purple truth statements. The following story would be a series of chapters where the mane 6 slowly unpack the mystery, each chapter providing a hint or uncovering a clue, but the reader would be encouraged to figure it out on their own before reading onwards.
3: [REDACTED]
4: Heart of an Author from Fluttershy's perspective.
Pretty straightforward. Dunno if I really actually want to write this one, but would follow her thought process that went into obsessing over Twilight, writing the story, the whispers of Absolute Certainty in her mind egging her forwards, and what happened when Twilight was unconscious.
So yeah. That's that.
In other writing news, my current writing project, Fractured Sunlight is about 30k words or 8 chapters in, somewhere near the halfway point, and still an absolute blast to write. I also have a handful of semi-completed shortfics lying around that I will eventually get around to polishing up and posting.
Thanks for reading. You guys make it all worth it.
-Oroboro
I would read that
Doors 1 and 2 sound fun!
Out of curiosity, where were you planning on going with the Princess Wishlight stuff? Symbolism for Fluttershy's doubts and fears?
I've read that Haruhi crossover before...
How did I not recognize it was you?!
Honestly, I still think this is a strength of the fic. If it had worked as a romance, it would have been pretty creepy and unhealthy! The fact that they try a relationship at the end, despite everything, is sorta a rejection of Fluttershy's original premise that everything has to be overwrought and ~Romantic~, and I really liked that.
So, yeah, the two of them being cute together and figuring out if they actually work or not would be pretty neat.
Sounds hella amazing, though, do it do it.
2. Would be neat, but I'm not sure it would feel natural. Unless you go for a wacky comedy spin on it where no one is taking themselves or each other seriously at all, it would feel kinda 'you two really want more of that?'
4. Just seems like it wouldn't add much new.
Aside from the dark path described above, I think I'm down with any HoaA continuation fics.
2745752
It's hard to say at this point. There was a need for atmosphere, for a spooky legend to serve as a backdrop for the eventual grisly murders. For
Fluttershy's shitty self insert alicorn OCGolden Wish to "exist", she had to create a story as to why that happened. I had some vague ideas about Fluttershy having made a deal with the dragon for a legitimate reason, but I forgot some of it and so I just kept writing and eventually reached a point where I couldn't work it in anymore, so I decided to just downplay it instead.2746228
Beats me. I think I'm pretty much the only person out there crazy enough to write stories like this.
#2 would admittedly not so much be an actual story as an explicit puzzle meant for the readers to solve, using the ponies as a framing device. Something tells me that there's not a rule against doing something like that on fimfiction, but if I did it (and it got popular enough for people to notice) they would probably make one.
Huh... I wonder if that means you picked door #3...