Progress: The Third One · 10:42pm May 1st, 2015
Although I have been busy these past weeks, and will continue to be so for the next month, I've still been working on Guilty Hornet.
As I said I was going to, I put the rewrite of chapter four to one side for a little bit and started on the next chapter instead; but I've also run into a little more resistance writing that than I would've expected. It's not full on writer's block, but it is harder than usual to get across what I'm trying to write, so progress on that has been slow as well.
Despite my expectations that writing new material would be easier, working on each chapter isn't really that different, which has led me to flit from one to the other. I write until it's difficult to continue, then swap over to the other and write some of that instead, and so far it's worked pretty well. This does mean that four's rewrite and five might end up being released very soon after one another, so you'll have an update-heavy week when those release, although it's looking like I'll have four fixed before I move on with five, which in all honesty is the way it should be.
I have also discovered through my many versions of Celestia and Chrysalis's conversation in chapter four that I can not write Celestia well. Seriously, I'm terrible at her in a way I don't think I've ever been with any other character - it's pretty frustrating, too, since a hefty chunk of the chapter features her talking. I may have to write myself a sort of characterisation rulebook for her so that I can keep her consistent, rather than the alicorn with borderline multiple personality disorder I have at the minute.
In happier news, I've finally hashed out a version of the initial dialogue which includes both Princess Maxilla and Starlit Scrolls. This is something the chapter direly needed, given that in the uploaded version the two of them stay silent for the whole chapter; despite one of them being Celestia's former employee, and the other being the leader of the changeling division of the Princess Celestia fan club. It's still a little shaky, but I think that with a bit more work it's going to considerably improve on the prior version.
What little I've written of five so far has focused on Chrysalis's childhood, specifically her ninth birthday, and I hope to provide a little more depth to some of the side characters through these flashback micro-chapters. Five will be in two full-length parts, the first dealing with Chrysalis's life up to and immediately after the griffon invasion, and the second following the changelings' journey to Equestria and the subsequent formation of the invasion plan. A lot of the things to be covered would have made for some really clunky exposition, so I'm happy to be able to deliver them in a more appealing format whilst still having the retelling of events be an actual part of the story and not simply an interlude.
All these memories are ones which mean a lot to Chrysalis, and in the waking world the changelings treating her mental wounds are using them as focal points for the other scattered memories: as each memory is set back in its proper place, she relives it, which is how this chapter is happening - she's not sat there telling Starlit or whoever her life story, she's actually reliving it and believing that this is the first time she's experienced these events, which is an idea which I'm having some fun playing with.
Anyway, these are almost certainly not going to release until next month, but progress is happening - no matter how slow it might get at some points - and I look forward to bringing you more of the story.
Until next time.
If you do this, I recommend going and rewatching relevant episodes while compiling it. Episodes where she deals with enemies, episodes where she apologizes to people, whatever is going to come up in the chapter if possible.
Actually, if you're having problems with her character, I recommend rewatching as many episodes where she features as possible, anyway, since that should help your grasp.
It's almost next Month. Color me excited!
I've been missing reading this story. <3