Alright, I've been thinking... · 4:38am Jun 14th, 2015
Hey there. It's been a long time, hasn't it? I don't even know the last time I'd posted a blog post or updates/wrote a story. I've been really busy with school and work and stuff, so I never really had time to do any writing. But I think that's fine, because during that time I sort of lost the motivation to write fan stuff during that time. But I think I may get back into the writing groove. For anyone that's still following or paying attention to me, I have a few thoughts about what to do from here.
To start, I've been thinking a lot about my most popular story. The Other Mane Six: Adventures in Ponyville. I know a lot of people that are following me are probably only following me to read that, so I feel it's important to address. As you well know, I have not been updating it at all. This is because I do not want to continue writing it in its current state. But I do want to continue writing it.
There is a lot of content in that story that, upon review, I do not like. I want to start again with it and take a different direction. I feel that I have grown as a writer, however minimally, and I believe that what I've done with OMS: AiP I can do better. I have two options. I can either go through the whole thing and edit it to fit my current vision whilst keeping most of the original story, or I can start again with a brand new story. I would prefer to go with the second option for a number of reasons.
1. Editing the original story limits my options. If I am limited to keeping it similar to the original plot then I cannot as easily insert what I want without muddling the whole thing and causing mass chaos.
2. If I change the story completely, it causes confusion with readers. If I completely change the story and leave it in place of the original, the comments currently on it will not fit. I do not want to delete the comments and I do not want to delete chapters to get rid of comments, especially since doing so would look horrible. No comments on a seemingly popular story? No. Also, if I change past chapters completely and post new ones, people following the story may not understand the newest chapter if they hadn't gone back to read the changed chapters.
3. I don't want the feedback to be irrelevant to the content. This goes hand in hand with my second point. I don't want undeserved likes or dislikes, or comments on the story that are irrelevant to the actual story. I want what I've written to be judged on its own merit. Good or bad.
Those are my reasons for wanting to start anew with a different story instead of editing the old one. The story would have the same concept (what the background ponies do while the mane six are doing their thing[I find it funny that the most recent episode of the show did the same thing]) but a different execution. First off, I do not want the new version to have Doctor Who content. While I do love Doctor Who and continue to watch the show, I do not want this story to become "Doctor Who and friends". I no longer want the story to be a Doctor Who crossover, but a story that stands on its own without other fictional universes interfering. Of course, this will lead to many plot points in the current story to be retconned. That is okay. I do no want the story to revolve around those points, as that puts too much focus on Doctor Who which again, I do not want in the new incarnation.
Another thing I want to change is I want the story to be perfectly in line with current canon. I pride myself on keeping as close to canon as possible whilst also having the story make sense. This is not a big a deal as removing the entirety of Doctor Who from the story, but I feel that it is still important. The most recent episode introduced a few things that I want to have in my story. I do not yet know how I will fully implement those things, but I want to make sure things are open for the future.
Finally, I just want to clean up the plot. There are inconsistencies and stupid ideas that I don't really like and would simply like to get rid of. Characters have personalities that I feel don't quite fit what would happen in the show (or what has happened in the show) and I want to keep everything aligned in a good way. This is part of what I feel would change the overarcing story in the long run. Different decisions would be made, different events would happen, and characters would interact with each other differently. This in addition to the Doctor Who situation are the biggest things I want to change.
Of course, not everything would change as drastically as one might think. Doctor Whooves (no longer a Doctor Who pony) would still be a silly, eccentric inventor that gets into trouble and is quite intelligent. He just doesn't time travel and does not have the same past that The Doctor has. Lyra would still be the cheery optimist that is also the leader of the group. She would still be best friends with Bon Bon. Derpy would still be an apologetic lovable clutz (though not to quite the same extent) Octavia would still be a slightly uptight musician. They are still going on their own adventures while the main cast does their thing. Of course, the differences will become apparent as the new story goes on, but I would like it to be that way.
Any thoughts on this matter are certainly welcome and encouraged.
I'd also like to talk about my other unfinished stories.
Check Mate is Best Pony
I will eventually be continuing this as a side project, but as of now it is on hiatus. Not that my other stories weren't, but now it is official. I do want to continue this because it is a fun little comedy, but it is not my main focus.
Twilight Sparkle and Twilight Sparkle and Twilight Sparkle and...
This was on hiatus officially for a while. I found that I was not quite as into the story as I thought. I liked the idea when I came up with it, but I haven't gotten into a rhythm for it. I am officially cancelling it.
Defender of the Night
I really like this story. It is interesting to think about and to write. I want to continue it. I am going to work on this alongside OMS: AiP. I feel like this story is the most important out of the three that aren't OMS. This story will continue and eventually be concluded.
I thank anyone reading this for their time and anyone commenting for their feedback.
Sweet!
That said, I probably won't take a look at it again until you finish or update on a regular basis for awhile.
Yeah, that sounds like grounds for starting a new story to me and I am glad to hear you are pulling the crossover elements because any kind of real crossover tends to dominate everything else. Just make sure to do something to clearly connect the two like a new "chapter" of the old story with a link to the new one.
Also, I would not worry too much about the newer canon because the writers clearly do not care about contradicting themselves and keep throwing dumb things at the show that make no sense. The worst offender is the way they are very clearly crunching the entirety of seasons 1-3 into a single year which is not even remotely workable, and there is plenty more stupidity like how they made all the griffons one-dimensional greedy bastards. That does not mean you need to throw it all out because some of it does work well, but this is a point I would not worry about too much.
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This was actually a plot point that I liked in relation to the idol and the plot of the episode. It reminded me much of The Hobbit and the dwarves. Of course, anyone that wasn't a main character did end up being one dimensional, I'm sure that if we had more episode time or the episode actually focused on one of the griffons (other than Gilda who was a well written character, especially compared to her original episode) then the griffon(s) that they could have focused on would have had an interesting personality that is still based around them being greedy. The idea and the plot was not an issue, it's the way the episode played out. I still found it to be a very good episode.