Story News: September 2016

It's time to give you all an update on what's been going on in the Nightmare Nyx universe.

First, it's the two-year anniversary of the project's inception. Two years ago, I was speaking with onlyanorthernsong about Past Sins, which I had just read, and we were discussing the idea of continuing Nyx's character arc myself. It was then that I wrote the chapter-one dream sequence as a sort of test to see if I could even write at all. I had absolutely no idea at the time how enormous this would become.

Over the next few months, the story gained seventy thousand words before I really learned how to write. Then, things slowed way down as I learned the principles of storytelling and realized that writing was a much bigger endeavor than I ever could have imagined. In mid-2015, I designed the structure of the entire story all the way up to its epic climax, which only a handful of people even know about. Many nuances have changed over the year since that point, and I've pushed forward in producing rewrites of all the material I created in those first four months. The backstory has been fleshed out, and the mystery deepened. Many story elements you've not even yet read about have been significantly refined in the past few months. Overall, the quality of the story has been my primary focus for quite some time now in the effort to give you the absolute best story possible.

One unexpected change in the story's focus has occurred as I've grown as a writer. Originally, this was a fairly even blend between Past Sins and Fallout: Equestria. Since then, as the universe has gained its own footing, I've found that the story has shifted dramatically to being an extension of Past Sins, increasing the importance of Nyx's character arc, while the Fallout: Equestria aspects have somewhat faded in importance. That was, after all, just the setting. The great zebra war is the backdrop of the story rather than the focus. As a result, I haven't really thought much about Fo:E canon regarding this phase of the war and how do I preserve it within my story. Honestly, I'm just not as focused on that because this universe has grown into its own very nicely, and I do have a very specific and far-reaching story to tell you all.

Because this is such a long-term project, I've also been doing other things in life besides writing. I've put time into the Past Sins Video Comic project, which many of you have likely seen. I've edited several stories now, which seems to be something I have somewhat of a gift in. I think every writer should do some editing. It helps you see things from the perspective of your own editors. It exercises your critical thinking skills as well, which you'll find handy when examining your own work, which in turn, gives your own editors a break because your drafts are better than they were before.

Most recently, I've had the privilege of editing Pen Stroke's latest story, Glimpses. It was actually a joint effort between me and one of my editors, Questionable. We worked on the story for about a month, and it was quite the experience. Glimpses has just been published over the course of the last week, with one new chapter per day. Chances are quite good that you're already aware of it since it's been sitting in the feature box almost the entire time. In addition to editing for Glimpses, there's also the fantastic news that Pen Stroke has joined our editing team and is presently editing Nightmare Nyx as well. If I could have known that this would happen two years ago, I would have been in shock. But at this point in my writing path, having matured much since then, I'm happy to report that Pen is a very nice guy who has a sharp eye for editing. One of my original goals was simply to write a story that would bring him a smile, but this is a much, much better scenario that I never could have expected.

With the Glimpses project complete, my focus has returned to drafting forward in Nightmare Nyx. The end of Act One is drawing close, and I'm currently making a very rough draft of chapters 14-18 which will draw Act One to a close. At that point, we will switch gears for a while and do some serious planning for the presentation and structure of early Act Two. Meanwhile, the editing team has done a fantastic job with their feedback up through chapter 13, and they are largely responsible for the level of perfection you've enjoyed so far. Also, because of the sizeable queue of unpublished chapters, there is plenty of material to publish while we press forward into Act Two.

Speaking of publishing, I just published Chapter five only moments ago. The story is really heating up now as our heroes journey into the wilderness on their first mission. It's quite intense and is also the longest published chapter so far. I truly hope you enjoy it. Chapter five transitions our characters into a new location which will be rather important for the remainder of Act One.

The current word count of Nightmare Nyx is about 116,000 words. This is a pretty long story. I still think it'll top 300k, perhaps 350 by the time it's finished. And it's going to be one hell of a ride.

A big thank-you to all the fans out there! I understand it's a bit frustrating how long it's taking, but if I've learned one thing during this project, it's that quality writing takes time. I will continue to publish chapters from the queue regularly as I draft forward. But there is much, much more coming. Thanks for being a part of this journey with us, and I look forward to giving you a great story going forward from here!