Changed's Original Intent · 7:48am Sep 23rd, 2016
Hey everybody,
I was just looking back on Changed, and thinking about just how different the final product was from my original idea. I thought some of you might find it interesting to hear about how my plans changed over time.
Originally, I had intended to have Changed be a story about a pony who was turned into a changeling, with the main plot being them hiding their nature from the rest of the population as they tried to maintain their daily life while becoming more social, in order to produce enough food to survive and help the Hive. Eventually, this would culminate in the pony being caught, and remaining friends with the ponies who discovered that their friend was a changeling the whole time. Over the story, the introverted main character would gradually grow to become more extroverted and friendly, until by the end, they had gained a stronger love of life and the world.
Now, it's pretty clear that that's... not what Changed is. How could something I wrote be so different from the original plan?
Well, several reasons. First, I only had a vague idea of the start, middle, and end. I had no concrete plans, and simply wrote as I went. As a result, my line of thought went something like this:
Q: Star Watcher is turned into a changeling, a key concept to the premise. But why would a changeling do that?
A: Well, what if something happened to the love supply, and they needed a lot from an experienced 'infiltrator' to gain more love fast? I know! An evil changeling took it!
Q: Okay, so an evil changeling took it... What's that guy doing now? He's probably got some nefarious plans cooking if he felt the need to do something as drastic as that.
A: Hold on, I have a lot of schoolwork to do... I'll get back to you on that.
A LONG time later
A: Where was I again? Oh yeah, an evil changeling is doing stuff! Gotta give him a plan.
Q: Okay, he's got a plan, now who's going to stop him?
A: Star Watcher, of course! He's the main character, after all.
In essence, I had completely forgotten the point of the story in the first place! My world building subsumed my story! :rainbow laugh:
All things considered though, I like how it ended up. Maybe it didn't turn out like I planned, but it all worked out, there were little to no plot holes (that I'm aware of...) and you all liked it!
So, what do you guys think?
