Story update, March 2017 - Rebranding · 5:33pm Mar 26th, 2017
Much has changed in recent months with my writing efforts, so it's time once again to let everyone know how things are progressing.
The biggest challenge has been where to allocate my free time. I do tend to participate in online discussions probably more than I should, which reduces writing time. I'm trying to cut back on that similar to how I've also cut gaming way back to give myself more free time to write. Much time also goes to discussing ponyfic stuff with my editing team. We've got a mini writer's guild of sorts on my Discord server, which is really cool, and quite helpful. Four of us there have stories we are working on.
And when it comes to actually sitting down to write (which thankfully occurs much more often these days) the question is often "what part of the story do I work on?" The priority is always "the next chapter to publish" with the hopes that any leftover time is spent outlining future chapters (currently in the middle of chapter 17). A third effort will soon come into play, however. This is the upcoming rewrite of already-published chapters beginning with the prologue. Why am I doing this? Because my writing style has improved dramatically over the last four months, and it's important to maintain this standard of quality throughout. The most obvious feature of the new style is the drastically improved world building and filling in environmental details. Many of the scenes in my published chapters are also way too concise, rushing through the scene, which would be far more enjoyable to read if it contained more surrounding detail. If you read Portents of Darkness, you'll probably notice that this chapter is written to the new standard.
Another big topic, which has been the subject of many discussions among my editing team, has been the rebranding of the story. What this means is everything this story is, in terms of public image, has changed drastically since the project began. What was once a crossover between Past Sins and Fallout: Equestria has become very much its own independent story focusing on Nyx's character arc as an adult with a few Fo:E items existing as a backdrop. The Fo:E aspects of the story have really atrophied because Fo:E has never really been what this story is about. At this point, my official stance is that this is a story which takes "heavy inspiration" from Fo:E but most certainly does not take place in the "same universe". Over time, I'll find a way to make that separation more distinct. This really is a 'verse that stands almost entirely on its own.
Additionally, I've given the story brand new short and long descriptions which are already in place. The original descriptions were written in December, 2014, and the new text fits the story's plot and theme much better. I've likewise updated the FAQ to reflect the situation better, especially in regards to the story's relationship with Fallout: Equestria.
Lastly, we've discussed changing the title of the story to something more appropriate. The title, "Nightmare Nyx: Protector of Ponies" is rather infantile in light of what the story is truly about. I want something which better represents the overall plot and theme. With unanimous approval, we've settled on "Emergence" as the new story title. This provokes much more curiosity about what the story may be about as well as prevents the story from sounding like "yet another Nyx fic" which it certainly is not. This is a monumental project, and the old title is frankly terrible. That will be remedied soon, before chapter seven is published.
Speaking of which, my current effort is in wrapping up the rewrite of my chapter seven draft. This chapter is by far the most intense yet. It is where "shit gets real" as they say. This part of the story used to be the end of Portents of Darkness, but it got too long in the rewrite, and we decided to split it where you see the current end of that chapter. So this picks up immediately where that left off and continues on in a nonstop roller coaster ride of tension all the way to the highly-dramatic end. Since this is the second half of a chapter split, I also needed a new title. Chapter seven will be named, "Blood and Fire". I'm optimistic about publishing sometime in April, as I still need to write the very tense final two scenes as well as have the editing team do their proofreading over the whole thing.
So again, the story's title will be changing soon to Emergence. If you find updates in your feed for that title, that is what's going on.
[edit] Story's title ended up becoming "Black Feather", which is much, much better. 
I'm... actually disappointed to hear this. :/
Let's do this!
Recoooooon... Three-7s!
(Oh my gosh. He just ran in.)
...
Badly outdated internet reference on my part aside, I'm hoping everything turns out alright with this added effort.
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I really like the alternate titles you've recommended via PM! Thanks so much.
I'm split on which one I like better, so I've put it before the team for feedback.
[edit]
I'm very strongly leaning toward "The Disparity of Monsters" as a title. This fits surprisingly well.
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I probably owe you an explanation for this, since it likely sounds worse than it is. I'll send you a PM clarifying things.
For the record, dude sent me like a two-page PM and I am no longer disappointed. :V
I watched this video:
and the part with 'start with a dream sequence' reminded me of your novel.
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lol! You know, that video is so rife with sarcasm, it's hard to tell what he's actually serious about after a while.
I'm not actually sure if he was saying a dream sequence was good or not. Maybe it's specific blunders of a typical dream sequence he was talking about. I'll have to take another look at this when I get to the Chapter 1 rewrite.
Regardless, I suppose it's a good thing I'm doing a rewrite. Chapter seven is nearly ready to publish, and then I'll be diving into that prologue to make sure it provides the best opening to the story that I can pull off.