Apr
1st
2017
Murky Number Seven - The Cutting Room Floor is now live to check out! · 11:58pm Apr 1st, 2017
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14-F7dwNPYP5M9RKhFGbLEcGSaaXRH2tPiFAOJWgxZn0/edit
Details and writeups of the dropped concepts, failed ideas and cut chapters from MN7′s development and writing in the link above! This turned into a WAY bigger document than I anticipated and it was a lot of fun to dig through old things. It’s not exhaustive, but it encapsulates some of the more interesting ones.
Also ensure to check out the Imgur link at the end of it for photos of all my notebooks with additional details of whats in them and little ideas that never saw the light of day!
Wow.
That certainly is interesting to see all the "behind the scenes" work that went into all this. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this! I absolutely loved MN7 and am very interested in seeing all of this stuff!
Always interesting to see what might have been, though I can definitely see your reasoning for leaving these all on the cutting room floor.
I'll add that, from a reader perspective, the Murky kills someone idea would have messed with my feelings during the story as a whole. Part of what made MN7 stand out to me was that Murky was by and large incapable of winning a head-to-head fight with any dangers he encounters, so any situations of danger usually meant wondering how he was going to escape. Having it established that he was capable of doing that instead would have hindered that sense a bit, for me.
Wow, you weren't kidding! That took quite a while to sort through—I thought I was finished and then BAM, you linked to the pictures of your notebook and then I had to spend a whole lot of time squinting at your handwriting. Fascinating stuff, thank you so much for it.
The cut scene that really got to me was the one where Murky was saved in the end by the SPP Rainboom. I happen to be working on something right now where the plan is to have the protagonist fail in the end and then be saved at the very last moment by a relatively minor character. There are very good reasons why it's best for the story to end this way, but reading about how you planned to have MN7 end similarly but then decided it was a bad idea... well, I had a minor existential crisis reevaluating my plans and trying to figure out if it's actually a good idea or if I'm just all caught up in how "clever" it is.
In the end, I'm still pretty confident it's a good idea and fits well, but I hate that feeling of doubt.
Story time! An incredibly dumb story! I remember exactly what my first comment for MN7 was. It was this right here, complaining about your spelling of "LittlePip" as opposed to "Littlepip". I think there were eight chapters at that point, but I'd actually been reading the story before that (since Ch. 4 or so I think?) Given that the only way to read the story at that point was through Google Docs it was really easy not bother commenting, but I remember feeling self-conscious that the trigger that caused me to finally comment on the story wasn't because of how good it was, but because I wanted to complain about the capitalization of Littlepip. So I wrote "Just in the middle of reading MN7" in my comment to pretend that this was some brand new thing and not a story I'd already been reading for two months or so.
And then what did I see while reading through your docs? A page written on the very first day of planning MN7?
Littlepip!
Fucking Littlepip. You had it right at the start. And from my perspective it's a very good thing that you changed it because at the rate I was going it was very possible that I might not have gotten around to commenting at all until the story moved to Fimfiction.
Ah, me and my dumb quirks...
Thank ya' kindly for the facinatin' insight, Fuzzy! 'Sorry I'm late.
As is the general sentiment, I can completely understand why ya' cut most o' what ya' did. I would've love it if Ditzy could have made a less brief appearance, but again, I completely understand your reasoning otherwise. The alternate siege on the mall would've been cool, but again, there's that whole bombardment problem...
Among other things, it would rend n' have shattered my heart into many more pieces if Sunny and Coral died too!
Especially the beloved Team Mom, n' all round epic (and terrifying) Mama Bear, Coral! If only ya' could've seen my exasperated sighs o' relief, knowin' that she would pull through, because I honestly had my doubts and I think that was potent 'nuff. 
It's really quite somethin' how a one-off character like Wicked Slit can end up bein' so much more. She really was an engaging antagonist for the role she had.
I really like how Brimstone turned out. He's my favorite support/mentor character that struggles with a dark part in any story.
Also, don'cha just get mighty conflicted (hate it, yet feel vindicated) when people implement ideas before you, that ya' came up with first?
I look forward to readin' yer' future projects!