Breaking Dawn is now on indefinite Hiatus · 5:51pm Sep 20th, 2017
Okay, I kind of have a confession to make.
When I thought of this series, starting with Guiding Light, it originally came from another (great) story called Rites of Ascension. I wanted to do something similar in a similar lore setting, with an earth pony instead of a unicorn. (Twilight)
I wanted to create the character myself, which meant an OC. But I also knew the very reason that Rites of Ascension worked is because Twilight was a developed character that deserved such an honor.
So I knew I would have to include such a story before I did the whole alicorn thing.
Fortunately, I got really into that, and earth pony magic in general. My real creativity shone in that first book, Guiding Light.
And now that I got back to the original plan, I felt stuck. Boxed in.
I was bound by the lore that I liked from Rites, but yet also limited, since I didn't want to copy anything Rites did, either.
My creativity stagnated, and as a result, I have none of the funny moments, and quite a lot less of the character moments that made me like Guiding Light in the first place.
It took a reader to point that out to me. This is the real reason I procrastinated so much releasing the second book.
That is why I am putting Breaking Dawn on indefinite hiatus.
Practically, it is cancelled, as changing it into something original would mean changing Guiding Light as well. But as I know many of you might still be fans, I may resurrect it if too many people are sad to see it go.
I can continue with the story, but I just noticed my writing quality was not as good as before.
Aw.
I'm sad to see it go. I absolutely LOVED Guiding Light and all the earth pony magic. You are so creative! But you must do as you must! I bid thee good luck on your next project.
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Thanks!
And the Earth Pony magic isn't gone. Every story I do has that version of Earth pony magic in the background.
There's a bit more still to it, so I might eventually make a blog post describing it in detail.
Aw, that's too bad. I was interested to see where you would go with Breaking Dawn, but I understand your reasons for not continuing it.
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I'll have to check those out then!
Really!?
And I would absolutely love to read such a blog post! Pegasus and Earthponies discovering their inner magic are always my favorite stories.
A tear shall be shed for the untimely loss of one of my favorite stories here
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I really hate disappointing fans...
Tell you what... if enough people really want it to continue exactly as is, what I'll do is I'll keep it on Hiatus, but I'll still release chapters. They won't be nearly as frequent, as I'd focus on other stories, but you'd still get content. I haven't deleted my old plans or anything.
I mean, I was thinking of just publishing my future plans, but that just seems to make the entire "dead story" thing very final. And I can't bring myself to do that.
I'll just work on it whenever I have writer's block, or between story ideas.
What do you think?
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That sounds like a good plan.
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Thanks for the advice.
I understand what you mean, too. That is pretty much my plan, going forward. I'm using some other stories and projects as breaks before continuing on.
But I got a bit of a wake-up call when planning new chapters. I was thinking like a world-builder, developing lore and planning events without planning anything to do with actual character and personality. Things that are good for stories, but not as their base.
I had lost sight of my characters.
When I'm writing well, I actually make my own "personalities" as my characters. I set them free, and let them write the story almost on their own. One part of myself plays Aurora. One part plays Smarty. One part plays Celestia. And so on.
I can actually play four-player board/card games completely by myself, and on each turn have no idea what each "player" has up their sleeve.
But when I lose focus, or passion, or.... whatever, getting lost in all the different world-building stuff, or when I make mental restrictions on what is and isn't "original," those characters can quickly die, leaving me with vague "character bios" to make them work with. Sometimes, I might even remember to have them interact with each other instead of just react to stuff.
It's especially hard when there are a lot of characters in the "room" simultaneously. Since I don't have all the perspectives all the time anymore, it all collapses, or certain characters are just forgotten in the background.
Well, I definitely don't want to abandon Aurora. Or any of the characters here. It just might be some time before I can take my focus off my other projects to really get back into it.
And thanks for listening to my little "rant." Talking about these sorts of things helps.
Although I'm kind of curious now, just how many other writers use this kind of strategy to write characters?
Well, I just spent the last couple hours power reading Guiding light. I gotta say, Since I read it all at once, it seemed like the prologue to Breaking dawn is an epilogue to Guiding Light, and the story is complete at that point.
It's a springboard. The "here's the canon. GO!" Fill in the blank in your own mind kind of ending.
I like it.
I wouldn't be opposed to more, but it works as it is.
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Thanks!
I still might continue it if I find the inspiration, but I'm at least glad that you could finish the binge-read satisfied.