Longpost: What's Next? Also, To Perytonia Resources, Art, Thoughts · 5:42pm Feb 23rd, 2018
To Perytonia ate a year and change of my life. Dramatic? Yes, dears, I am dramatic, and thank you for finally realising. I’d even add “and I wouldn’t have it any other way” because that's certainly true. However, instead of revelling in its completion and trying to drive hype, I've partially disappeared, so clearly it's complicated.
It’s still in my head, though! Also, I want to talk about Perytonia, about Demagarra, and about other things. Or, well... I want to say things about these topics, at any rate.
Now, if you haven’t read To Perytonia and still plan to, there are “spoilers” in this post in the same sense that a picture from the battle of Minas Tirith is a spoiler to the LotR movies. Lacking context, you’ll probably forget by the time you get there in the story. If you weren’t planning on reading, perhaps you’ll find some of this tantalising and give the story a sniff.
Moving on, the title says “resources”. What do I mean by that? It means sharing some of the stuff that isn’t the story itself.
As I wrote, I had to build a library for myself. I had to make a world. Not only did I want the story to be internally consistent—as all stories must be—but I also wanted to make sure the underlying pieces fit together. There are many ways of going about this. Some people relish world building. They love making a setting for the joy of it, starting with cosmology and going all the way down to commonly used cutlery. Others may start with a single important person or entity and end up defining the outer bounds of the galaxy wherein the story takes place.
Incidentally, I think a lot of these people inevitably are the GM’s and DM’s of their local pen and paper roleplaying groups.
For me, the task of making a world had a limited scope, and was a very gradual process. I did not sit down to define everything. The first thing I made was made out of immediate need. I wrote a list of the Aspects as a reaction. I saw the need for an outsider's description of their roles.
If you’ve read the story and have an especially sticky brain, you’ll note that there’s little ambiguity to Phostos’ role in Perytonia, but a blank description of Esorys is never given despite how often the latter name is used ("Esorys' spit!"). So I wrote them down. Of the forty-nine (or fifty, if you like), I think about twenty are defined.
Shortly after, I saw the need to make a glossary for myself. Food, places, concepts and the like. It wasn’t to keep their names and meanings straight—I know Perytonia like the underside of my hoof by now—but mostly to make sure they did not sound too alike. For similar reasons, a dramatis personae of sorts was called. I didn’t write down every character ever mentioned, but most of those named, I wanted on record if only to acknowledge their contribution.
Interested? Are you a huge nerd for this kind of stuff? Congrats! They can be found here! It’s one document for all three lists. I don’t recommend this for first-time readers as the descriptions are huge spoilers written for efficiency. On the other, reading this thinking that the descriptions are “objectively true” as the word of the author is very much missing a big point. You'll also be disappointed if you expect it to clear up details left vague, such as the origin of the Morillyn Gorges etc.
There’s of course more. There are multiple timelines, one for each band of time or group of people, there are descriptions of the cities and the mannerisms of peryton in general and peryton in particular (meaning each city). There is a day-to-day of what happens at certain points in certain places, and this was very much to make sure I could keep stuff straight. These, I won’t share, in part because they are uninteresting, in part for reasons pertaining to “next”, which I’ll come back to in a minute.
Anyway. The next, and perhaps more obvious extra content is a map.
When the scope of the journey became clear and I pointed our three friends out of Orto’s domain saying “go northish”, I had to make a map. For context: I’ve always had to make head-maps for my other adventure stories. Both Within and Without and Lost and Found feature journeys that are nearly as long as—or longer than—this one, though. Why make a map now? Why not make a map for the others?
I don’t actually like maps. Making a map isn’t an act of creation. Long-term, it’s destruction of possibilities. Every time I heard they added more to the official map of Equestria, a part of me panicked. A blank spot can be anything. A filled in piece of the map can only be that which is compatible with what was just filled in. The last time I spoke on this, I know some disagreed with me, and that’s fine. For me, maps are like making a movie out of a book, it’s further defining something past the point of (my personal) need, and I say that perhaps more as a reader than a writer.
I needed a map, though! Within and Without worked with very specific locations, Lost and Found’s entire “lost” part would be… well, lost, with a map. For this trek, I had to make something simply because the navigation, the geography and the time spent on the road was used (and re-used) by many actors behind the scenes.
If you want to have a peek at that something, here's the blank map, basically much like the one given to them:
Very flavourful, yesno? The one that's probably a lot more fun is the one annotated by the ponies, so if you've already finished the story, it can be found over here at my dA. I'd generally recommend against looking at these if you are like me in that you like to mysteries and uncertainty.
I’m posting this up because I recognise that there are people who are not like me, though. For those who like to have a map as a companion, something to peek at while they read, the first one should be ideal, because it has no markings on it. In fact, if you want a little more context, here, have the same map with Equestria for context.
The final thing I’d like to share before we talk about what might be next, is art. First, my holiday present from the ever-lovely Kits was a rendition of one of the more memorable action scenes of the story. This is about where you might start feeling spoiled, so look away if you want to read the story first. It won’t take you more than ~20 hours to read and hurry back. I’ll wait.
Done? Great. Here's the picture!
Kits likes doing traditional art. I love traditional art. This is a good match. I just love it, and you should too, possibly by hitting his dA. The colours are pretty as ever, and I like his take on Stupid Flame Chicken.
I’ve done some art myself, too. Maybe it’s self-indulgent, but I don’t give a hoot. I draw what I want. I shared some older art a while back, inspiration-pieces that I made for myself trying to figure peryton out for my own head-space use. I have two more. First, there’s my own picture of the same scene.
This one took a while. I don’t have a lot to say about except perhaps that other would-be artists (like myself) would do well to remember that a minute spent in layout is an hour less work for yourself later down the line.
I also have a… I don’t want to say “failed” drawing, but it’s an old and outdated version of an Ephydoeran warder back from when I was fascinated by/struggling with how a creature with half hooves, half digitigrade legs with talons would work.
This picture did not resolve those mysteries, and I never was entirely happy with the colours. The more “proper” and as-described sky blues and such looked bad in art form, so I opted for “incorrect and better-looking” instead. I might try again and do wildly different styles and colours, because I seriously don’t subscribe to the idea that there’s ever One Correct Look of whatever. Also it's like a year old at this point so eh. I just wanted to post it while it's only mildly embarrassing.
Okay, okay, that’s that. You have some scattered behind-the-scenes-y stuff and I’ve ensured that this art won’t die a lonely death on my hard drive, and that Kits gets well-deserved, if late props for a lovely gift.
“What’s next”?
Those who finished To Perytonia are hopefully not feeling anxious or frustrated with its ending. You shouldn't feel like there needs to be a sequel. The story was originally planned as a trilogy of sorts, but I made an executive decision early on to ensure that To Perytonia stood steady on its own four legs. Or two legs and two claw-thingers.
Okay, they’re still legs, just tipped with—you know what? This is irrelevant.
Despite the fact that there are unanswered questions (there always are) and that I “could write a sequel” (any writer always can), the most obvious lack is the other half of the picture. You may be asking what happened over in Demagarra. Or, you would, if you remembered the name, but since it was mentioned all of two times, I'm guessing you don't. And that's fine.
Point is, some are wondering what happened to the rest of the girls.
Well, I halfway know, and halfway wonder myself, but these are the facts:
1. If I am to write this side-quel (“companion story” is the term I use internally), it will take a while.
Self-explanatory. If you’re hoping for a quick sequel, if you want it now, you’re already disappointed, and so am I. Writing another novel like this is going to take a minimum of half a year from the moment I start, and I’m currently moderately busy with a thesis due at the end of this year.
2. If I’m writing this story, I need to accept that its target audience is even smaller than I thought.
Also self-explanatory. This one’s for me, not for you, and if you’re one of the unfortunates who read all my blogposts (you champ), you've heard time and time again how To Perytonia did even worse than I thought. I whine about that constantly. That’s not being ungrateful. It’s part personal hopes and expectations combined with math, which keys into—
3. If I’m writing this story, it comes at the expense of another.
One of my maxims is “When you write, you never hold back.” This means that if I have a lot of ideas and they all fit into a single story both naturally and without overcrowding, I don’t portion them out and save something for “later”. Never. Ever.
At this moment, I have a non-pony novel in my head somewhere. It’s built upon the same foundation as the To Perytonia companion fic. If I write either story, I am going to make sure it is as good as it could ever possibly be, and that means using the other one for spare parts.
Sorry, that’s not an “if”. I’m writing something. Of course I am. I just need to decide which is better/worse. Do I write a story for the modest niche audience within the MLP fandom that enjoys long adventure stories—one that I do not deserve, and struggle to communicate with? Or do I write for potentially no one, just to test the waters and my own abilities?
It’s a rhetorical question, in a way. I’m not able to actually pick one. It's out of my hooves, in a sense. I’ll write the story that needs telling.
Last, single-paragraph housekeeping: I’m not having a great time of things atm due to Things, but I hope you all are safe and well. Perpetually sorry about being hard to reach.
Walk with open minds and kindness in your hearts still.
I hope you take this as the compliment it is, the whole of Perytonia, the people and culture really doesn't have much or anything to do with direct, recognizable pony. You spun up an entire place for us to experience through the eyes of our trio. I imagine that a chapter or two added at the beginning would allow you to replace Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy with original characters and tell a different, though similar story in the same setting.
Whichever story you choose, I hope you'll link it here at some point whether it is pony (My Little) or not.
I love that you're releasing all this supplementary/bonus material.
For what it's worth, I vote for writing the original fiction version of the side story. Anyone who liked To Perytonia is a potential audience member, but it opens you up to a whole world of other potential audience members.
I consider one of the main virtues of fanfiction to be a useful training ground for writers. A fandom provides a much larger pool of people to read and criticize than a just starting writer would get for their original works from just friends and family.
So as to whether you should write the Perytonia sequel or your original work ask yourself: Does writing fanfiction still have more to teach me about writing?
If you feel you've learned everything you can. Great, its time to forge your own identity as a writer with your own setting and characters. If you feel you need to polish your skills some more before you put out original work into an unforgiving world. That's fine too.
4803881 I think I'd take that as a compliment, absolutely. At the same time, I can't guarantee I'd link nonpony here. I'd probably tell people to PM me if they were interested if I had to guess.
4803891 Glad it's appreciated. And the issue with the other part there is the word "potential". I keep saying I don't write for views, though.
It's out of my hooves in the end anyway. We'll see.
4803988 Your view is probably shared by many. I agree in that for a lot of people, feedback is one of the most useful rewards of fanfic and a community orientated around it. It's really very much not what I'm split about, however.
I don't mean to say anything about the quality—or where there is a lack of quality—in my own works, but crowd sourcing feedback doesn't work for me at all. I learn by writing and by reading, by listening to and interacting with persons, not a nebulous People. That's just me. Whether I write one or the other is solely governed by the text itself, not any such concerns.
Ooo yes, I'm definitely interested in a map. What you posted here is pretty close to what I imagined, and provides some clarity, though I did think of the coastline around Cotronna being more southerly facing. I like how the overlay of the 'official' map includes the text "distance not to scale", while it's clearly being used for scale here.
I guess I'm going to have to be the only selfish one in this comment section and say that I want to see the companion story in the same world. The whole story, while it didn't take place in Equestria, reminded me of why I liked FiM, and why I keep coming back to FimFic after all this time.
Took me two months, but I finally finished it. Excellent story, though you got me worri-curious about what happened to AJ!
4804024 I do this solely for pleasure, and have no desire to write for money; it would threaten the freedom of writing exactly what I want, when I want. Besides, the economy here is very strong, so I'd be taking people's hard-earned money and get very little out of it. What's an hour's wage to another person may be a can of soda here.
We'll see what I write. I do hope you enjoy To Perytonia if you get around to it.
4804302 I would be shocked if there's a single person who says "the map is exactly like I imagined!" so that's fair.
I don't think it's "selfish" to want the companion story. I want it too. I think in the end that's a real factor here; I'm being tugged towards the original story because of the word "should", and the companion story because of the word "want", and I know which one is louder. Thank you for your kind words though.
4806007 Thank you. And I partly wish to tell people what happened over in Demagarra, partly share your curiosity. I hope that we get a chance to find out.
Very nice that this has happened
I am still wondering when the other shoe will drop
A wonderful chance to get some insights into your thoughts and feelings once all was said and done. You're a fantastic writer and I will always look forward to the prospect of reading more of your work :)
I left a longer comment in Perytonia but I want to thank you again for giving us the opportunity to enjoy such a brilliant work of fiction <3
I add this as an explanation for the author who likely will never read it, since it appears Cloudy has left for good: fanfics tend to attract the WORST of the fandom, overall. While there are a handful who appreciate brilliant storytelling that vastly adds to and improves upon the foundational material, they are usually outnumbered 10-to-1 by the brainless idiots who want their fetishes, obsessions, and romances pandered to.
Hence, a crappy Vampire Vinyl fic with one-dimensional everything will get 4,000 likes; a dismally awful Sonic-Pony fanfic will get over a thousand... and some random mishmash of utter nonsense with a retard in a Darth Vader mask will manage the same... while carefully-crafted literature like "To Perytonia", which manages to be half a shipfic and impress me despite my utter LOATHING for shipfics, languishes in obscurity.
Suffice to say, this fact does tend to tell most aspiring authors with genuine talent and skill not to even bother with fandoms... and hence we are left with worse and worse writers and now Fimfiction has sunk to the level of every other fandom, with utter garbage predominating.
Pearls before swine, as the only maxim goes.
It's a shame, really; especially since To Perytonia is one of the best fics on this site, and one of my personal favorites. Here's hoping you've found greener pastures.
I just finished Perytonia and while I would be lying if I tried to pretend that I wasn't frustrated by Rainbow Dash's self-inflicted idiocy, it worked out wonderfully in the end and as someone who enjoys good world-building, I can only hope that someday we'll get a chance to see what happened to Twilight and her friends.
I recognize that you might have moved on by now, and if so I wish you all the best in your endeavors.