Redo or Keep? The Eternal Dilemma of A Writer. · 8:47pm Jul 9th, 2018
Re-reading Changeling Blood again, along with some of the remarks and reviews.
Changeling Blood's kinda bad, turns out. At least in hindsight. Bad lay-out and scene-setting. I can't remember what the goal was, originally, maybe it was intentional, but... lotsa problems with it now. And with sequels on the way, serious ones where I can't play the 'new vibe' card like I did with Flight Camp, that means more problems on the way, which will only compound upon each other.
What do y'all think? Should I edit it again? Overhaul it so any new readers won't be faced with five years worth of a shift in quality? Or keep it as is and prepare for more deserved negative reviews, or just drop the idea of the series entirely? At this point, I don't even know.
On a semi-related note, some real-life stuff has been happening past few days, weeks, and months, stuff I won't detail here, but which has made this kind of decision-making all the more difficult, so any input would be appreciated even more than usual.
I've got concept of the first story done, working on outlines, doodled the introduction scene already, it's a nice and basic heartwarming scene between the moms on one end and Twilight and the Mayor on the other. I'll be settling on more distinct voices for Bastion and his moms tomorrow, and finally getting back into a more regular writing rhythm, starting with 500 words a day and hopefully working it up to 2500, half being pony and the other half being either original or Niko-related, and stick to that until the end of the year. The Pharynx fic has its edited version up now, I'll re-read it one final time before I submit it to EqD and wash my hands off it.
Cracker out.
You'd planned for sequels to Changeling Blood? I don't remember that story leaving anything open-ended?
Really, all I can comment on here is that I really liked the story, particularly the ending, so if you do decide to edit it don't alter it too much.
(That said, according to my own comment apparently I didn't like the story until I got to the ending, so I suppose that's a sign that the story does need editing. I dunno.)
4898071
The idea is mostly lay-out editing and adding descriptions of scenes, not changing the content. I'm just torn between spending time on that as opposed to the dozen or so other things that need doing, as well as the whole 'once it's published, no backsies' rule I try to follow. Given that the concept and content wouldn't change much, it likely wouldn't affect your stance on it.
And yes, Changeling Blood was always intended as the start of a series. Apple Bloom's motivations were going to get more background (when she says her parents are 'not around,' that would be a major plot point two stories later,) Bastion was going to get into actual combat, Chrysalis had an overarching plan, there were elements out of Warcraft planned that are only hinted at in Changeling Blood, and there was going to be a Big Bad of Madara Uchiha-calibre in the later stories. As it stands, I don't know if I can do it all, or how I'm going to handle the cuts versus canon. You can see the details (without major spoilers) here.
Thanks for the feedback, at any rate.