After I Looked Up, The Stars Had Gone Away · 10:48pm Oct 28th, 2018
So I've just published that horror piece I mentioned earlier in the week! I'm quite chuffed with this one so I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it.
The story is called After I Looked Up, The Stars Had Gone Away, and it's about Twilight being alone one night in the library.
I've linked this blog post at the end of the story so hello to anyone from there! Welcome to my profile, it's very disappointing.
Normally I wouldn't write anything like this to go with a story but I feel like some context might be good for this one.
First things first, I've marked it complete but there will be a small update over the next couple of days for an alternate ending. I usually like to avoid that kind of thing but it's dissimilar enough that I think it warrants posting. I've never been a fan of alternate endings that keep things basically the same aside from one slight change, but this isn't that. I essentially had an idea to take the story in a much more surreal direction and leave it even less satisfyingly, if you could imagine such a thing. That being said, I really quite like the idea and want people to see it so that should be up soon.
In terms of the content, I really like horror stories where the point is just the horror, obviously if the plot is done well then it can make it even better, but I think horror can sometimes be diluted. It's horror that's more concerned with telling a story, or horror more in service of making a point. Obviously none of this is inherently bad, it's just not always my cup of tea,
I always think one-shots tend to be a good format for horror in that way, I like stories where it feels like it could be a snippet of a larger tale, you're just getting the scary bit. I also love horror where the hand is never shown properly. There's a film called the Autopsy of Jane Doe which is really good for the first half, but then brings a form of zombie into it as well as shoehorning in an explanation which it never really needed. I'm a big fan of the nosleep subreddit for horror, but I remember a while back when all the stories insisted on having tonnes of multiple parts and weaving some massive intricate tale. Once again, nothing inherently wrong there it's just not for me.
Bearing all that in mind, that's why the fic is quite vague and doesn't give much in the way of explanation or resolution. It won't be for everyone, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.
Cheers.
Looks interesting. On my read later list.
What happened to the alternate ending?
5053075
After some reflection I decided to sack it, or at the very least to hold off for a while.
I think the story does what it's supposed to as is, and the alternate ending could've potentially interfered with that
5053082
Ah, thanks for answering! If you want to, could you PM me the alternate ending, for private reading? Thanks!
5053094
I'd be perfectly happy to do that upon any future completion mate, the ending was never written out fully.
It was an idea for a much stranger ending to the story. Like how Stars took inspiration from the idea of an abrupt loss of the stars, something which I think is horrifying, the alternate was built around something else which I would personally find terrifying, but executing required abandoning two components which were central to Stars working. That being Twilight's terrified but generally rational responses to what was either occurring or seeming to occur, and the lack of anyone else. This is why I ultimately decided to scrap it.
If I ever do finish it though I'll shoot it your way :)
5053102
Thanks! If you don't mind, could you PM me the general gist of the idea? I'm really curious to what it is!
5053115
Yeah I can PM you the idea, can I ask though that you not mention to anyone the content of the alternate ending? (I can't imagine a scenario where it'd come up but I don't want to let too many people know on the off chance I ever write it up properly)
5107695
Thanks! Yep, I can agree to that. If anyone asks, I'll just direct them to you.