Random Ramblings CCCLV · 12:45pm Mar 25th, 2019
IN WHICH WHY AM I AWAKE NOW?
The other night I was at the gym and this MV came on. For its time (1989), it's pretty impressive with its CGI integration.
It's also an obvious homage to Little Nemo. Anyway, I have a few words to say below the jump if you'll follow.
I just published Chapter Three of Annie, and with that I've FINALLY moved beyond material I first published in December 2015.
Well, technically I didn't write the prologue or the Canterlot flashback in Chapter One until last year either, but still…
That story, which as I expected no one is reading but that's fine, has an interesting history. If you think its premise seems a bit old and out of step for latter-day Pony, well, you're absolutely right. I wrote the original first chapter in December 2015 after coming up with the idea earlier in the year after my very first Mayor Mare story. The story got no love from readers or me and, shortly after, the hell-year that was 2016 happened and I moved on to writing stories about Sunset Shimmer and creating the Burritoverse.
(speaking of which, I'm still working off-and-on on Octavia's story -- her internal monologue is proving difficult)
But Annie was always there, in the back of my mind, wanting to be completed. I hate leaving loose ends. Finally, about a year ago, in a fit of uncharacteristic "creativity", I sat down over the course of a couple of weeks and wrote the rest of the story. As I did, the ideas flowed and it became something much more expansive than I'd imagined. What I'd planned as three chapters quickly turned into seven.
When I posted the six new chapters on this site to give them final edits, I realized that the original Chapter One had too much "tell". So I deleted it and started from almost scratch, adding a flashback within a flashback to add more "show". But that left the first chapter too unwieldy, so I split it. I did the same to the seventh chapter due to its initially being over 8,000 words. So, most of what was the first chapter in 2015 is now Chapter Two -- in fact, that bit isn't changed too much from its original incarnation -- and what was intended as Chapter Seven ended up as Chapters Eight and Nine. Then of course I had to add a prologue and epilogue to create a frame story.
To be honest, if I had more talent and wasn't such a goddamn hack, I could probably have expanded on certain bits even further and made it a 50,000+-word epic instead of the 33,100 words it actually is.
But what it really comes down to is, now that Annie is out of my brain, I want to just get it out there and be done with it. That's sort of how I felt when I wrote Recovery but had to sit on it while I completed earlier-set stories. The meta-pacing was improved for the earlier stories, but I was glad to finally release the last bit and move on …to a quasi-canon shipping arc that many readers (myself included) had wanted.
Not gonna lie -- I've been feeling extremely depressed lately and kind of want to write a post-breakup story. But I don't want to ruin a happy ending. Sunset deserves one, especially if I ever start her other Alt-Universe where no one is happy in the end and a major character is killed.
For the two of you reading Annie, you've probably already guessed every twist and turn I'm going to throw out over the next two weeks, but that's okay. I have a habit of throwing little teasers into my stories that get explained in later stories set in the same universe.
I'm gonna try to go back to sleep now. Enjoy Annie. I'll post Chapter Four either Wednesday or Thursday depending on whether I feel like doing two or three chapters per week.
Peace out!
I've already read all the chapters that have been published to this point. :) Looking forward to more. :D Hope you'll get to my stuff sometime soon.
Sorry you're in such a pit lately. :(