DaD: Potential Side Stories · 7:37pm Mar 12th, 2020
Heya, folks!
First of all, as you can hopefully tell by the title, this blog is DaD-tagged appropriately.
Second, real quick, I hope everybody saw my last blog about Wanderer D (if you didn’t see his own or someone else’s). If you haven’t yet, please take a look, and if you have anything to spare, please donate. We’ve made significant progress towards the goal, but every little bit helps.
Anyway, recently somebody did a re-binge of DaD (shout out to you, GE 
), and over the course of new comments between them and other readers, the suggestion of a side story was brought up. Again.
Now, I have already written my Gone, But Not Forgotten anthology about the ‘family members’ who weren’t at Cotton’s first family reunion, but given that DaD is a predominantly Slice-of-Life story, I’m guessing those aren’t the kind of stories you’re looking for (though many people did want to know about them). When the idea of more side stories has been mentioned to me in the past, I generally turn it down because anything that I could think of off the top of my head would contain spoilers. However, over the course of these past few comments, another kind of idea was tossed out there.
You all know that between Acts One and Two there was a four-year time lapse (and even if you didn’t, it’s not really that much of a spoiler), the time between when Cotton got her cutie mark and her 16th birthday. Crystal Moose and I didn’t really have an outline for any important plot points for that time period, which is why there was that long jump. Well, I’m sure there’s plenty of potential for those four years. So, I’m considering doing something like an ‘Early Years’ anthology. They would likely be little snippets of stories—maybe a few hundred words each—not necessarily full-on one-shot lengths. But who knows? You might get something longer if I get a groove on.
This would be something kind of like those ‘What If?’ stories I’ve seen around, with you all giving the prompts. Except in this case, said prompts would have to be realistic to the time period and situation. Like, ‘What if Cotton had to deal with another bully?’ or ‘What was Spike’s worst ‘helicopter parent’ moment?’ or ‘Has [x] ever happened?’ Not things that are or would cause contradictions to the canon, like, ‘What if Cotton actually got [x] for a cutie mark?’ We’re talking things that would be common for a normal teenager to deal with. Just, well, taking into account the massive, fire-breathing father. And being the niece of four (mostly three) princesses. And, uh, everything else that comes with being raised by royalty.
In the same vein, you could also offer prompts for before Cotton’s adoption, and her experiences in the orphanage while she was being raised by Mother Matron, which would likely be even more slice-of-life-y. You could even suggest something that you think might be realistically specific to Cotton or Spike (or both) and see if I expand upon it. Bear in mind, since these would be taking place before what is currently the main time period of the story, the prompts can’t result in something that would alter how Act Two started or how the rest of the story has progressed. I would determine whether or not that would be the case. Heck, you could even ask about the other characters in the story— like scenes with other characters that don’t involve either Cotton or Spike, and just take place in the ‘verse.
Is this something you think you would enjoy? If you have thoughts or ideas, toss ‘em into the comments below. I’ll reserve the right to not use prompts, but if they sound doable/interesting, I’ll certainly try to give them a shot. And if I do, you’d get credited as the prompter.
I’m not using this as a means to stall from the main story—anything but—but sometimes it is nice to step away from it briefly and regroup, while still staying in the same ‘verse. If you haven’t seen me say this previously, I’m currently working on chapter 71, and I unfortunately haven’t found an appropriate ‘break point,’ where—if I have to—I can break from publishing for a little while to continue writing more clusters. I’d much rather you all have a spot where you’re not hanging on the edges of your seats saying, “Now what? NOW WHAT?” Especially because sometimes the things I write in some chapters result in little changes needing to be made in previous chapters in the clusters. Perfect example, the chapters up to chapter 62 have been edited and are ready to publish, since everything in them is air-tight, but a little piece in chapter… I believe it was 68, made me realize there was one little detail in chapter 63 that had to be changed, even though it was very minor. I don’t want to cause inconsistencies that may need to be retconned.
Anyway, let me know if an ‘Early Years’ anthology would be something you’d be interested in. That was the main point of this blog.
See y’all later!
—LD
You can throw me in as an interested individual.
Definitely sounds like a fun read to me.
I'd definitely like to learn more about Cotton as she was growing up. Stories about the other characters, like Spike and Rarity being married or Twilight and the Princesses or even Cotton's friends before they met would all be interesting tales that wouldn't change the canon of the main story. Count me in!