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The End · 1:32am
Three times I have considered abandoning The Immortal Game.
That sounds harsh; it is. At no point in the past sixteen months have I suffered any illusions about who’s in control here. I write this story because I want to, and if I didn’t want to, I could stop. It would be a terrible thing to do to you, the reader, but there it is. That door has always been open to me. Three times I considered going through it.
Because the truth is that writing long is a pain in the ass. It’s easy to get high off a good idea and write an entire one shot before you crash, but it’s harder to keep up a sustained addiction. Okay, my analogy fell to pieces back there, but you get the idea. When you write long, there are bumps along the way.
The first time I wanted to bail was shortly after the story was published on Equestria Daily. It barely scraped out a rating of four stars—and now you go “four out of five isn’t bad at all, I don’t see why that would upset him.” The truth is that TIG’s initial rating placed it in the bottom five percent of all fics on Equestria Daily, ever.
It wasn’t that my expectations weren’t met: in truth I didn’t have expectations. It was just that I had come face to face with TIG’s destiny. I would write out the next eighty thousand words of the story in what even I would admit was pretty mediocre writing, receive a little bit of attention and praise for it, and then move on to maybe write something else. Quitting seemed appealing—what did I have to prove by sticking around?
“Always finish what you set your hand to,” says Durnik. I’ve known him since I was seven years old.
I’ve had trouble writing the epilogue. Perhaps that’s an understatement. Never before have I felt so much like I have no idea what I’m doing, like I’m just making shit up as I go along, like I’m a total ameteur playing at epic fantasy the way a child plays at being a knight by wearing a kitchen pot for a helmet. Two months ago I was tearing my fucking hair out trying to figure out how to finish my story, with no ideas in sight.
The second time I considered leaving the story was for altogether different reasons, and it was around the release of chapter fourteen. I was writing The Power to Destroy and God, and an interesting thought occurred to me: why not just have them, well... win? What if Titan never bats away the Elements of Harmony and instead becomes a statue on Celestia’s lawn? What if Terra gets her head chopped off before she ever gets a chance to be anything but evil?
I knew that those two chapters I was writing, with the catharsis from Twilight Sparkle’s unification, were going to be the best in the story. I wasn’t going to top the Battle of Canterlot in the third act no matter how high I turned the volume or how much money I blew on special effects. It was all downhill from here, so why not just call it? Sure, the story would be worse overall, but it would end on a high note and I would save months and months of my own time.
“Always do the very best job you can,” says Durnik. For those of you confused, I’m referencing a character from The Belgariad, a series of novels I read as a boy. And as strange as it sounds, the dialogue surrounding these two lines has always stuck with me.
I’ll explain why the epilogue has been so hard.
I can’t make you happy. I don’t know what you want. See, I’ve gone around to almost a dozen people—prereaders, friends who read the story—and I’ve asked them what they think should go in the epilogue. I’ve gotten messages from readers, too, telling me that character X needs to make an appearance and plotline Y needs resolving. I’ve finished three drafts of the epilogue—the cumulative word total between the lot of them is about thirty thousand—and in each case I’ve had a different set of people tell me they’re disappointed at the lack of element Z.
I could conceivably answer every question that you might have about the events of the story, except then somebody would ask a new question I’d failed to answer. I could write a separate scene from the POV of every major character to give them closure, but that alone is twelve characters and around forty thousand words. I could tie everything up nice and neatly, and the result would be a terrible mess.
And so the third time I considered leaving my fair lady was about ten weeks ago, when I realized that I can’t make you happy. In a very simple sense, and in my mind, TIG has one plot, and that plot happens in a world with a lot going on. Not every question needs to be answered to resolve that one plot. Not every character needs to have their destiny laid bare. And so I thought: the plot is done, the conflict is over, why bother going on with an epilogue that will fail to meet expectations?
Ultimately I decided I was being a lazy dick and hitched up my trousers, but that still didn’t help my predicament. I can’t make you happy.
I’m a little embarrassed that the solution I ended up using took me so long to come to. See, I can make myself happy. I can write what I feel is a balanced ending and leave it at that. And while that might seem simple—it is, after all, how I wrote the rest of the story—believe me when I say I terrorized myself for months over this.
The purpose of this blog is not to extoll my excellent work ethic—though I’m aware it does that to some extent, which is a little annoying. Instead I want to offer up a bit of explanation as to why it took so long to write, and I wanted to say this:
I’m glad I didn’t give up writing this story when it was only ten thousand words long: I’m glad I wrote it through to the end. I’ve made friends I hope to keep for decades to come. I’m grateful to twenty thousand people who let me share a story with them. I’ve learned that building a skill takes thousands of hours of practice, and that writing is a hobby I can hold onto for the rest of my life.
I have a lot to learn.
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"I’ve had trouble writing the epilogue. Perhaps that’s an understatement. Never before have I felt so much like I have no idea what I’m doing, like I’m just making shit up as I go along, like I’m a total ameteur playing at epic fantasy the way a child plays at being a knight by wearing a kitchen pot for a helmet. Two months ago I was tearing my fucking hair out trying to figure out how to finish my story, with no ideas in sight."
but in the end, you created one of the best stories on this site. Whenever I think of my favorite stories, your name will show up right next to Pen Stroke, K-kat, Cardlsafter, and the few others who have floored me with their ability.
I implore you to keep all your fans updated on when you intend to begin your next story, but until that time comes.
Thank You.
Hi! Just wanted to say that The Immortal Games was the first FIM fic...heck the first fanfic I have ever read and now I have over 56 stories tabbed to be read and have read a whole bunch more.
so in short what I am try to say is Thank you!
I miss reading your stuff :(
Dear AestheticB, I don't know if your done writing in the Ponies make war/The immortal game universe. But I would love to see a story with Princess of the forest, Fluttershy and Terra. It just seems like it would be a great place to take the focus if you were going to continue writing . Maybe something with Dash as a side and terra. Either way I am really looking forward to your next story or sequel. If you want any help with ideas I could try and put together a lose storyline if you can't think of anything. Hope to hear from you soon.
-DauntedPony
Dude. you are great, and you wrote the best fanfic ever. Have some fanart.
http://infinityvoid.deviantart.com/art/Empty-Sky-367055445?q=gallery%3Ainfinityvoid&qo=0
Dear Writer of the immortal game... I am about half way through this fiction and I can't help but feel different. It is a truely powerful piece of art and it is troubling me. I don't want it to end sadly because I am so connected to that characters which have been developed. But at the same time I want to finish this no matter what. I guess I also want my appetite back because ever since I started reading this, that is after RD was cursed I havn't enjoyed food in the same way. I almost feel like a pirate from the first movie in pirates of the Caribbean. Food turns to ash in my mouth.
I don't know if I will like the ending as it will put finality and stagnation on the entire cast which at that point may very well be completely different.
Suffice to say, THIS IS BRILLIANT! and i can't stop reading even though it feels like it hurting me. Like a dagger plunging into my heart, it hurts, but I feel "good" somehow when i am reading how these character resolve their inner conflict.
Well i don't know if you will reply before I finish, but does it end well? As in should i expect a sleepless night when i finish it, or a happy send off?
P.S. You have some serious guts to write something this ambitious, and this emotionally disturbing. I hope you didn't spend to long shivering in the corner at the terrors that your put the characters through. Or maybe it didn't bother you, but to me this is cruel and brilliant.
Greetings AestheticB.
I really enjoyed reading your story The Immortal Game, and I thought it would be nice to create a compilation of the spells and unique abilities of each character.
I just want to ask if it's ok for me to post it here on your profile page when I am finished and whether or not it will be bothersome to you.
I literally made a fimfiction acc for the sole purpose of contacting you first and getting your approval. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Here are some examples (and FYI they're heavily influenced by Diablo, Dota 2, Final Fantasy, and other gaming experiences):
Titan
- Raze (Cast)
Titan fires a powerful projectile of concentrated magic.
Originally designed to do battle with an individual, Titan has no qualms using it to annihilate armies
"There was a sound like the crack of a whip, magnified ten thousand fold. A shrieking whistle followed it, growing closer and closer every second." (The Immortals Endgame)
- King's Presence (Passive)
Titan augments his already terrifying presence with powerful mind magic to incapacitate and strike fear in his foes
"Instantly the fear inside of her doubled. It was almost animalistic in the way it screamed at her over her greater senses. She wanted to turn and run, flee from this terrifying immortal predator. She was an insect that he wanted to crush. She needed to hide under a rock." (God)
- Imperceptible (or Sensory Occlusion) (Passive)
Titan cannot be magically sensed
- Return (Singularity technique) (Cast)
Titan impales a creature through the heart using Singularity, incapacitating the creature, draining magic, and killing the target over time.
Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. The creature is broken down into its component parts and returned to nothingness
"The world collapsed around her heart as Singularity pulsed, and an immense gravity drew her inwards. She felt her bones and muscles strain under the might of his blade. It took her power, too, draining her reserves just like it had atop the Dark Heart of the Everfree Forest" (The Immortal's Endgame)
Hey, I just noticed that with the new site update and the way you have your user page set up, it makes it look like Rainbow Dash is grinning evilly at your followers list! I wonder what she's planning?
Sorry, I was amused by that.
Do you mind if I use an alt. version of The Immortal Game in one of my fics? It only involves a few chapters of my fic, liks possibly six or seven, and the chapters are pretty short.
I just wanted to let you know that another author has taken concepts and characters from The Immortal Game and used them in his fic. the war of titan
I replied to a comment Knighty and a mod made on the story to tell them this, but I'm not sure if or when it will be seen, so I wanted to let you know in case you wanted to contact them directly.