AiC Progress · 10:22am Jun 3rd, 2023
Alicorn in Canterlot is a story on fimfiction. Somehow, it's gotten somewhat popular. Progress on the story has been slow, due to a lack of motivation and inspiration.
However, the story is somewhat popular, so I probably should update it; it's already been over a month. Every chapter so far just feels like its taken longer than the last. And the next chapter might not be out for a bit so far, since I haven't started.
But I am starting to get myself back into the story, so I thought I might provide a blog post on where I want to go going forwards.
First, I need to decide what AiC is and where I'm going with it. So far, it's a slice-of-life, but I don't plan on changing that. But it's still quite directionless. So, before I start a new chapter, I'm going to reread and index all the previous chapters.
Basically, I'm reading everything written and established so far and taking notes. I want to get a more concrete idea of what's in the story, so things don't just get forgotten and left behind. I also want to make sure characters (especially Jonathan) can remain more consistent with previous chapters. I don't know who Jonathan is, or what his personality is supposed to be. By reading the story so far, I hope to be able to get a handle on that, and work that into future work to make him more concrete and develop-able.
Once I've gotten a summary of every chapter and notes on what is brought up in each one, I will be doing minor edits to them all to improve consistency and such. This isn't a ground-up rewrite, but should hopefully make the story better for new readers.
I'm also doing this to see if I can find inspiration in previous chapters for things to make up future chapters, my idea pool has been dry for a while.
Once the story has been thoroughly indexed, then I will start figuring out what to do for new chapters.
The other reason for this post, is to gather more opinions on the story. I want to see what everyone thinks.
Where is the story weakest, what needs improving?
Where is the story strongest, what should I do more of?
What characters do you like, who do you want to see more of?
The story is slice-of-life and will remain that way, but do you think it needs a stronger storyline, more action and such?
How would you rate this story?
Do you feel like you're losing interest or that the story isn't what it was, or is it still holding up, or has it improved?
In terms of updates, I can't say when the new chapter will be started or released. But I hope to get some work done on them either this weekend, or after the end of year exams. I do want to try to pick up steam when it comes to the summer holidays, so that's when I'm likely to get more writing done.
also, I have a discord server if anyone's interested...
Whatever direction you decide, as long as you enjoy the process, then readers will enjoy the product; because that will be conveyed in the writing. And everyone likes a story that is taken to a conclusion far better than one that’s abandoned. I’ve seen several authors take larger stories and divide them into smaller, more manageable volumes instead of one story with many different plot arcs -if that is something that could help whittle the daunting weight of the task? Finding a direction or goal would probably help eliminate any weaknesses you perceive.
MC doesn’t seem to know what he wants yet. The results could vary. I can see MC becoming rather escapist and getting into trouble or lots of fun. Who knows how he ended up in that town on the other side of the country working for insert-something-MC-would-like or an out-of-the-way low-key whatever job and accidentally causing several national searches maybe causing Celestia’s first ever gray hair and a subsequent age-related panic? Idk. I’m just spitballing.
The potential school and student friends plot you made available could introduce some good stories, and the appearance of tutors could show up and have fun interacting. Lots of background ponies have some good expertise and could be fun to portray if OCs become too much. Fireworks and party cannons can be a geologically related inorganic chemistry class subjects that any Pie could teach, for example…
Went back and re-read the whole story in order to solidify my feelings.
This story has a clear strength in descriptions, you do a really good job of painting a picture of the scenes with your words. This is highlighted by the slow nature of the story, taking time even in transitions to build the world and focus on the small stuff. Its something we dont get from a lot of stories.
The biggest weakness, as pointed out by others in chapter comments, is dialogue. Many conversations seem choppy and forced, but not out of character. You do a good job representing characters, but its the interactions between them, how they word their interests and converse, that could use some work.
All in all its a great base for a story, and I'm genuinely looking forward wherever you go. I think your idea to diagram and plan will do great to smooth out the story. Its still not super clear when chronologically it is, but I do enjoy the carefree, slice of life genre this takes. The important thing thought is just write what you like, what you want it to be. There's no point making something like this if you dont enjoy it, and will just make you more likely to give up on it, which would be a shame. You have a seed of something great here!