Resonance · 9:41am Jun 17th, 2023
After two and half years another long project comes to an end and with it—a moment of quiet retrospection before I ought to look back and start learning. Aside from the ‘Behind the stage’ section, this blog is relatively spoiler-free.
Afterword
Resonance is… a weird story; let me explain.
As I was finishing the first version of Aftersound, I already had some ideas for a sequel, hence Aftersound ended with an epilogue introducing two new characters. My main motivation for doing so wasn’t a desire to have another big plot taking place in that universe, but rather to fix some issues of the original story; I was well aware of Aftersound having certain problems, but was unwilling to give it more than a grammar check… yet. When I finally grew tired of Aftersound being, in my opinion, horribly written and decided to return to that story, it created a somewhat awkward situation. I was content with the final result and it was the problem—Resonance was supposed to do what I pretty much achieved by rewriting Aftersound. Were I to tell my motivation to finish Resonance didn’t take a hit, it would have been a lie. However, even though somewhat robbed of its purpose, Resonance still is a story I don’t regret working on, not for a moment; that just makes it somewhat, well, weird.
Though I like how it ended up, Resonance does have certain issues. Whilst I think Flower’s story arc was the best thing I did in the sequel and Tin Flower got the closure she always deserved (but didn’t receive even after Aftersound’s rework), some character arcs are considerably weaker—like that of Nameless, Fixit or Night Wind; it seems to me as I haven’t managed to show their development as a gradual and subtle process—it just abruptly took place, ungraceful and anticlimactic. Rainbow and Spike are probably simply confusing, at best; though Rainbow’s arc should work.
With Resonance serving as a story supposed to include all the characters from Aftersound to give them some proper conclusion, I had to deal with a lot of problems inherited from the original story. I tried to do my best, but the task of managing so many interconnected plots wasn’t easy. I also need to address certain inconsistencies of quality, especially in the earlier chapters. I’m not going to defend myself here, but it is a consequence of my experimenting with the prose—I used Resonance as my testing grounds. There is also an issue of editing—the lack of it—but I’ve already addressed that in my previous blog post; it’s more to do for me and results are of a lower quality, but there is no dependence on third parties and I feel more honest about my work. The introduction of interludes and arcs was sort of an experiment, too… I just copied Worm’s structure, let’s be honest; but it worked well, I believe.
Those who read my blogs and have a good memory might have made an interesting observation. Months before I posted the first chapter of Resonance, I said that I wasn’t going to upload that story chapter by chapter… and proceeded with doing the opposite. However, after having uploaded a few arcs, I began to update Resonance in batches with the last being one-third of the story. Striving to achieve better quality, I couldn’t allow myself to post a chapter if it had any plot inconsistency and for that, I had to work on a whole arc or even a few arcs. Obviously, it takes more time, but I find such an approach yields a substantially better result. Having an ongoing project is motivating in its own way, but I think abandoning such a practice; that doesn’t concern Flutterlich, however.
Despite all of that, I am satisfied with Resonance; the question of me deciding to give it any sort of rework is an open one—when I finished Aftersound, I claimed there wouldn’t be anything like that and here we are. But, as I said, I’m more or less satisfied with the result this time; it is not ideal, of course, but much better than my first attempt at writing. I also have no plans for any sort of a sequel. It is not impossible—rebuilding Canterlot, changing the changelings, making Hope a better place… those plots deserve a separate story each. However, I can sense the first signs of burnout settling in; working on one universe for more than about five years can do that to a person. That, and I have some other plans I have been itching to realise for months, if not years.
Those ‘some other plans’
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Resonance demanded all my attention and that forced me to put Niello, a project I am very passionate about, on hold. Though I’m getting back to it next, Resonance isn’t my final ‘pony’ story—I have at least one in the works and many more waiting for their time. I don't even intend to touch Aftersoundverse never again; just nothing big, I’m afraid. Flutterlich is going to be updated, too.
If you are curious, I have a draft for an Aftersound side story, which has been gathering dust for four years. It’s a tribute to Roadside Picnic and takes place in Canterlot, close to or inside the Breach; it needs a lot of work, but I’m not leaving it unfinished. I have at least two more ideas for short stories in Aftersoundverse, both taking place shortly after the war with Sombra.
Any of those are very far from completion, unlike another of those horrible horror stories I like to write. Rock Farm has been in the works for two years and I’m going to finish it first. Aside from that very niche thing, I have a few other, more generic concepts lying in my store. As a cherry on top, for those who are into lewd stuff, there is something I’ve been working on as well, but… how do I put it? Despite being a text-based project, it is of a format that doesn’t fit this website; you might want to keep your eyes open for my name appearing in some other places, though it might not happen very soon.
Behind the stage
Not sure about you, my faithful reader, but I am always interested to learn what a story might have been and what it might have had, what path has it followed in its development. And Resonance had a rocky ride, sometimes too close to the cliff’s edge.
I’ll start by stating that, despite having most of the characters’ arcs more or less ready two months after finishing Aftersound, I had no idea how to tie all those plots into a cohesive narrative with any kind of meaningful finale. A year later, when I posted the first chapter, I still had no idea how I was going to finish the story. I had a plan for only about half of the chapters and was confident that I should be able to somehow tie every plot into a satisfying conclusion. About three months of brainstorming later I did achieve that. Feel free to comment on my brilliant decision-making.
Probably the biggest thing that never made it into the final draft of the story is the Trixie/Octavia/Koraki arc. They were supposed to be dealing with an army of undead raised by Mordant (remember a living pony head at Trixie’s place?). However, that whole plot was too disconnected from the rest of the story and I ultimately decided not to include it. Interestingly, I have an idea for a story—or a series—following Trixie’s life and supposed to shed light on her involvement in the war, her wandering Equestria (and meeting Octavia), their adventures in the Tunnels and much more. The fight with Mordant, who was resurrecting those who died at the Hayseed Swamp, would be a nice conclusion to the story of those Former Ones.
At some point, I considered the Machine Goddess to be a major protagonist. One of my drafts had a twist where she replaced Stalliongrad rulers with machines disguised as organic beings. Also, the interludes were supposed to have much less of her—none of her, in fact.
Speaking of which—interludes have changed the most. One interlude might have been changelings’ origin and another—Nightmare’s; however, they didn’t quite fit the pattern of interludes being flashbacks into the not-so-distant past of the main characters. ‘By Myself’ was planned to be split into two parts called ‘No gods or kings…’ and ‘...Only machines’; after merging them, I had no idea what to do with an empty ‘slot’ for an interlude, but then received some very appreciated inspiration and ‘Lullaby’ was conceived.
One of the drafts suggested leaving Sombra alive in a form of a redemption arc, where he would have been less malevolent from the start. It might have worked out, but I chose to use him as one of the antagonists and to tie a lot of plot threads together. Maybe not the most sophisticated solution. If I were to ever rework Resonance, trying to make him a good guy would have been my first goal.
Night Wind wasn’t a character I planned from the very start, which might contribute to her lacking depth. Who am I kidding? I just didn’t put enough effort into developing her character arc. I introduced Night in the first chapter with no intent other than never mentioning her again, but liked writing her and Wire together. Perhaps, not the wisest decision; however, I’m incapable of having regrets about having a Kirin in my story.
Nameless was called Divinity (or even the True/Mechanic Divinity in some of my notes) in the earlier version and was a mare and because of that I had to double-check the pronouns the whole time; should have had them as a mare, honestly. She also didn’t have her arc shared with Ash—I planned for Discord to spend all his time with Ash and him changing because of that. The Prophet had the power to possess bodies, both organic and mechanical.
Initially, I didn’t come up with Spike’s ascension, having him instead as no more than Rainbow’s sidekick. And in the same version, there was no twist with the Crystal Empire being actually ruled by equinoids.
One of the versions had no Nightmare, but was aimed at depicting how Luna struggles with the loss of her regal status and fails to reintegrate herself into society. Flower was also less… violent in that version, but stood against any technology. Luna would rip off her ‘mane’, relinquish her power of moving the Moon, passing it to Ash, and become her teacher. Oh, and according to my notes, Hope was called New Equestria.
For some time, I actually considered getting everyone into space as a solution for the global crisis in Resonance. Nightmare had far less presence and importance to the story early in its development and so did the Machine Goddess—‘Black Star’ was the only interlude involving her.
There are more than seventeen pages of text I cut out from the final draft.
Some random ramblings of mine
It took me two and half years to write Resonance, if you don’t take into account the time I’ve spent trying to figure out its plot. During that time I also finished planning out Niello, rewrote Aftersound and Truth-Telling Lies. Not going to lie—I profusely procrastinated as well. Lost my job four times. Had to put down my beloved cat and got a new one who shits fucking everywhere. Got a dog and ended up finding it a new owner. Met new people, had a fallout with some friends. Started to work out and eat healthily. So much happened.
Life has been good.
I look back at that period, marked by the word ‘Resonance’, with fondness. Now, free of that project I see another little era of my life starting, the one that I hope to label as ‘Niello’ in a few years; I’m eager to learn what will happen to me, but one thing I know for sure—I’ll continue writing.
Stay awesome.
P.S.
About four months ago I came to a decision to delete my Discord server. It wasn’t a particularly hard thing to weigh up, given it had almost no activity except me pretending it wasn’t dead already. You can still reach me here for anything important and not.
Just finished reading rewritten Aftersound and Resonance. Aftersound gained a lot of quality.
I still remember wretching ending for Flower, where Machine Goddes chosen equinoids over her.
Resonance is good too, but some characters really feels out of place. Night Wind is ok we can consider her a sidekick and be done, but Prophet?
Got wholle interlude for his character development
probeleggen.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Its-gone.jpg
Mentioned few times throung whole story.
Just dude that keeps Canterlot denizens from dying until Windigo problem solves itself.
Is there some story planned for Spike? Got feeling like he became not Harmony but self-powered god.
tl;dr Good read got better.
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First of all—huge thanks.
Glad to hear you liked the rewrite of Aftersound; I don't get much feedback about that.
Yes, Night Wind is not a particularly deep character, there is nothing I can say in my defence. The Prophet... is another of a few things in Resonance I have no right to call success. Spike suffers the same problem, to some extent—he did become an independent god-tier entity and that is pretty much it.
Whilst those are definitely weak points in the story, I believe the whole thing still holds together and that wasn't easy to achieve. I'll learn from those mistakes, however.