Starry Nights Over Knossos: Debrief · 6:10pm Jul 6th, 2023
Writing "Starry Nights Over Knossos" was a challenge for me in that this is the first time I've forced myself to finish a writing project instead of letting it die in my drafts. In that respect, I'm happy that I actually managed to pull that off.
My actual thoughts on the story are a bit more complicated. To preface, I don't like writing down all my doubts about my writing because I firmly believe in faking it 'till I make it and being overly negative helps no-one. That being said I do think I was clumsy and somewhat rushed in execution, and (to my eyes) the story ends up reading like its juggling too much at once, though I think I can blame the word count for that. Non-contest stories won't have that same restriction from me lol
As for the process of writing this fic, there's actually a lot of content I had to cut. I love worldbuilding and Knossos had a lot of that even in its final form, but to name a few among the things that had to go to the shredder were:
- an extended introduction where Luna got the idea to go vacationing to Minos from Glint Heart, who is only mentioned in passing in the final version. This one was the most developed idea, but I think cutting it was for the best. The only thing I regret was not being able to stuff in the "Luna has 80 years worth of vacation days" joke that sparked the whole idea for the fic in the first place
- a longer, more local-politics filled version of the Horse Scene, that I had to cut because it was derailing the entire story and wasn't very important in the long run (SAD)
- various bits of worldbuilding that were cut to conserve the word limit, including a bit about a non-equestrian pony nation called "Foalland", explanations on how Equestria itself is generations behind technologically from Minos, and how Horses are the largest minority in Minos next to griffons
- Something I never wrote but was part of the original outline was an epilogue about Celestia and Luna visiting Minos for a diplomatic summit and creating an Eclipse to honor the friendship between the two nations, alongside a bit about how the Carriage Association partly won the strike and got first dibs on the first public transportation motowagons. Though I only wanted to write that last one to write out the image of a horse driving a car made specifically for a horse. This was cut because I thought it was superfluous and didnt really add anything to the story other than "Luna does a nice thing"
I think that's about it for my "final thoughts" ^_^
I'm not writing that long myself, technically, but I can tell for sure—scrapped ideas are just something that can be improved and repurposed in the future
My own notes are littered with scenes that I know I can expand on and play around with. There is no need to cram everything into one piece of work, after all
Top notch worldbuilding. I think the scrapped ending kind of shows—the current one is certainly great as a chapter ending, but I honestly just wanted more.
> begin her first true night in Knossos
> proceeds the end the story
I look forward to anything else you may write, without that pesky word limit in the way!
(We have an emote in the server called :limit:)
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1115743854826639371/1147028827508310146/Screenshot_20230831-224151.png
I think it's fitting in this case.