Writers Block Over (maybe) · 2:16am Jul 27th, 2023
As explained in my last blog entry, I hit a wall after writing an entire chapter that took the sisters' journey in the wrong direction. Since then, I have been stuck on how to reconcile this error; do I rewrite the entire chapter I was proud of, or compromise my greater vision of the story?
Well, I'm happy to say that I finally came to a compromise. Pegasopolis (Cloudsdale) would have canonically been south of the Highland Mountains (later Smokey Mountains) during Flash Magnus' time in the Royal Legion, when he received Netitus. Following their victory against those dragons (and the loss of Flash Magnus), Pegasopolis relocated to the north-east of the mountains (Unicorn Range) to battle the dragons there. The original plan was to keep Pegasopolis south of the mountains, over the occupied ruins of New Canterlot, but I accidentally wrote the chapter with it in its location on the official map (by Canterlot).
While this change means the sisters cannot visit the ruins of New Canterlot, as was once intended, it does mean I can retain the forest journey, mountain hike, and trek across the plains (albeit going a shorter distance north, instead of further north-east). These are, of course, events no one has read yet, and hopefully any alterations should not be noticeable once it is realised, but it does spoil some foreshadowing I had set up.
I have not yet begun the rewrite of Chapter 22, and was only half way through the proofreading when I stopped; but in preparation for these changes, I have updated and expanded chapters 20 and 21 to version 1.1. In fact, almost every chapter has a pending updates with numerous tweaks and grammar fixes, but I was planning to do it as a wave after the Chapter 0+ rewrites (also paused).
Speaking of the massive rewrite WIP, I'm a little stuck on how to proceed. I've made design changes to a character that will be returning in Chapter 23, and if I don't release the rewrites before then, I won't know whether to describe them with the old (wrong) design, or the new design no one has seen yet (making it inconsistent). I'm about to hit another block, but I guess this is what happens when you burn the candle from both ends.
[Edit] jk, I'm now completely stuck again after explaining what I originally wanted (New Canterlot)
Whatever you decide I'm sure it will work out.
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I have a problem with making decisions, though, which is why I've been stuck on this for five months.