Two-Wicked Candle · 8:34pm February 20th
Its been in progress for a very long time, as I've mentioned before, but the more I push on with new chapters, the more unacceptable the initial chapters become. I got lost in the sauce of the latest chapter, bringing back an old friend (and the complications of planned then rescinded design changes), but I really need to focus back on the original chapter rewrites. You might think this is perfectionism at play, but if you look back on the initial chapters now... they are simply badly written, no two ways about it.
The Prologue chapter is fully rewritten, and has been since April 2023, but requires later chapter rewrites for it to fit in with the current uploads. Chapter 1 is 80-90% complete, Chapter 2 is barely begun. Edits will probably have to continue up to Chapter 5, to ensure consistency between the new and old (without a complete rewrite of the story). After this point, hopefully only minor edits shall suffice. This is a process that will take months of careful re-reading across all older chapters, and I assure you that it will be a miserable process, but will hopefully make new readers more likely to continue to current chapters.
For anyone who wanted a more nuanced King, a better look at Celestia's palace life, or more time with Starswirl and Ustiarius, this should be a positive addition for you. For anyone who simply wants the next chapter in the story, I'm sorry, but there will be quite a delay. It's genuinely hard pushing forward with the story, knowing that no one new will read it because of the poor on-boarding of early chapters.
As always, I greatly appreciate any feedback you have to give. I hope this can be a story that people want to read, and not another of my life-long failures.
