Out of curiosity... · 7:24pm Feb 19th, 2013
Here's a question for those of you that follow me and/or read The Life of Fear:
I'm planning on writing side-scenes that go along with the story, and exist in the same continuity. They will vary wildly in character, mood, and timeframe, happening anywhere from the distant past (the defeat of Volun at the Siege of Vallis Silentii), to concurrently with the main story (the Quest of Shimmerline), to the far future (the birth of Mi Amore Cadenza). However, none of them will actually involve Phobos himself; they are not part of, as it were, "the life of Fear". As well, I would like to be able to organize them chronologically, though I won't be writing them that way.
The question I would ask you is: would it be better to keep these side-scenes as chapters of the main story (interludes and intermissions and such), or would it be better to create a separate "side-stories" story in which to organize them? I'm personally leaning towards the latter, even though it means splitting my views and such in half, but I'd love to hear what others think about this kind of thing. (Especially you, Kolwynia; you magnificent, supportive dog, you.)
Now that I think about it, a secondary question, if anyone happens to know the answer, is: What is Fimfiction's policy on stories where a single chapter or vignette is most definitely Mature/Sex/NSFW, but the rest of the story is not? Does the entire story need to be marked Mature/Sex/NSFW as a result? Or is it sufficient to simply have content warnings in the chapter name and at the top of the chapter's page? If the answer is option 1, this is yet another reason that I'd like to make the side-stories separate. Volun was... not exactly the most selfless of alicorns.
Unfortunately, I believe so.
I'm not sure how this will work, but if I were you, I'd post them as separate fics with a link back to Life of Fear. (Maybe in the Author's Notes, so people who read them can follow back to the main story and it will get more readers?) This will also make the side stories really accessible for those who may not want to read an epic story about an OC. (So, say someone really likes Cadance, he/she can read just the story with her, then when they see how cool that is, they might want to read the other stories set in your universe.)