Epilogue and beyond. · 2:50am Jul 22nd, 2013
Right, so after debating several times on whether 'A Voice Among the Stangers' was completed or not, I still will do an epilogue. However, what I have written so far is... messy, so I will be starting over from scratch. The chapter was growing exponentionally and opening up more ideas than giving closure. Upon saying this, I will reserve it for perhaps a side story or ultimately the beginning of the sequel. Thusly, the epilogue will be far shorter than it was getting into, easily looking in the 10k+ range before I pulled the plug, but will act as hopefully a nice end to the story. So around 5k - 8k maybe.
Right... so, the epilogue will be out next week hopefully but now I have a new conundrum!
These other projects of mine I am unsure how to go about letting people look at them to vote for which one they desire me to put my efforts onto first and foremost. The retelling, which due to several comments, shall continue to be named 'A Stranger Among the Voices', will continue regardless. This just leaves the others up for debate in what order I will put my effort into them; keeping in mind this will probably impact my update schedule!
So, refresher the ideas are;
1) Tale of Swift Dawn, Aurora Blossom and <Name retracted until Epilogue because I am mean like that, but it starts with a 'B'>, and their journey through becoming guards and how they came to their positions. This will possibly end before the events of AVAtS, or it might end just at the beginning. It will of course have Shining Armor, Luna, Celestia and Twilight within due to their proximity to the castle. I will include other characters though here and there.
2) Ponyfication story: Girl into a pegasus. This one, as I mentioned, will focus more on learning her new body and trying to find a way back home and to become human again. Whether or not she reaches that goal is up for debate, but the journey I feel is more important than the destination. After debate it will have no connection to AVAtS, as otherwise it would get all tangled and issues would get complicated. Let's just say, from what I have done so far, Viktoria is getting treated pretty rough so far in the story. She's also a young teen age wise, and an orphan. Now, the orphan part doesn't mean she has nothing to return to and thus can easily cut away her life, etc.
Quite the opposite, the way I see it the orphanage would be like one big family to her. But, the choice for her to be an orphan was made for another specific reason which I will not spoil here. Although, while I am rambling I just noticed so far I have not been kind to my protagonist's mother figures so far. I think my stories are turning into Disney princess cartoons. o.o
Will need to rectify that...
Anyhow, in summary; Viktoria gets changed into a pegasus, hijinks ensure... if by hijinks I mean that her very body has been completely redesigned and she is now forced to struggle being a stranger to her own form. How can one even scream when their tongue and mouth do not work as they remembered? I think I am a horrible person. x.x
3) Sequel to 'A Voice Among the Strangers'. This one I feel is the least likely to be my primary focus, the reason being from the feedback I hear, people wish to see the re-telling first. I can understand that and it does seem a very good idea. I will still leave it up to voting however! There will be, as mentioned, a slight shifting in tone but I will retain the overall feel of what I did with the first story, hopefully! I am still new to this after all. ^-^;
Let's just say more about Ebony's past and current hive will be explored and their capabilities. Also there will be more dynamics of Jessica's family life and what it means to be a part of two worlds.
So, those are the three sitting there. I have scrapped the Pony in Equestria for... various reasons which will become clearer in time. I am pretty sure those reading between the lines will know what I am meaning, but for those that can't, you will see!
Now, onto the true point of this bloggy thingie! I really do ramble don't I?
Firstly, the side story project for 'AVAtS'. This will probably just be whatever idea pops into my head and I randomly pop one up out of thin air to surprise everyone. These will all be one-shots and fit somewhere into the time skip that shall occur, whether between chapter twelve and the epilogue or between the sequel. On that note however, I think I might be open to ideas on what people may wish to see. A family outing, Mayari and Tala's first day at school, Mino's trying to get a date or even looking into a budding romance or friendship between two others.
I may even do a little vote now and again and let people throw their ideas into a hat, the winner being the one I write about.
The second issue I am having, and this is where I very much would love input on... is how the heck will I get the stories up to be voted on in the first place? Now I will have the first chapter of each done and completed before I go any further on this, but I don't really want to post them all up on Fimfiction only for one or two to go into limbo for months while I knuckle out the one that wins... that doesn't seem fair to anyone who really likes that one, or the others who have no idea what I am doing and come across the first chapter.
So I am open to suggestions on how this will work. Remembering I have no experience with this writing thing until now, I only just learnt of 'Google Doc' recently and... Well I am still in the dark. Is there a 'draft' area I can put these into or...?
Any help would be appreciated before I put it into action in a week or two!
I vote for everything. Write what you enjoy and I'll probably enjoy what you write.
Option 2 was probably the most interesting idea there for me
But it's all up to you what you want to write.
My vote is still for the Ponyfication story~
This is the order of what I will vote for your next fic.
4. Because I want to see the ponies side of the story.
2. Because hijinks.
3. Because I have not liked AVAtS, I have LOVED it.
1. Don't really see what you mean there, must've missed a blog or two.
And yes, I added #4 as a write-in.
the mian one I would like would be the retelling, however my second choice youre be the Tale of Swift Dawn and Auroura Blossom
I want to know more about Swift Dawn, Aurora Blossom, and B(Stoic).
1 sounds like it would be an interesting piece of back story, but I think 2 would be more interesting given how well you have handled Jessica in A Voice Among the Strangers. 3 is also interesting, but I would rather have the full story before reading the sequel.
Thus my priority order is:
2
1
3
The side stories also sound like fun, although I would not limit yourself to any particular timeframe or update schedule. Write what you want, when you want, and do not worry too much about the details. If you want to give us a snippet about Starswirl that works just as well as some adorable shenanigans with Mayari, Tala, and the CMC (just think about the insanity those three could unleash with a pair of shapeshifters
).
I don't give a shit. Just do what you did here, and give us an extremely enjoyable reading experience. If you can do that, I won't care what you write.
1226210 Yeah, what he wrote!
Personally I want to see most of your effort put into the Sequel and retelling, but what ever you chose I'm sure I will enjoy it.
sorry I don't really have any good ideas for voting, maybe just give us a chapter of each and put most of your work into the one that gets the best feed back? Sorry I'm just not sure.
I just remembered, you can give access to unpublished story parts. Basically create a story for each proposal, provide links in your blog to let us view the first chapter and publish only the winner.
To be honest, 2 is IMHO the most interesting as you have already proven that you can write such stories well. The problem with it is that it is basically AVATS in reverse so it may become repetitive / boring for you.
To reduce such problems, 1 would be best as it is something vastly different that would allow you to get some rest from humans
.
3 is as obvious candidate as it gets but I think it should be the last one to start.
So my vote would be:
first, "1" as a short story
then "2"
followed by another short non-human story to get some rest :]
then "3".
1225899
I second this, writing what you yourself is passionate about and like to write is that little magic that will make anything good no matter how mundane or simple it might seem at first glance.
// Sphex
1225899 1226464
I agree with DPV111. You should write what you want to write in the order you want it.
Of course, that said, I want to see the pony side of the story, then the sequel, then the side story. It might make it easier to write those two next, while you have this story on the top of your brain. Then again, if you have another idea that is just begging to come out, then it might be easier for you to pursue that instead.
Whatever it is you decide to do, I'm sure it will turn out amazing.
For the short one-shot stories, a lot of people put them in a single fanfic and sometimes update the description for each new chapter.
What do I as a reader want you to write? All the things. Though, writing all the things will probably take too long, so... "Whatever works"
I think I have a slight preference for a sequel to 'A Voice Among the Strangers'
I would input some whimsical offensive picture then claim it was someone else who posted it.
But I cant find any pictures to fit said description.
So...Yeah...
Just write what you want and if its horrible I'll spell check
Well, I know this is unhelpful, but I like all of your story ideas and none of them really stood out among the others in my mind, so my vote is just all of them.
I do agree that you probably shouldn't put all your stories up blank and just leave all but one in limbo for a while. Just post whichever you're working on and let your blog speak of your plans. As for voting (at least down the road), if you want to do an official vote, I recommend making another blog post that is titled something about voting and just has a very short description of what the options are and such. As much as some of us like to read your ramblings (I do), a lot of people just see TL;DR, so if you want to involve more people in the vote, make it short and straight to the point. That's my recommendation anyway.
One other thing, just a bit of advice (or a reminder, because there's a good chance you're already planning this), take it or leave it, about your upcoming sequel to AVAtS. I would make sure the story has some overarching conflict that the characters need to overcome and that ties it all together. AVAtS was great as a story of Jess finding her place in this new world, but now she's more or less settled in, as are the changelings, and while random slice of life segments can be great, I'm afraid it would lose its interesting-ness if there wasn't a larger goal in mind over the course of several chapters. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it, now I'm done rambling.
Thank you all for your input.
The ability to publish but not submit so others can look seems to be the way to go. Otherwise just doing the one that wins I guess... hmmm...
As for the sequel, there will definitely be an overall plot and two major conflicts. One with the situation, and one with an entity. ^-^
Now back to writing the epilogue so I can start onto these fun projects!
Hu... you ramble almost as much as I do.
Whatever you decide I'm sure will be awesome, and I look forward to helping you work on whatever you need/want me to.
I'd love to hear more about the Guard Trio, so my primary vote is for that, though I still feel you have the ability to write a very compelling "pony transformation" story, so even if you don't start on that one first, write it at some point, please?
And a sequel is great! Whenever you're ready.
As far as voting based on chapters....
You could post a blog on fimfiction, and within that post have links to googledocs of the first chapters of each story. Then people could vote in the comments of the blog post.
Just a thought!