Foundations · 7:14am Feb 17th, 2014
There's something to be said for having a starting point.
In the beginning, Chapter 1 (Point of No Return) was the starting point. It was the first chapter for which I constructed a cohesive outline; originally it was to be the first portion of the story posted. Bear in mind this was almost a year ago -- well before I had any sense of scope regarding how my writing process would unfold. I gradually came to the realization that I write a lot, and that meant some content remained on the cutting room floor. (For example, the scene on the Helicarrier originally comprised Rogers, Stark, and Fury arguing over how to best proceed. I had gone as far as writing the whole thing out!) 14,000+words is a lot for any one chapter, I think, given how people are looking for ponies (and Avengers!) first and foremost. Chapter 1 could not satisfy that criterion in the state I had intended for it.
The Prologue was supposed to come attached to Chapter 1. Had that remained the case, Chapter 1 (or the Prologue) would have exceeded 20,000 words. That's a lot of reading! I sought to avoid saturation for myself and anyone who happened to give AOFN a fighting chance. It was, however, quite a bit easier to remove content than create things from scratch. Sometimes you have to do a little of both -- the Prologue is an example of that fact -- but I would advise against becoming overly attached to any one thing that might, in fact, compromise the narrative structure. I guarantee it will result in going back and fixing things later.
Chapter 1 is the primordial soup. I think the reasons are fairly clear: the events of the movie needed to be altered to shuttle everyone to Equestria. And the wonderful thing about Space!Magic and applied phlebotinum is that the author has ample excuse to mix the dynamics up rather wildly. In order to do so, however, enough had to change for the shift to make sense. Coulson not dying is a pretty enormous change: his death unites the Avengers when they were otherwise pulling in different directions. If he still dies on the Helicarrier, the changes in AOFN don't make a lick of sense. Subvert that moment of unity, however, and you retain the chemical mixture that creates chaos. That's the whole idea.
It may appear to be an obvious point about keeping Coulson alive, but I'd like to think the inner-workings of the process are quite sensitive and subtle. Since the story has a long way to go, leaving the Avengers hanging on Coulson's death while traveling to a world of magical equines seems a tad distracting. It's all about unresolved tension! If I do my job right, that tension can explode in any number of directions; if I do it wrong, the plot points planted (alliteration!) will fizzle and die. That would be a tremendous waste.
In short, plant the seeds you want to grow -- but know what you are begging for when they sprout all the way through a story.
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I'm going to plead the fifth on any specific character connections. Suffice it to say that this wouldn't be MLP if friendships weren't magic, but I want to play this one close to the vest, as it were.
Sorry!