Production Notes: ACT 2 (Mistakes, Style, and Schedule) · 10:12am May 10th, 2014
So apparently you aren't actually allowed to write a blog entry without posting it. I suppose I write these so infrequently that I wouldn't remember a detail like this. Regardless, here's another entry into the pages that I don't expect anyone to actually read. For those of you interested in the behind-the-scenes for My Little Apprentice, you're in the right place. If you're not interested in that sort of thing, with due warning that there may be hints and/or other information that might be construed as SPOILERS, consider this your due warning. Definitely do not read unless you are caught up to chapter 19 at least, as there will be serious spoilers for events previous to that chapter. Also, this entry is unedited and will not be held to the standards of quality of my chapters.
So it's been pretty awesome being on the front page with every update. I guess there's some sort of system in place there with the last three spots being for those longfics that have a requisite level of popularity. Considering I'm now sharing spaces with some of my favorite stories and authors (in my favorites and stuff. I'm definitely more of a reader on this site than a writer, though I'm also very new so it's a short list). Not sure how the process actually works. If it's automated, than awesome this story attracted enough attention for an algorithm to pick us up! If not, even better, because that means that some moderator liked the story enough to make sure it would get a little more attention. I'm sure probably a third of the three people who actually read this blog post probably joined us since the featured slot and the considerable increase in traffic that was generated. Who knows: Maybe after today and the season being over we'll see even more new readers joining us who really want to get their fix. That'd be pretty cool if it's the case. It isn't as though we write in order to listen to the sound our keyboards make.
So thanks to everybody who was involved in the explosion of popularity I've seen in this story. Thanks even more to those who have been with me for the long haul, taking the time to comment on just about every chapter. I cannot explain how much your time means to me except that if it weren't for your comments I would not see the point to writing this story. Your voices prove that there are at least a few people who enjoyed the story enough to tell me so. Or to tell me things they didn't enjoy, or even to offer some corrections I could make. Your comments have left a better story in their wake for the wave of new readers.
These last few weeks as I've marched towards the end of act 2 (which we have not reached in case you're wondering, nor will we as of the chapter coming in a few hours), I've been quite surprised with some of the reactions I've got. Those who read the comments will know what I'm talking about, both about political points I wasn't making and about (much more legitimately), some of the more dramatic shifts in tone of our little adventure. I've already talked about what I might've done to key in readers to the change that was coming, and within a few days a new scene will probably be quietly slipped into 14 for those new readers, so that when they reach this point they will not be so shocked. I just have to get it past my editors, and we'll be good to go.
But this is my blog, so unlike the story itself or the author's notes I"m allowed to ramble without purpose or meaning about things that don't really matter. In this case, I wanted to explain a little bit about my writing style and how this all happened.
Different writers have different writing styles. Perhaps there are authors here on the site who create intricate worlds through careful study and practice, building their stories like beautiful clockwork machines. Each gear is crafted and arranged with meticulous care, and the result is a harmonious product that displays the significant investment of thought that created them. Many of the greatest literary works... at least the ones in English... were created in this manner.
This story was not. My Little Apprentice sprung from a single idea, a spark of insight that I liken to spying a corner of crumbing masonry poking out from a sand dune. I saw the ruin, and it became my duty at that point to unearth it and reveal it to the world. Call it stupidity or superstition or whatever you wish, but I think there's something almost mystical in the art of creating something new from nothing. In my view, the creation already existed in some existential sense, and the creator acts in communion with this hypothetical future self to being.
On the one hand, the more of the ruin I unearth the more I can predict based on the patterns what I am going to dig up next. Usually I can only see the largest events past one chapter in the future, and often the vision I have will prove to be vastly in error when I actually reach it. This has happened many times so far, the most powerful example being the confrontation with Discord. I saw it coming far in advance, but my predictions proved grossly in error. I predicted an adversarial Discord, angry that Chance was bringing change to his world that he did not approve of. There would be a level of hypocrisy there Chance would eventually exploit to repair their relationship. She would be transformed into a human being to shock Ponyville and alienate her from her friends. Twilight and Celestia would have to reverse the process, if they decided to. Political difficulty and eventual acceptance of Chance's renewed pony form just as Act 3 began.
Obviously that didn't happen, and we would all be reading a different story if it had. This is why I update so often! I am as curious to learn what the future holds as any reader, perhaps moreso since I have invested far more time than any individual reader in writing this. Each new chapter takes about... I'd say an even nine hours or so of work, from the earliest drafting to the last-minute editing and responding to comments.
And yes, that means the story sometimes surprises me as much as you. I think that happened with Chance's kidnapping. I didn't even expect her to go to the Summer Sun Celebration. The scenes I had planned involved a swift opening and resolution of the final conflict and thus the story. As we are now, the final conflict I predicted when I opened the story has barely manifested, and may not prove to be the final conflict at all.
Oh, and for those of you who correctly identified Chance's captive doctors as a pair of prominent twins, points to you. I don't intend to actually use their characters from the source material they originate from, rather as a homage to the inspiration for this story.
I mentioned the spark that stimulated this story, the single thing from which all material flowed. The Lutece twins, as depicted in Bioshock Infinite. That game sure knew how to be thematic, and somehow I saw ponies in it. The way magic worked, the way travel between worlds might be effected. Not that I'm calling it hard sci-fi by any means... but close enough that I could suspend my disbelief and enjoy the story. The character of Chance emerged far later and during different circumstances, but the core of the story was there. Everything else grew naturally out of that first idea. That battle between choice and determinism, constants and variables. I remember the scene at the graveyard and thinking "Discord is probably not unlike that."
And a story was born. A story with another ten chapters to go or so before it's concluded and I move on to the next adventure of my brief foray into Pony fiction, a short story starring the two main characters of this story in a new and unfamiliar environment... at least, that's what the ruins are looking like right now. Could be right, could be wrong.
But I'm quite sure of what's to come after that, and maybe some of you can as well. My second (and perhaps last) pony novel will be a war story of some sort of kind. I don't know for sure much about it... whether it will star some of the characters I've focused on with the war as a backdrop, or perhaps an entirely new cast right on the lines. Will the mane six get involved, thus severing forever any connections I might enjoy with the cannon, or... sit on the sidelines, so that the status quo can remain more or less the same? I don't know these answers. All I know is the world I've depicted is on the brink of conflict, and somehow, someway, that conflict will be resolved. Somehow.
So you're mainly a discovery writer rather than an outliner. My main question is how you will make the ending feel natural. The biggest aspect of the ending is making it surprising but inevitable. Also, before you write the last act I would highly recommend listening to this podcast to make sure you know what promises you have made to the reader and then making sure the ending fits those promises in a fulfilling way. The podcast is one I highly recommend generally for writers. The specific one I've linked to many times on this site when authors seem to completely fail in understanding what they're promising early on and what they deliver and why I can't either continue reading, give an up vote, or decide to give a down vote. Here is the link to Writing Excuses Promises.
As for the war story. Be very careful. I've read good stories who used decent military tactics and I've seen more realistic stories that pointed out how the Equestrian military sucks because they lost to swarm tactics insanely quickly in A Canterlot Wedding. You also need to decide on a tone and stick with it. You can choose to make it ridiculous for the laughs, grim, straight, or some combination thereof that feels write but keep your tone consistent.. That's going to be the hardest part for a discovery writer. You may discover later that the tone you started with does not work anymore and if you post it you will be stuck with a prior tone. I suggest listening to things said by Howard Tayler if you actually listen to the Writing Excuses podcast. He doesn't write his ending for his story arcs for his comic until he's two thirds through usually and he can't go back and change things because they're already online.
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Though delivered very late at night (at least here in the middle of the U.S.) that is some sound advise that I will take to heart, including listening to that podcast. From what little I can presently predict about the ending, I think it does match that two-word definition... something that was bond to happen based on the events of the story as a whole, but also probably not something most have predicted. I wish there was some way to market test these things. Still, maybe the podcast will give me advice. I would be a fool to not take an opportunity for learning presented to me, and I do love listening to people talking during my long, long daily walks.
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Best way for marketing is to follow what the professionals do. Give a first read to alpha readers who qualify as editors and people of a writing mind set who discuss what works and doesn't. Then give it to a group of beta readers who are people who don't have a writing background but can tell you how the scene makes them feel. Beta readers can also be people who know you and you just want a reaction from. After the advice, fix or just take the information into account. Setting this up is more complicated than the actual process though.
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Hmm, that's not a bad idea. I think that the production process for MLA is already too entrenched to implement something like that in time, but I bet there's a way I could get something like that going in time for the sequel. Something to consider, particularly since I'll be moving to a weekly instead of bi-weekly update schedule for that one, which would be far easier to coordinate between the alpha and beta readers. If you're still following the production at that point, I may hit you up if you're interested to be one of the beta readers. It would be good to have at least one voice that is going to disagree with me at least some of the time. Even if I can promise I won't always take all the advice I'm given.
Problem is, those beta readers are getting the story spoiled for them. Because of the way I write, I would probably want to make scene outlines and such available first, so that if a significant number of people didn't think it was a good idea I could change it before I wrote it.
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Just make sure to tell me what kind of advice you want. I can act as both a beta and an alpha reader on different things. My suggestion for the pipeline is to be a couple weeks ahead, minimum and just post the final product after a quick touch of not having looked at it for a week. That will help with typos not noticed by everyone else and you have more time to get things done if you need it or something happens in RL.