The Writing Intensifies: Visionary's Rebirth Continues (But Better) · 2:52am Jul 9th, 2014
It was around this time that I realized the beginning of July had come and gone, and that I had yet to do a blog here, just in case people still got notifications from me.
My last few blogs have been about CoS, and while I have certainly still been working on that, as I claimed I would, I have also had time to work on Visionary's redo as well. I am pleased to announce, with incredible vagueness, my progress on the matter. For those of you who have somehow not heard, I am rebuilding Visionary from the ground up, and removing it from the MLP universe completely to serve as its own, stand-alone universe.
Many of you will acknowledge the various issues with Visionary, the MLP fanfic, hereafter known as Visionary 1.0. Foremost among them were how fast Aurus became king, how quickly everyone accepted that, how quickly Aurus became powerful, how quickly everyone accepted everything else about him, and how "too good" Aurus was. Not to mention how powerful Aurus ended up being.
In addition to the above glaring errors on my part are numerous, less-obvious, but still-meaningful problems, such as the tertiary characters feeling badly out of touch and serving little purpose but dialogue. Perspective seemed to rarely shift from Aurus unless it was to Gerd. Also, Gerd was an absolutely stupid name.
I am pleased to announce that, after lengthy discussions regarding these subjects and many others within the universe, resolutions have been decided upon for all of the listed items, as well as some that were not listed. Original readers of the series should be able to note a marked improvement in nearly every area.
Key features:
-An improved social and political structure for the Remnant (previously changelings in Visionary 1.0).
-An improved power-gain system and heirarchy for the Remnant and Aurus.
-Vastly improved character balancing for Aurus, both in terms of sheer power and "know-it-all" ness.
-Unique new racial lore/history for every race.
-A more character-driven experience, with a much more relatable and comprehensible plotline.
-Improved backstory and global-lore, courtesy of the now-utterly-missing MLP universe.
-Vastly improved secondary character storylines and interactions throughout the main series.
-The best reworks of all of the old favorite characters that money can buy. (Some previous relationships are subject to change.)
-Powerful and useful exposition on the mechanics of the universe and its characters.
In addition to my Visionary rework, which is still intended to span the width of three books at the least, a comprehensive historic series for the human race in my universe is confirmed, and will likely be penned in majority by Chris Bowling (aka Socratic). Featuring its own set of major and minor characters, and its own branch-stories surrounding its timeline, the historic series will line up with the later universe we see in my Visionary series tales and similar timeline series that will inevitably follow.
The result is a fully-fledged past-and-present universe that lends itself well to the tales it contains. I am beyond excited for the changes Chris and I have had the opportunity to discuss in recent days, and the discussions have been lengthy and thorough. So far, none of the edits or compromises we have decided on for the newer universe seem like backpedaling or as if they will be destructive. Every proposed change so far has improved upon the classic ideals of the universe, broadened story opportunities, and deepened characters and their relationships.
Visionary 2.0 will be, in literally every way, better than its predecessor, but with a universe and characters that are familiar to fans of the original. Nevermind the side-stories, which will only be likewise improved by the alterations to the universe. (Tinkermane 2.0 is bound to happen.)
Needless to say that the issues surrounding Visionary 1.0 have plagued me since its completion. Lauded as the story was, I can honestly say I could have done better. Now I will get that chance, and make good on it. Not knowing precisely how I would solve some of the heaviest problems had a dampening effect on the fire I had to write this. Thankfully, that is no longer the case.
I expect to be thoroughly drunk this weekend, and you all know what that means. Also, I will still be calling the trilogy that contains the Visionary 1.0 rework "Visionary". The universe as a whole will be called something else entirely.
Prepare for the writing,
Aaron.
Oh man, this sounds absolutely delicious! Keep us posted!
If this means you're making Visionary 2.0 longer than 1.0. I'm all up for it!
I also just noticed that I never Favorited Visionary. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME. Most fix this.
2268323
Nah man, it's cool. Save it for the next one.
I am excited. Very excited. And also somewhat impatient, but that's to be expected.
Also I did not find Gerd to be an objectionable name.
2268362 I'll favorite both, I liked this one. So I'll definitely like the 2.0 version.
If there's just one thing I hope you keep in tact it's definitely the changelings retaining the kind of society you gave them in the first; that being a society of individuals with their own friends and families. That was one of the great aspects of Visionary, that it didn't just go with the flow with the done-to-death Hive/drone society, you know?
2269031
No worries, that's still around.
2269098 Fantastic. Also, this is just a friendly query (feel free to just ignore it), but have you considered some real-life inspirations to draw on for the changeling society and culture? For example, I predominantly base the Changeling Kingdom off of Feudal and Imperial Japan, and sometimes old Eastern Europe. I'm sure you most likely have your own plan for it, but again, just something I was thinking about.
This is so exciting! It's gonna be amazing!
2269119
I don't think of examples explicitly, but I'm sure people will notice similarities with historical or current cultures. Basing their culture off of something else is less ideal than building it from scratch, at least in my case.
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7887322880/hCF7EC2FA/
AWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEEEEEEH! A new blogpost from the main nigga!
Awesome to hear that so much is being done, I swear you should make it to big class level with this book ;D Movies and shit y'know... or something along those lines. If I ever get famous, I will make everything possible to make sure that would happen ;)
Already Excited with a capital E x3
Question: Are you going to just publish 2.0, or are you gonna try to market it? Because I would totally buy an ebook by you from amazon <3
2269632
I would love to market the entirety of the universe at some point, but I haven't decided how exactly I want to go about doing that. Expect lots and lots of eBooks, if not real, actual books. Traditional publishing would be neat, but probably not viable.
Have to have the product to even think about marketing it, though, so for the time being my focus is away from that. Still, at the rate I'm going, might not be too long, lol.
2269844
Amazon self-publishing. It's like uploading to Fimfiction, only you get paid for it. I think.
Example: Viking ZX, the guy who made the Dusk Guard stories, is an Amazon-published author. You could even ask him for pointers, he's a friendly guy.
Visionary was epic. I would buy the updated version.
2273273
Visionary 2.0 is exponentially more epic. It's like 1.0, but squared.
Wait...
2273381
One squared is still one. Nice try though
2273406
The joke intensifies.