How Thorax Changed · 11:25pm Sep 27th, 2014
Dear Princess Luna,
Today I learned the importance of flexibility in one’s character planning. All my life I've been aware of how a character can take on a life of their own and how this can sometimes cause more than a little tension when they begin to do things that you did not even begin to plan for—I once had a character decide, without any real planning on my part, that she was actually a witch, forcing me to invent a whole coven of witches to continue the story!
Usually, this doesn’t bother me—I plan little enough of what I write that my direction can be more than a little flexible. But with a story like Plans Change, which I have mapped out with no small level of detail, it is more than a little frustrating.
I had planned to introduce Thorax as an intimidating, bull-headed, arrogant soldier who always believed his way was best (despite it not being the case very often!) He was always to be Chrysalis’ childhood tormentor, and I was certain that the two would continue to loathe each other even now. It came as a complete surprise to me, therefore, that the two were cordial—at times, even friendly!—with each other, and that Thorax and Chrysalis genuinely seemed to care for each other. This made it particularly challenging to write Chrysalis with an irrational hatred for everything Thorax stood for; I have tried to pass this off as a confusion at her own mixed feelings, a strong desire to loathe him that she cannot quite manage. For the first time in this fic, though, I’m really not certain of the result, no matter how much my pre-reader assures me it has worked.
Still, a schedule is a schedule, and a Pinkie Promise cannot be broken.
Your faithful student,
Quill Scratch
