Delaying Chapter 6! Super long-winded happy fun time details below. · 1:02am Oct 31st, 2014
Normally I post on Sundays, but at this rate, there's no way I'm gonna be able to meet my usual posting time. Therefore:
I am delaying Chapter 6 of This Game of Mine.
There are several reasons for this, the first of which is...
1. I have no idea what I'm doing or where I'm going with this.
Right now, my focus is extremely schizophrenic. I constantly get new ideas, but I often inject them haphazardly with very little understanding of what the consequences might be moving forward. This has resulted in several sudden paradigm shifts which have significantly increased the story's scale, and, more importantly, changed the tone of the story. One need look no further than the end of the most recent chapter for evidence of this.
Which leads to the biggest reason why I need to delay Chapter 6:
2. Introducing a second POV is the scariest and most
overwhelming thing I've ever done since I first debuted this story.
Originally, I had no intention of introducing a POV shift from the start, and only after I committed to this decision did I realize the gravity of what I had done.
As a novice writer, the biggest challenge in this story so far has been to turn Sweetie Belle into an interesting character with a unique personality and a storied history. I don't know whether I've succeeded or not, and that's probably the scariest thing about all this, because now I'm now faced with the prospect of having to do it again with "Shadow", to bring another character to life—one that bears their own unique set of feelings, memories, emotions, motivations, and even their own unique manner of speech—and maintaining all of that until the end of the story.
Yeaaaaah. That's a big undertaking. And so, to do that...
3. I need to get a feel for "Shadow Song's" character.
It's gonna take some time for me to get familiar with "Shadow", her tone, and her personality, to make sure she's actually interesting enough as a character to follow. More importantly, I need to make her storyline unique enough that her problems and Sweetie Belle's aren't completely redundant.
That's gonna require some planning, and since I almost don't have anything else planned, it essentially means that...
4. I need to figure out where this story is gonna go.
The time for crossing my fingers and aimlessly writing in a random direction is over. I'm spinning a lot of plates right now, and I've only added more and more since I started writing. If I don't figure out my plan, they're all gonna drop and shatter and it's gonna be awful and you guys really don't want to see that happen.
5+. Plus a bunch more reasons!
A. Originally, writing this story was a stress outlet. When I first started writing a month ago, I was in a pretty chaotic moment in my life--I wasn't "depressed" or anything bad like that, but I was very busy, and I needed something to help take my mind off things. Now that I'm no longer super busy anymore, I no longer have that stress, and I've been taking some time off to relax.
B. You guys! I don't want to disappoint anyone, so I'd rather take the time to make sure I get it right.
C. Halloween's coming up, and I'm definitely gonna be pretty busy with social obligations in the days leading up to it. I do have a life outside of Fimfic after all! 
D. Civ Beyond Earth just came out. 'Nuff said.
So yeah. There ya go. Hopefully by Chapter 5 I'll have figured out all my crap and come up with a decent plan for the future, along with another chapter ready for all of you fine folk to read. I'll try to keep everyone up-to-date on my progress!
Sorry about the delay! It's been a ridiculous amount of fun so far writing and hearing back from everyone. Thanks for being such dedicated readers! Your support means everything. 
Wait, what??
You've seriously been shooting from the hip all along here?
Man, you manage to make me feel worse and worse about myself every day (I kid, of course; self-deprecation is just my thing).
I mean, your first fic is this amazingly-written compelling character drama that immediately scored its due recognition on FimFic. I, at least, imagined that it had been finely sculpted over months of careful planning, that you had substantive outlines if not chapter drafts prepared well in advance. Instead, I come to find out that you're producing this on a weekly basis with no plan whatsoever? 
I am...beyond impressed. Take a moustache
and a well deserved vacation (from writing, and whatever else is stressing you too). And yes, you're absolutely right, you do have to take things by the horns and make sure you know, generally, where you're steering the story, or pretty soon Sweetie Belle will be a time-traveling alicorn here to save the world from the evil Queen Chrysombra, who is actually the last human alive, and both created the ponies and found a way to split herself in half and become immortal, biding her time until the time came to reclaim her throne for her own. 
Okay, maybe that just happens to me.
cool beans man, take your time. any idea when it will be ready though? your story is pretty much my fav right now
I know the feel man/not-man I've been working on a very story based game and I 'm terrible at holding a story for more than five minutes but one thing holds true. Take your time and hope the final product is awesome.
Lol, don't worry too much about it, Swan Song. The simple fact that you're stopping to assess the fact that you don't know where you're going with this already puts you ahead of a bunch of the people who just drive their story into the ground with meaningless fluff. As long as you don't disappear for three months or somesuch, I'll still be interested when you come back, and I figure most other readers will as well. :P
Have a happy Halloween, colonize well, etc, etc. We'll be here when you get back.
I've been wondering why you hadn't said anything about the next chapter.
'Tis okay, Swanny. Take your time.
We will remain hungrily waiting for updates.
I think this is a well needed break. I could tell that there was very little in way of an outline as you went on with the fic, and I hope that you use this time to spread out the story and make it more coherent and less 'bad-things-happen-to-Sweetie-day'.
I would suggest being very careful about shifting POVs, it can lead to your downfall.
No, this is not what you need to hear right now but some popular stories that had constant PoV shifts completely destroyed the experience for me. (Man of War, for an example.)
On the other hand, it's a good idea to challenge yourself.
If you want help, I am willing to do it. And I think shadow should turn out to be Silver Spoon.