Thinking of ways to jumpstart my drive and thus continue the story! · 4:02am Feb 1st, 2015
Howdy howdy! Well then, it's been two months since the last "If you ain't..." chapter came out... and that's two too many! I wanted to have finished this story by now, and I ACTUALLY have free time for once (if the weekly mini-story and the massive rewrite is any indication) soooo... what gives???
Well, what gives is that I put it on halt back in November so I could focus on my final exams. Good move on my part because they were crazy. Once they were done though, and winter break kicked in, I found it hard to actually pick up the story again. I had the next chapter half-way done... but I wasn't satisfied so I wrote it again. I grew to like the new version... but one character was being too talk-y for my liking so I scraped fifty pages and tried again.
Soooo in doing that I scrapped two hundred pages...
I decided to take a short break then, instead focusing on fixing up the early chapters which I felt were very weak now. I rewrote them up to, like, four before losing interest again...
Eventually I got frustrated and decided to shelf the story for a little bit and work on the rewrite of A Cog in the Machine and my weekly updates for The Poisoned Barb. Unlike what happened when I did the same thing to ACitM, which resulted in it's now nearly two year hiatus, I'm actually still writing as opposed to simply circling the depression drain. That's nice at all, but not pushing "If you ain't..." any closer to that finish line!
I ain't gonna force a rushed ending; the fic, despite its flaws, DOESN'T deserve such a thing! I still love the hell out of it, warts and all! I guess what I'm say is is that I need a little... push!
Yeah; I need to get inspired again so that I can write that envisioned ending I've let stew in my brain for the past five months!
So here's what I've been thinking; what if I shared with you all what I currently have for the next chapter? I've gotten to the point where I LOVE the twenty five or so pages I currently have, to the point that I KNOW they're going to be there in the final version, so sharing this first half would not only satisfy the people who are CRAVING the new chapters, but also allow me to start a dialogue with you all that would help me in the shaping of the second half! I KNOW what I want to do with it, just like I know what I want to do for the final chapters, but some feedback would really help me out!
So, what do you say? Anyone feel like helping me out with this in a few weeks? (This weekend I do the Polar Bear Plunge to help support the special Olympics, and the week after that is midterms.) Give me a shout out either now or in the next blog post and I'll send you the link when the time is right!
Have a good rest of your weekends now!
-Derply (ManlyDerp)
Last second check before calling it a night and look who posts a blog...
Need sleep... sleep now, read later.
2761041
Nothing important. Sleep now. Summary; would you like to read half of "If you ain't..." chapter 16? If yes, stay tuned. If no, okey dokey Loki. *Goes on to serene you to sleep with the song of his/her people*
Yeah. I'll help out when help's wanted.
2761073
Neato! I'll contact you later when I do this thing then! Mostly it's just two ponies currently giving me problems; Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. With Fluttershy it's just tightening up the rant Mac gives her. Her reaction to it is set but not the rant itself. I feel like I was grasping at straws at points; mostly it's about Bats!! and her shy tendencies, which he compares with himself... Idk, you'll see eventually.
And Rainbow Dash... well, she has a few things to say to Mac. A LOT of things, actually. We have her uncharacteristically being quiet throughout most of the chapter up until they reach Sweet Apple Acres and she can be face to face with Big Mac in somewhat privacy... I'm trying to write something for her that lives up to this supposed built up fury, while also highlighting the good of her ingrained character. It's... tricky, to say the least
2761115
Yeah... well from someone who's pretty shy, criticizing another shy person could come pretty naturally... and be pretty brutal. I would think that another thing that could set Mac off would be Putting Your Hoof Down.
On one hand, I wanna see the next chapter... On the other, I am more a "grammatical" editor (fixing punctuation, spelling, etc), not "idea editor.
Oooh, I am so conflicted!
2761061 Nope, can't listen to that song ever since I stumbled across that 'patticakes' fic.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.....
2761282
*Slow reply is slow* I think I'd feel this "grasping at straws" feeling again if Mac attacked her for that though, seeing as how I had a resolution for that in the prior chapter. Obviously he wouldn't KNOW that this had happened, and I could easily write it in that he saw "Bitchshy" in all her glory that day but, well, maybe you'll see when I share the current chapter in a couple weeks. The current rant covers a lot of this in the "You're shy like me. Don't become like me..." part of it.
Here's something else that I'd like to think about though; there is a part where Mac calls her out on her, and I quote, "bias animal favoring tendencies." Obviously he has no right to complain, and he admits that. "Saved us from those beavers... Discord... Cerberus... and it's your special talent; the thing that makes you happy..." His argument is just that she spends too much time being by herself with them, and not enough time being around ponies, and that its stunted her personal growth... this leads into the Bats!! section of the rant.
Yeah... and it's at this point that I make the horrible realization that I might be thinking just a teeny tiny bit too much about colorful mini-equines myself then what is considered normal. A bit of calling the kettle black, it would seem
2761718
You could join in with the discussion though, and help out with the shaping of it! The sooner I can get back on my grove, the sooner I can finish the chapter, the sooner I can post it and work on the finale while readers curse my name on high for the final cliffhanger... everyone wins!
2769600
Hah! Logic laughs in the face of spending too much time doing what you love.
And, well: do you work with others? Do you go to school with others? Do you have a hobby that takes you out among others (we're talking now, even if we're not doing it in person, and it's with others who automatically share interests, since this is a hobby/interest site)? Fluttershy had none of those, the only interactions she got was when she was running errands, at least until she became close friends with the Mane 6, which puts her in regular meeting with others.
I... had a pretty complete idea about Rainbow Dash, actually. It would be a pretty solid spoiler if you took the idea, so tags are a thing:
The conversation starts as expected, with Rainbow Dash upset that he went behind her back and ruined her reputation among the adults of the community, and among the kids that idolized her.
Then, at the end, she gets to the real part which is... she is livid at the idea that she is considered so untrustworthy that it was simply assumed that she could not be reasoned with and he went straight to going behind her back to solve this problem. She cares about those kids! She cares about their safety and if she knew what the effect was she would listen. That was the whole point of Mare-Do-Well! That Dash should listen to the criticisms of other people.
It could also relate back to what problems Mac's problem with not seriously addressing problems generates: Instead of himself and everyone around him growing from their mistakes, trying to stop everyone from being hurt either puts them in stasis or it gets blown out of proportion and everyone gets hurt and nothing gets solved, and it's insulting to boot! It was treating Dash like a child, who simply couldn't understand basic moral code. One of Dash's central conflicts is between doing the right thing and treating her friends well and her recklessness and impulsiveness, but that isn't an excuse to not even try to get through to her.
2769656
And then here's the funny part; that's EXACTLY how Dash's conversation goes down... it's also the reason I've deleted about two hundred pages off this chapter alone DX She's decided that she's angry; she's come to the realization that she has EVERY right to be pissed. She dropped Gilda and Lightning, two friends, for less; she's the Element of Loyalty but that means SQUAT in the "real" world. She wants Big Mac to understand all this; wants him to not only understand his mistake but GROW from it, just like she would have IF HE HAD GIVEN HER THE @#$%ING CHANCE!
I won't spoil the ultimate resolution to that though; what Dash's plan will be (it involves Cheerilee, as hinted at earlier). I will highlight the one hurtle I have though; this ultimate resolution? That Mac's quiet ways haven't been helping ponies, only hurting? It'll be addressed... but in Applejack's rant, not Rainbow's. And there in lies the problem I've been having; I want to write Rainbow's part with all the care and maturity it warrants. Out of all the characters, she's the one that got screwed over the most. She DESERVES her own rant. It just has to end in such a way that Big Mac, still dazed and depressed, is on the very EDGE of having the epiphany but still can't quite grasp it. It needs to take Applejack, having finally settled on being selfish by taking him aside and forcing the chat, for him to realize.
... Which ultimately ends... well... I won't spoil that part just yet. Having this discussion has been very helpful so far! Thanks!
Hmmm... so it sounds like you're trying to do a series of closures and are trying to keep my jumping straight to the conclusion. Something thematically appropriate would be to have each one of the Element Bearers tell him something that, when synthesized, helps him become a better person. However that would likely add even more work to this and delay your release even further. Instead focusing on a piece from the Elements he needs most might help. He was trying to accomplish something specific but it has all blown up on him because he went about it the wrong way. Either way this piece has been surprisingly controversial. Frankly I blame Fridge Horror (as TV tropes would put it) for the backlash but I've long admired the sheer suspense you build between chapters.