What do I write next? · 12:03am Dec 18th, 2015
You, yes you, can help me choose!
There's a bit of a predicament, you see: I have three different ideas for novella to novel length stories competing in my mind as front-runners for my next project. I'm probably going to write all three of them eventually... but the question is, in what order?
Idea #1: "Sunrise": The story of Celestia and Luna's rise to leadership by rebelling against an oppressive unicorn kingdom's sinister plans for the future of ponykind. Drama, adventure, probably teen rated.
Idea #2: "Days of the Orange Sky": A story about Sunburst (the original character Sunburst from Seashell and Ghost Lights) and the pivotal incident in her late teens in which she kills a crow and the fallout of difficult choices it leaves her with about who she is. Drama, sad, probably teen rated.
Idea #3: "Fire": A sequel to Seashell, but set before Ghost Lights, in which Twilight and Rainbow Dash encounter and try to work through frustrating intimacy problems as their relationship starts heating up. Drama, romance, possibly sad, mature rated for sex (which will be a first for anything I've written so far).
I have prospective first chapters written for #2 and #3, but still some planning work left to do on both. I haven't begun any actual draft writing on #1 yet, but I have a solid detailed synopsis and all the major character description and planning completed for the entire story, so I'm right at the point of starting.
So what do you guys think? What interests you and what do you want to read the most? Let me know.
I also have another thing to talk / ask about: novel writing systems! I recently discovered the Snowflake method, and it's what I've been using to plan out option #1 above. It's been extremely helpful! This will be a pretty complex story that I very much doubt I could ever do by just "sitting down and writing", but by using the snowflake method, planning out the plot and developing the characters has been made into a surprisingly well-organized and easy process. It's given me a lot of confidence in being able to do the actual writing part quickly and easily. Having a complete plan in place eliminates the fear of having to do cumbersome major revisions of already written chapters because of something I didn't think of, or running into a sudden wall of writer's block and letting the project sit gathering dust for months because I have no idea where I'm going with it.
Some authors don't need this fancy planning stuff, they can just sit down and start writing at page 1 and crank out a great novel. If that's not you (it's certainly not me), and you've been looking for an organized, procedural way to plan out a story before you commit to writing chapters you might just have to scrap later, I recommend looking into the snowflake method. Or maybe you already have another method that you use. If so, I'd like to hear what it is, because snowflake is the first one I've given an extensive trial and gone through the whole process with, and while it seems to work well, who's to say that there aren't even better advantages to other possible methods? I'm very interested to hear about any experiences or recommendations people have.
One vote for #1
Your character Sunburst intrigued me, I'd love to read more about her.
Add my vote (for what it is worth) for options 1 and 2.
As for number 3... Ehhhh... I personally avoid that sort of thing like the plague. No doubt you can craft a good tale about such things, but it most certainly is not my cuppa; it makes me very... uneasy.
I like the sound of #1.
#2, definitely. I very much want to know more about Sunburst, and as much as I like the Twilight/Rainbow relationship you've created, I wouldn't want to see it go to Maturetown.
I'd love to see #1. I'm a total sucker for adventure stories, and I definitely think you can do it justice.
Votes so far:
#1:
3625162 3625354 3625552 3626914
Total: 4
#2:
3625165 3625354 3626582
Total: 3
And no votes for #3. That's not really surprising, I kind of expected a mature rated story to not be a big hit with a lot of my readers, which is fine. I'm sort of with you guys, really, since to be honest it's a little out of my own comfort zone as well. I'll still probably write it, though, since it's a story that's interesting but I can't write at a lower rating, and because I've learned that I won't get any better as a writer if I don't push the edges to expand that comfort zone and try new things.
3627397
Woot
Another vote for #1, I didn't find the crow story all that compelling the first time around to be honest. #3 sounds interesting but I'll stick with one vote.