As one chapter ends, another begins.

The Diamond Dog's Guide to Engineering is complete, and with it a heap of info from readers about what can be done better. Yes, the story felt a bit rushed, but it was largely an experiment to see if I could write out an entire story line with no previous planning, whilst attempting to maintain a fairly rigorous schedule. As it stands, I only overshot my own schedule by about a week, which was mainly due to the final chapter rewrites. So at least one goal was accomplished.

Other than that, I received loads of feedback from the readers about the storyline itself. Not a whole lot of actual engineering was seen, and what was used was merely basic principles. The reasoning being that higher-level concepts weren't really needed this early in a civilization. How would you explain the concepts of electricity or mechanical actions to a culture that had only just barely began to use tools? You must start with the basics. I'm sure once Aaron started his teaching era, concepts of mechanical advantage were discussed and demonstrated, but such learning may be beyond the grasp of the pack's older population. Sure you could teach them to use a lever or a pulley system, but to teach them why they needed mechanical advantage? Only a few of the dogs at this point were capable of looking for the how and why instead of just following orders.

Eventually, the pack could learn to question things on an individual basis, but only after several generations had passed. This is kind of why the story took the sudden turn it did(that and the deadline). At that point, the pack was already an established isolationist nation. The only thing I'd have left to do was spend additional time delving into the minutia of developing the forge again, or describing the experiments of gem growth in greater detail(an incredibly drawn-out process), all without many exciting events with which I could use to break up the monotony.

So, the end might feel a bit rushed, but what it does allow me to do is work on connecting it to a new storyline. One where I can explore the magic without having go over each individual discovery over the centuries of an entire civilization. I've already done that type of thing once with Starswirl's magic, no need to reiterate such a long, drawn-out process when the pack wouldn't have had much else to do to keep things interesting.

As for the new story, I'm still hashing out the details. It's definitely going to have a longer planning phase than tDDGtE did(which isn't really saying much, as it had, at best, a couple of day's worth). And if you've been paying attention to the Observations Universe, then I think this next project will be one heck of a ride.

Until next time,
Tolerance