Plans Moving Forward · 11:03am Oct 28th, 2016
You might all be wondering where the heck is the stuff I said I'd write? Well, progress is slow, but it's coming together.
Honestly, it's been really interesting working on pony related content again, but that's probably because I've been working with my original characters and other such things for a little while, and it's honestly a little daunting to go back to the world of magical talking pastel horses out of the blue like this. I need to ease myself back into this thing, and write something for fun to get back into the swing of things. Mostly because I've put stuff off for too long, and as a result, the gears are a bit rusty... and covered in spiderwebs.
So here's how things are currently standing:
1. Cracks In Our Reflections
"Cracks" is getting a bit of a overhaul in terms of how the story is going to unfold. Nearly a year ago, I set out to write a big story about the mirror portal effectively cracking, eventually leading to the thing shattering in a blaze of glory. In all of that, I was going to explore the concepts of alternate realities and time travel, since the mirror's destruction was basically the first act, leading to something akin to Marvel's recent Secret Wars event.
For those not in the know, Marvel's 2015 event Secret War was effectively a multiversal reset in a sense, but not quite, and it was all thanks to a series of events that lead to alternate versions of Earth colliding, wiping out both realities unless one decided to commit an act of genocide and destroy the opposing earth. It was a big, epic event that caused allegiances to shift, and friendships to be both created, and terminated. It was an epic event that lead to a Planet that was more or less a bunch of different versions of New York being controlled by Doctor Doom, and it was pretty awesome. Obviously, I wasn't going to copy it entirely, but the idea was there to take elements of it, and try to write an epic story involving Twilight and Sunset having to handle the responsibility of trying to prevent reality from collapsing in on itself.
Sadly, the further I got into writing the story, the more I realized that I was basically just writing a series of cute scenes, with dramatic stuff happening, and it just wasn't gelling with me. So I opted to take a bit of a break from writing to clear my head, revise some notes, and approach it from a different angle. That is, until I lost both the USB and the file folder that I kept both my digital and physical sets of notes in, and lost the work I had done on Chapter 5 and onward. I'd lost the later draft of "Dream Routine's" first chapter in there too, but I'll get to that in a minute. As a result of all of the hard work being effectively shredded, and the fact that I was going through the process of looking for a new place, I wasn't in the right headspace to keep going with what I did have, and trying to wing it.
So right now, I'm going to say upfront that Cracks In Our Reflections, in it's current form, is cancelled. I'm going to do something a little less daunting, and I'm going to break Cracks down into, at least, 3, smaller, sequential projects, with the overarching title of the series being "Cracks In Our Reflections." Currently, I have the basic ideas for how this are going to progress figured out, and I've got the three names. They are as follows:
Part 1: Fractured Skies
Part 2: Astral Fall
Part 3: Echoes of Ascension
Expect some details on "Cracks In Our Reflections: Fractured Skies" in the coming days.
Also, yes, this is a reboot, and will be written with the assumption that whatever happened in Season 6 and Legends of Everfree has taken place. Depending on how things progress, I might have things from future seasons/films/specials. Oh, and I'm not counting the comics as canon.
2. Side Stories
If you've been following me at all, you'll know that I wrote a two-shot FlutterSweet fic (which, last I checked, is the only time the two of them have been shipped in a fanfic, although given the lack of updated character tags, it's kind of hard to find anything Sour Sweet related) called "Locked Out Kindness." You'll also know that I started work on a RainbowZap two-shot called "Dream Routine" that was essentially the two of being the representatives for the Wonderbolt and Shadowbolt (I would have explained this, I assure you) reserves for a stunt show. It never got finished, although Zanies had made a cover for it (thanks a million once again dude!) that I never got around to using. But that's besides the point. There were several other plans for two-shots, involving shipping the other members of the Mane 6 with the Shadow 6, but it ended up not panning out due to the loss of "Dream Routine's" notes. (I REALLY wanted to finish "Dream Routine" before I went on to the next one at the time)
Thankfully, I have a plan for this. So along with the rebooting of the incomplete story that is "Cracks In Our Reflections," I'm also announcing the reboot of these side stories, including the one finished one I actually posted! However, unlike before, where I place these side stories in several separate stories, I'm going to be bundling them all under the new banner of "Shards: Cracks In Our Reflections Side-Stories." Unlike before though, I'm not going to strictly be working on one side story at a time, and I'm not going to say WHEN I'm updating this, and it's going to basically be a "when I can think of something" kind of deal. Basically, anything that I feel may interrupt the flow of the main story will be put here. Just know that anything can happen within these stories... well, almost anything.
3. A Paid For One-Off
Of course, I mentioned in my last post that I have to finish work on a paid for one off before I can actually commit to the reboot and such. The long and short of it is that it's a SunLight story, and that's all I think I'm going to say about it. It's not canon to "Cracks," but I might call it a "what if" kind of thing. Maybe. No real details on this one to give other than it may have a slightly lewd vibe. Only slightly, mind you. I'm not a clop writer.
4. Halloween Story
This one is something that I figured I'd do for the holidays, and it's currently the thing I'm trying to finish. I'm going to keep it a surprise outside of mentioning that I'm doing it. It's going to be non-canon also, but it's also going to be fun for me to write, since I get to try writing something spoopy for once. If I like writing it, I may do it as a annual thing or something? I don't know, depends on my mood and my schedule. The working title I have for it is "Morte et Dabo/Memento Mori." UPDATE: I couldn't figure out how to make it work given the deadline, so I'm instead going to work on it bit by bit until it's ready. Sorry, but I take horror writing pretty seriously (since it's one of my two favorite genres), and I want to do this thing justice.
5. ?????
So, what else could I possibly have up my sleeve? You think I'm going to tell you the secrets when you conspire against Onyx's plans, yes? You thought wrong! Yes! In fact, you probably didn't see the hint I just dropped as to what I could possibly be doing. But you shall not see this coming from a mile away! Yes! This might have been a joke just to see who knows what I'm talking about! You never know what is up Onyx's sleeve! Yes!
Seriously though, I'll have something out for Halloween if all goes well.
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I'm not really giving myself a deadline, I just have other things I'm working on. Like original, non-fanfic stuff that's been in the pipeline for nearly half a decade at this point.
As for Fractured Skies, it's coming along. I've been chipping away at it bit by bit, but I don't wanna force myself to work on it too much. Obviously, if the above sentence says, I have original stuff I'm working on top of all the fan stuff I'm trying to do, and my non-fan fiction stuff takes priority in a creative sense, for what I hope are obvious reasons (like potential financial gain because money lol). Basically, Fractured Skies is something that will be a while, and I'll probably just release it all at once when it's done, to save myself the stress. Especially so because my original project is actually starting to flow into a more complete looking shape of pre-production.