Actually, I'm Dead - Concluded

I think one of the most satisfying thing as a writer is when you can finally write the words "The End" on a piece. After twenty(!) months of work, Wave Blaster and I were finally able to wrap up what turned into the novel-length story Actually, I'm Dead.

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It's certainly a nice thing to see as a reader, too. When reading stories, personally I try and hold off ratings until the end of the piece unless it's just amazing (Banish! by Chuckfinley) or I know the author's quality and that it won't disappoint (Wedding March by Carabas). It seems a fair number of our readers over there share this sentiment. We're used to seeing the story jump approx 10 likes whenever a chapter is posted, but the conclusion netted us a whopping jump from 477 to (as of 02/12/17) 521! It also garnered 3 more downvotes alas, but still not too bad a ratio. With a unique story view of >5700 as well.

Actually, I'm Dead has been the most popular thing that I've worked on, by a pretty fair margin, with more likes than my own stories plus collaborations combined! And it has a TV Tropes page, how awesome is that?!

The biggest surprise for me was easily the length thing. It started as a potentially one-shot 1,143 word chapter and grew from there. Now I've always been a strong advocate of telling a story in the length it needs to be told and not forcing it into some arbitrary limit. Yes, exercises in conciseness or detail can be valuable as an author, but believe they shouldn't be applied to final stories. Most times, especially with amateur stories like fanfiction ones, more is better I feel. Yet the most unexpected thing was that it wasn't me that was really driving its length. As those that have worked with me before on stories can attest (notably Wargame and An-Twan Star), usually I'm the one adding whole scenes to the narrative and dropping in several hundred word segments here and there.

Yet here, it was all Wave. I had originally been gunning for a much simpler, quicker narrative. When we were first brainstorming, I had pitched a more typical Twixie style story, with just Twilight trying to help Trixie deal with her first corpse-like form as they travel to various places to try and find a solution. Something that could be knocked out in 80-90K words (including the parts we still have for I,Monster) or so all told.

The final narrative obviously turned into something grander. The six part chapter 6 (yes, we couldn't resist the running gag. Chapter 6, six ponies = 6 parts) was where we first started to really delve more into things, showing how each of the main six relates to parts of our Trixie's personality and past.

We decided to follow the events of season 3, but with the added complication of not-quite-dead Trixie along for the ride. We also wanted to explore more long-term consequences of Trixie's actions. That's what I wanted to show with the chapter I wrote on my own, Dead Ends. Unlike the show, there is no easy answer. Trixie is still dead, but at the same time her friends still have their lives to live and be involved in. It's the hash reality that life on the whole will go on, no matter what is happening to you personally.

Writing the fight with Princess Luna was probably the next funnest part. I always loved the idea of her being the more aggressive one, the warrior princess. And this was a perfect excuse to show her being totally bad ass. And referencing Monty Python and Evil Dead.

The next most satisfying parts to work on for me were Equestrian Crime Story and Grave Mistakes. I've been wanting to see more of Lightning Dust since her first appearance in the show and still feel that she's the biggest character in need of followup and possible redemption now that Chrysalis and the changelings have been checked off. So, it felt good to show some consequences to what should have been on obvious major incident on all party's part. That I wasn't called out on the court scene or interpretation of trials and military laws was nice, showed that years of watching Law & Order have paid off.

That Lightning turned into such an integral character to the plot was another pleasant surprise. It was one of those times that some authors will tell you about where a character will run off with the narrative. Her and Spike's interactions started off as a joke that we decided to run with. They're too cute. Discord was also great to write. I still love the old dickish Discord and we tried to reflect that here. He makes no secret about still having a chip on his shoulder for what Twilight did to him last time he was out and about and we had a great time with their dialogue and his various barbs towards her.

Now (spoiler) for those who haven't reached the end, Trixie's story isn't quite over yet. When Wave and I decided to make this a full-fledged story, we plotted out where we want to take it. A recurring idea brought up throughout the first arc (Actually, I'm Dead) was Trixie being outside fate and how that can mess with the course of events. Yet, we've followed the course of season 3 pretty well. The next story, I, Monster will finally take us out into the world. There will be some very interesting trials for our heroes to go through in their quest to rid Trixie of her curse. So far we're 5100 words into it. Just a few more sections to finish filling out and then we can start releasing them.

Hope any of you who've liked Trixie's journey so far will follow us on the next leg, or if you haven't started yet, take the opportunity to catch up.