Random Ramblings CXCII

IN WHICH I LAY STUFF OUT
Yes, I'm very aware it's only been five or so hours since my last blogpost. That post was me bragging that I still know how to grill meat and that I am in fact making progress on stories for y'all, albeit slowly.

Basically, I found this video today (yesterday?), which I encourage you to watch, that sort of describes my recurring conundrum. While the narrator is talking about video game development, similar issues can happen when one is writing a long narrative. Mid-development hell is what kept me from finishing my massive Pinkamena story three years ago and a big Trigun fanfic nearly a decade before that, and still keeps me from utilizing my copyrightable characters (created between 1997 and 2008) in more than short stories and comics even though I long ago envisioned an entire world for them to inhabit. It's taken me many years and many failures to learn to ask for help when I need it. I feel grateful to have found myself in this excellent writing community, being able to discuss things with far better writers than I, and apparently (much to my shock) inspiring people in return.

But that's not why I'm writing this blogpost. I'm writing it because I learned that the Equestria Girls mini-specials recently aired in Poland and screenshots and GIFs are appearing on DB. This is a fandom that cares a LOT about canon and keeping up with canon. Well, about that... Please follow me below the jump, because there is something I must explain. Yes, it DOES have to do with the stories I'm working on.

Okay. If THE GUIDE didn't make it clear enough, I want to lay it all on the line — The entirety of the Recovery Arc up through "Reconciliations" takes place between EQG1 & Rainbow Rocks; every Recovery story set after "Reconciliations" takes place post-Rainbow Rocks. All entries in the Burritoverse also take place after Rainbow Rocks. At no point will Friendship Games, Legend Of Everfree, or the New Shorts ever factor into my EQG work (no matter how much I enjoy them).

I already planned Sunny's return to Equestria nearly two years ago, and no canon will stand in my way. (yes I'll watch the EQG Shorts eventually, because I will never turn down the opportunity to watch more Sunnybuns)

The stories that I'm planning after I finish "The Rejected", "Recovery", and "Sunset and Sonata Share A Burrito"… will be part of a new arc, the Redemption Arc. The Redemption stories will be labelled AU because they explicitly diverge from all canon following Rainbow Rocks (also they incorporate some IDW stuff, which pisses off the purists). In other words, in my world, Friendship Games never happens, nor does anything after it. This divergence is vital for the plots of my stories to work. I will repeat this message once I start publishing Blooming Friendship.

Another note, Blooming Friendship will NOT be a sequel to the Recovery Arc because the timeline simply doesn't allow it — it takes place at the exact same time: that is, after EQG1 and abutting either end of RR (this works because I rewrote Anon-A-Miss to remove Twilight's part completely, making that story the bridge between the two movies it was originally intended to be). Thus, even though Redemption shares nearly all of the same headcanon as Recovery - minus Sunny's mental breakdowns - it will in fact be a separate continuity.

Confused? Me too. Look forward to it! Peace out!