Chapter 7 Complete! · 11:57am Feb 12th, 2018
* Note: Go read the finalized version of episode 7, I changed quite a bit and there are details now that will be relevant to future chapters. Thanks.
Hello all! Been a while since I could write one of these. It feels like I say that every time, but it also feels like this time took longer than every previous time. Hopefully that won't be true of episode 8 (I've already started working on it!).
As for why this episode took so damn long... I wasn't particularly happy with how episode 6 came out. I know, it's surprising, but in hindsight there's a lot I would like to have done differently. And for the questions of, 'why not re-write it', it's because I already did and I don't want to get bogged down by re-writing episodes multiple times. I'm just going to suffer with what I have so that way I can get the story finished.
But it wasn't depression that kept me from moving forward with episode 7. Well, not just depression. See, the reason I was unhappy with episode 6 was because it stuck too close to the anime, and I basically ruined it by adding fight scenes from The Flash. I didn't put enough of my own writing in there for it to feel, well, right. End result, I wanted episode 7, and every future episode, to be more original. More of my ideas, my writing. It's a bit intimidating, to diverge from the anime's path, but I think I can do it. If episode 7 is any indication, I'll feel a lot better doing it.
Coming up with an original plot wasn't easy, especially because there were aspects that I did want to keep. I wanted the episode to be mostly about the 'friend' character (Derpy/Mako) and I wanted to keep the fight between the friend and main protagonist, which in turn required that the friend joined a club. But that was it. I had to come up with all the motivations, all the twists and turns that would allow those things to happen and still feel in-character. I think I succeeded.
The biggest surprise was how hard it was to write Derpy, because I didn't know her at all. I had somehow completely flubbed it characterizing her. So I went out, found a bunch of lists of 'characterization questions', and answered them all for Derpy. By the time I was done, I knew what I wanted episode 7 to be. I'd been planning for a while to reveal that she was adopted, but I'd never considered why, or how it could be relevant to the story, but now it has been, and I'm pleased.
For now.
The other big thing this episode, which you can find out more about by reading the finalized version, is that I did a bit of retcon-ing in regards to the antagonists. Nothing too bad, but I tried to add more sympathy for them by showing that they're not entirely at fault for their... extreme behavior. How well that worked out is up to you folks.
One final note: this is the longest episode since episode 4, which was my previous most-different-from-the-original. It makes me think that a good indicator that I'm writing it correctly is a higher word-count. We'll see, episode 8 feels a little skimpy at the moment. But then, I've only got the first section done.
