Ruminating on how I can improve your reading pleasure · 4:02am Apr 24th, 2018
Mavis Morel has a question for all y'all...
I really need your input here, so please consider the following down below.
I want this story to do well. There is much story to tell. That being said, I dun goofed.
So let me set up the question for you, and I will listen to all of your comments. I invite you to be as vocal as possible here: big companies that produce movies will use test audiences for their material. Well, I'm not a big company, but you first responders are essentially my test audience.
Question: Does The Amulet of Shades jump the POV around too much and split your attention between too many arcs?
Answer: of course it does. That is my mistake in taking too many of the ideas my 15 yr old and I came up with on December 2016 and trying to cram them all in
Solution: HERE IS MY QUESTION TO YOU ALL: Would this situation be rectified if I took all of the "other" material (the scenes involving Twilight and Spike, the scenes involving Celestia and Luna, and soon AJ and Pinkie) and instead published it as a side story? Stay with me here just a moment. The stuff with Tempest very soon gets into action and crucial flashbacks. The other stuff is more lighthearted filler, but is fun in and of itself. It all happens on the same day, just in Ponyville (and Canterlot) not Manehattan.
Tempest will soon cross paths with all of those characters, and things will get more serious. The feel of the main plot... doesn't match the slice of life feel of the other stuff. So I am thinking of moving the story of Tempest Sabre ahead much more quickly, while allowing all of you to track the slice of life stuff in a separately published story for this "Amuletverse."
Would my doing that improve this story, or ruin it for you? I have been worried all of this time that my story was split in too many locations. I received a review that confirmed that concern.
P.S. Would doing the above be even allowable by the site rules? I am not certain of that either. Needless to say, I am anxious to publish the next installment, BUT I MUST HAVE SOME AUDIENCE FEEDBACK to know what I should really publish next. Please let me know!
let me ruminate on this for a day before I give you a response.
4846329
All of us ruminants have to keep together, ya know? 🐮🐄🐂
4846354
Hehe indeed
As long as all the POVs always appear in a chapter I don't see it as a real problem, but if others prefer splitting I don't think that would make keeping track of things harder.
As long as you have a way to separate PoVs in the chapter, it should be fine. I've usually seen them split into separate chapters, and I've seen stories that change PoVs literally every chapter. It can be done really well. Personally, I'd like to keep it all together in the same story. But, I guess, maybe keep them separate as another chapter if it is that big of a deal. Though, a simple line divider should suffice.
Personally, I find these "other" kinds of arcs to be enjoyable. When I read a story, one of the most important things for me, perhaps even the most important, is being able to bond with the characters in the story. I want to see the relationships between the characters, I want to know what they do in their spare time and why they do it. I want to know what their problems are, why they are angry or suffering, so that I can feel with them and understand them. Because if I don't feel the feelings of these characters, then when the "real" story begins I won't understand just how severe this situation is for these characters as much. But if I do, then when something defining happens whatever the characters are feeling I will feel it too.
And seeing the daily lives of these characters is the perfect way to do that. We get to see their lives in the calm before the storm. We get to see Twilight worrying about Spike's growth. We get to see The Princesses private lives, how they enjoy pranking each other, we get to see how lovely their relationship is when the distrust and hatred that blinded them decades ago is lifted. And when the story gets serious, when Twilight may not be able to worry about Spike the same way because she has scarier things to worry about, and she looks back and remembers the times she could worry about him and how she misses those moments, I can relate with the character. Because when she was worrying about Spike I was there too, and I know how peaceful and tame their lives were then and I can miss those times with her. That is, if the scenario I described above even happens.
To summarize: Personally I would enjoy it if you did NOT seperate these other arcs, as long as you don't derail from the main story TOO much.
Wow, that was long.
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This is wonderful input, (and you are in my head a little bit). I quoted you specifically in my follow-up blog post, and in it described what I will do to handle this and why it needs to be done.
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Thanks. I understand the POV switching and will continue that strategy. However, the Ponyville stuff is really more than a POV switch - at this moment it is unequivocally an unrelated plot!
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Hope you appreciate my decision in the follow-up blog.
4846329
you can still respond - just check my new posted blog.