Little Consequences is now the longest entry in the Little Flashes series. · 4:03am Sep 9th, 2018
I am, quite simply, stunned by this. Going in, I was expecting Little Consequences to be the shortest entry in the whole series, but it is already longer than Choices, and still has over ten chapters before it is done. Details on why I think this is are below the break.
Spoilers for those of you who have not reached Little Consequences or Little Choices yet.
I think it could be summarized in two basic points, really.
- The Wind Whisper / Thorax Subplot.
- I got better at writing.
The subplot with Wind and Thorax has been an absolute joy to incorporate into the narrative, and I think it is hands down the best part of the entire story without fail. Between the emotional tension, moments of adorableness, and just the fact that it is two characters that I really wanted to make sure felt fleshed out, they wound up eating up a lot more words than I had been expecting. Not to mention I got Fluttershy involved in there as somepony to empathize with both of them and their unusual relationship.
Plus, Pharynx got involved. I had not originally planned for him to be quite so prominent in the story. In fact, the role Stinger is currently filling was originally meant to be the role Pharynx was filling. But it just didn't feel right to shove him aside like that, especially given the hints of care and brotherly love I showed off back in Choices. So Pharynx got re-assigned to a sort of anti-hero support protagonist, only in it for the sake of his brother. Really, if Thorax weren't a factor, Pharynx would still be an enemy to the ponies.
Now, for that second point, I brought up that I seem to be getting better at writing, and, well... I don't want to come off as bragging, but I do think I have made some very significant improvements since Little Glimpses. For one thing, towards the end of Choices, I actively made full-blown editing passes to touch things up, add details where they were lacking, and flesh out character interactions. This wound up bumping my average word count from the low 2,000 range to anywhere between 2,500 and 4,500. I've also gotten better at pacing myself and not rushing the narrative, giving characters time to really develop and grow.
I've also just been writing words really consistently for, like, over a year at this point. Whenever I started on The Bug in The Herd, I more or less have not stopped writing since then. There is a very clear and notable increase in the quality of my writing since then, I like to think.
It's just kind of interesting to think about, is all. I had been expecting - planning, even - for Little Consequences to be the shortest story in the series so far. And really, at first, I didn't have much reason to believe it would be so lengthy. The characters are stuck in one place for the vast majority of the story's length, only going anywhere else in the last chunk, and the order of events could be seen simply being: "Learn about the Empire, learn about Sombra, prepare for Chrysalis and Sombra, deal accordingly."
But eh. I dunno. Just something I find fascinating to think about. What do you think?
I think Consequences is easily the best in the series. Your writing has definitely improved since then, and the whole time, it really felt like things were building up until they hit a breaking point. And the climax of this story has been great so far.
4933705
130,684 words, which puts it about 100 words longer than Little Choices. Little Consequences still has another 10 - 15 chapters before it is concluded though, so... Is gonna be a long sucker!