Running out of time…but progress made...AGAIN

First, an apology

My hope was to have Act 3 of Mission to the Pony Planet (and the story as a whole) complete before the mid season hiatus was over. Which, for any of you who haven’t heard, is August 3^rd.

I’m sorry to say I won’t be done in time.

It's still happening

But I have made progress. That’s actually why I’m writing this blog now. I’ve hit some milestones with the story.

First of all, I have a complete, revised, outline for what will happen for the remainder of the story. That was a big one due to issues I mentioned in my previous blog post.

Another milestone is that, if you add up the 76,665 words already published with my draft for the first 4 chapters of act 3, there are now 100,361 words! I never thought this story was going to get that big. It was supposed to be a lot shorter. But then again, this is the first thing I’ve ever written. I guess I got a little more wordy than intended.

And, a more important milestone plot wise, all six of the PONY mane6 (and Spike) are now among the cast! Though none of them know what’s going on yet. Which is a big problem for everything that’s happening in Canterlot.

Progress Update

I am 4 chapters into what I suspect will take 14 chapters to finish the story. This will bring the whole thing to a grand total of 40 chapters.

Considering how long it’s taken me to get here, I’m thinking about dropping a side plot to speed things along, but I won’t be getting this finished before August 3^rd either way.

I’m still working on it though.

Thankfully, what I suspect will be the longest (and possibly most complex) chapters are now complete, so the remaining chapters should(?) take less time to write.

I’m thinking I’ll be done in September and I’ll start publishing 3+ chapters a week to get it finished before … the series is finished.

If it ends up taking too long, I can split it into 2 parts and publish the first half while I work on the 2nd.

Why I’m late

So … what took so long?

Remember how I timed Act 2 so that I’d get it all published before the “Spring Breakdown” special, which was Hasbro/DHX’s take on the basic concept?

Well, after watching that, I was so disappoted with it, I just about lost all interest in MttPP. I just didn’t want to work on it anymore.

I was already planning to do something else for a week or so, but when that was over I just looked at a blank document and said “Nope,” then came back and did that multiple times every week. I managed to hash out a general outline for Act 3 by early May or so, but I never actually started working on the story until just before July.

But now I finalized that outline (with some wiggle room if I decide to drop that side-plot), and I’m finally getting through it.

The Polls

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I put up 2 polls to help me decide how to proceed with Act 3. Thank you to everyone who voted and I’m happy to say the numbers ended up similar to how I was hoping they would.

I’m not going to reveal those numbers now as they would be spoiler-ish, but I will with the final chapter for those who are curious.

Thank you

For anyone who’s still interested in MttPP, thank you for sticking with me, and I hope you like the conclusion (once I finish writing it).