Poll on what I should focus on · 3:56pm Sep 19th, 2020
Hey, so I've got this story idea but I'm unsure if I should write it. Lemme know what y'all think.
So the idea is called Guiding Light, and it's a sequel to Looking Glass. It's set between LG and Rainbow Rocks, and is about Sunset's first lessons in friendship. It'd be seven chapters, with chapter one and seven being bookends about Sunset by herself and one chapter for each of her new friends and the lessons they teach her in between. By the end of the story, she'd be the person she is in Rainbow Rocks; a good person just waiting for the chance to prove herself to everyone.
Now, the downside of writing this is two-fold. For one, it's kind of pointless? We can mentally fill in that gap ourselves, we don't exactly need a fic for it. It wouldn't really add anything to WWB that we don't get elsewhere. This series is already very long, and I'm unsure if I should really be making it longer on something arguably pointless.
The other reason to not write it is that it's time I could be moving the series forward. I've spent years going back and filling things in and I'm finally making forward progress in the series, maybe I should just focus on that. Remember that this isn't "this story or nothing" it's "I'll have to put my other fics on hold to write this one, so it'll take longer to get more stories about what Sunset and the others are up to later". I'll get back to them sure, and one way or another there should be regular content from me, but writing anything else is going to be a pause on writing later fics, of course. It'd be like if you were awaiting season four of a TV show, and instead of putting that out they put out a few episodes that take place between S1 and S2. Maybe it's cool, but you might prefer to just get on with S4 like you were waiting for.
So I'm unsure what to do and would like your feedback. Let me know in the comments what you think I should do. And while "Do whatever you like" is a nice sentiment, it's not exactly helpful 
I don't rightly know what I want to do or else I'd just do it, so I'm asking to see this whole thing from other perspectives.
Hmm. I feel you've already done a fantastic job of making Sunset's redemption actually work in Looking Glass. I'm sure you could do some really good stuff with the time between that and Rainbow Rocks, but honestly I'm already... satisfied, I suppose is the word even if it makes me sound kind of entitled... with that aspect of Sunset's story in WWB. It's like you say, between the moment of redemption in Looking Glass and her behavior in Playing House, the blanks kind of fill themselves.
So I'm leaning towards focusing on the excellent stuff you're doing with the future for now, and maybe returning to Guiding Light later if you feel like it.
5358696
Yeah that maybe for the best. Typing out this blog post helped me see that Guiding Light just... isn't needed. I dunno, I'm still kinda interested in telling that story, but maybe it's best to just push ahead instead
I agree with your thoughts that while it'd be a nice piece of filler, it's not really needed. We already see Sunset start to take the first steps at the end of Looking Glass, and I didn't feel I missed anything with the time jump in Playing House
I'm of the opinion that you should write what is working for you. If you really want to write this and are feeling burnt out on something else then by all means, write it! If you could go either way I don't really mind either. I'm kind of used to series floating around in their timelines though.
5358700
Yeah, very fair. Thanks for the feedback, I think you're right that it would essentially just be filler (no matter how enjoyable the filler is) which I'm not really setting out to make. I'll probably wind up leaving this one alone
5358701
True, I could keep this as a backup story and work on it if I'm feeling burnt out on other stuff. That might be what I end up doing, actually.
5359889
Well I mean... I've kinda done that already
Looking Glass spends a rather sizable amount of time showing exactly what happened to Sunset when she was hit with the elements, which goes back into why this story might be pointless. Readers of Looking Glass saw what happened to her, and they can then fill in why things led to Rainbow Rocks.
To that end and keeping in mind the rest of your comment, this story just doesn't really seem to have any surprises in it. The more I think of it, the less I think it's really a good idea to write this story. Even though it wasn't strictly your intention, your comment helped me see that more clearly, so thank you for leaving such a long and in-depth comment on this
Imo move the series forward. I think looking glass did a solid job setting up sunset becoming better and going on depth on the in between is not needed. It also strikes me as less enjoyable to read since it's already fairly obvious how she changed.
5360187
Yeah, fair. So far only two people have been in favor of this story lol (both on Discord, no one in Fimfiction was really that for it), so it seems that interest is pretty low in it