23/12/2020 - Advancing as a Storyteller · 10:40am Dec 23rd, 2020
Moondust version 4? Maybe, but not right now. Some things just need to be left on the shelf until later.
So Moondust is going... slowly. More than a steady tortoise it's travelling like a desiccated corpse trying to claw its way up a flight of stairs. Turns out rewriting stuff isn't all fun and games when you lack discipline as much as I do. There's an incredibly uplifting feeling that comes with seeing the pieces fall into place and seeing the work you've put into a project like this finally start to feel like something you can be proud of, but working against that seems to be this massive weight trying to drag me back down the staircase to wallow in the planning stage for another month or two. Planning is far more fun than the actual writing, which is a bit of an issue when I have multiple stories to link together, encouraging me to connect everything together while making sure things like character and political developments stay consistent and plothole-free throughout.
There's definitely such a thing as too much planning. I learned that after spending however many years of my time in the fandom simply writing down cool ideas for characters and events, almost none of which has made it to the pages to this day. I'm a lot better in that regard now, but I can't help but mourn all that lost time I could have spent advancing my actual writing and storytelling skills...
But regardless, I don't want to ramble. What's done is done, no matter whether I can accept it or not.
Peace turned out pretty cool, I think. For those wondering, she is, in fact, a crossover character. One of many who will be appearing throughout the Triad Verse. For now her origins aren't relevant, which is why the story isn't tagged as a crossover; I see her as merely another character in the cast, rather than an exception or an infiltrator. Nightmare Moon's other two subordinates are a lot more blatant, so it's probably for the best that their proper introductions will be left until a later story.
I like Peace a lot for a variety of reasons, but for this blog post I'd like to focus on her narrative. Originally, I added Moondancer purely to give Twilight someone to talk to, but she ended up being a big part of Moondust's emotional plotline. Likewise, I originally thought of introducing Peace in Moondust purely to give Twilight someone to face off against. The idea just felt too cool to ignore, but her role has evolved well beyond that. Just like Moondancer, Peace has found a place on the emotional side of the plot, seeking vengeance for what happened to her master during the Unscheduled Night, serving as the biggest slap in the face to Twilight's initial denial that anything was wrong, and a test to make up for her previous actions in the old castle.
So even this dull-faced, uncreative and rather violent character can play an important emotional role. That fact intrigued me when I first realised it. Skip forward to the present day and Peace now serves as something of a throughline between multiple stories. She's almost a lynchpin, tying everything together.
Alongside Moondust I'm currently doing a couple of tests for other stories, one of which is Paint the Town Red, the other is a prequel to Moondust set in the midst of the riots, called Black Mountain. Various events alluded to in Moondust will take place here, including showing us what Peace was up to while her master was absent. Black Mountain will focus on Vinyl Scratch and take place in the Rabbles, the lowest and most populous section of Canterlot. In terms of length it'll be a bit longer than Moondust, but hopefully not too much longer. Advancing as a storyteller is great and all, but I'd really rather not be trapped on a story for two years again.
Yeah. I can understand the frustrations. That's one of the frustrations of the creative mind; some just keep getting new ideas and having to rewrite what they already had when they get stymied.
I'm not going to force the issue though and just wish you the best of luck one way or the other.
And Happy Holidays.
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Happy Holidays to you as well!
And no worries, I appreciate the encouragement!