On the Implications of a Broken Outline · 6:12am Mar 10th, 2021
So I've been doing a lot of rereading lately. On the Implications of Parallel Worlds, The Boy who Disappeared, even The Gate. Just today, I reread the outline I wrote for OtIoPW... and realized that there were several great plot points noted inside of it that were skipped by the fact that I didn't use the outline. Had I used that outline, and stuck to it, I'd be publishing chapter sixty or seventy today (well, yesterday now, since it's just past midnight), rather than struggling to write number fifty four. And unfortunately, those events go as far back as the way the Papa Tango works... and, of course, the canon midnight duel that never happened, but that I had planned for. And a much slower, better thought out developmental sequence for Silver- much less of a lightswitch, more of gradual self-discovery (as present in The Gate; notably, though, I do like the OtIoPW scene in which she got her name).
And as you can guess, that's too far back for me to edit it in and just "fix" it- I'd have to rewrite a good thirty or forty chapters, essentially from scratch... including Silver's formative sequence once again. I would, however, be able to retcon the trash chapter that was the sorting of Silversong and replace it with something a little less contrived.
Naturally, the problem with this is that it wouldn't be a significant enough rewrite to qualify for a new story posting, so it'd have to be in-place... but thirty or forty chapters is far too much for an in-place rewrite. Well, except for The Equestrian Starliner, before I cancelled it- it retconned not once but twice, and was cancelled during a rewrite that would have thrown out & replaced around three quarters of the published chapters, or more.
There is another option too, I suppose: Rewrite in place, but copy all the replaced chapters- in original form- to my 'Side Stories of Crazy' "story" and link appropriately, since it's a lot of quality material that I don't want to simply throw away.
Thoughts?
Rewrite with exclusion of existing content to side story sounds the best.
I was wondering what happened to this story, it's too good to disappear : )
5471820
I have to agree with you on this.
5471839
Indeed
5471820
I still not sure how this one is going to look like. But if it is less hassle than other options and prevent existing good stuffs being thrown away, then I would say go for it.
5471871
Agreed