Paul's Thursday Reviews CCLX · 8:20pm Aug 5th, 2021
I had an epiphany yesterday, and so I’m back to talking about Bulletproof Heart. This time I’m looking for opinions!
So. BPH 2. A Shot to Remember. I’ve written the vast majority of it and only have one story arc left to cover. I’ve already come to the conclusion that the MLP version is going to be significantly different from the original fiction version, but this new idea makes them into wholly different animals. One of the longstanding ideas behind it was to make each chapter a sort of stand-alone piece. While each chapter would affect those that come after, they’d generally be their own story.
My ideas for how this would work have changed drastically over the years, not least because I’ve come to recognize some big differences in what I want to do and what's already been done. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll probably have to do some big rewrites in the original fiction version in order to make the new direction work. But in the meantime, I’ve still got all the original material, and I don’t know if I want to go through all the trouble necessary to make it “make sense” as a single piece. The story’s “changed directions” in the late game, and I worry the MLP version is going to suffer for it.
Then came the epiphany: what if I didn’t release it as a single piece? No single story arc is less than 10k words, most extending to the 20-30k range. There’s no reason not to release them as individual stories in a long running series. Have I not already done the hardest part? Can I not get pre-readers to look at the individual story arcs instead and make them as good as they can be, rather than frustrate myself trying to make them all play together as a single giant entity?
This could solve so many problems. I can make each story better and not worry about whether that’s having a negative effect on the big piece. I can finally show my work. Plus if I ever get a hankering to expand upon Rarity’s adventures again later, I’ll have the precedent necessary to justify it.
But there are still big question marks. I’d have to get cover art for each of the stories. Right now I’m thinking about having a single image commissioned that can be repurposed/retitled for each new story. Perhaps something minimalist. I still will have to go back and make some changes in order to make each story arc work on its own. And for all I know you folks might want a single giant story. Plus anything else I haven’t thought of. I’m sure there’s something.
So. Opinions. Let me know what you folks think.
In the meantime, let’s get some reviews going.
Stories for This Week:
Spark Visions of Twilight by Tangerine Blast
Love Is Patient by Bico
Sprinkles! by FictionFreek
Caper by AugieDog
Besides the Will of Evil by Jetfire2012
Wingover by LuminoZero
Pinkie's Pizza-Hut Propensity by RhetCon
Total Word Count: 299,458
Rating System
Why Haven't You Read These Yet?: 0
Pretty Good: 3
Worth It: 4
Needs Work: 0
None: 0
Spark Visions of Twilight
46,050 Words
By Tangerine Blast
Rainbow Dash is convinced she’s met “Princess” Twilight Sparkle before. Now that the alicorn has escaped, Rainbow just can’t stop thinking about an event from her foalhood. A race incompleted, a frightened purple alicorn… and then the coming of Nightmare Moon. Because of her, perhaps? Faced with such a conundrum, she shares her worries with her two best friends: Pinkie Pie and Rarity.
In this story we follow Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rarity as they set out to fix the Nightmare Timeline. Roughly half the story involves getting the well-known players together, letting us explore what happened to them after Nightmare’s return. Some of these things are clear, like Twilight going into hiding with Cadance or Applejack leading a branch of the “secret” rebellion while pretending to be a loyal citizen of the Nightmare.
Others are not so straightforward. For example, we really have no idea what’s going on with Fluttershy. We know that she’s constantly under threat to keep Rainbow under the Nightmare’s hoof, but beyond that? Nothing. No clue where she’s been, what’s she’s been doing, or even what she thinks about the whole situation. Kind of a shame, really.
I like Tangerine Blast’s approach to this one. It is at once familiar and new. New in that it does a great job reimagining the roles of our favorite characters. Familiar in that the conclusion is exactly what we’re all expecting. New again in that while the exact end is entirely expected, the way it comes about it also very different. I especially like how the “trials” the Mane 6 had to go through for their respective Elements were so very different and with much higher stakes for most of them. Even Pinkie’s, which can seem as little more than a moment of silliness on the surface, is a great opportunity for her to recover from her tragic losses and be the Party Pony we all know and love.
I am impressed that the author managed to keep this so effective despite taking two-and-a-half years to finish it. Lots of times when that happens I see all sorts of issues with the plot, but Tangerine Blast avoids most of those pitfalls. Well done, there.
I think my only issue with the story is that it feels like it could have been bigger. There’s so much more for us to learn about these characters and this world. Pinkie’s sisters are outright legends in this AU, yet they never make an appearance, even at the end when you’d think reuniting the sisters could have been a great thing to help Pinkie’s recovery. What about the full story of Rarity’s family? Or Twilight’s? Cadence’s role is practically a cameo, and then she just disappears? There’s so much going on in the background and we know almost none of it! I feel like the story fails to match its true potential.
But that’s only one issue and I would argue it’s not a big deal. For what it is, I had fun. It’s a slightly dark adventure that treads familiar ground with higher stakes. If that sounds up your alley, then by all means jump in.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
Love Is Patient
2,811 Words
By Bico
Anthea, daughter of Fluttershy, is seconds away from being married to Turquoise Blitze, son of Rarity and Spike. But Princess Nidra, daughter of Luna, is not about to take this insult lying down.
This story, told from Princess Nidra’s perspective, has said princess cast a curse on all of Ponyville, putting them into eternal slumber just so that Turquoise can’t be “stolen” from her by Anthea. Princess Luna then decides to knock some sense into her daughter which, to my mild surprise, leads to blows between them.
I’ve nothing against the overarching story, but I find it disturbing that Nidra clearly hasn’t learned anything by the end. Oh, yes,she makes amends with Anthea and undoes her whole Sleep Everlasting curse, but not because she’s learned anything whatsoever about love and relationships. No, she simply comes to realize that Turquoise, as a dragon hybrid, will live for centuries and thus all she has to do to win him over is wait until Anthea dies.
That’s horrible. Worse, Luna seems to accept this as okay, as if the whole “you nearly went full Nightmare Moon on an entire town because of unrequited love” thing is no big deal. You would think that of all ponies Luna would know better.
This Nidra is shallow, fakes friendship, and is ripe for becoming the next Great Threat to Equestria. And Luna, perhaps blinded by the fact Nidra is her daughter, seems perfectly willing to let that happen. It’s possible that Bico intended this and plans to explore this issue in the sequel. It’s also possible that none of this is what Bico intended. Until I read further, I shall reserve judgement. Heck, I don’t even think the result is a bad thing in terms of being a story; it certainly makes for some interesting subject matter.
I shall be continuing this one. It has my curiosity.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
Sprinkles!
3,702 Words
By FictionFreek
It’s Pinkie Pie’s birthday, and her daughter Cotton Candy wants to bake her a cake! After all, everything tastes better when it’s made by somepony you love. Problem is, Cotton can’t bake to save her life. After the dozenth or so failure and time running out, she’s about to give up for another year when Applejack’s son Golden Delicious enters Sugarcube Corner.
Anyway, this is a simple, cute story about Goldie teaching Cotton how to bake. It’s nothing more complicated than that, unless you count mild shipping. I saw a number of minor issues with the writing, but nothing too glaring that would detract from my enjoyment. As long as you’re okay with a “nothing happened” slice of life about baking, you should be good.
And yeah, I totally read this because that cover art is adorable. Forgive me my shallowness.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
New Author!
Ocellus barges into Counselor Trixie’s office demanding she be imprisoned and punished for her heinous crimes! The Kind and Reasonable Trixie decides she’d rather hear the full story before meting out punishment.
I am entertained. This story centers on the fact that Ocellus is just too good to be bad, despite her best efforts. After having been convinced by Gallus and Smolder that she’s “dishonoring her heritage” by failing to do anything bad ever, Ocellus decides that she needs to do something villainous in order to go through the process of redemption and be properly inducted as one of the Good Guys. Her attempts to be such a villain are… let’s say “not inspiring”.
Just as endearing as Ocellus’s desperate efforts to do something bad is Trixie’s reactions to the story. I love AugieDog’s depiction of her, facing a constant battle of ego while trying to get Ocellus to get to the point without reminding The Humble and Repentant Trixie of exactly what she is repentant of. Best of all, Trixie’s solution at the end is a great one, simultaneously helping Ocellus while also proving that she’s really good at this whole Counseling thing. I was both impressed and pleased.
Stellar character awareness with an endearing tale of almost-but-not-quite criminality. AugieDog strikes again! It’s always a joy running into another one of their works.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Clover Honey — Pretty Good
Foreigner — Pretty Good
Claw and Ordure — Pretty Good
The Birth of Harmony — Needs Work
Besides the Will of Evil
230,167 Words
By Jetfire2012
Sequel to It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door
Ponies have not always been the dominant society of the world. Once, thousands of years ago, the Deerfolk were the dominant race. They were mighty in magic and body and ruled over all others in a society that spanned the world. Then came the Black Deer, and the Deerfolk fell. Now, after several millennia of imprisonment, He has returned. Equestria may never be the same again.
Once more we return to Jetfire’s Tolkien-themed AU, this time with a deer-variant Sauron come to conquer and literally consume all existence. The story follows the Mane Six as they seek to fully embrace the Elements of Harmony which, according to Celestia, are the only things powerful enough to defeat him. Unlike past events where the girls could just slap on the Elements and fire the Orbital Friendship Cannon, this time they must become full, true embodiments of their respective Elements in order to succeed.
Yet the story isn’t as simple as all that. We’ve got Trixie playing a quasi-Gollum role as she becomes entrapped by the Herd Lord’s mental domination. Falalaria, our Galadriel, must somehow lead her nationless people. The Mane Six must come to terms with their inevitable future as immortals. The Deerfolk’s violent past of racism, bigotry, and enslavement haunts everyone on the side of good. And the more powerful creatures – Celestia and Luna, the High Deer, the leaders of the other races – can’t agree on the best way to move forward.
Basically, there’s a lot going on. Which is good, because we need a lot to hold this 230k behemoth together. The story is themed heavily on LOTR, and that comes out in a lot of the choices, the action, and the dialogue. Although Jetfire knew better than to outright steal lines, they also do nothing whatsoever to disguise their sources. Applejack going out to gather reinforcements and riding in to save the day at the coming of dawn, the Crystal City as the Battle of Minas Tirith, Fluttershy’s Gamgee-esque speech to Pinkie about a world worth fighting for, Trixie struggle to keep straight two minds in her skull, a villain murdering his own brother by a river over a trinket, and so on. Whether or not these similarities are boons or negatives will be up to reader interpretation. I for one thought they were juuuuuuust different enough to be fine.
Another inspiration is merely a suspicion on my part: I couldn’t stop hearing the villain being voiced by Jeremy Irons. A lot of instances reminded me vividly of Scar from The Lion King, from his appearance in the cover art to his final moments trying to shift blame away from himself. Intentional or not, I definitely approved of it.
The story is epic in scope, even if it’s nothing different from anything we’ve seen before. I do enjoy some ambition and this thematic crossover is indeed quite ambitious. But there are a few thing that bugged me. The start is that this is clearly a Fantasy story. I don’t mean in terms of magic and strange creatures and whatnot, but the ultimate fantasy of all: there are no consequences. It was quickly apparent to me that things were going to turn out fine. None of our favorite characters would die or suffer lasting pains. Good would prevail over evil and all we’re seeing is the how and why. As a direct result, I never really got into any of the “dangerous” parts because I knew that, somehow, it would all turn out okay at the end. This isn’t a spoiler; it was plain to me by the manner of the story that this would be the case, to say nothing of the stories prior to this one. Jetfire takes this idea to it furthest extreme though, to the point that literally nothing bad we’ve seen in the entire story really matters.
That disappointed me. I think it’s important that a story be shown as having consequences. For the characters and for the world. But Jetfire just uses his magic keyboard to say “nope, we’re going the full Disney happy-go-lucky Everything is Awesome ending.” In my opinion, it rendered all the supposed lessons, all the sacrifices, all the struggles moot. I suppose the Happy Ending Crusaders will love it to bits, but when I watch such total destruction and evil and conflict and growth, I expect it to mean something.
There’s also the idiot bombs being dropped, particularly by Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh, something terrible that happened thousands of years ago and which has no bearing on current events has just been revealed? I’m angry now. I’m going to abandon everything I know and love and instead go literally bow to one of the few creatures that was alive at the time and actively pursued those terrible exploits because, surely, he’s better than the pony who practically raised me and taught me everything I know!”
“Celestia and Luna lied to me! Clearly, my loyalty to them is a sham. Let me go and visit the villain trying to destroy all existence and ask him for clarification and the truth. There’s no way that decision will bite me in the ass.”
It was worse for Rainbow, though. Here she is, at a big moment where her loyalty and faith is being severely tested, and we’re just gonna have her disappear from the story until it is practically over. And when she does return, we’re going to completely forget about all the issues she was working her head around in favor of whole new ones she’ll get over in about two minutes.
Still, these are all nitpicks. None of them hurt the story too much in my eyes. Well, except the Disney-branded ending, that still annoys. But the struggles were indeed worth the time. Especially poor Pinkie’s.
I feel like I’m rambling at this point, so let’s get to the closing thoughts. Besides the Will of Evil is a story at an epic scale, as befitting its LOTR influences. It’s got a generally interesting if one-sided villain, lots of struggle and character growth, and great worldbuilding. Even so, I had a lot of trouble getting into it, and I think that stems heavily from me already knowing exactly where the story was going. The sheer predictability ruined things for me. That doesn’t make the story bad, but it does mean you’ll have to go into it with a certain mindset. I’m sure plenty of people will adore it for its constant nods to the source material, its grand scope, and the ever-worsening situations.
But in my entirely subjective view, it just doesn’t live up to the hype. It almost felt like Jetfire was trying too hard to capture that sense of glory the LOTR movies were so good at yet failed to realize that movies and literature require different things to get to the same ends. There were some parts I really liked, but generally speaking it just didn’t wow me like the author no doubt intended. Maybe that’s on me rather than them, I couldn’t say.
If you want to try something epic and Tolkien-y without actually rewatching the movies / re-reading the books, this might do it for you.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door — Pretty Good
A Day for Spike and Twilight — Worth It
Wingover
10,317 Words
By LuminoZero
Sequel to In Her Shadow
Prism Bolt, son of Rainbow Dash and Soarin, is one of the best fliers in Ponyville. So when Tornado Day hits town for the first time since he came of age, he’s confident he’ll be on the team delivering water to Cloudsdale. Then he does something stupid – several things – and Rainbow tosses him off the team before training can even begin. Now he needs to figure out what went wrong and, more importantly, how to fix it.
Three Kilala-verse stories in a single blog? I must have been on a kick or something.
This is not so much a ‘sequel’ to the prior story as it is set in the same AU and takes place a few years afterwards. The story depicts Prism Bolt being an egotistical jerk (hmm, sounds familiar) and failing to recognize the important difference between natural skill and achievement through training and hard work.
This is set in the ever-endearing Kilalaverse, which focuses heavily on the children of the Mane 6 and their antics. Unlike the prior story, this one takes the time to give many of the characters across that AU a moment in the spotlight. I’m especially fond of Fluttershy’s adopted daughter Anthea and Rarity’s and Spike’s daughter Claire, so I was glad that they made appearances, even if the latter is little more than a cameo.
I also appreciate the lesson of the story, which is about the difference between hard work and natural talent. I don’t think it’s a subject I’ve ever seen touched upon in FIMFiction, so it was a pleasure to see.
The only caveat for me is that if you’re not already familiar with the Kilala-verse you may get lost by all the names being thrown around. LuminoZero does state who these characters are in relation to the Mane 6 (and in a non-intrusive manner, to my pleasure), but still expects you to already be somewhat familiar with them. If you’re not, you’ll just have to roll with it.
I enjoyed this one. Decently written (if a little wobbly in narrative voice), interesting characters, a good lesson to learn. I’m all the more pleased I took the time to start reading this series.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
In Her Shadow — Pretty Good
Subconscious Desires — Worth It
A Little Push — Worth It
Blood Brothers — Worth It
The Longest Day — Needs Work
Pinkie's Pizza-Hut Propensity
2,802 Words
By RhetCon
Sequel to Pinkie's Popeyes Preference
All Sunset wanted was some pizza. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle are there to make sure she orders the correct brand. Which, horrifyingly, they don’t agree on.
This story opens with Pinkie literally introducing herself to it with a wrecking ball through Sunset’s living room wall. That alone should tell you everything you need to know about this series. But for the sake of not making this the shortest review I’ve ever written:
This is another story written for the sake of being silly, which seems to be RhetCon’s sole interest in creative writing. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you, I’m just saying this story is on brand both for the trilogy and everything I’ve read by the author so far. There are a few unexpected twists, such as Rarity and Rainbow working at rival pizza joints (chloroform is involved), Fluttershy being Sunset’s savior, and Pinkie and Twilight not agreeing on a superior source of a specific food type for once.
By this point we’ve effectively established that Sunset has good taste in soda but crummy taste in pizza and fried chicken. Make of that what you will.
If you’re looking for some food-based nonsense at the expense of Sunset’s finances, property, and sanity, then jump on in. The water’s made of cheese.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
I'm So Sorry! — Worth It
Pinkie's Pepsi Predilection — Worth It
Pinkie's Popeyes Preference — Worth It
Stories for Next Week:
The Combinatorics Project by Ringcaat
Games Ponies Shouldn't Play by DagaYemar
Divine Move by Ice Star
Something That Needed to be Done by Rose Quill
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I honestly think that's a good idea. Splitting up the various arcs of A Shot To Remember not only means, as you said, getting it out there, but it makes the stories more, digestible, less intimidating.
Was about to say "I'm starting to notice a pattern here".
I mean, you don't need to get museum-quality art for all your stories, lol. Most people just use google or one of the MLP imageboards. A book is not defined or judged by its cover, after all.
On the one hand, I'd feel more inclined to read a complete story rather than an incomplete one with "updates" because the chances of that becoming complete tend to be low. On the other hand, dangling plot threads are a curse in short stories that won't be followed up on. cough cough.
After doing it myself for five years, I do know that actually finishing the thing to a point you're comfortable with is the best way to go, so if you feel an iterative release would be a good way to boost your own morale into finishing the thing, then I'd go for it.
I'd be happy to volunteer as a prereader.
Only one I've read is Augie's. and it was a fun one. Innocent character trying to be evil is usually an entertaining plot.
Kilala-verse is pretty charming. :)
I'd be honored to be either a pre-reader or an artist for your project.
As to the following reviews, I love cute slice of life fluff stories. I also enjoy stories that get me thinking.
And finally, as to the Happy ending concept, I myself enjoy a good happy ending, and a good majority of the stories I have saved in my fimfiction library to some extent or another have a happy ending or at least one where the good guys are victorious and the bad guys get their just desserts but not necessarily without accruing losses or other difficulties along the way. I have separate folders for different genres (Nightmare Night, Bittersweet, mystery, war stories, historical fiction, etc.)
While I like seeing A Shot To Remember all in one 'shot', honestly I love Bulletproof Heart and everything about it so much I would read and do anything that gets more of the story out.
I remember Spark Visions of Twilight being a fairly neat little story. It's interesting to think how the characters of the alternate timelines would react to the knowledge that there's some other Equestria out there where something different happened. It was fun seeing how the Mane Six developed in this darker setting where they didn't get to meet each other or have that common point in which they earned their cutie marks. I particularly liked how Rainbow Dash was recontextualized as the main character in this story, the one who acts as the primary driving force in wanting to uncover this mystery and lead the uprising against Nightmare Moon.
It lost me a little toward the end though, I don't think it quite lived up to its full potential, eschewing reinterpretation in favor of just redoing the plot of the series beginning. It might not help that the pacing of the chapters gets weird with the last few being so much shorter than those that came before, giving me the impression that the author was just trying to get it over with. It makes sense obviously to set up for doing the Elements of Harmony but I can't help but feel it would have been so much better to have Rainbow Dash do a Sonic Rainboom to defeat Nightmare Moon, going full circle to the beginning of the branching timeline when she was unable to do it at the race. To say nothing of how Fluttershy was just...not even present, practically nothing more than a prop tying in to Rainbow's backstory; maybe after beating up Nightmare Moon with the Sonic Rainboom, Fluttershy could have shown kindness to her and that would spur some revelation for her or let Luna regain control or something, I dunno.
So I take it you're going for a bit more of a serialized or anthological approach with A Shot to Remember? I know you've said your intent with BPH from the beginning was to have a somewhat episodic form of storytelling between the chapters, but this sounds like it's going to be arcs that are more divergent from each other. Uploading the different arcs separately might work, depending on how many there are, I'm not sure if it would dilute the idea that these are all a single story if it's split across a dozen or more parts.
I suppose the matter of cover art would probably be the most prominent mitigating factor, as you've already determined. I certainly feel like there are ways one could get a single image that can be repurposed into multiple versions. For example, say a picture that features each of the Mane Six and for each of the separate stories it could have only the main character of that story in full color while the others are all grayscale/tinted a single color.
I wouldn't mind offering assistance for prereading when the time comes for that.
...Although I still have to go back to rereading the original story come to think of it.
In regards to your BPH 2 question, I personally think it would be better to keep them together since that is how they were originally intended. Plus I think it's easier to track the stories under one title then to worry about missing a later publication.
Caveat though is that there's nothing stopping you from doing both options. Publish all the chapters under the single overall title of BPH 2, but break each individual story arch up under its own specific/special subtitle. So the story could look something like
Just a thought. And it would save you a lot of hassle over the individual cover at pieces.
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Bite your tongue! This is Rarity! More importantly, it's the Bulletproof Heart. She deserves nothing less than fabulosity.
But seriously, what I'm thinking is something that should be easy provided I can find an artist willing to make me something minimalist and modular. A title that can be changed as-needed and some character and/or weapon silhouettes, essentially.
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Appreciate the opinions all-around. The more I look at it, the more I like the idea of creating multiple shorts instead of one big story, mostly on account of how I'd have to do a lot more work to make the "Big Story" version have a proper linearity given the direction the story took towards the end. The first few chapters are, in fact, written in such a way that they're already fairly separate and of limited importance to the rest of the arcs.
I suppose I could release them as one big story with clear notices that they are, in fact, different stories within one big "book". But it's the age-old question: do I scare away potential new readers by showing them what appears to be a 300k-word behemoth, or do I run the risk of intimidating people who see a "sequel" story and think they have to go back and read ten stories just to understand what's going on? I think, for the sake of garnering readership, Option B is the lesser evil.
There is also the matter of loose strings. I had a lot of things I wanted to do, many of which were hinted at or being built up to in the current material, and it's looking less likely I'll get to them. Perhaps in the prereading/editing phase I could cut some of that content out, but I don't know. It depends upon whether I'd want to continue writing more BPH shorts. Which is a big if; I've written BPH for so long now that I'm probably going to want to take a break from it for a while. Plus if I do plan to actually make BPH into an original fiction, it may be a better use of my time to focus on that instead (I have some interesting ideas for how to translate the world history, magic system, and races into an OF setting).
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Haha, fair enough.
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Isn't it, though?
If you made it very clear they were the same continuity and had a clear order, which your common cover with an updated number may help with, then breaking then up isn't a bad idea. Just recombine then for print version. I need BH2 next to 1 on my shelf.
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That's... not a bad idea, actually. Not a bad idea at all.
Well, regarding BPH2, from what you describe, at least, it does sound like making it BPH2: The Series solves a greater amount of difficulty than it creates. Good luck with the decision, and the work to finish up whichever version you decide on!
Oh wow, three Kilala-verse stories?
If you liked them, I feel obligated to recommend the following:
- MLP: FiM
- Dark
- Adventure
- Comedy
In one world, Twilight married Captain Flash Sentry. In another, she married none other than Discord. Both had kids. Both have now been kidnapped. This will not end well.It's a Kilala97/Lopoddity crossover, featuring Twilight's AU kids from very different fathers. And thankfully, it's not too long, I think.
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Kilala and Lopoddity? No way I can say no to that.
Admittedly, I'm nowhere near as familiar with the Lopoddity-verse as the Kilala-verse, but what I have seen over the years has greatly entertained me. Although I must wonder if it's the one where Moondancer (the OC, not the canon one) goes nutso.
If they are indeed more standalone I could see them being released individually as mini-series of the larger whole, as long as it’s made obvious what the story before and after is for those wanting to read them in order, as I’ve had trouble with navigating that on Fimfic before.
Particularly if that eases pressure on you regarding intimidating new readers, allows you more flexibility with editing/composition I’d be fine with it.
As a counter-point however, it’s a sequel to an already existing sizeable length story, so unless it’s much, much longer than the original I don’t think people who read the first would be massively discouraged from reading the sequel if it was a single longer work.
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The biggest pressure on me isn't the size and it intimidating the readers. Rather, it's a combination of its size, how much the story's objectives and directions changed over the course of the last few years, the significant amount of editing I'd have to do to make the entire story fit those new directions, how much time it'll take to make all those changes, and – last but most certainly not least – how much time I've already spent writing it.
I have other big stories I want to work on besides BPH 2. I can't devote another two or three years trying to perfect one story when there's so much more for me to do. If I turn the story into a series I can release material faster and finally get to work on those other major projects that have been sitting on the back burner since 2018.
That sounds like to me the far superior option would indeed be the series then, if there are radical objective and direction changes in a single story the series for sure seems the better option- even simple search / discovery related things like tags or the rating could change quite a bit depending on the arc, so spitting them seems better.
Furthermore, you mention wanting to work on other series rather than spending extra time attempt to perfect BP2 as a whole, and splitting it would be better for you in your reply, and I think you should do so considering your love of order and scheduling to prevent putting stuff on the back burner even more. Surely in this case spending extra time on the single story is unnecessarily complicating your situation compared to the series?
Regardless of which you choose, I’ll read it either way, I love all your work.
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Why, thank you!
At the moment I'm working on sprucing up/expanding the first arc. I figure I'll get it released and then turn my attention elsewhere for a short while. I find working on multiple projects can be very helpful for my work ethic.