Weekend Updates · 2:54am Sep 12th, 2021
TLDR Updates
Well a quick TL;DR.
- Twilight's Dollhouse 2 updated today
- Ponified Without Consent 2, Chapter 1, Sunday. Check out the the original Collab here.
I'll be writing Chapter 2 tomorrow or Monday, and a one-shot for a contest. With luck that may mean 3 updates for next weekend, and if I can find some time I may hit up the proofreader's group for a little quality control on my updates.
Okay, so that's what to look forward to, now I can ramble a bit.
Summary of my thoughts on DoH3 (DoH 3 spoilers)
So one of the things I noticed I did was I'd get ideas for like 4-5 great story arcs and then try to cram them all into a story. I'd skip taking time to edit too which also rushed things along. Then that got me thinking, why did I need those arcs in my story?
I guess "because I want to" is a reason but it's not a good one. So with Dash of Humanity 3, I just had too many arcs that predicated Soarin turned into a magical mcguffin of evil. These were the arcs I was trying to cram in:
- Dawn is a mare and has to learn to accept themselves again (after learning to accept themselves in DoH2)
- Dash is pregnant
- Dawn has to choose between Dash and Fluttershy
- Oh, and Dawn is pregnant
- ... and dealing with PTSD
- And ultimately ensuring the mirror from Equestria Girls is destroyed forever.
Other than the PTSD, those are still some themes I'd be interested in exploring. But I can't do them all at once, and if Dawn experiences pregnancy it ought to be her choice, and not some other pony's choice.
So as you can see that's like six arcs, and each would require an intro, development, challenge, and resolution. Split across the acts of the story, with the main arc at the climax...
And yeah, now that I've learned a few things about story structure I guess that's about a tenable as power washing a motor home with a dental waterpik.
Time to use the K.I.S.S. method. (keep it simple stupid)
Solution to DoH 3 (DoH2 spoilers)
First, a thanks to everyone that gave feedback in the last blog. It's gonna be a ways off but I think it's all very fixable, and I thought I'd share some of the ideas based on your feedback.
So uh minor spoilers and all, but it's not really spoiling if it sucked right?
So if I soften the fight with Dash/Dawn/Fluttershy and Dawn/Soarin, I can probably make only minor revisions or and add a chapter or two to Dash of Humanity 2 so it goes from OOC American Psycho to more of a typical over-protective/jealous boyfriend. A little more focus on the friendships between the mane six and Dawn, and I can recapture some of the fun interactions of the earlier chapters/stories.
I think the underlying story structure is good, so I just need some added sections to allow it to build up to the existing ending. This would offer the best way to keep the spirit of the story unchanged, but pump the brakes a little and not have the outrageous "twist" intro in the sequel.
Then for Dash of Humanity 3 I'm kicking around a few ideas, the main ones being...
Sequel Rewrite Ideas, Spoliers maybe?
- an Asylum-inspired story about Dawn escaping a mental hospital trying to convince them they really were a human male before they woke up there as a mare!
- A timeloop story because I have always wanted to do a timeloop story and it could provide a bit of fun to a slice of life sequel.
- Dawn raising a child with Dash (And nothing goes wrong.)
Those first two are sticking out to me the most right now. If Dash of Humanity 1 and 2 are more self-contained, they can set up any sort of follow-ups I want. I think the one obstacle would be the Asylum one would still be quite a change in tone, but it could also happen concurrently to a more slice of life-y story as a "What If..." . It could also happen as part of the other story, but I think then I'd be back in the boat of "5+ arcs to cram into a single story".
Conclusion
I think the best thing might be to accept that, if I have so many stories left to tell, then I need to take my time and tell them separately so each can be it's own adventure. It'd certainly be a lot simpler if I wrote stories one at a time, with a single Point of View character, and a single main arc... and not five at a time, with 5 point of view characters, and a dozen arcs.
Personally I really dislike asylum stories. A timeloop could be interesting and number 3 just sounds like what logically would have happened later on.
Wait, I'm confused, are we getting more of Ponified Without Consent?!
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Pretty sure, yeah. He actually contacted me last weekend to see if I would be willing to reprise the role of Berry Punch.
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yeah PWC2 will be continued until completion. Chapter 2 this weekend. I'm aiming for weekly updates and to limit the number of points of view per chapter to keep things moving along an existing outline at a good pace.
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yeah I'm not sure I am capable of tackling another dark story at the moment, so if I do an Asylum thing it'll either be a side-story or a one-shot chapter in a few months. I could really use a story that's all sunshine and rainbows, like Dawn I've been through a lot since the story came out. So I might just move ahead with a slice of life with a time loop sub-plot around the second act to help Dawn come to the realization of how much Dash means to him. That sounds a lot happier and fun to write than DoH3 Consequences.
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I hope you're... Berry pleased with the character's arc.