Meta update + Chapter 14 rambles · 2:47pm Nov 29th, 2021
Before I get into the long format author's notes, let me talk a bit about meta stuff.
Firstly, I'm going to attempt having a consistent schedule, which means delaying chapters that are ready just to give myself time to write the following one.
Second, I'm in the process of rebranding the fic; I plan on cutting the "Fallout Equestria" part of the title out (but I'll still have it on the cover), since I think it detracts from the main title. I'm also considering changing the fic title entirely, to maybe something like "Wasteland Diaries", but I'm not quite decided on the exact title yet.
Oh, and I'm commissioning new cover art. Shiny's artstyle is great and all, but it might be a bit of an acquired taste. Plus there's the fact that I've made quite a few choices in my original plan, and thus have had the tone shift slightly, and I don't think the old cover matches as well as it did for my original idea.
Anyway, chapter 14 spoilers below the break (edit: nevermind, pagebreaks don't work as expected)
Oh no! Character development! I hope the reveal wasn’t too drastic. I’ll admit it wasn’t my original idea for where I was heading with the fic, but I was really starting to hate working on this. Writing Iron as this stoic badass was boring in the long term, even if it was super cool in the short term. This, however, makes her seem like the teenage girl she really is, and it’s why I love it so much.
Oh and “fun” fact… Banter was meant to die last chapter. Why did I leave him alive? In terms of storytelling, his death would have actually been fairly well timed. Yeah, it would have been a slight plot device, but ideally it would have felt out of nowhere, and would have been the gut punch that character deaths should be. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that it felt too convenient for my plot. On top of that, his death felt so damn flat and soulless that I decided to scrap it entirely.
Yeah, LP was attached to him, but the audience wasn’t. One of my options would have been to drag this part out until he became a central figure… but I didn’t feel like adding 3 more chapters of filler.
My other option was to kill him off then and there, and make sure my chapter was as emotional as needed. If I was a more competent writer, I probably could have pulled it off, but given how flat Candy’s death was, despite being a gut punch, I doubted that was an option. If I can’t pull it off for a character death that the audience actually cares about, why would I try with one that was just introduced?
Plus, a living character is a much better plot device than a dead one…
Oh, I was originally planning to have a lot more tension and build-up about Banter’s condition, but things didn’t quite work out that way.
