The Writing of The Bonds of Love Update 5

Hello again, everyone! So, the last time I posted one of these updates was shortly after Thanksgiving, and I had just finished discussing Ch.8(Tension) and Ch.9(Fear) and was ready and excited to talk about the next two, Ch.10(Home) and Ch.11(Closure). But then at some point or another, I blinked and suddenly it was Christmas, and I had only finished discussing one of the Griffonstone chapters.

Firstly, Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you’re all enjoying the holiday!

And secondly, where the heck did December go!? I wanted—expected!—to finish talking about both Griffonstone chapters by the end of this month; in fact, I wanted to be done with the “Writing of…” before the new year! I wanted to be working on something new, but apparently that won’t be happening any time soon…

I can’t believe it’s looking like it’ll take me an entire year just to talk about what it was like writing The Bonds of Love. Yeah, it’s a 300k+ word long masterpiece, but still! On the subject of word counts though, I suppose it makes sense why discussing Ch.10(Home) took so long when you take into account I wrote over 16k words on it as well as thirty additional tidbits, bumping the total word count of the “Writing of…” to just under 80k words.

Good thing I totally don’t have six more chapters to talk about—one of which is over 30k words long itself! Yeah! I’ll totally be finished with the “Writing of…” in the next week or two, and I’m absolutely, positively not dreading the likelihood I won’t be done with this thing until later spring/early summer!

On the bright side, you guys will certailny be getting your content’s worth when I finally finish that dang thing ‘cause I’m apparently writing a novel about what it was like to write a novel.

Though, that does bring us to another topic. See? I originally intended to post the “Writing of…” as additional chapters to The Bonds of Love, so people could read it immediately after reading the story itself. The plan was to split it into three parts, each discussing five/six chapters. But considering how large that word count is getting, and how, knowing me, it’s only going to get larger…?

I think my new plan is to post “The Writing of The Bonds of Love” as an actual, proper story. That way, each chapter’s discussion can naturally be its own individual chapter, and The Bonds of Love itself won’t artificially balloon to 400k+ words; the current 300k+ word count is already a massive deterrent to most people, and I don’t exactly want to worsen that issue.

I hope doing it that way won’t accidentally violate some kind of Fimfiction rule I don’t know about, but yeah. Sorry for the change of plans, everyone. Hopefully this will make up for it somewhat:

Yep, I drew Glorious Pearl in pixel art. I’m not really great at pixel art yet, so please go easy on me. But otherwise, I hope you guys like it. Maybe if I get even better at pixel art, I'll make a little animation of her too.

Also, yes, the design here was absolutely inspired by johnerose126's fanart of her. So thank you yet again, johnerose126! Hope you're doing well and enjoying your Christmas!

Speaking of, what I'm gonna do next is relax and enjoy the rest of my Christmas holiday as well, hopefully de-stressing a bit from the latest hurdle this “Writing of…” thing threw at me. Afterward, I’ll finally start progress on discussing Ch.11(Closure), and it’ll likely be a length discussion as well, considering it’s both the chapter about Gallus and Gruff’s relationship and also the chapter of T.B.O.L. that got the story onto the Featured Tab. Plus, by now, it’s safe to say I don’t know how to stop when I start writing. I just don’t.

And here’s the next excerpt from the “Writing of…” and once again, these excerpts will naturally be included in the final version of the “Writing of…” and might also be subject to change should I edit them. This one is part—emphasis on part—of my discussion concerning how I wrote Griffonstone as a whole.

I couldn’t show Griffonstone being horrible, but I could still imply it through Gallus being so jumpy—nigh terrified—of re-experiencing the horrors of Griffonstone. And while that implication is enough for some, it isn’t the ideal way I could have handled it.

Case in point, at the end of T.B.O.L., Johnerose126 acknowledged the story’s scenery, as well as Gallus’ reasons for not liking Griffonstone, wasn’t quite up to snuff. And while I’ve explained why I couldn’t fully go into detail pertaining Griffonstone in an earlier part of the “Writing of…” not included in this particular excerpt , that doesn’t mean their criticism is invalid. In fact, I fully agree with it. I desperately need practice with world-building and scene setting. I’ve got characters down pretty well, but regarding the tiny details of Griffonstone and its culture? I did squat, and it leaves Griffonstone feeling like this nebulous “Bad place” Gallus once lived in, rather than a genuine, proper kingdom with its own culture and society.

There’s a reason I never went into detail regarding the Blue Moon Festival; I couldn’t think of anything. Nothing about it was established in the show, so I had nothing to work with, and while a good world-builder would have a field day with that fact; I faced a brick wall. I legitimately couldn’t think of anything other than that one line about there being decorative banners made of feathers and the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail about the decorations near the entrance to Griffonstone being the traditional, Hearth’s Warming-style stuff while the Blue Moon Festival-style decorations were hung further into the kingdom.

All that to say, compared to how I handled the characters, romance, and overall story, how I wrote Griffonstone feels rather “Low budget.”

But honestly? I still like how I handled Griffonstone. I wish I had done more with the Blue Moon Festival and whatnot, but concerning Griffonstone itself…? I prefer how I implied its old terrors rather than directly showed them.

I could have easily given Gallus a line about someone assaulting him or something, or have a random griffon try and mug him again, etc. But I think, for the story I’m telling, it was better to show how horrible Griffonstone was through the characters’ reactions. Gallus has had so much character development at this point—and even helped Smolder last chapter with everything she was going through—that for him to preemptively crumple at the mere idea of having a bad time…? It says a lot about what he once went through.

That’s all for now, folks! And once again, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!