CHoM progress, aka what goes through Gloomy's lazy mind. · 7:14pm Dec 9th, 2012
A few of you probably know that for some time I've been working on a fiction of mine. At first, I planned to release the first few chapters in July. But, as it sometimes happens in life, a lot of small things prevented me from doing it, be it lack of motivation, writers block or simple laziness - because I prefer to read, rather than actually write something! That's not important.
Then - in September I think? - I have written the first version of the prologue, which you can check out in my stories if you really want to. Although, I haven't been exactly pleased with how it turned out and, after getting some feedback from various people, I decided to start my story from a different angle. The old prologue didn't really have anything that would suck people in from the first moments, besides, it was quite long and none of the canon characters were present in it.
What I want to say is that I have not been slacking off (OK, maybe a little, mea culpa). All this time, in between reading, I have been sketching the storyline (aka writing short notes about the events and character interactions) and writing some interesting dialogue from various points in the story. For me, it was like putting together the pieces of the puzzle. Sometimes, seemingly at random, an epiphany would hit me and I'd write down something interesting. And then, I'd think how to logically arrange all these puzzles, so an interesting and unpredictable tale would be born, changing bits here and there if the need arises. I think it is a very time consuming method, but this is also my first experience in trying to write something epic. Maybe I raised the bar too high for myself? Maybe I should try to write a short one-shot first? The thing is, every time I try, all I can think of is CHoM...
At this point I have over half the story planned out, and a vague sense of what will happen after that, and how the story should end (The very last chapter is already sketched out, heh, and it can be interpreted in many ways, ranging from a happy ending, to sad, through bitter-sweet and even tragic. Personally, I'm very proud of it).
From my estimations it would take around 120k-140k words to get to the first major breaking point, buuuut... yesterday I had a really generous epiphany and the back-story of one of my characters, who will be very important later on (after the first breaking point), suddenly became... EPIC, I just have no other words to describe it without giving any major spoilers.
Well... maybe a little teaser won't be too much: it's more or less about the long forgotten times when there lived millions of Alicorns, not just two. I think that it's even better than the back-story of my main character. It could totally warrant a separate story on its own.
For once I'm glad for my laziness, because if I released the story earlier, I would have to rewrite the first few chapters a bit. Now, I need to think where or if I want to unveil those events before the first breaking point.
Now I can pretty much safely start writing the first 3 chapters (which will be divided in 7 parts for about 4-8k words each), without fear of any discrepancies later on.
I won't give you any schedule, because I probably won't keep it, knowing me. And I still haven't decided on the summary, but I can give you the story and character tags for now:
ST: dark, adventure, tragedy, romance
CHT: OC, Twilight, Celestia, M6
In both cases the tags significance diminishes from left to right.
Lastly, thank you for reading my rambling. Have a picture of TS and my second, shorter and more vague prologue (I'm still trying to make it exactly 666 words long 
)
>> Chronicles of Magic <<
Prologue
Magic.
It is a seemingly simple concept, holding a multitude of meanings that changed dramatically over the course of time.
Magic, esoteric essence of the divine domain of the gods and spirits, unreachable for simple mortals.
Magic, a term used to describe a phenomenon one is unable to comprehend – 'How do these cursed lightnings work?! It must be magic!'.
Magic, an art of using internal and external energies to shape the fabric of reality to match the caster's desire.
Some try to uselessly classify magic into opposite groups. Light and dark magic, good and evil magic. The same way a lump of iron could be labeled as 'evil', just because it can be forged into a sword used for killing. Yet, the same iron can be turned into a scalpel which a skilled surgeon can use to save one's life. But what stops the said surgeon from killing his patient with the 'lifesaving' scalpel? That's one of the arguments I'm using to counter those stubbornly in favour of the dichotomous theory.
Magic is merely a tool, it's its wielder who decides how to use it. There exists only one kind of magic and it's neutral in itself, however, this is also a giant generalisation. The concept of magic is so broad and at the same time so tight that it is foolish to try to divide and classify it.
Then, does there exist some universal definition of magic, you may ask? Probably, but it would be very audacious of me to provide one, as it would be stained with my own experiences and feelings. You see, there are as many definitions of magic as there are intelligent, sentient beings in this world. Sadly, our current level of knowledge prevents us from designating a reasonably simple response.
But before something can be given a concept, a meaning, a definition, it must firstly come to be. In spite of the account of many seemingly throughout studies of the case, the answer to the origins of magic is quite simple; life. The birth of the very first living organism was the only reason, the sole trigger that invoked a chain of events that put magic into existence. By processing the raw energy provided by the stars to suit their basic needs, the first sentient creatures accidentally managed to shape its form into something more refined. This refined form of energy can be used, upon proper preparation and training or by using the right contraptions, to manipulate and mold almost every aspect of matter and reality, with the caster's abilities and aptitude being the only limiting factor.
Today, some are still biased against magic and regard it as some terrible force that craves only for their demise. Most acknowledge the ability to utilize magic as a milestone in our evolution, but do not delve into it much; they don't want to understand it, just feel it and use it. The few interested with the more intricate aspects of magic are often left by themselves in the search for the answers – nevertheless, they manage to discover something new and interesting from time to time.
Magic holds a special place in my heart, for without its help I wouldn't be among the living today. Long ago, my revered mother had told me that, if not for a powerful magical incantation, both of us would not have survived the day of my birth... From that day onward arcane arts had become my little obsession, but one that still leaves me plenty of time for my family! My looks may not reveal it, but I have quite a lot of years under my belt. I have spent countless hours reflecting and contemplating on subjects that most would consider a waste of their valuable time. But there is one thing, as plain and vague as it may seem, that I can absolutely assure you of.
Magic is certainly a lot more than meets the eye.
Fragment of the Theoretical Treatise of Arcane Artisanry
by Star Swirl the bearded
I've been working on a story, the name may be A Delicate Balance and I've been writing it in random epiphanies and myself taking normal day to day events and day dreaming them into various scenes for my story. It's been fun to write so far and I was doing the whole writing down small noted about it. I've actually begun to seriously write the first few chapters.
The only problem is I know how I want to start it and how I want to end it, I have just been building scenes to devolp the story as a whole and bring it to life.
Oh, first post
685938
I've been drafting a non-mlp related story (dark adventure with a lot of fighting and superpowers involved), for over 3 years exactly like that.
If you ever see (in like 10 years most likely) an epic animation/story titled Ultimate Desire, then it's probably my work
I'm writing CHoM to sort of 'test the waters' and I'm positively surprised at how many twists and unexpected events I have managed to think up in less than half a year (considering how much time I spent on UD and it's storyline is maybe 60% done). I really hope I don't suddenly die before I manage to write it all out, it really would be a waste
I mean no offense but I hope my story doesn't take that long.
I need it out of my head, ASAP!!
I have also been working on a story for nearly four years that is completely thought up by me. It has been tormenting me all four years and I really hope I do manage to get on 'paper'.
And dying before I can get all these hopefully wonderful stories out of my head is a major fear for me...