Year of the Rewrite

Following the release of Chapter 18 Part 2 of TToTS, I think it is time to focus on making the gateway to the story something I can feel proud of. I am genuinely ashamed of the initial chapters compared to the newer ones, and actively avoid sharing its existence with new readers because of it. I know there is no such thing as the perfect story, but I believe my understanding of writing and the effort I'm willing to put into it has come a long way since 2018.

I plan on tackling the rewrite linearly, meaning the prologue will be the first to be updated, which in fact came out after Chapter 9 chronologically, so is far newer and (you would think) less in need of a rewrite. Well, turns out that I'm never happy, because not only did I begin this rewrite a while ago, but I am now rewriting the rewrite that was never released. Yeah. Still, without worrying about progressing the story, this should be a far more streamlined process than my first attempt.

You may be happy to learn that I am addressing what I think was the most off-putting element of the prologue; that being its framing as a journal. While arguably still a skippable info-dump, it is now framed as a lesson between Starswirl and Celestia, giving some much needed extra interaction and depth between the two characters. This, however, leads me on to the largest challenge of the rewrite:

Continuity. The initial chapters of this story were quite brief and attempted to stick to a day-per-chapter scheme, often leaving them as a single scene and some bookended reflection. What this means for the rewrite is that I will be changing things *so* dramatically that I may not be able to release them as I finish them, instead requiring multiple chapters to be released at once, for the sake of anyone reading the story during this period. I'm not planning to, but some chapters may be fused entirely, lowering the total chapter count.

Progress is slow, but I believe I am writing a genuinely compelling narrative, even compared to the first rewrite attempt. The changes will be major, and I think anyone who cares enough to read this post will want to go back and reread these chapters. I've already written so much more depth into the King's character, and I am aiming to rewrite everything up to Chapter 6. I know the whole thing could probably do with a fresh coat of paint, but it's that inciting event that really needs to be good for the new readers, so I'll limit myself to the events of Canterlot Palace.

Hopefully this sounds good to you, as I have very little in the way of an audience or feedback, and hopefully this effort is well placed. It's also not impossible for a new chapter to drop during this process, as I am known to flit between my projects, and Chapter 19 is an fun return to the prologue for me--I'll let you guess what that means, I'm really looking forward to releasing it--but my primary focus will be the rewrite.

So for now, thank you for reading, any who did, and I'll keep you posted.