And that’s that. That’s the end.

It’s been quite the ride, hasn’t it? Over a year spent writing The Bonds of Love, and over a year and a half spent discussing the actual writing process.

I think I’ve said everything I had to say or even could say about my story, but well? Come on, you all know me enough by now to know I just can’t shut up even when I should.

Sooo…?

To summarize my overall opinions on every major aspect of The Bonds of Love…?

Read More

And here we are at last... The final third of the Epilogue's discussion, and thus, the final major installment of the Writing of The Bonds of Love.

No need to dawdle any further, I think. Let's get right into it!

Read More

And we’re back with the second half of this chapter’s discussion, so let’s not waste any more time and get right into it!

If this section’s title didn’t already give it away, not much has changed at all in the lovely town of Ponyville.

Read More

Here we are. It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve finally reached the end, and what a wild ride it was getting to this point! With no time to waste, let’s bring this commentary to a close and discuss the grand finale of The Bonds of Love!

Read More

And we’re back for the final part of the Ch.15(Family, Part Two) discussion!

The story so far: After a grueling impromptu therapy session, Gallus has finally won Ocean Flow’s approval, and the duo now races toward the surface world to inform Silverstream of this glorious development, alongside an explanation for why such approval was refused for so terribly long…

Read More

And at long last, we’re here: The Gallus/Ocean Flow scene. And of course, it gets a whole chapter dedicated to it!

I feel it best to begin by reiterating how Ocean Flow’s beach-side tirade was the very first thing ever conceptualized regarding the Mount Aris arc, becoming fully realized thanks to Great White Prime’s suggestions.

Read More

It’s always funny looking at this chapter with that old “I won’t let these chapters exceed 20k words again” promise in mind.

While the first half of the Mount Aris arc was dedicated to Gallus-Stream finally having a break from all the plot-mandated drama so they could actually bask in their love and affection, this half returns us to the status quo to resolve the last of that drama.

Read More

Behold! The best chapters in the entire story! I’m not exaggerating; the Mount Aris arc is fantastic! And you have Great White Prime to thank for its existence.

Read More

Alright! Time for the second half of Serenity; let’s not waste any time and get right into it!

Continuing where we left off, we open on Gallus and Silverstream on their way to the restaurant, bouncing along in a bumpy but otherwise non-chaotic carriage ride, and—Wait, what do you mean that’s not how we start the chapter?

Read More

We’re in the final stretch now, and there’s no better way to begin bringing this story to a close than the event we’ve been hyping up since the very beginning: Gallus and Silverstream’s 2^nd Date.

This has been a long time coming, and you better believe I relished every second I wrote this chapter, especially since I could finally write the lovebirds being actually happy!

Read More

And we're back! Due to apparent word count limitations, this chapter's discussion required it be split into separate posts, and today I bring you the second half, containing the oh so tumultuous resolution to Gallus and Grandpa Gruff's fued. Let's not waste anymore time and get right on into it!

Read More

Ah, Ch.11(Closure). For a while, I considered this to be the best chapter of The Bonds of Love, even better than the Smolder and Mount Aris chapters. It’s not hard to see why—Ch.10(Home) did most of the setup concerning Gallus’ feelings toward Griffonstone, leaving Ch.11(Closure) to ride that setup and finally discuss his and Gruff’s relationship—something I’ve wanted to address since the very beginning with A Day for Family.

Read More

Alternate Title: Griffonstone — For obvious reasons. I didn’t go with it since I still preferred naming the chapters after their main themes.

Ch.10(Home) is weird for me because even though it’s one of the best chapters of the story, I feel far more passionate for the next chapter. Though I suppose that’s only natural when this is clearly a glorified Part One to Ch.11(Closure)’s Part Two. And yes, that does mean this was another chapter split incident, as are the next four chapters.

Read More

Alternate Titles: Fear, Part Two, Death —Since the last chapter wasn’t “Fear, Part One” I obviously couldn’t name this one “Part Two” but as you can tell, I did keep “Fear” as the title for thematic reasons.

Read More

Alternate titles: Fear, Part One, Life — Didn’t go with the first one because I was still in “Name the chapter after its central theme” mode, and Ch.8(Tension) isn’t exactly about “fear” so much as the lingering awkwardness or dare I say…? Tension between Smolder, Gallus, and Silverstream.

Read More

Alternate Title: Identity — I’ll explain why later.

Oh, this chapter… Ch.7(Pride) had the most radically alternate version of all the chapters after Ch.4(Optimism), thanks predominantly to it suffering the most from the personality issue getting axed. I’m not entirely satisfied with what I ultimately settled on, but I still think it’s a good chapter.

Let’s get into it!

Read More

From one of my favorite chapters to my absolute least favorite…

I’m not gonna mix words here: I hate Ch.6(Stagnation). I have no qualms admitting Ch.1(Transition) and Ch.2(Reprieve) are worse written, but this chapter in particular was the one I had the worst time actually writing, and it was for one specific reason…

Read More

Alternate title: Normalcy — Went with “Normality” since it sounded better at the time. I lean more toward Normalcy presently, but it doesn’t matter since they’re synonyms.

Ah, Ch.5(Normality), you will always stand out for being the only chapter to actually follow the original character-specific chapter plan.

Read More

Alternate titles: Pessimism, Paranoia — Didn’t choose either, preferring to name it, not after Silver’s problem, but rather the solution to it.

Before I begin discussing this chapter properly, I just wanna say I feel so bad for Silverstream. I put her through so much crap in this story, it’s not even funny. But that begs the question why Silver’s story-line became what it is. To answer that we must first discuss what this chapter could have been.

Read More

Ahh, Ch.3(Expression). Or as I like to call it: The chapter where I finally figured out what the heck I was doing.

Look, I was writing a story about Gallus receiving therapy for his trauma, his friends’ reactions to learning about his breakdown, and the blossoming romance between him and Silverstream who was going through her own breakdown, all while trying to work themes of identity, personal growth, paranoia, self-worth, family, and the classic “Coming of age” trope into the narrative.

Read More