Not dead, just tired · 6:08am Jun 3rd, 2017
Two years ago, in a fit of depression, I wrote up a number of dumb ideas and published the most coherent among them.
That...did not go well. Most of the ideas should have died stillborn.
Watching the Watchers is different, though. In one form or another, it's a plot that has drifted through my head for twenty years. Take a primitive race. Expose them to advanced technology. And don't assume that narrative causality will make them turn it into bombs and climate catastrophe and whatever other nonsense the writer is trying to caution against. Let the characters handle the events as themselves.
My Little Pony broke the dam on the idea simply because it gave me a cast of characters that I could write that way without getting swarmed by people demanding a more "realistic" story. That is to say, with lots of explosions and angst and maybe some pointless deaths. A hopeful, positive story just isn't accepted in most circles.
But enough of my rambling. It's been ages since I uploaded a new chapter. I've got some written. They're even almost ready to see the light of day.
The reason for the delay is simple. Life has been happening in severe quantities. But I'm not here to whine about that.
The other issue is that I needed to make long term decisions. I start my stories in the middle when I think of them, but I write from the beginning. And I let the characters chart the course. It means that as I write, I get new ideas. It's often very helpful. It makes it easier to stay true to the people and places I'm writing about.
It also means that not every idea I have can fit into a single story. Some need to be pruned. And in this case, I needed to decide what characters I wanted to involve, what that meant for a timeline, and what that meant for where I could take the story to a resolution. In essence, I needed to turn all my ideas for things to write about into a plot that extends beyond those simple events.
I'm still not satisfied with my answers. But I have made my decisions. And I'm ready to move forward.
If anyone out there actually cares, the wait is coming to an end.
Surprisingly, I do care. Your standards are high enough that it can be seen as a weakness, but as your preferences are decidedly not dark and edgy, they do align with mine.