User blog:DranosJ/Story explanation, thought processes, etc.

This story was originally intended to make use of MGQ's Side Story system however over time it evolved into something that require me to make more visual assets than I alone could ever make. As time went on and I abandoned the side story idea which greatly freed me to expand the scope of the story. However the first story has only been written in the manner of a Side Story script with mostly monologues and dialogue and short vague descriptions of set pieces and character expressions. I will be revising this with a second pass, converting it into a more standard literary format. I debated on doing such as when I went back to make revisions it was easy to pull the dialogue out from the descriptive paragraphs. However I'm currently writing the second act to second story's first draft and have decided to change the format completely to a novelization format to allow me to describe the manner in which characters deliver their speech. This was necessary as I was no longer going to use visual assets to handle such parts.

The Elephant In The Room...Retconning.

A key aspect here will be some significant retconning of various elements and such throughout the universe. At first I really really really tried to stick to as much of the defined elements of MGQ that have been stated within the game. But as I went over them several times in my head they either did not make sense when I started this story after playing Part 2 and waiting several months for Part 3 to be translated. Part 3 unfortunately did little to resolve various descrepancies throughout the story line. Some things can be attested to Ilias just flat out lying however I'd like to give Ilias more credit than that and have her speak in exaggerations and half-truths. This ultimately led to more interesting ideas for plot points in the stories.

The other big thing is various established characters will have different story arcs, notably in this first story Erubetie. However the events that transpire in Parts 1 and 2 pretty much happen happen as the end of Part 2 is a really great springboard for taking the story in various directions. In fact I honestly believe they did somewhat of a disservice by trying to wrap up the main plot along with several others in a single part. Various things really got cut and some things even got shoved in there with really no reason other than to get characters out of certain situations. And even crucial parts of those got lost in the 'need to wrap things up'. Other characters will be getting different story arcs because I honestly felt they could have been done better. While they were 'complete' in a sense, I felt there was a greatly missed opportunity. Some elements will be altered simply because to be frankly honest if that's truly the way they worked then Heaven's armies were pretty stupid...

One final thing to state. Essentially this will be a re-telling of Part 3. After playing Parts 1 and 2 my mind almost desparately hated to be left hanging so I spent a lot of time scouring through the wiki here including the elements about Part 3 which already had pages before the english translation was finished. With those pieces my mind wrote a very different tale, although there were surprisingly a good amount of similarities. However I will try to expand the story as necessary while still attempting to keep the narrative on track. Basically I'm essentially treating this as an alternate universe tale where the events of Parts 1 and 2 happen in both but go off in a different direction from there on out.

Storyline Breakdown

The first story will take place just as the ending to Part 2 happens, with the assault on the Monster Lord's Castle. However here Erubetie will have engaged her Next Doll counterpart Amphisbaena instead of...doing whatever she did after telling Alice the place was under attack. Since this story will introduce an original character who's past is interwoven into the heart of the main conflict the next three stories will essentially be prequel stories taking place between the end of The Great Monster War and at least to Heinrich's journey to stop Black Alice and his war with Heaven. However at least during the second, third and fourth story the present timeline be making appearances, being used as primers for setting things up for the stories in the past. They will use my new character, Erubetie and potentially another character who will each present their recollections of small, but critical plot points in the current era, setting things up for what hopefully will be two final stories to resolve everything.

Now there are definitely certain story plots in Part 3 that I absolutely loved but they will not be making an appearance in these re-tellings as ultimately they won't fit the narrative and story format. Since this is not a game unrelated side excursions will not be possible as I have to keep the story relavant and moving. This is not to say they don't happen in some form in this alternate universe, I'm just saying they probably won't be written about in these stories.

Which lead me to my own 'Side Stories'. To have my characters be able to talk to each other about their pasts I had to write more fleshed out flashbacks that the character could then pick and choose which elements to tell to fellow characters when appropriate. I'm debating on whether or not to share these little tidbits as most of their pieces may get told throughout the stories. If I actually ever finish these stories I will evaluate (hopefully not 50 times or so) them and decide to post them or not.

Current Story Progress

Note: Since stories 5 and 6 were thought up before stories 2, 3 and 4 their progress is actually further along. In fact stories 2, 3 and 4 would not even be happening if I already did not put significant development time into parts 5 and 6 as elements of those stories had to have their origins explained in substantial detail...that and my brain wouldn't shut up until I let it think about them in full detail.

First Story: First pass in 'Storyboard format' complete. Will be making a second pass as I post chapters here, I may or may not keep the same writing format.

Second Story: Conceptualization complete. First pass is still being written. First act is complete, written in a more verbose 'Storyboard format'. Second act is being written in a 'Standard Novelization Format'.

Third Story: Major criticial plot point concepts determined, general story flow direction is almost finalized.

Fourth Story: Major critical plot point concepts determined, general story flow direction is on its way to being finalized.

Fifth Story: Conceptualization almost complete. Basic story outlines for each chapter have been written. Beginning elements of this story have been moved to stories 2, 3 and 4.

Sixth Story: Basic concept complete, opening and final resolution have been determined with basic story outlines for both written.

Delivering what I have so far and in the future

As stated both here and in my profile I will be releasing this in pieces as I want to take this opportunity to do a revision so far. Since the first story is in a completely different format than the one I've ultimately chosen it will have to rewritten in its entirety at some point however I will still post it in its current format with a more verbose revision. The first act of the second story will probably be posted for the most part as is until I eventually convert it to the final format. From then on out each part should be in the novelization format when released.

The Ever Awesome TL:DR version

Hey I'm writing an MGQ alternate universe set of stories! I may change things, leave some things off. I've done a lot of work on this these last several months and will be releasing it in the way in which I first wrote it with the intention of writing it differently down the road! Hope you enjoy or it pisses you off enough that you feel offended enough to make snarky comments! (Okay that last part wasn't in the long form version, I actually hope you do like these stories and if you're going to post criticism/feedback please make it respectful and just as important, useful. Just 'I didn't like this' doesn't really help much.)