Happy (Almost) New Year, my sweeties!
It’s getting late, and there’s not much of 2022 left, so here’s a quick and dirty update (with an ickle treat at the end).
This will mainly be a quick update on From Shadows to Stars (See my LinkTree for all the links because I’m too lazy to grab ’em all), especially getting the last part of Before the Storm out.
EDIT #1: LinkTree link added — evidently, I was too lazy to link LinkTree!
So, pardon my f*cking French, but is it me ou est-ce que Dimitri très difficile?
By which I mean, doesn’t anyone else think he’s quite an exhausting character to write? He has a true « je ne sais pas quoi » that makes him agaçant, to say the least.
Excuse-moi français, en effet! I’ll stop.
But pardon my French jokes aside, I’m not sure whether it’s his personality, the fact that (at present) he’s isolated from the main story with literally only Dedue and two OCs (his reluctant ward Lucy, and his ratty doctor, Atticus), to talk to, or whether I’m just being silly.
It doesn’t help that Dimitri is chronologically behind Byleth and Claude. Like, a month behind. And while I did that by design, it means I have to keep checking myself to make sure I have certain events right.
The other thing is the aforementioned isolation.
Byleth and Claude, obviously, can talk to each other, and I can switch between their POVs to get a different perspective on a situation. But with Dimitri, he’s alone with only his hoodwinked and warped outlook on things.
Because I know from (sadly) personal experience how trauma, anxiety and being drugged up to try and control the worst of your symptoms can affect someone. As I’ve been re-writing and editing this upcoming installation of ‘Before the Storm’, it hit how much I’ve poured upon Dimitri and how bloated it became as a result.
This especially became apparent while I was trying to edit everything and release it for tonight.
I quickly realised that – despite working on this on and off for weeks since pushing the first part of Byleth’s update, ‘The Vessel of Knowledge’ – there is no way it will be done on time.
There’s more…
There’s a particular part where I’m worried I take Dimitri a little too far. It’s nothing gross or obscene, but re-reading it today, it hit me how the scene could be interpreted in a very problematic way, and I’m debating whether to keep it this way, re-write it to make it less tricky, or completely cut it.
So, until I work that out (either tomorrow or the day after, ideally before I have to go to Big Girl Work again), I can’t release the full update. I might then need to go bother poor fearlesswindy, fellow fic writer and kind volunteer to be my “problem-solving rubber ducky”, to get an all-too-needed second opinion.
So, yes, until I sort this out my 15,000ish word final update to ‘Before the Storm’ will be further delayed, coming to an internet near you in 2023.
After which, I’m going to seriously consider making shorter updates. Like, 5,000 words lol! It might not be as meaty for the readers, but I might be able to write, edit and release these puppies more reliably. If I work out appropriate breaks, that might well be what I do going forward.
And now, for the treat…
As I said, Chapter 3: The Levin Strikes will not be released in full until 2023 now. Especially now, we’re less than an hour to midnight where I am in Blighty.
However, I didn’t want to end 2022 without anything, so. I have released a sample/teaser for the next chapter.
It is now live on the From Shadows to Stars page and will be posted to AO3 very soon.
That’s it for now – have a lovely and safe New Year! Roll on 2023!
Scarlettpeony Writes 