Daydreams of an angel and a fish

[yoshiblue]

Spoiler!

Nah, it wasn't anything you did. Just me goofing up the context. I thought the things the survivor was telling her as she stood by the portal was her self reflecting. Then greeted by someone else and not still with the survivor.

[Zorafim]

Spoiler!

Oh, I see what I did wrong there. I didn't put quotations on those, so it seemed like a thought instead of a quote.

[stukasa]

Spoiler!

I like how this was a direct continuation of the previous segment, but with a more introspective focus, giving us a chance to hear Leviathan's thoughts on the massacre. I thought it was funny how a lot of her thoughts that were directed at Zorael could also be directed at you, the writer, since you're the one who wrote it. Like, "Why did Zorafim make me do such a horrible thing? D:" Given our recent conversation about self-inserting, it seemed fairly appropriate.

I laughed when you cut off the survivor's rant. That worked really well on two levels. First, it showed that Leviathan stopped paying attention to him, but it also spared us (the readers) from having to read a long, unnecessary rant.

Somehow I get the feeling this is all one of Zorael's tests/lessons. He is trying to get her to question his orders and to think for herself. She recognized that this order ran counter to his usual ones, and questioned the reasoning behind it. My thought is, given the fact that Zorael is a moral being, he wouldn't have ordered the massacre unless it prevented something even worse from happening. You talked about utilitarianism and the concept of doing the most good. Maybe in this case it was necessary to sacrifice a few to save many more. We'll see.

[Zorafim]

Spoiler!

That's an advantage of writing short segments. It allows me to have different points of views.
Really, I couldn't figure out how else to do it. Getting into Levia's head is the only way to show mental conflict, so that's the route I took.
And yeah, the relationship with Zorael and Levia is pretty similar to my relationship with her. It saves me a step when it comes to motivation.

There's a third level too. It saves me from having to write more dialogue.

Uh~ I won't touch on this for now.

[stukasa]

Uh~ I won't touch on this for now.

I wouldn't want you to. I'm a "no spoilers" kind of person. But I find it valuable to know what my readers are thinking and expecting, so I figured I'd share my own prediction.

[Zorafim]

It is, and it's appreciated for that.

That kind of feedback makes me think about what kind of writer I want to be. If the audience gets it right, is that good or bad? Playing to their expectations may be fine so long as you do it in a new and interesting way. Shocking them is nice, but that can get overplayed.
I got a nice bit of introspection from that, which should help me be a better writer.

Though what would be even better is if I did some actual writing.

[stukasa]

I don't think there's anything wrong with writing something expected if it's what makes the most sense for the story. Surprises are nice from time to time to keep the readers guessing, but don't assume that "predictable" always means "bad." Like you said, it depends on how it's written. Sometimes I write what's expected just to make the surprises more shocking. Like everything was going the way you expected, and then... BAM!

[Zorafim]

That's a good point. And now that you're known for killing off characters, it feels that much better when they get out alive!
I just want to make sure I'm writing a unique story. I think it was unique when I came up with it, but media has caught up. It turns out there's a whole society of Levias in Steven Universe, for instance.

[stukasa]

That's the thing, though. You may think your idea was unique, but chances are it's been done before in some capacity. Sadly we live in an age when nearly every original idea has already been thought of. At this point we're just coming up with variations of past ideas. It's a lot harder to come up with something completely new. Of course, there are so many ideas and stories out there that people won't be familiar with the vast majority of them, so your stuff can still feel unique.

[Zorafim]

I think it's always been the case, even. We told stories about life situations. Then we told stories about past stories. Then each person added their own flavor to each story.

It's not something I'm particularly worried about. In fact, all that I'm worried about is attempting to make steady progress in a way which will allow me to increase the amount of words I write each day. And limit the time I'm starring at a blank screen, unsure of how to continue.
I've always felt I was a better editor than writer. I've always been partial to the phrase "Write drunk, edit sober", but that's way too much alcohol to consume just to keep my story flowing.