Note to self: For next project, make update-day during the week, so you're a) awake at a reasonable time b) not lazied out of your mind.
Anyway, there's our new chapter (I always think it's kinda funny to see how the hits for the chapters spike when I update a bit late, which is pretty much always; usually they hop quite a bit. You guys must be camping out, haha). It was nice to bring the Tempers up again. I like the idea of them, but unfortunately they can't be thrust into things too prominently without getting in the way. That's one of the things I'm struggling with in NORTH, actually. I have a ton of world-building things I'd like to express, but some of them aren't relevant to the plot, or can't take up as much time as I would like, even though I could babble on about them forever. Pan and Lorelei fall into this category too, I think, at least in this story. Obvs if I ever decide to write theirs (it's sad when you're writing fanfiction for your own story, but then again that's pretty much what the super editions are for the Erins, eh?) for fun, then I can go on as much as I would like, eheh.
I feel like I had a lot more to rattle on about in the Shattered/Chilled days?? I can't think of too much to say at the moment, though. Aside from the world-building things, Vulpine doesn't have much room for rambling. It has been a good learning experience, though. While Shattered showed how utterly delightful a ton of POVs can be, and Chilled showed me that fixed timelines with multiple POVs is absolutely horrible never again nooo, Vulpine has thus far signified that if you insist on multiple POVs, if you have them stuck on a set schedule of appearance, you'll waste a lot of time writing one in order to help nudge another one along. Kinda unfortunate, really. I'd have to say out of the tree, Shattered proved the most workable, in that even though we had a set schedule (Silverstar/other/Silverstar/other), there was still plenty of flexibility, since 'other' could really be anybody, and all those chapters helped to tie in other plotlines or viewpoints that were both fun to write and helpful to the overall arc, I think. Shattered probably had too many to be easily followable (I think it was like 16?) but if I had structured the story as Sprite/other/Sprite/other, I think that would have been just as feasible. I did consider that for a time, but because of one of the major themes/motifs (those Tempers, again!), I couldn't favor any one POV over the others.
So, there's my rambling for the post, I guess. Someday I'll get that balance just right. ;)
@Swyfte: It wasn't really a huge cliffhanger, since Riven was our POV and we already knew he was bleeding, haha. Unless you were just in suspense over how he'd handle meeting the two lil runts who got in his way early on, in which case I hope I didn't disappoint! Hunt-the-runts is fun to say, but I'm sure it secretly hurts poor little Feo and the others deep down. Or right on the surface. It's not very nice. :(
@Pain: Vulpine is a pretty morbid story, really! That's expected from the premise, I guess, but I'm still a bit surprised sometimes by how dark the characters occasionally get - especially Faun who, as you pointed out, basically has nothing to live for (in his mind, at least) and is embarking on what by all appearances is a mission that will probably get him killed. I think he's a nice contrast to Sprite, who is upbeat and perky despite everything horrible that's happened to her - but even she has plenty of self-doubt and uncertainty, especially when it comes to the world at large, the poor thing. At least no one's really died yet, right (backstories and maulings notwithstanding)?
@Lynxeye: Aww, thanks (even though I would argue I'm not a fanfiction author at this point, or at least not only one, xD). As I've said many (many many) times (thanks to my love of rambling), characters are absolutely the most important thing to me when it comes to writing, and playing with both the audiences' expectations of what a 'good' or a character 'worthy' of a POV is (Faun and Riven, respectively) as well as my own inclinations for certain tropes/arcs is a ton of fun. One of my favorite things so far is that all four POV characters come from very different places/viewpoints (solitaire, son of the Reynard, golden boy of the Skulk, orphaned outsider) and have different goals (although as we've seen, some of them are beginning to converge) with both creates conflict and also, almost paradoxically, creates the opportunity for new connections and relationships. It is hella, hella fun, although finding a way to keep it as neat as possible is pretty challenging, especially when trying to figure out just how the POVs will butt heads on issues, and how they'll fall into line with each other on others (not to mention where all their endgames are). So far so good, though! No regrets.
That's all for now, I think. See you next Sunday (should I just start saying 'Sunday night' or 'Monday?')!
