Freebie Mondays: My Little Domerin Project Update

When I do these large story projects, I like to check in every now and then with their progress. In part because I think it gets bulky and difficult to keep track of which portions have been published if there isn’t an easy to access table of contents hanging out somewhere. But also because my thoughts, plans and feelings often change several times throughout the course of the project.

As stated in the intro for every chapter of My Little Domerin, this fan fic started out as a gift to the community for helping me deal with a difficult situation – the untimely death of my previous PC.

In an ironic twist of fate, the PC they helped me purchase ran into some recent difficulties involving bad RAM. But neither the continuing saga of my inability to keep a PC running nor the refund it resulted in erases the fact that the community came together to help me during a difficult time. (And then rallied again to help me through another round of stress!) So I intend to see this project through to its full completion, especially for the people who redeemed special cameos.

For those encountering this series for the first time, My Little Domerin is set in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic universe. It features several of the characters from the Aruvalia Chronicles transformed into ponies. But of course the core premise was to transform Domerin, everyone’s favorite elf grumpus, into a pony – because he hates it.

But while the premise of this project is cute and silly, I didn’t skimp on the plot. My Little Domerin delves into the history of this version of Aruvalia – how it was formed and what negative ripples flow outward from the forging of a kingdom through war. It also explores the potential pitfalls of messing with time (and why, maybe, it’s a bad idea).

The Story So Far

If you’d like to read the chapters of My Little Domerin that have already been penned, here’s how you can find them.

I didn’t give this story fancy chapter titles like I did during the prompt novel (for various reasons) but hopefully that also makes it easy to find where you left off.

Episode 1: Act 1, Act 2
Episode 2: Act 1, Act 2
Episode 3: Act 1, Act 2
Episode 4: Act 1, Act 2
Episode 5: Act 1, Act 2
Episode 6: Act 1, Act 2
Episode 7: Act 1, Act 2

Though it doesn’t look like much when listed in this block fashion, the story is over 60,000 words long – and only at its halfway point. (Unless I go really over the top… in which case it’s only a third of the way done.)

How It’s Going

If I had to distil this project into a singular word so far, the word I would choose is: ambitious.

When I wrote the outline for this story, (which I have not yet shared due to potential spoilers) I outlined an entire 25 episode TV show. I was thinking of the actual seasons of My Little Pony and how they tend to be structured with some episodes dedicated to story and some episodes dedicated to silly antics.

My initial thought was that each episode would be 1 chapter, for a total of 25 chapters in all. But as soon as I started writing this thing, it ballooned. I only got halfway through what I imagined as the first episode by the time I’d hit 4,000 words. And I try not to make my blog shorts much longer than that, mostly so they won’t be overbearing. Also, that tends to be about what I write in one session, and I do have a limited amount of time to work on these blog shorts.

I “solved” the problem of episode alignment by dividing each episode into an Act 1 and an Act 2. Since then, it has mostly aligned with my plans of where each episode begins and ends. I cut out most of the pointless meandering and, instead, wove some of the silly antics into the plot to ensure everything would fit.

But this caused a new problem. If I proceed with my original plan of 25 episodes, that will make the entire story 50 chapters long. Which will take probably a year and a half to finish. And while I’m dedicated to writing a full-fledged narrative for this fic, 50 chapters feels too long. Especially since we’ve already crossed the 60,000 word mark after just 7 chapters.

So the new plan is to compact the second half of the story slightly and fit the overall plot into 14 episodes. (Most streaming shows are only about 10 episodes long these days, right?). That will make it 28 chapters – close to my original plan. And hopefully it will ring in between 120,000 and 150,000 words – which is way more reasonable than the 300,000 we’re going to hit if I let this be 50 chapters long.

How Do I Feel About It

Putting my concerns about the length aside, I’m enjoying this project. It has been super fun to write. The main characters featured in this story are some of my favorites, which makes them simple and easy to write. It’s fun to imagine them doing silly things in pony form, so there’s been a lot of soft chuckling involved in the planning and execution of this story.

It’s also been really fun to weave the community’s cameos into the story. Coming up with fun and interesting ways to feature everyone’s ponies has been a hoot.

But the best part of this story is that it has flowed pretty naturally for the majority of the time I’ve been working on it. Every now and then I’ll get stuck on what direction I should go next or when I should move on to the next portion of the plot. But usually a quick break and a little bit of prodding gets things moving again.

Most of the ideas I have come up with have also worked out the way I hoped they would. And as most writers can tell you, that almost never happens. Maybe it’s just because this story is for fun, so there isn’t a ton of pressure to successfully execute anything overly complex. But whatever the reason, I’m happy to have something fun to look forward to. As I’ve always said, having a fun, low-pressure project is what keeps me fresh and reminds me of why I love this craft so much.

I’ll check in again after Episode 14 – whether it’s the end or the two-thirds mark. And when the story is totally finished, I’ll even share my outline!

Until then, I hope you’re enjoying this silly little tale as much as I am!