What is one change you're happy you made to your story?

Leyelle 2024-02-20 18:52:42 UTC #7

In "Damsel in the Red Dress" Adding Mrs. Moon. She wasn't originally supposed to be in the story basically at all, but she stemmed so much of the plot it would almost entirely not exist without her.

What's a fairytale without the queen?

KevinReijnders 2024-02-20 19:03:42 UTC #8

Aladdin

this texts exists to exceed the 20 character rule

Leyelle 2024-02-20 19:08:14 UTC #9

i've never read or watched Aladdin, but fairytales should have evil queens or wicked step-mums

KevinReijnders 2024-02-20 19:11:04 UTC #10

Rules are made to be broken

Also, do yourself the favor and watch Aladdin!

mythgital-creatures 2024-02-20 19:46:04 UTC #11

Changing up the scenery, when I was checking over my written drafts and working out what panels need doing I realised it was a lot of back and forth between two locations, so decided to rewrite a scene so it's a bit less of that going on. The catch when your two characters that work in separate shops and that's when they mainly see each other, you end up with too many scenes based in said shops. Got a few more outdoor interactions now.

Leyelle 2024-02-20 19:54:55 UTC #12

won't! just cuz you said so lol

allisoncandraw 2024-02-20 20:36:47 UTC #13

Completely trashing the original story I had for my characters. Originally it was a more dramatic story and I wrote it in high school so it was....bad lol. I also got rid of the original main character entirely.

I switched over to a slice of life and am much happier with it now.

NickRowler 2024-02-20 21:03:25 UTC #14

For Frostpeak West, the biggest change that I thought was for the best was making Bertie the adopted son of Mr. Blueberry.

Originally, Mr. Blueberry had a young son named Jet, which appears in the protype series Brother Butterfly. Jet was removed. There was also early concepts where Mr. Blueberry is the one who fosters Claus.

ShidoDraws 2024-02-20 21:31:02 UTC #15

Surprisingly the one change I made for my story is having the story take place in another world, initially my main character, Nina, was supposed to be kept in her home and having a ghost friend was the thing that motivated her to run away from home and travel the world. But I soon realized she's a ten year old kid roaming in the modern day world, the two doesn't mix well so instead I have it take place in another world where kids could travel the world without adult supervision. I am happy about that change, it gave me the creative freedom I needed.

DasIstWunderblyat 2024-02-20 21:40:42 UTC #16

Not making it a comic

BoomerZ 2024-02-20 22:10:45 UTC #17

My original script had Baul as a normal demon (succubi), but I thought the build-up to the climax of the story would be so much better if she was different. So redid her character as extremely powerful (beyond what most people would comprehend) to make that a nonissue of the story. Her being as strong as she is does not drive the story, the relationship of Baul and Gavin drives the story. And added some new dynamics to her and her twin.

Glofernwolfe 2024-02-20 22:14:47 UTC #18

Honestly the best change I've made in The Adventures of Zovhara Ashfrost is making Zov'ha run away into the wilderness after the Nightflame Festival.

Originally she was supposed to stay and join her friends in the natural hot spring pool. She was supposed to be humiliated by certain members of Aeroz, and she would have been taken back for questioning.

But it turned out that Marana betrayed her and she ran away, after which the village was invaded by raiders.

I like this change because it opened up a whole new story line for Zov'ha with new characters, places and discoveries.

llobucervallince 2024-02-20 22:15:12 UTC #19

Adding line shadow and making the panels bigger
=>

UnTalAugustus 2024-02-21 00:00:27 UTC #20

There's a character I presented in Chapter 5 which was supposed to be the antagonist of the next set of chapters. But the way a conceptualized the character and his philosophy didn't make sense for the conflict.
So I decided to make a completely different character to fulfil the role (This decision was made while I was in the middle of making Chapter 5 itself!!).

To keep it short, now there's a new ally for the main cast. And Chapters 6 to 8 ended up setting a lot of important plot points thanks to the new character I made.

skidiggy 2024-02-21 00:52:35 UTC #21

Ooh, I love this question.

The earliest incarnation of Apparent Secrets was about a woman whose drawings accidentally came to life to cause havoc for her. After significant tweaking, genre change, and a good, long think, I figured, "what if the people who came to her apartment were real?" That changed the entire trajectory of the story, and significant re-writes later, it became what it is today.

I couldn't be happier with the direction the web novel has taken, as it's opened up so many more possibilities than its earliest concepts.

hakei 2024-02-21 01:52:35 UTC #22

My biggest change was to make the story longer.

I was going to end the story very short, but after getting feedback that I needed to delve deeper into my main character's backstory, I decided to make the story longer.

And it gave me more room for angst! I greatly enjoy drawing and writing angst.

Not gonna lie I feel I did lose a lot of readers after the story became more serious, but my soul is very happy and am having a ton of fun haha.

UrMom 2024-02-21 02:47:23 UTC #23

There are a few things I'm happy I changed that I remember off the top of my head. Putting them under a spoiler due to them being spoilers, and heavy content. (Don't read the full post if you're sensitive to discussions of suicide, death and medical... stuff. Also if you're actually subscribed to the comic, and you don't want to be spoiled.)

Spoiler

There's a scene coming up in my current chapter where one of the MCs attempts to jump off a bridge, but is caught by the other MC. The one who caught them was originally going to be confused and really sad, having a bit of a naive innocence/stupidity in his reaction. I decided to change his response to anger, and they get in a bit of a verbal fight after the jumper is pulled to safety.

This feels more practical. While the guy who caught him is a dumbass, he isn't THAT stupid. Also he should canonically be wary of this character already since they have a history of attempting suicide, and already lives with a bit of trauma relating to it. Also the new response feels more productive, it fleshes out the characters better, they also bounce off eachother more.

I was going to have the suicidal character be put in a mental facility for a period of time after a major event happens (The even not relating to attempted suicide, but was decided for them after they were put in the hospital by their partner.), the thing is it's already been established they're sick with cancer, the worst being lung cancer and the beginning stage of gastric cancer. After talking to someone who works in medical, and doing a bit more research, I learned the scenario wouldn't realistically work out. This character would be hospitalized for too long, so I cut it entirely, making it where they just get taken in by the other MC, and they're talked into getting chemo treatment within a 3 week period.

Both characters end up knowing there is a small window before the cancer gets more difficult to cure, and the characters living together makes for more realistic drama.

This isn't a specific change, but recently on my comic (and general life) journey I've learned a bit about the philosophies around death positivity and optimistic nihilism. As someone with mental health struggles they've helped me a ton in dealing with life. Death positivity specifically deals a lot with having open, empathetic, healthy discussions of death and dying, as well as mourning. Killing the fear and mysticism around this event that will someday happen to all of us. Talking about it has also helped some folks with dark thoughts.

The last 4 chapters of my comic will be focusing on the suicidal MC learning self-love and to basically just live with their grief and trauma. I thought death philosophy would fit well in this part of the story, so I've changed little bits of character dialogue and interaction throughout these chapters, and I feel pretty good about it. Feels fitting for these characters to get more healthy mentally through this type of open discussion, it can also bring up nuanced emotions between the two, which... I love nuance so that's a win for me. Lol

lignorice 2024-02-21 03:45:28 UTC #24

Thank you for the thread! Changes are inevitable things, and I'll share mine about Eigria: Lume which underwent quite much!

Atreus was not Cenric's cousin in the early concept. He is just an aristocrat's son (or probably minister, definitely not a general's). His father was not the King's younger brother, just someone not important. I'm glad I changed his family's relationship way closer to the royalty, because they have so much impact in the story and the relationship between Atreus and Cenric is more reasonable this way.

For anyone curious:

AmysGames 2024-02-21 04:26:22 UTC #25

There were a lot of characters I initially imagined as being unsympathetic losers, who now have some of the most heartwrenching storylines in the comic. I'm glad I changed my mind on that!

Lorian 2024-02-21 05:47:36 UTC #26

To go slower and do not hurry things. My novel gained more depth and I enjoy it much more, slowly getting to the climax. Relationships between characters deepened and readers enjoy it more as well.