{"id":413,"date":"2020-01-09T20:07:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T01:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samarandaybreak.wordpress.com\/?p=413"},"modified":"2020-01-09T20:07:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T01:07:02","slug":"dev-diary-flowers-in-eve-exposition-finalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/samaran-daybreak.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/09\/dev-diary-flowers-in-eve-exposition-finalized\/","title":{"rendered":"Dev Diary: the Flowers in Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is actually about two different topics:<\/p>\n

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  1. \n
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    1. For those of you who have asked, the exposition to\u00a0Eve of Rebirth<\/em> is settled.<\/li>\n
    2. For those of you who read\u00a0The Flowers in Boreal Twilight –\u00a0<\/em>part of it is back.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Firstly, a bit of mention about the exposition as some expressed concerns if the rework has finished. I first developed discontent towards the exposition of Eve<\/em> during the February of 2019, around when chapter 5 was finishing. The goal had always been the same: instead of relying on a flashback later (which wasn’t working out in planning), I wanted to depict the initial meeting between the two main characters – Luna and Kostya – from the very start. Because without it, I kept feeling it was very difficult to grasp the relationship between these two during the early chapters. It might have been acceptable if I could show their meeting in an early chapter, say 4 or 5, but that would have killed the early story’s pacing. My planning kept pushing it back more and more, and that was just unacceptable considering how important it was. Something had to change.<\/p>\n

      However, the initial execution of the prologue-rework was very faulty, and my beta-readers replied with extremely mixed <\/em>feedback. It left me uncertain of what to do with it, and that uncertainty caused Eve<\/em> to lapse off my priority list during the summer (when I was hooked on Quora) and fall (when a heap of new job responsibilities fell on me).<\/p>\n

      But when Winter 2009 arrived, it felt like my muse returned to me. I took all the feedback I received and rewrote the prologue chapters again – the Chapter A<\/a> and Chapter B<\/a> currently posted (as well as the new Chapter 1 Start<\/a>). I’ve finally received the last of the impressions from the four beta-readers I’ve come to depend on all these years – Kadi, Ahmsab, Skychan, Himeko<\/em> – and this time there was no doubt. The exposition has nailed all of my concerns, and I’ve switched my focus from worrying about the earlier chapters to full steam ahead… now if only I could cease worrying about the darn synopsis.<\/p>\n

      (to give you an idea: chapters 8 and 9 are currently in beta, chapter 10 under work. I’m hoping to build up a nice buffer of in-beta chapters before work smacks me with another busy season. Unfortunately I’m not the only one who is busier than I used to be… my beta-readers are as well.)<\/em><\/p>\n

      But the biggest lesson I learned from this is that I should have wrote about my concerns earlier– maybe that would have at least let readers know I was troubled by something, rather than simply another silent hiatus. My apologies.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Onto the second topic:\u00a0Flowers<\/em>. For those of you who remember,\u00a0The Flowers in Boreal Twilight<\/em> was the previous version of\u00a0Eve<\/em>‘s story (the Invasion of Polisia) which I discontinued due to some drama caused by it in my personal life. I think over the past year, I’ve managed to put enough of the emotional baggage away so that I could salvage it.<\/p>\n

      No, I’m not restarting it. Diluting my time between the two would be terrible. So would flip-flopping another time. I’m sticking to one story.<\/p>\n

      Besides, I like\u00a0Eve<\/em>‘s setting setup much better. Gives me more time to build up the complexities of Polisia.<\/p>\n

      Nevertheless — those of you who read Chapter 7 might have noticed: Lydia is back.<\/p>\n

      Yes, Sachka (Aleksandr)’s bride, Lidiya, is the very heroine of The Flowers in Boreal Twilight<\/em>.<\/p>\n

      There are a few tweaks, for example:<\/p>\n