Horizon in Sight: Dan's Tale

[TGRF]

Part four begins with Chapter Forty-Eight - Changes. As the company begins their journey back, Valhalla is still and ash falls from the sky, and Dan is forced to confront a truth he had never fully acknowledged.



~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter Forty-Nine - Allegiance is now live! Now desperate to return to Hyleran and discover what has happened, the company is shocked by news of more changes in Valhalla than they had anticipated. All of them, including Dan, must quickly find their place in this new world, and decide who is an ally, and who is not.



~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter Fifty - Survivors is now live! What is left of the company struggles to find any kind of shelter, and Dan knows that they no longer trust him. It's only a matter of time before they turn on him...



~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter Fifty-One - Defeat is now live! The situation gets increasingly worse as Dan steadily runs out of time to be reunited with Heleer. If indeed any hope remains at all.



~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter Fifty-Two - Coward is now live! In the aftermath of the battle, wills are hardened, and the extent of Vydar's plan begins to come to light. It becomes increasingly clear that the war is nearing its end. The only question which remains is who will survive, and who will be defeated?



~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter Fifty-Three - Orcs is now live! At about this point, the plot started coming together a lot easier, so the writing got much better from here on out. Also, because I wasn't here yesterday and probably won't be tomorrow, here is Chapter Fifty-Four - Darkness. Fair warning: cliff hanger ahead.



~TGRF, tackling the remaining writing problems between him and novels...

[TGRF]

Chapter Fifty-Five - Resolve is now live! In their darkest of moments, the company finds hope from an unlikely source. But is it only a fool's hope?



~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter Fifty-Six - Liesic is now live! Having made the decision which will seal their fate, Dan and those with him rush to fight for Einar. But will they be able to keep Utgar and Vydar from crushing the alliance and taking Valhalla for their own?



~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter Fifty-Seven - Reavers is now live! Dan descends into the chaos of battle, intending to do what he can to defeat Utgar. But things quickly go wrong...



Also, due to moving, I will be gone until the 3rd, Friday. I might be able to post, but I wouldn't count on it. When I return, I will post the final four chapters. Remember, feedback of any kind is welcome!



~TGRF, who might be able to post a chapter tomorrow.

[TGRF]

And now for the climax Dan's journey has been buildings towards:

I give you Chapter Fifty-Eight - Fire: Death and destruction surround Dan, and each step seems to bring him face to face with every greater terrors...

Chapter Fifty-Nine - Finality: The battle for Valhalla begins, and Dan has a front-row seat as his future is decided before his eyes...

Chapter Sixty - Aer Ilisyna: In the aftermath of the greatest battle of all time, Dan comes face to face with Vydar.

Chapter Sixty-One - Isadora Again: Dan's tale comes to an end.

A note on the nature of the ending (Spoilers):

Spoiler Alert!

There were certain expectations I tried to meet while writing Dan's Tale. The largest of these was to make good on my promise and actually finish Dan's Tale. When I wrote the Quest, the story ended with Dan being sent back to Isadora, and a promise that I would one day reveal what he did there.

For the longest time, the outline contained a final part which took place after the end of this story. In it, Dan's struggle to escape his soulborg captors with Heleer came to an end. Obviously, that ending never made it to the final cut (or even the first draft), and there are two very good reasons why:

Firstly, as the fan fiction took shape, it quickly became about changing Dan from who he was when he was summoned, to the person who would choose to be sent back. When Dan was first summoned, he knew nothing of his horizon, or of the other things he discovered while in Valhalla. Had he been offered the choice then, he would have had Vydar summon Heleer to Valhalla (as indeed he tried to have happen). Dan needed to change to the point where he would make a different choice, and be sent back.

Secondly, and building off of the first point, once I knew what the fan fiction was centered on (Dan's change), I slowly began to realize that a climax back on Isadora didn't fit. For one thing, all of the action had been building up to and pointing towards a climax on Valhalla, with Vydar as the main antagonist. Neither Utgar nor the Khyta soulborgs were the antagonists I had envisioned them being. Also, throughout the development, the climax on Isadora had remained dry and devoid of additional subplots.

That was because all of the subplots (and the main plot for that matter) would be over once Dan was sent back. That was their whole purpose: to change Dan so that he would choose to return. Once he did return, the plots would be over. I eventually had to admit it made no sense to continue the story, and have a climax with a sub-antagonist, after the main conflict was already over. I had to settle for implication instead, which I feel made a far better ending.

The only problem was, of course, that I had not entirely made good on my promise. In fact, Dan is very much right where I left him before: back on Isadora, still locked in his fight with the Khyta soulborgs.

Perhaps some things are best left to the imagination. At least this time, I think we have more grounds to launch our speculation from. With any luck, Dan will see the dunes of Isadora once more, Heleer by his side.

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Post-Fiction Thoughts (Spoilers):

Spoiler Alert!

Well I finally did it. After the eight-ish years of me promising an end to Dan's Tale, I... failed to deliver. Sort of. Well, like I said: perhaps some things are not meant to be.

I've gotten away from really using my fan fictions to work out writing methods, but I think HiS was a return to that, and hopefully a return to my better writing as well. Things slumped a bit with AV and aCoS, but I feel like HiS raised the bar back to where it was.

HiS was a big step forwards in terms of writing methods. I experimented a bit with subplots and side characters in aCoS, but HiS took it to a whole new level. I'm excited to hear how you thought the side characters and subplots in the story played out, and how well they balanced with the main character and plot (which essentially means, did you ever find yourself wishing I would move on and stop dwelling on something?)

HiS also allowed me to get a good look at what I really need to work on before I can start writing novels. Two things stand out to me as the biggest problems:

First, cheesy dialogue. Line by line, I think the dialogue I come up with is generally okay. But the things being said... I doubt anyone would say that. HiS had several passages of dialogue which were... slightly hard to believe, to put it mildly. In my opinion. I'll be working on that in my next fan fiction.

Second, trusting the reader. This is a problem which has followed me since Dilmir. While the third act of the fiction, and the accompanying epiphany and climax is (I believe) handled fairly well, the build up to that realization is a bit... overdone. I seem to have a tendency to repeat important things, and especially to make any realizations or changes in my characters painfully obvious so that the reader doesn't miss them. This is true of HiS, though I think perhaps to a greater degree than in my other fictions. I'm working on fixing this as well, and with the help of Jane Austen - who appears to be a master at this very problem - I intend to implement the improvements in the next fan fiction.

And speaking of the next fan fiction: when is it coming out? Hard to say. Moving is intensifying, and I expect to be unpacking and settling in for a good part of June. By that time, I hope to have a solid idea of what kind of series I'm looking at, and how the first installment should unfold. Once I have that, I can begin working on development. In the meantime, I intend to study resources focused on the two problems I listed above, and formulate methods by which I can avoid them. I will also be working on worldbuilding when I have a chance.

Because I still anticipate the first installment of BaoP being fairly short, I'm going to stick with my release date of somewhere in the final months of 2019. What exactly the first installment is going to be, keeps fluctuating, so I'm unsure just how long it will take to write. There are plenty of ideas, but I'm having trouble making any of them stick. However, I'm confident that I'll know where I'm headed by the time July is in sight.

Until then, keep reading, keep writing if you are so inclined, and for the love of all things 'Scape, please let me know your thoughts.

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

@TheAverageFan @William099 @hose


Just letting people know that the fiction is now complete. Criticism is welcome.



~TGRF.