Do I have two fics to finish, three in various stages of planning, and a roleplay to work on? Yes. Am I thinking of writing another fic? Also yes.
So...Saving Sable. It's my most popular fic, people are still reading it like 4 years later, people still really like it, and I hate it. Well, it's more like I'm disappointed in it. It's one of those things you make, and then you look back on and think "man, I wish I'd done this differently." SS has some major issues. I could've portrayed RAD a lot better. Dawnclaw shouldn't have been Sablekit's biological mother, she should've been his adopted mother. Kids have to go through severe abuse or neglect to develop RAD, and either I portray RAD innaccurately and have a sympathetic protagonist, or I sympathise with a child abuser. I don't like those options. I want Dawnclaw to be a likable protagonist. So maybe she has four kits at a young age that she isn't ready for. An abandoned and neglected/abused kit is found, and Dawnclaw is the only one who can take him in. She has misgivings already, it's too much responsibility to place on such a young mother. But she does her best, and while she makes some mistakes, she's not a fucking child abuser. She feels pretty bland to me, but expanding on the main issue of her being young, reasonably shallow, put in a really tough position could make her much more interesting. It would focus more on Sablekit's recovery and mental health, with Dawnclaw being a much more central part of that.
I can then rewrite Aquiver into the character I want her to be - not much change, but that way the Empire in SS would be consistent with the current worldbuilding I have for it. She'd still have the same personality, but would be less "magical stranger with all the answers to everything, manic pixie dream girl"
The murder plotline also needs changes. I thought of it halfway through the book, and it derailed the original plot. I need to balance Sablekit's journey with the murder plot, and deepen it. When I was writing it, the key thing was that Minkfoot came out of nowhere. It was a big surprise, because I thought that shock value made good writing. Most of the time, it doesn't. I don't want to make her involvement blatantly obvious, but I want there to be more clues, and potentially change the whole cult motive thing because what even was that.
I'm planning on it being almost the same, but there will be some bigger changes too, to make things fresh, interesting, and obviously better the book. I won't say too much because spoilers, but I'm pretty excited to do this! Knowing me I probably won't get around to it though. Please let me know your thoughts on things I could improve or what you'd want to see!
