Hi everyone. Before, I talked about there being 5 heroines for the full project. After doing some writing and thinking, I'm now planning on limiting the 5th heroine's role to that of a non-heroine and shortening the story to 500,000 words, rather than 750,000 words.
I do like the fifth heroine! (working name "Siren")
But she's quite separate from the main story, so I think The Silent Column would be more focused without her in a heroine role.
I was thinking, in the past, that being with "Siren" would be refreshingly unrelated to the rest of what was going on, in a sense, and that the reader could just be in a wholesome relationship with someone away from the rest of the story. (Almost as an allegory for moving some place new and finding love after a war, or something similar, and being happy to live a new life.) However, now, I'm planning on Thidria playing a similar role to that. (Focusing less on the main plot and more on being in a wholesome relationship with someone day after day, season after season, helping her heal from her personal wounds and helping her to ease out of her shell while you heal from your personal wounds by spending time with her.) Unlike "Siren," however, Thidria is still in the same location as the rest of the main characters and she's more closely related to the main story, while still being more or less on the outskirts of it. At some point, I may make a different visual novel in the same continuity as The Silent Column, focusing on "Siren," her town, those who surround her, a different protagonist, and the events of the town she lives in. However, as for The Silent Column, I now only plan on her making an appearance as a non-heroine.
Other than limiting "Siren's" role in the story, I'm also planning on slimming down the story in other ways. This is because, as I write and plan the heroines' routes, I'm finding that I'm already covering a lot of what I was considering 'extra content' in the heroines' routes, themselves, so I no longer feel like it's necessary to have whole sections of story dedicated to that content.
I'm now planning on The Silent Column being 500,000 words long and being released in two, 250,000 word acts, rather than three acts of that length.
I'll talk about all this in the next update video, as well, but I thought I'd make this post before that video. Also, I wanted to share this graph of the new structure with you guys. <3
Take care. <3 See you next time.
Edit:
Or maybe something more like this, we'll see. ^^ (I'd like Gate to not be mandatory, I think, and I'd like you to optionally see how ??? is doing. <3 )
