Sometime in the 90s, I began reading The Hobbit. I had a kind of dreamy casual daydream of my own world similar to The Hobbit, except with magic that was far more out in the open than the more suppressed variety in Tolkien's world. I envisioned a huge battle between two parties: a large unnamed beast, and a tiny hero, embroiled in battle that was predicted by ancient texts. I gradually built a world around it, drawing on loads of influences, like Dragonball Z and Studio Ghibli.

It was quite some time into the first several attempts at beginnings, that Harry Potter came into my view, and exploring that world, I found several overlapping problems that got me discouraged from writing any more for fear I would be seen as copying Potter, so it went on hiatus. There were several re-starts and re-stops, especially when running aground on a specific scene, or losing the muse. Imagine having a favorite movie, and having to write out that whole movie in order to share it, but at the same time much preferring just to watch the movie.

At one point I realized that I really enjoyed telling others about the story, more than I liked writing it, so I began to write from the perspective of me telling someone else about it, just to figuratively get those ideas down to paper. 'Me' became a character, a writer, trying to pitch his fantasy novel idea, to an NDA-signed editor who was willing to entertain this writer's world and explore it, and help flesh it out in discussion. I called that style Pitfic, or pitch fiction, a kind of frame story.

• Vang What
  • This version contains a major milestone, which breaks down the entire story into loose scenes. My theory was that if I could make, at the very least, a solid outline with scene headings, I could conceivably just write out any scene, in any order, and then piece them back together, and this version was a collection of those scattered scenes. I have kept this scene layout in mind generally ever since I made it, except changing the beginning a lot.

• Lore Dump
  • This is just a dumping ground for notes I had that came to me suddenly and I needed a space to stash them.