Personal Update: 2/23/2019

Wow...it's been a year later since I last updated my profile. Not much longer since I updated a story. Between then and now, I had a lot of events happen. I'm not going to get personal with them, since that's not the point of FanFiction, but I will say a healthy portion of my time has been soaked up with my endeavors and responsibilities. Hence, why I kind of disappeared from writing and FanFiction in general.

That being said, after being bombarded with PM's and even some reviews, all just in the last two months, I'm wanting to come back and at least finish some stories. That, and HTTYD 3 kind of put the fire back in me. (You should all see it if you haven't already.) This isn't supposed to be a huge "welcome me back!" thing. Just an update of what's going on. I'm planning on updating my Dragon Boarder story soon from posting this.

Thank you all for the support and kind PM's; even after all this time. I really do appreciate it!

-Dustnblood

A side note. I’m grateful for a few of those that I consider to be friends. They have helped me so much in my stories and helping me become a better writer. I hope they consider me a friend too. In no particular order, they are:

TheWhisperingWarrior
Fandomspotatoes
Coral the Leviathan
Cartwheellou
Yalleo

Thank you for your support and help. I hope you continue to enjoy my stories.

Stories and Brief Description/Journal (Spoilers if you haven’t read them):

1. How to Train Your Dragon: The Second Night Fury

This was the founder of all the stories I’ve written. The one that gave me the fever to write. I wrote it exactly two days after I watched the first HTTYD, being in middle of 2012. (I haven’t watched it before, due to serving a religious mission. If your curious about what I was doing and why I couldn’t watch TV, PM me. No, I’m not going to convert you. Or preach about Jesus to you. I’ll only do that if you are interested or want to just understand my beliefs.)

My first ever OC, Ukiah, was born from this story. Since it was my first story, I wasn’t as aware or concerned about character development, hence, if you read it, he is incredibly overpowered and almost all-knowing. However, it was my first story ever. I consider it a success.

2. The Dragon Boarder

Wow. What can I say about this story? It is the story that started The Dragon Boarder series, and truly made me love writing.

I simply wanted to write this story for the pure reason that it started as a self-write in. Meaning I was trying to put myself in the HTTYD universe. Hence, Matthew Haddock’s name originates from me. Matthew. My name is Matt(hew). He jokes with puns and is sarcastic, I love puns and sarcasm is my second language. And yes, I snowboard. A lot.

As the story developed, I quickly realized I couldn’t keep writing myself in; thus, Matt kind of had a slight personality change. Not huge changes, but enough to make him not me.

I didn’t realize how popular the story was, until after I compared the stats to my first story. The Second Night Fury had 77k words and 47 reviews. The Dragon Boarder had 30k words, and 50 reviews. And then the views…The Dragon Boarder almost had double of what The Second Night Fury had. In half the time it was up. That told me that it was a keeper in regards to making it a series.

And, to be honest, it’s still my favorite series to write. I have future plans to re-write this story. Now, by re-write, I’m not meaning I’m going to change everything, but clean up the grammar and such. Just to make it easier to read. And not make me vomit in my mouth.

3. The Dragon Boarder Returns, The Dragon Boarder and the Slaver, The Dragon Boarder Reclaimed: (The Dragon Boarder Series, Pre-RTTE, or Ver. 1)

I loved the Dragon Boarder, but I had issues drafting multiple sequels to it when I wanted to continue it. I had tons of crazy ideas, ones that I’m sure would have ruined the series for what it started as. At one point, I had three of Matt’s friends in Berk, all with guns, which caused a massive headache in trying to write.

Now, as a side note, I started the series before RTTE, after the first two seasons of the Dragons’ show, and after watching HTTYD 2; I had to base a lot of my sequels on what I thought was a good idea. But because of HTTYD 2, I was finally able to get a solid plot line put together, but still didn’t help me with some characters.

Character development was hard, as I didn’t really have much to base it on. Hiccup and the regulars were easy enough, since I had lots of examples to draw from; but Heather, Valka, and even Eret were a challenge to try and portray accurately. Which Heather was a complete 180 from what I portrayed her as before RTTE came out.

Heather herself was also a spur of the moment thing. I never actually intended to use her in my original draft, but felt that it was a good idea as I continued to write the chapters. So, there you go. Heather was almost NOT in the series.

Never once did I think that the series were a failure, given what I had. But I did know that it wasn’t my strongest point in writing. So I began to explore other ideas and stories. Which ended very, VERY, badly.

4. The Sand and Dragon Riders (Failed)

This story purely started out as a concept, with the hope to make it a series to replace The Dragon Boarder. In my personal life, I’ve gotten incredibly bold and good riding in the sand dunes. So I decided to write a story about a character that did it for a hobby; similar to Matt, but never had a future in making dune riding a career. His name was Kyle Bryson.

Kyle was too much of a write up and dream character that I really botched while creating. He had no flaws. He had no developments. He had no opposition in his choices, and never really struggled with those choices. He just did it without any thoughts on the consequences. Even traumatic events, such as losing his brother didn’t faze him. It was a rough story to read after I finished it. In a sense, he was a robot.

That being said, this story was so ill received, that I’m not going to continue it as a series. Perhaps I’ll re-write it, but that’s a hard maybe. I haven’t deleted it for the pure sake of reminding me of the importance of actually developing a plot. And a character.

I don’t consider it wholly a failure, but rather a step for me to move in the right direction. I can’t learn if I don’t see my mistakes; or acknowledge them.

5. Redemption of the Riders (Deleted)

The reason I’m writing about a deleted story, is to show how much it helped me personally. I’ll be brief about this.

I wanted dragons to continue to exist in our present time. I also wanted to include Hiccup and the gang too. That equals failure if you don’t have an actual plan or way to make that work. Let me explain:

The two desires didn’t match up without some sort of stupid sci-fi, unexplainable events to happen. (Mind you, Matt’s cave is unexplainable, but this story was just off the charts with what I did. And I love sci-fi stuff. Just not with HTTYD.)

This story was me chasing a fad and had no real plot or direction in it, except for maybe one point that was covered within a couple of chapters.

In short, it wasn’t well received, or supported. Nor did it build me as a writer. So, I deleted it.

6. The Dragon Boarder: Strangers

The story that revived the Dragon Boarder Series. And my motivation.

After RTTE came out, the first season, it completely resurrected the writing spirit in me. After a few failed posts, including stories (Yes, plural) that I deleted since, I was really burned out. I was about to swear off Fanfiction and only write for myself. I honestly didn’t know what I’d do.

After watching season, and seeing the opportunities that it offered, I had to get going again. To start over. To give Matt (Haddock, not me) a chance to be included in Hiccup’s adventures. And I did.

This story in particular, worked out differently than I ended up doing for the rest of the series. Instead of going with the flow in the episodes, I wrote it after season one of RTTE, and before season two. It was to help him to really develop as the Dragon Boarder, and to develop relationships with the others. Heather, Hiccup, Astrid, Stoick, everyone!

I used inspiration from an old story that I deleted in the series before RTTE, where a friend of Matt’s came to take him home. A falling out took place and they became enemies. Hence, the inspiration for the character Darien. Who, by the way, turned out to be more evil than I had intended. I also wanted it to be a girl, as one of my friends mentioned that there were very few “evil” girl characters in HTTYD. And I wanted to change that.

Fun fact of the day, I was originally going to have Matt and Astrid hook up, with Heather and Hiccup being with each other. For the pure sake that Matt had black hair like Heather’s. It was a thought I toyed around with, but decided to keep it the way it is now. And I’m glad.

7. How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup and the Vagabond

A re-write/reboot of my first story.

By this time, I had already gotten the writing bug revived, and after conversing with a friend on Fanfiction about his story(s) and mine as well, I decided to bring my first ever OC, Ukiah, back to life.

How? Well, the only way you can bring someone back! Giving him a new origin story of course!

Originally, Ukiah’s dragon was a Night Fury; hence, why it was called The Second Night Fury. Because I wanted Hiccup to still be unique and be himself with his traits and maintaining the image of being the leading protagonist in my stories, plus my ability for character development had greatly improved, I decided to give Ukiah a different unique dragon, a Sand Wraith. A dragon off the mobile game Rise of Berk and the PC/mobile game School of Dragons.

I also made his past of being a Crevite more of a mystery, given that he really didn’t know anything about himself. When he did learn some things about his heritage, such as being murders and killers; his world was rocked, and I felt it helped make his reaction more natural in the story.

Also, writing this story the way I did, let me set up the next Dragon Boarder; allowing me to bring Ukiah into the series itself.

8. The Dragon Boarder: Hiccup’s Outcast

First off, this was almost deleted halfway through. I started it out to follow along the events of the second season of RTTE, and it followed it so much so, that even the conversations between characters turned into scripts, and not even close to a conversation. Nothing about the story felt good. Nor did the plot seem deep or original. It was a terrible way to follow up the previous Dragon Boarder story.

Fortunately, I had a friend that wasn’t afraid to tell me exactly what I needed to hear. Hence, I literally re-wrote 75% of my story.

Even then, I felt this story was a risk to write. For two reasons: One, I was really contemplating on killing Matt off. Came close, but decided not to. I couldn’t do it. And two, I was introducing a character from a completely different story, trying to tie them together without it looking like a complete patch up job. That was a lot harder than it seemed at the time, as I had to make connections that would have otherwise debunked itself.

However, it was something that really stretched me as a writer, and frankly, was the best way to introduce Ukiah into the series; being one of the risks I was worried about.

I was terrified that introducing him into the series would upset people into thinking I was replacing Matt. Though that was my original intention, as you’ll read soon enough, it had the opposite effect. He helped build my series.

His past still was a mystery to readers, and the events that led to his banishment also seemed to add an unknown. I felt it was better to not go into detail, or write a story on what happened, since it helped add to his character. And it made his conversations and confessions more real. Since Matt and Heather were in the same position as the reader, not being there when he was banished, it made it more real.

Originally, as I was writing this story, I had grown obsessed with Ukiah as a character. My intention was to kill Matt off, and have Ukiah...replace him? Not exactly replace him, but to fill a spot in the gang. Hence, why Matt really almost died in the story.

9. The Dragon Boarder: Consequences

This story. I can’t tell you hate and heat that were in the PM’s, and even reviews, that I got about how upset people were when they learned what happened. My answer to that?

Me too.

This story is the one that I considered to be the best that I have ever written. Is it perfect? No! Absolutely not! But it helped me get to a point that I think is hard to get to. Killing characters.

I know I was planning to kill Matt in the previous story, but I couldn’t get myself to do it. That, and without him, it wouldn’t be the Dragon Boarder series.

Maiming Ukiah as I did, and killing Arrow the Sand Wraith, was super hard for me. Ukiah was special to me. In ways that Matt will never be. He was my first OC, and I finally got him some decent development that made him real! And then I did what I did to him. And took away the only friend that he considered to be family. I remember shaking (slightly), my heart was racing, as I wrote the fateful scene and fight that took place. I felt sick after. I remember thinking as I finished the chapter “How am I going to include him in the next story?”

Despite it all, it didn’t feel right to spare Arrow, or to keep Ukiah in perfect health. Even though I felt bad and sick for what I did, it felt good for the series.

Overall, I feel that if anything, the story helped me grow as a writer.

10. The Dragon Boarder: Closure, Acts I & II

Act I was actually a fun story to write. It was a perfect avenue for what I wanted to have done to Matt, given that he chose to stay with Heather over at Berserker Island. But more than that, it was a chance for me to let him and Hiccup struggle with each other. So often in stories, mine included, that everyone in the party or group get along so well that it doesn’t really reflect life.

People argue. People fight those that they like and love. The occasion of people making amends and forgiving another, is entirely up to those involved. No one can go through life without a disagreement, but that doesn’t mean they still can’t be friends.

I wanted to portray that. I wanted to portray even harsh betrayal and bitter feelings can be forgotten and not the definition of a relationship.

Act II was more of me closing Ukiah’s storyline. I might visit him again, or I might not. I’m unsure still about it. I originally didn’t want to make this story two parts, but given the length of the story, I sort of had to. It was titled closure essentially for him, which is why he had the ending he had. A place that he could call home without any real history, a way for him to ‘fulfill’ his prophecy or vision, and ultimately being with someone that could help him start to live life.

I hope both acts were good stories, at least tolerable to read and come to terms with.

11. The Hunter's Fate

Actually a story that I originally drafted back in 2015. It was one that made me stretch a little bit, since I've never written a girl as a main character. Especially with such a background that she came from. Teeth Wrathen main agenda in the story, was her struggle to actually change to believing that dragons could be friends. Her entire experience with the Riders was that to make her think, and even resist. It's not common for a person to randomly, and rapidly change beliefs and desires. So for someone like Teeth, who has hunted and killed dragons all her life, being around and training them was something she wasn't sure she wanted to do.

The point of the story, is that while people can change, it usually takes time and some humility to be able to. Hiccup and the Riders were there to support and help her. Just like real life. If we want to change, we have to choose to do it. If we see someone changing, it's our job to support them while they try to.

12. The Hunter's Destiny

Continuation of Hunter's Fate. [WIP]

13. The Dragon Boarder: A Final Storm

Final DB story. At least until HTTYD 3. Or if I decide to write a HTTYD 2 spin-off. [WIP]