Writing How do y'all figure out story or worldbuilding problems that you're stuck on?

[DaelyxLenAuphydas]

The impossibility of getting anyone to talk to me about stories that only I care about is wearing me thin, and I'm finding myself wondering how other people deal with it. I feel like I can't figure things out without anyone to talk to or bounce ideas off of but since I'm literally the only person who cares about my stories I don't have any such person to speak with. Is there some method or strategy that works for others? Because when I am stuck on a problem for long enough I feel like I start just going in circles, like my thought process becomes just repetitive and redundant. I tried making a list of ideas or options but all of them suck and I cant stand them. I feel like I just get stuck in a rut and don't know what I can do about it. I think I need like some fresh thought or perspective but I just don't know how to get that or how to look at the problem from another angle. But no matter how many hours or days or weeks or months I devote to it just thinking really hard about something doesn't get me anywhere, I just am going in circles.

 

[ChronicSleeper]

I just start up a new document and write another quirky idea for another worldbuilding project until EVENTUALLY I cycle through enough projects that I round back to the one I worked on and actually get shit done. For me, the record is 8 projects, bordering 9, before I finally got back to working on my first one.

I dont run from my problems, I leave until im forced to pay child support to the ideas I've made and reluctantly court-ordered back.

 

[Garolymar]

I go for a walk or take a hot shower, really anything that gets me away from the screen and puts me into a mellowed out state. I think things come easier when you let your mind wander instead of trying to force an idea.

 

[Deleted member 206441]

Take a break.

Read, think, adapt, overcome

 

[SeaJay]

The impossibility of getting anyone to talk to me about stories that only I care about is wearing me thin, and I'm finding myself wondering how other people deal with it. I feel like I can't figure things out without anyone to talk to or bounce ideas off of but since I'm literally the only person who cares about my stories I don't have any such person to speak with. Is there some method or strategy that works for others? Because when I am stuck on a problem for long enough I feel like I start just going in circles, like my thought process becomes just repetitive and redundant. I tried making a list of ideas or options but all of them suck and I cant stand them. I feel like I just get stuck in a rut and don't know what I can do about it. I think I need like some fresh thought or perspective but I just don't know how to get that or how to look at the problem from another angle. But no matter how many hours or days or weeks or months I devote to it just thinking really hard about something doesn't get me anywhere, I just am going in circles.

I just take a break and read some stuff, preferably fantasy or biographies, because they have worldbuilding built into them. And then I just try to think like the characters. I like daydreaming, so I just say, "this is the law", and "this is the city's name, and this is their role", and plunge myself into those worlds, letting myself get carried away. For example, I like playing Zelda Breath of the Wild, and I know a lot about Tears of the Kingdom. So I had this whole economic system and travel systems, until I realized the Depths existed, and in my dream-world, the sky islands also exist. To solve this, I literally said, "Okay, the Depths don't exist". It's your world, play fast and loose with it. So basically, take a break, read a book, and imagine yourself living in the world of the books you read or the games you played or a mix of them.

 

[GreenLemonShark]

The impossibility of getting anyone to talk to me about stories that only I care about is wearing me thin, and I'm finding myself wondering how other people deal with it. I feel like I can't figure things out without anyone to talk to or bounce ideas off of but since I'm literally the only person who cares about my stories I don't have any such person to speak with. Is there some method or strategy that works for others? Because when I am stuck on a problem for long enough I feel like I start just going in circles, like my thought process becomes just repetitive and redundant. I tried making a list of ideas or options but all of them suck and I cant stand them. I feel like I just get stuck in a rut and don't know what I can do about it. I think I need like some fresh thought or perspective but I just don't know how to get that or how to look at the problem from another angle. But no matter how many hours or days or weeks or months I devote to it just thinking really hard about something doesn't get me anywhere, I just am going in circles.

I really feel this. I’ve gone through the same loop of thinking in circles and feeling like every idea I come up with just doesnt quite work or feels flat. What’s helped me is letting myself rewrite the same core idea, or characters, across multiple timelines, universes, and versions until something finally sticks.

I’ve written different versions of the same two characters, sometimes with different names, sometimes with different dynamics, across multiple stories. Most of those versions went nowhere. But eventually, I hit a version that just clicked emotionally and creatively, and that’s the one I’ve been building on since.

So dont beat yourself up for going in circles, I think sometimes its a part of the process. ?

 

[Eldoria]

The question is, what do you want to tell in your novel? The main premise of the story must be solid and measurable. If your premise is weak from the start, or you don't know what the protagonist should do in your story, you'll have difficulty interpreting and bringing the world to life. Protagonists aren't narrative devices; they're living characters in your story. They have stories, personalities, settings, social relationships, and ideals. The writer's job is to delve into this protagonist and discover what the protagonist will do to achieve the story's premise. If that's in your imagination, then creating related characters, plot, and world-building will come naturally.

 

[DaelyxLenAuphydas]

Its not so much coming up with ideas thats the hard part, so much as getting them to gel together properly. Inevitably when developing ideas, I'll end up eventually finding contradictions, and can't seem to find a way to get them to work. Now you could suggest taking the ideas and finding a new project to work on with them or trying to find alternatives but often by the time I find these contradictions I've already built up a lot of story around the ideas that caused the contradiction. I end up with a convoluted house of cards falling apart, and no clear answer on how to proceed. It can't be as simple as moving on or trying again either, since... I mean, okay, with the one I'm currently on its a project thats taken up most of my time for over a year. Other times I run into problems with Heartlands and thats a setting thats been in development for the better part of a decade. I guess my point is, its a lot of work to just 'move on' from.

I can't just take a break and come back either, because well, I've done that. Like. A lot. I dont seem to come up with solutions no matter how much I put off a problem. Then I come to the point where I need something and i just... I dunno what to do, I guess. I just always end up with the same cycle. Some problems I've managed to solve eventually but others I feel like I just keep putting off and... I dunno what to do. Scrap teh whole project that has most of my favorite writing I've ever done and into which I've poured months of my life? Well, that doesnt exactly feel great.

Its not as simple as abandoning ideas that dont work either, since all of my ideas tend to have a stage like this. If I abandoned them every time I fell into this kinda maddening spiral, I'd never have anything to work with.

Idk.

 

[GreenLemonShark]

I just take a break and read some stuff, preferably fantasy or biographies, because they have worldbuilding built into them. And then I just try to think like the characters. I like daydreaming, so I just say, "this is the law", and "this is the city's name, and this is their role", and plunge myself into those worlds, letting myself get carried away. For example, I like playing Zelda Breath of the Wild, and I know a lot about Tears of the Kingdom. So I had this whole economic system and travel systems, until I realized the Depths existed, and in my dream-world, the sky islands also exist. To solve this, I literally said, "Okay, the Depths don't exist". It's your world, play fast and loose with it. So basically, take a break, read a book, and imagine yourself living in the world of the books you read or the games you played or a mix of them.

Ah yes, what you’re describing sounds a lot like dissociation, the unofficial superpower of overthinking writers everywhere. Some people call it a flaw or a mental health problem, but to be honest, fuck that shit its a feature. I think it’s a creative engine in disguise. While others are stuck in traffic or zoning out in meetings, we’re off mentally crafting entire fantasy realms, tragic backstories, and sci-fi worlds.

Sure, dissociation can be frustrating, but it also gives us the ability to mentally yeet ourselves into new worlds whenever we want, and that’s a pretty great tool for storytelling if you ask me. Please don't take what I said the wrong way my friend. ?

 

[Eldoria]

Its not so much coming up with ideas thats the hard part, so much as getting them to gel together properly. Inevitably when developing ideas, I'll end up eventually finding contradictions, and can't seem to find a way to get them to work. Now you could suggest taking the ideas and finding a new project to work on with them or trying to find alternatives but often by the time I find these contradictions I've already built up a lot of story around the ideas that caused the contradiction. I end up with a convoluted house of cards falling apart, and no clear answer on how to proceed. It can't be as simple as moving on or trying again either, since... I mean, okay, with the one I'm currently on its a project thats taken up most of my time for over a year. Other times I run into problems with Heartlands and thats a setting thats been in development for the better part of a decade. I guess my point is, its a lot of work to just 'move on' from.

I can't just take a break and come back either, because well, I've done that. Like. A lot. I dont seem to come up with solutions no matter how much I put off a problem. Then I come to the point where I need something and i just... I dunno what to do, I guess. I just always end up with the same cycle. Some problems I've managed to solve eventually but others I feel like I just keep putting off and... I dunno what to do. Scrap teh whole project that has most of my favorite writing I've ever done and into which I've poured months of my life? Well, that doesnt exactly feel great.

Its not as simple as abandoning ideas that dont work either, since all of my ideas tend to have a stage like this. If I abandoned them every time I fell into this kinda maddening spiral, I'd never have anything to work with.

Idk.

Don't you have a rough idea when creating the synopsis/initial premise of the story? Isn't it true that when designing the main premise, you will have an idea of the ending of the story? For example, Naruto wants to become Hokage (ending), the story of Naruto's struggle to become Hokage from there all the twists and turns of the struggle are depicted, who are the characters involved, what sacrifices Naruto makes in fighting for his ideals, who are the antagonist characters/organizations that stand in his way, and what strength is needed to realize his ideals? All of that happens naturally. You can't use tropes or patterns from other novels to write your protagonist's story. Your protagonist lives in their own world. Your task is to dig the story of the protagonist's struggle to achieve their ideals/the ending of the story.

 

[GreenLemonShark]

Its not so much coming up with ideas thats the hard part, so much as getting them to gel together properly. Inevitably when developing ideas, I'll end up eventually finding contradictions, and can't seem to find a way to get them to work. Now you could suggest taking the ideas and finding a new project to work on with them or trying to find alternatives but often by the time I find these contradictions I've already built up a lot of story around the ideas that caused the contradiction. I end up with a convoluted house of cards falling apart, and no clear answer on how to proceed. It can't be as simple as moving on or trying again either, since... I mean, okay, with the one I'm currently on its a project thats taken up most of my time for over a year. Other times I run into problems with Heartlands and thats a setting thats been in development for the better part of a decade. I guess my point is, its a lot of work to just 'move on' from.

I can't just take a break and come back either, because well, I've done that. Like. A lot. I dont seem to come up with solutions no matter how much I put off a problem. Then I come to the point where I need something and i just... I dunno what to do, I guess. I just always end up with the same cycle. Some problems I've managed to solve eventually but others I feel like I just keep putting off and... I dunno what to do. Scrap teh whole project that has most of my favorite writing I've ever done and into which I've poured months of my life? Well, that doesnt exactly feel great.

Its not as simple as abandoning ideas that dont work either, since all of my ideas tend to have a stage like this. If I abandoned them every time I fell into this kinda maddening spiral, I'd never have anything to work with.

Idk.

In one of my projects, I ran into a similar problem with timelines and character arcs that just wouldnt line up, no matter how I tried to fix it. So eventually, I leaned into it and made the entire story function inside a paradoxical time loop, where the main characters are also the main villains.

Specifically, I have these two characters, Silveral and Leonardo, who are trying to overcome a devastating curse. They’re the protagonists, working together to save each other. But in another version of the story, same universe, just a different branch of the multiverse, they fail. Their cursed forms fuse into a grotesque, hybrid monster doomed to suffer forever and that version of them becomes the main villain.

Its wild, and messy, but it gave me the freedom to embrace contradiction instead of constantly battling it. And the best part. That’s just one version. The story I’m currently working on, Cursed Destiny, probably won’t even include that twist, but it still lives in the same multiverse, just on a different track.

Not saying this exact thing will work for your story, but sometimes the answer isnt to “fix” the contradiction, its to highlight it. Let it be part of the worldbuilding or even the thematic structure. ?

 

[SeaJay]

Ah yes, what you’re describing sounds a lot like dissociation, the unofficial superpower of overthinking writers everywhere. Some people call it a flaw or a mental health problem, but to be honest, fuck that shit its a feature. I think it’s a creative engine in disguise. While others are stuck in traffic or zoning out in meetings, we’re off mentally crafting entire fantasy realms, tragic backstories, and sci-fi worlds.

Sure, dissociation can be frustrating, but it also gives us the ability to mentally yeet ourselves into new worlds whenever we want, and that’s a pretty great tool for storytelling if you ask me. Please don't take what I said the wrong way my friend. ?

Oh, cool, I never knew that! I just thought of it as something anyone could do when they were bored...

 

[DaelyxLenAuphydas]

Don't you have a rough idea when creating the synopsis/initial premise of the story? Isn't it true that when designing the main premise, you will have an idea of the ending of the story? For example, Naruto wants to become Hokage (ending), the story of Naruto's struggle to become Hokage from there all the twists and turns of the struggle are depicted, who are the characters involved, what sacrifices Naruto makes in fighting for his ideals, who are the antagonist characters/organizations that stand in his way, and what strength is needed to realize his ideals? All of that happens naturally. You can't use tropes or patterns from other novels to write your protagonist's story. Your protagonist lives in their own world. Your task is to dig the story of the protagonist's struggle to achieve their ideals/the ending of the story.

I generally like writing stories that are about a lot of different things, and often have several different protagonists. When one plot thread or arc starts to conflict with another and I'm pulled in a bunch of directions at once is when I get problems. I find myself having lots of compelling reasons to not do it in every possible which way I can think of, and unable to conceive of any alternatives. Or all the alternatives I can conceive of I have an equally long list of reasons it wouldnt work. So all I end up with is a catch 22, where every option I can find seems equally terrible. If I can even find an option that would work even in theory...

 

[Eldoria]

I generally like writing stories that are about a lot of different things, and often have several different protagonists. When one plot thread or arc starts to conflict with another and I'm pulled in a bunch of directions at once is when I get problems. I find myself having lots of compelling reasons to not do it in every possible which way I can think of, and unable to conceive of any alternatives. Or all the alternatives I can conceive of I have an equally long list of reasons it wouldnt work. So all I end up with is a catch 22, where every option I can find seems equally terrible. If I can even find an option that would work even in theory...

Don't you already have an option? That option is bad to write? Well, just go with the flow and follow how the story happens. Even if that option will result in a tragic/bad ending, it's better than the story stopping where it is. In reality, we can't control everything to be good, sometimes letting bad things happen will make the story more lively. So if you feel afraid to write that bad option because you're afraid of disappointing readers, then ask yourself, why are you writing the story? Is it just to satisfy the fans' desires? If that's the case, your story will lose its compass. Fan expectations cannot be a benchmark for whether a story is narratively good or not. I still remember the manga story that had the potential to be a masterpiece, Attack On Titan. At the beginning of the story, the story was very original and presented a narratively and ideologically promising premise - the liberation of humanity from the oppression of the titans. But everything changed when chapter 138 was released, the author hesitated, afraid of the story's own premise. If he made Eren follow his initial idealism then there would be a genocide of all humans outside the walls, the writer was burdened until he finally chose to 'kill the story' Eren was made into a 'victim of fate' a brave protagonist forced to become a tragic antagonist with a ridiculous plot - because his 'fate' was like that. Finally the story became ambiguous. The premise could not be achieved and instead of making fans happy, fans were angry and made alternative endings. Sometimes we need courage to write a story so as not to 'betray' the premise of the story that we promised from the beginning.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

First, slow down, step back, and take a deep breath, and get some control over your thoughts for a moment.
World-building comes easy for me and I'm happy to lend any advice I can.
You obviously have a very over-active and creative mind - which is a wonderful trait to have as a writer.
But it also sounds as though you try to go in too many directions, never settling on one idea or another. The moment you get a handle on your story, you might over-think it, and try a different approach, and then lose track of the story altogether.

News flash: We all do it. *^^*

Here's what I do to keep focused on the story I want. Realize that yes, you can probably write a better story at any time.

But it doesn't mean you have to.

if what you already have is working for you, then stick with it. Design a full story outline and character list, plotting out your story bit by bit all the way to the end, and present your characters, their info, back stories, and relationships with others. Do all of this, and then go into your story again, focusing JUST on the outline and the characters you've done. Try not to think about other avenues and just go with what you've done; and you'll write a much better story because you stayed focused on your plan of action. *^^*

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I originally created my world because I didn't want to use someone else's for D&D/AD&D.
Then realized that players would not read that much background material before playing and just kept some summaries to toss out for background information and set the rest aside, trotting it out four times to start novels (one of which I finished but no longer have, one I just scrapped as too juvenile even for YA stuff, one ... keeps threatening to resurface and was teased in Between Worlds but will probably remain shelved, and one that was originally planned as a campaign but couldn't get the players together enough to keep it going so mutated into a novel, had four chapters written, and the first was submitted as part of a job application to TSR - who said the dialogue was not "realistic" and that I should probably do volunteer work for the RPGA for a while before trying to do professional writing ... and that volunteer work led to me doing unpaid stuff for a group called GameBase7, and work that never got completed for Paizo - though some of the names from my world wound up as places or characters in the Shining Jewel section of Golarion, and, eventually, paid work for Kenzer & Company's HackMaster game... thirteen years later).
That version of my world was destroyed, by the way.
But that world limps on again in Between Worlds (AKA Between Earth and Pyrroth on PocketFM)...
My other world was designed in bits and pieces for a Champions game, and wound up being published as Demons Rule back in '89, and was resurrected in the Jack Diamond stories and impacted Strange Awakening.

 

[DaelyxLenAuphydas]

First, slow down, step back, and take a deep breath, and get some control over your thoughts for a moment.
World-building comes easy for me and I'm happy to lend any advice I can.
You obviously have a very over-active and creative mind - which is a wonderful trait to have as a writer.
But it also sounds as though you try to go in too many directions, never settling on one idea or another. The moment you get a handle on your story, you might over-think it, and try a different approach, and then lose track of the story altogether.

News flash: We all do it. *^^*

Here's what I do to keep focused on the story I want. Realize that yes, you can probably write a better story at any time.

But it doesn't mean you have to.

if what you already have is working for you, then stick with it. Design a full story outline and character list, plotting out your story bit by bit all the way to the end, and present your characters, their info, back stories, and relationships with others. Do all of this, and then go into your story again, focusing JUST on the outline and the characters you've done. Try not to think about other avenues and just go with what you've done; and you'll write a much better story because you stayed focused on your plan of action. *^^*

Problem is by the time that I realize theres a problem I'm already in too deep. Well, okay, I was trying to talk in more generalizations in this thread. But I think to be clear I need to delve somewhat into the specifics of this specific time that triggered me writing this thread. But this is just on example, I've had similar problems many times; this one in particular has just been kicking my teeth in for months.

So I have this project called Generation C, right? and its an MLP inspired, but mostly original setting, which I started working on for a few different reasons. For one, I got the idea when watching one of the MLP movies and I got a lot of ideas of plot points from that. For another, I've wanted a story dealing with magic and technology both existing fairly developed within the setting at once. And for another, I had the idea of 'what if I was to have my own generation of MLP'? and it kinda went from there.

Now during that initial brainstorming stage, I came up with a lot of ideas. Most didnt stick, but many did. Eventually I cultivated and pruned a cast of seven main characters. And I'm very happy with where those ended up, though it took me an entire year to do that. Now I worked on developing those characters arcs, and how they interacted with the world, and the plot thread ideas I had developed. All well and good.

But then only fairly recently did I realize two of the core ideas I came up with WAY back at the start of the project resulted in some weird combinations! So basically the two ideas in question was: 1), I had the idea of the pony race having lots of subvariants with traits from different types of animals. Something a little like Arknights I guess, where theres lots of people from different races with different traits... but with ponies. Now this was one of the core ideas of the setting and is a major part of the worldbuilding, theres lots of different nations with their own races and some of them have their own unique advantages or disadvantages.

But then 2), I had the idea that lead to the main thrust of the first major story arc, where most ponies didnt have magical abilities and instead developed them as they grew up. The types of magic they developed then was related to their personality and identity. Thats basically just lifted from Heartlands, which is my main fantasy setting.

And now those ideas worked okay in isolation. But when combined I ended up with this really weird problem! because, if you don't know, in MLP ponies magic is kinda directly linked to their anatomy! Unicorns can cast spells, pegasi can fly; they ahve horns and wings. Only now I have all these different races which are different from eachother... But because of the second thing, the types of magic they have can't be based on their race. But parts of their anatomy are based on their types of magic! And... Well... Now its just a big 'ol clusterfuck of confusion. Some races have horns but don't do magic! Do wings just show up in adolescence? Magic can't be linked to the subrace/subspecies because theres a whole big plot point about only aristocrats having magic, but then some types of magic just dont make any sense on some subraces! Heck! I ruined everything!

And now I dont know how to untangle it because, well, I already made the plot based on both of those things, and trying to undo either of them would require me to rewrite *huge* swathes of lore, character backstories, motivations, even the storyline itself. And now I just don't know what to do! And I don't want to scrap it either because, I mean, I've literally put most of the last year of my life into this project, it would be no exaggeration to say its a significant portion of my entire lifes work up to this point. And further, my writing for this project is my favorite writing I've ever done.

I wrote up a bunch of possible 'solutions' but all of them are terrible and have awful consequences and I really dont want to do any of them. sigh. And yeah. Now I'm here...

 

[CharlesEBrown]

You want mangled lore... the only constant on my world is the number of suns (two - those who worship, or at least respect, the Sun Goddess Selaria claim they are her eyes; those who disrespect her insist they are a lower part of her anatomy...).
Originally it had two moons as well, but when I started writing about it, I had it down to one (and that one was important, as it was home to the first being to undergo divine ascension - so the earliest inhabitants of the world never had a moon!), and then it was up to three at another point (which wound up being explained by one very powerful and not very sane magic-user STEALING a mountain to create a moon - a moon he could fly out into space occasionally, and the other being an asteroid captured by planetary gravity)

 

[TheBestofSome]

I... don't know that I've ever had this problem, where I simply can't find a solution to a problem in my story. Maybe it's because I write characters first and so their motivations are what drives the plot forward. Maybe I just haven't been writing long enough (I've only been writing seriously for about two years, though my story does have over a quarter million words by now). Maybe it's because my story isn't all that complex plotwise and most of my worldbuilding is built from the same core themes. Probably the last one, honestly.

Okay, I wrote out a whole thing and then before I could hit post you gave me exactly what I was asking for, which was more specificity about what the problem was.

I think in this case you're going to have to sacrifice something to make your story work, which hurts, trust me, I know. But your two concepts directly clash in a way which make so that even if you find a way to reconcile them, it will diminish the impact of both. You can't have magical abilities based on a person's physical traits and then tie the types of magic too closely to their personality and identity at the same time.

If I remember correctly, in MLP they kind of did both, where pegasi and earth ponies had magic based on their race/subspecies, but unicorns' magic was heavily based on their personality/identity. Yes, all unicorns did spells, but most could only do a select few spells, and Twilight Sparkle was a major outlier in that she basically got to do all the spells, but then her talent was literally just magic. (She wasn't exactly normal in a lot of other ways, too, but eh.) You could borrow that concept, where certain races' magic is based on their biology, and others on their personality. MLP also had the ponies have 'surges' of magic as infants, but then they have to learn to fly/do magic properly once they reach their adolescence. I don't see there being much of an issue with your characters only actualizing their magic once they grow into adolescence or even later.

You can fix the issue of only aristocrats having magic by having aristocrats be only certain races, which also lets you do things with racism if you so choose, though I don't know if that would mess up other plot points you have. It also means not all your races get magic, but I don't know if that would be a problem or not.

All things considered, I feel that you're going to have to throw out/heavily rework a lot of the work you've already done if you want your story to be coherent. It's not what you want to hear, I know, but based on what you've told us I think it's your best option. The two concepts you've outlined just clash too heavily for there to be a quick and easy fix. Don't delete what you've already written, though; you may be able to reuse the concepts in new ways later.

Writing surprisingly often necessitates getting rid of your hard work because it just didn't fit for one reason or another. There are successful writers that in order to get one book to a publishable state, they have to write over ten times the amount that eventually ends up being in the finished product. (I think that's closer to the norm than the exception, actually.) Unless you get really good at spotting the potential problems early, you may have to resign yourself to writing a lot of words/stories/plotlines that will never see the light of day. It doesn't mean all that work was useless or a waste of time; rather, it was a part of the process that will eventually get you the story you want to share with the world.

When Tolkien was writing the Lord of the Rings he had a LOT of failed attempts, though that might have been somewhat due to the fact that he wrote by starting from the beginning until he wrote himself into a corner, then he'd start from the beginning again. And again. Eventually however, he did get the finished product that made him universally famous. But how many years of effort do you think he threw out before he got the version of the story that revolutionized an entire genre, the Lord of the Rings that so many know and love?

 

[LeilaniOtter]

And now those ideas worked okay in isolation. But when combined I ended up with this really weird problem! because, if you don't know, in MLP ponies magic is kinda directly linked to their anatomy! Unicorns can cast spells, pegasi can fly; they ahve horns and wings. Only now I have all these different races which are different from eachother... But because of the second thing, the types of magic they have can't be based on their race. But parts of their anatomy are based on their types of magic! And... Well... Now its just a big 'ol clusterfuck of confusion. Some races have horns but don't do magic! Do wings just show up in adolescence? Magic can't be linked to the subrace/subspecies because theres a whole big plot point about only aristocrats having magic, but then some types of magic just dont make any sense on some subraces! Heck! I ruined everything!

And now I dont know how to untangle it because, well, I already made the plot based on both of those things, and trying to undo either of them would require me to rewrite *huge* swathes of lore, character backstories, motivations, even the storyline itself. And now I just don't know what to do! And I don't want to scrap it either because, I mean, I've literally put most of the last year of my life into this project, it would be no exaggeration to say its a significant portion of my entire lifes work up to this point. And further, my writing for this project is my favorite writing I've ever done.

I wrote up a bunch of possible 'solutions' but all of them are terrible and have awful consequences and I really dont want to do any of them. sigh. And yeah. Now I'm here...

Well, having watched many seasons of MLP, I know the world there fairly well. *^^*
It still sounds like, to me anyway, that you should still focus on your original plans. There's no need to re-write a lot if you just stick with what you intended first. Look at it this way, you're not limited to just ONE book here. You could write the first book as you intended, and then write another book that continues the saga. That way, your new ideas can then take center stage.

If I could ask, why did it take you a whole year just to plan everything out...? That's a horrible misuse of your time. You should have talked to me sooner.