I've finally set up my own site, where my fics can be downloaded in pdf (complete, not chapter by chapter), and you can support me through a donation if you have the means and the wish to do so.
cloud9stories dot net is the name of my site, you can find the complete caption on my profile if googling it isn't enough (for whatever reason ff doesn't let me copy-past the URL here).
Thank you!
SEQUEL WARNING
Hello to all, I've already said it, but let's make it official: I got started with a sequel. In 'A Tale in Alagaësia', I'll try very hard to work on both my characterization and a proper 'plot', so I hope you'll give it a try.
Notes on both The Bigger Picture and what I'll try to achieve in 'A Tale in Alagaësia':
1) The Bigger Picture was my first ever written work, and mostly written in order to play around with a cohesive magical system.
2) I never intended to focus or work on my characterization in this fic, what I managed to put in were random attempts, nothing more.
3) Even more, I never had a whole idea behind the story proper, there was no 'plot' as many have correctly observed.
4) The MC has been created and written in order to allow me to play around with magic, nothing more.
The final... sucks, but I still completed this ff because, since the MC duel with Voldemort, there was very little in terms of 'story development' that I felt happy to play with. There are dozens of fics that play with the dystopic world post Statute (Rise of the Wizards for one, For Love of Magic for another) and I felt that there was nothing original that I could add to the conflict between magic and not-magic worlds. So if I had to wait for a proper ending to find its way on my keyboard, I would have never completed this fic, maybe one day I'll add a different ending, who knows.
So, I wrapped it up with the creation of a deeper connection with the Whole, but there have been consequences to the MC developing a bigger and bigger bond with the World-soul.
Namely, he managed to cling only to his immediate desire (offing Voldemort) and then he kept up his Great Acts Of Magic on his own. Because he didn't need help, and because, interconnected as he was with Everything, he didn't feel any kind of remote need to forge a bond with another mortal, since, psychologically speaking, he already felt like he had said bonds. And given his starting point of casual misanthropy, it has done him no favours.
In hindsight, I can try and justify the 0 characterization of the MC saying that the utter lack of care for everything but magic that has characterized David Taylor since the beginning and only got worse since then, is in part caused by his own growing connection with the Whole
Months ago I have thought about my MC ending up in the Inheritance Cycle-verse, and even offered a one-shot that I wrote in a couple of hours.
I have been thinking about it...
A lot...
And I received several PMs offering ideas and whatnot.
And I admit that I can do something interesting with the MC in Eragon's world.
But not with him as he is at the end of the Bigger Picture, since there he is basically God, like many have correctly pointed out.
So, I will resort to the waiting aid fundamental in most crossovers: Nerfing. But I will do it with in-lore logic, and not simply because I can.
In short, David Taylor could channel the flow of the World Soul in the Potterverse. Because there I built a magic system based on animism.
Inheritance-verse magic doesn't have souls. Or at least, not in the same way (spirits and the manifestation of Guntera are quite telling that there are things Paolini left unanswered).
So, while there will be some exploring of the Lore, it will be far less extensive, mostly because there is very little to explore magic-wise. Instead, I'll try to work on the characterization, along with a storyline that actually has a direction.
Why would the MC end up involved in the happenings of the world, given his previous track of 'fuck it'?
Because as an author, I'll place (happy or not) the MC between a rock and a harder place. How? Quite simply, by killing canon. Killing it with fire.