The expression “to chase a resting quill” is a metaphor/allegory for ensuring a fanfiction is “as canon as possible” even if the main plot has already been privately written by the original author.
I coined the phrase in the “FATE: Festival” disbloat guild, while we were discussing what to do after Deltarune ch3+4 released:
I have a crazy idea: what if we shift the branching-point? That is, instead of this AU deviating from the main story at the end of chapter 2, what if we deviate at ch1? (maybe ch0??)
We could still use all of what we learned from the main plot, and the assets (both main/prime and FATE), it’s just that the plot would end up being much more different than originally intended. And there’s no need to rewrite ch 1 & 2, we can just skip those, as if they’re the ch -1 & 0 of this AU
I’m saying this because now I believe it’s hopeless to “chase a resting quill” (I made up that quote rn)