I was going to try and finish "Fireflies and Snow" in time for Valentine's Day (and because the story mostly takes place at that time, in 2012), but it looks like "1 More Chance!" will need the time before the regular Wednesday update (now working on Chapter 51! As Strong Bad would say, "Ah, holy crap!").
I'm starting to think more and more that the sequel to "1 More Chance!" should be told from Yousuke's point of view, since it's been a long time since I've done a male character's perspective. I was also fooling around with an idea that I was calling "1 More Chance! Reprise" that would have been some of the scenes from the main story - and some scenes to which Chie is not privy - told from his point of view...but then I thought that maybe that would just be rehashing old territory. (Some examples: Yukiko's party at the inn; the Wing Chun event; the first kiss; the first sexual overture; the duel acceptance; and so on.) The interesting part of that idea is that the reader would get to see what was going through Yousuke's head during those scenes...but the reader already knows the outcome, so I wonder if it would be nothing more than an exercise for my own ego. The more I consider the issues - and how many scenes I'd want to do - I think I'd much rather move forward with the timeline as originally proposed, after the conclusion of "1 More Chance!"
...And I can't believe that I'm already plotting the sequel to a story that's currently running upwards of 450,000 words...!
I really need to get back to work and just stop thinking about this stuff.
12 February 2010
06 February 2010
The Failure of Chapter 50
I was never pleased with the original Chapter 50 of this story.
I wrote it in something of a rush, over the course of about two days, after being sick and having some deadlines at work. So, I should not have been surprised when I felt that it just wasn't ready. But it got across the points that I "needed" to have made in the story so far. And, after getting a prod about how long the story had left to go and doing some calculations, I was feeling some pressure to get the story completed in an acceptable time frame. (Although, really, what is "acceptable" in fan fiction? These are stories written for ourselves, after all.)
After less than 48 hours, and losing a little bit of sanity over fears about how much the chapter, well, sucked, I decided to take it down. (I had something of the same issue with Chapter 32, "Listening Skills," though I didn't feel bad about that one...just the readers didn't like it.)
This is the first time that I've "missed" a weekly update since I first started posting the story back in March of 2009, and while I feel like I've failed in that part of my mission, I want the story to be able to stand on its own merits. I don't want to have a chapter up that I just plain don't like...and that is causing me problems.
I did want to thank the three folks who bothered to read and review Chapter 50 early, and I let them know the reasons for why I was doing what I did. I also took into account their feedback and a couple of questions that they posed when I started the rewrites (it pays to give thoughtful reviews!).
Hopefully, I'll have Chapter 50 (and maybe even 51) ready to go by this coming Wednesday. Definitely 50, though. The faithful deserve that much.
So, there was a failure this week. But I think there was also something learned. And that's really what this process is about.
I wrote it in something of a rush, over the course of about two days, after being sick and having some deadlines at work. So, I should not have been surprised when I felt that it just wasn't ready. But it got across the points that I "needed" to have made in the story so far. And, after getting a prod about how long the story had left to go and doing some calculations, I was feeling some pressure to get the story completed in an acceptable time frame. (Although, really, what is "acceptable" in fan fiction? These are stories written for ourselves, after all.)
After less than 48 hours, and losing a little bit of sanity over fears about how much the chapter, well, sucked, I decided to take it down. (I had something of the same issue with Chapter 32, "Listening Skills," though I didn't feel bad about that one...just the readers didn't like it.)
This is the first time that I've "missed" a weekly update since I first started posting the story back in March of 2009, and while I feel like I've failed in that part of my mission, I want the story to be able to stand on its own merits. I don't want to have a chapter up that I just plain don't like...and that is causing me problems.
I did want to thank the three folks who bothered to read and review Chapter 50 early, and I let them know the reasons for why I was doing what I did. I also took into account their feedback and a couple of questions that they posed when I started the rewrites (it pays to give thoughtful reviews!).
Hopefully, I'll have Chapter 50 (and maybe even 51) ready to go by this coming Wednesday. Definitely 50, though. The faithful deserve that much.
So, there was a failure this week. But I think there was also something learned. And that's really what this process is about.
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