Songfics

Okay, nobody asked for this, but I decided to post it here, anyway.

Here's a little group of links to excerpts for the songs that have been used in the story so far. Each excerpt is just about 1 minute in length, but it should still give you an accurate idea of the feeling of each piece.

Chapter 37 - "Agonies and Thrills" - has Rise singing up to Yousuke and Chie. The song is "Free and Easy" by Hamasaki Ayumi, copyright 2002, and is used here without permission. Listen to the excerpt here! (This particular excerpt is the exact part of the song that is described. I listened and studied this song for hours before I finally got the translation right and was able to create the proper feel for the piece within the story.)

Chapter 42 - "Farewell, My Youth" - has Rise singing a song onstage, while the rest of the team listens around the Tanabata Matsuri festival set-up. The song is "Endless Sorrow" by Hamasaki Ayumi, copyright 2002; it's used here without permission. Listen to the excerpt here!

Chapter 43 - "Dandelion Wishes", which covers the Tanabata festival that was referenced back in Chapter 30, "Star Princess" - actually has a couple of songs:

Rise's song onstage is "Voyage" by Hamasaki Ayumi, copyright 2003; used without permission. Listen to the excerpt here!

Nanako and Kimiyo's song onstage is "Wo Qui Non Coin" by Yoko Kanno, copyright 1999; used without permission. Listen to the excerpt here!

Yousuke's song to Chie is "Tanpopo" by Tsuji Ayano, copyright 2006; used without permission. Listen to the excerpt here! (This particular excerpt is the final chorus, where Yousuke joins Rise in singing.)

* * * * *

Some readers do not like song-fics, or stories that have songs placed into them. I don't often like them, myself, since it can feel like the author is taking a short-cut, and using the song to convey emotion and description that the author should really be doing with their own words (as opposed to someone else's). And, honestly, I dislike it when an author just plops in a huge block of lyric text and doesn't enhance it for the sake of the plot or characterization. I've tried not to do that with this story, but I suppose each reader has to decide for him or herself about that.

Getting Back on the Horse

I had a rough time a couple of weeks ago with the writing. Things were just not flowing properly, for some reason. I actually had to scrap one whole chapter (50), and rewrite it again, this time splitting it into 2 separate chapters. I do much prefer the newer chapters as they are, but it definitely took the wind out of my sails, so much that I didn't even update last week at all!

Today sees Chapter 52, "Thrall", posted, one week in advance of the 52-week mark (because my first post on March 11, 2009, was with Chapters 1 and 2, and I updated Chapter 9 before it was due). I think that's still something to be proud of, even if I did miss a week of updating.

I'm hoping that the new chapter will regenerate interest in the story, as I seem to lose readers fairly regularly. I suppose that happens with every story (and mine is a monster in terms of length), but I do often wonder what happened to some of the readers who showed such interest in the early days and then just dropped off the radar. I kind of wish that I could know what made them stop reading/giving feedback...and I kind of don't.

Well, the story's at least in its last arc, with one more fight coming up, and then a whole lot of romance/relationship denouement. (It is a romance/friendship story, after all.) And I've already got a basic outline set up for "Breaking Point," which is the potential sequel story focusing on Yousuke and Kanji, of all people. O.O (It makes sense, trust me.)

I just want to be excited and in love with writing again. I guess that should not depend on things like hit statistics and review numbers, though it certainly helps. I'm getting there, but it's been difficult to pick myself up and dust myself off after the debacle that was Chapter 50.

Ah, well. We live and learn.