Okay, so what do I put here? It's always bemused me. I guess I'll put down some random thoughts. It's not like my real life is relevant.

Coming Crawling Back

Well, it's been a while. The original fiction has had its first draft completed. Rewriting is necessary but is deferred for now. It's time for a break. My new story, Yumi, will hopefully showcase such improvements as I've made over this time. Expect me to be more flexible in terms of chapter length, and hopefully a little more focused all-round. On the other hand, my update schedual will probably be more flexible as well. Chains... remains a regret. But I can't spare the time or the energy it would take to bring it to a conclusion right now, especially after writing myself into a hellish corner. I can only apologise about that. I hate it when authors do this to me, after all.

Chasing Plot Bunnies

So, what now? Well, things are complicated. To cut it to the bare essentials, I have a very promising original fiction going on right now and on top of that I really don't have the time to keep up a regular update schedual during term. For that reason, I'm going to stop writing fanfiction for a while. With that said, Chains is not forgotten. If I can, I will go back to it when I have the time needed to do it justice. Apologies, since I know as well as anyone else here the pain of an incomplete fic... but I'm afraid it has to be done. On the plus side, I'm working on improving my style and experimenting with new ways of structuring my stories. Hopefully, like a shounen character, I will return at a dramatically appropriate moment even stronger than before...

Chains of Memories Status

Okay, it's about time I was actually honest about how things are going. The truth is I'm drifting, and have been for a long time. For the last ten chapters I've been using the 'throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks' approach to writing and frankly I'm not sure it's working. Writing has become a chore, I don't have confidence in the quality of what I am writing, and I'm not sure anyone wants to read the material I put in to help me want to write the damn thing. At the same time, I despise people who leave projects on the internet unfinished, which causes a moral dilemma. For now, at least, I need to write something else- something with fantasy violence, frankly. So Chains is on hiatus until I get my shit together. However, as an apology I'm going to write 'First Light'- hopefully, a 12~ chapter long pulp fantasy account of Chikane and Himeko's first lives. I'm sure it's not ideal, but it's what I need to write and at least it has lesbians and no damn robots.

My sincerist apologies for the halt. Hopefully I'll be able to come back to Chains on all cynlinders once I've had a break.

God, There's Gaps!

"There is no sense in working for a completed matter."- that gay guy with the funny hair from Code Geass

There many reasons to write fanfiction, but I'm consistent in working for one school. If characters seem hard-done by or underutilised, like, hypothetically, evil but hot lesbian antagonist figures who don't have very coherent motives beyond a hate of horses, it feels right to give them their fair time in the sun- and then some. If the ending of the series is incomplete in some way, in terms of the "right ship" or bad execution or just being wrong, completing it is the right thing to do. Yuri has that a lot, god knows. And those are the things that motivate me. No God of Gaps, I'm a guy of gaps, and my pechant for overkill means it take me a while. Unfortunately, too, it's very rare that I encounter "completed matters" I can just forget... guys have to work hard too. That's also why I'm unlikely to do sequals. A completed matter should be exactly that, though life goes on for the characters.

The Japanese Question

"Sugoi! Shizuru-kaichou is so kawaii, desu~"- Maria Sou

One of the difficulties of a westerner writing fanfiction for anime is, on a fundamental level, you're probably writing in the wrong language. I certainly have that problem. I can't write Japanese, but simply sticking to English isn't a great option either. Accepting the necessary evil of loan-words as modifiers, all that's left is degree. Honourifics are basically accepted by everyone, and known by everyone. They're vital for indicating shades of meaning, so much so that I alternate between groaning at their complexity and wondering why English doesn't have any. Titles I can accept, but it's a weaker point. "President Fujino" would also work, but is a bit ambiguous. Using "sugoi" where decent English words exist, however, is unnecessary in my opinion. But then there are other questions. Originally, I was going to translate "ara, ara" into an approximate "my, my". I then noticed just how many times I'd have to translate that in a Shizuru story. So that's also a necessary evil desu~

Okay, I Lied

"I want the whole country to know that I did not sleep with that woman. I just had sex with her then left."- Prime Minister Kenjou

Or, in other words, real life has become somewhat relevant to me. As much as I have other projects I want to take on after Astraea Lake, notably a full-scale Miyuki story set 10 years after series end, real life commitments have tied me up. First and foremost, I have a month to cram preparatory work for my Cambridge interview. On top of that, I signed up for... foolishly... the National Writer's Month and I want to write some more original fiction regardless. So I'm unlikely to post anything for about a month.

Project Creep

"I'll definately be finished by chapter fourty..."

Writting a story without a truly coherent plan, just a collection of ideas, a slice-of-life style with a fetish for random conversations and linear but consistent cast growth will definately lead to project creep. But those are sufficent, but not necessary conditions for it to occur, and it's happened to me in dramatically different stories as well. Project creep just is, like warts. It isn't necessarily something to be feared. Nonetheless, it will drain you slowly as a single project grows successively larger, like some kind of malignant parasite feasting on your time and energy and growing ever more hungry... but it also means the muses are happy. It is, as they say, an occupational hazard. But it's a lot better than writer's block.

Burnout

This is what happens when you write 2500 words a day for too long.

As I watch too much shounen in between my happy yuri series (go Blue Drop!), I always think of this in terms of my limit. Of course, shounen characters always go over their ostensible limits, often several times in one battle, but I don't have the benefit of a demon fox or plot stamina. However many times I say it to sound cool, if I'm so lazy I left it too late and so tired I can barely see the screen, something has to give. Ironically, even characters in non-shounen series appear to defy the grip of sleep with contemptuous ease when they have to. Yes, I'm looking at you, Nagisa.

Catchphrases

"I had the hottest threesome ever with Easley (variable bodyparts) and Priscilla (extendable tongue)... is what I'd like to say." - Ressurected Ligards, Claymore Volume 24

Catchphases are troublesome things. At times, they can be great fun and part of a character. At other times, they're troublesome. Claymore, with three different characters using the line "XYZ... is what I'd like to say" is probably one of the latter examples, where a phrase belongs to the author, not a character. This is something I also experience. My current vice would probably be "As ever, you're smelly/annoying/sexy/obnoxious/loud/gentle/hot/whatever..." and I'm trying my best to cut down on it. The thing is that everyone has speech gimmicks in life. I'm currently working on the old British understatement, with "somewhat" and "that wasn't strictly necessary". But recurring phrases is one particularly bad place for the author's voice to override that of the character. That's always somewhat annoying.

On Writing 2500 Words a Day

It's not advisable.

Nonetheless, I do it, because I'm a stubborn oaf and my writing will last forever unless I push myself. As I said before, speed comes at the cost of quality, forwards planning and sleep time. But when my project creeps to ever greater lengths, those are all necessary sacrifices. The basic method is that I will write 2500 words today, regardless of circumstances. Even if I have to crawl to school the next day. I can generally reach my target in two and a half hours or thereabouts, so it can be done. The worst days are when I sit and stare at a blank screen and think "screw this". But that's when I lean on everyone else. Reading a few chapters of other people's fictions is generally enough to get me going again. I'm counting on you all!