Since I know I'm not the fastest updater in the world, I figure I'll maintain a progress bar instead:

Advert: http:// /

Update Twitter: https://twitter.com/ttshieronym

Discussion Thread: http:// /threads/to-the-stars-puella-magi-madoka-magica.3927/

A Wiki: http:// /wiki/Main_Page (It has a character list! Which apparently people like...)

Spinoffs List: http:// /post/34219943342/spinoffs

There is also a discord. Ask if you want to join. This is frankly where the most active fan discussion usually is.

http:// /threads/to-the-stars-rp-soul-ascendancy-ic-ii.5213/

https:// www.reddit.com/r/ToTheStars/new/

AO3 Mirror: http:// /works/777002

Also there is a Mass Effect/ToTheStars Crossover that is a joint Collaboration between me and El Conservatore: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12241700/1/Mass-Divergence

Notes:

Now contained on the tumblr!

Sometimes, afflicted by boredom, I end up designing elaborate stories (not necessarily just fanfiction). What I write is just what I've decided is worth putting to paper. Often, what comes out the other end is radically different, but I hope better. That's just how it is. I'm not confident in the quality of what I write, but I find it soothing in a way to take built-up ideas and release them.

Oh, and I should mention that if something below is listed as "in revision" or "slated for revision", that doesn't mean it shouldn't be read or isn't done. I just have this practice of eventually going back and revising chapters long (read: about a year) after initial writing, when I no longer remember all the details. It helps me proofread and read with fresh eyes, which I find helps.

The major exception here is "Advice", which I no longer find to be up to my current standards. Still, I figure I'll leave it, since I don't see the point of deleting it. Someday, I may rewrite, but...

I figure I should make some comments about the various stories I have written (in chronological order, and sorted by series):

Madoka Magica

To the Stars: It was surprisingly fun, thinking up a Madoka story set in the medium-future. It has a bit of sci-fi mixed in, but I don't intend to go too "hard" sci-fi. Not in something that has magical girls...(later edit: It's "harder" than I expected it to be)

Oh, right, the plot. Well, I won't say too much about that yet. It's definitely intended to be ambitious, for what it's worth. How can you tell? It took Ryouko an entire 16 chapter "Volume" to leave the planet...

Minami-ke

Advice: Planned extensive revision. One of the interesting things about Minami-ke is the sheer amount of potential drama just below the surface. The series itself never even pretends to resolve these tensions, nor do I expect it to, but I spent a long time posing to myself hypotheticals about how various things could happen. When you are bored out of your mind, this is way more entertaining than it should be. Eventually I decided to pin down one of the more reasonable scenarios I came up with and see if I could make it an entertaining story. I was also motivated by the lack of long Minami-ke stories.

I settled on something involving Fujioka and his endless quest for Kana, since it seemed relatively easy and I already had a good idea in my mind of how it would go. The story is uneven and patchy initially, when I was still shaky and finding my way around things, but it smooths out eventually. I did try to go back and rework things, but it's quite difficult revising something you've already written, I've discovered. It's much lower quality than my later stories, and I definitely plan to rework it again.

SPOILER

I actually didn't start out intending to resolve the Fujioka/Kana thing, but it eventually reached the point where not resolving it would start stretching the realism of the story too far. So I gave Fujioka his wish. The way I write involves trying to let the plot drive itself from sheer force of logic...and sometimes thing just happen. Fujioka finding out about Touma is another one of these things that just happened.

/SPOILER

Those Soft Eyes: Another one of the weird hypotheticals I came up, this one posits an alternate meaning to the events at the end of Okaeri. I chose this story as a cushion between the previous one and the next, since it would relatively fast and be sort of a break. That doesn't make it easy: it's harder for me to understand Kana's character in this one, and thus harder for me to write. It has no relation to my other Minami-ke stories, and stands alone as an alternate history of sorts to both that and the main canon. I think it's a nice example of what is possible with different extrapolations to the canon. So much potential. That's why I like writing about Minami-ke.

With that said, there are still limits to what can be done. These limits are simply the personalities of the characters or the constraints of reality. For instance, I would never entertain writing some sort of Haruka x Makoto or Hosaka x Makoto story just because I happen to like the idea (because I blew a fuse or something). It's just not possible. I also do my best to avoid adding original characters, since this is meant to be an extension of the canon, not just something I pull out of...a hole. Those I do add arise naturally, and I try to make minor.

Even so, the bounds are what give structure and meaning, and are quite expansive, and I have a built-up store of hypotheticals I will probably never write down because they are too unlikely or difficult to write. For instance, the one where Touma and Chiaki are forced to run away...probably never going to write that one. Fujioka x Touma...only barely possible and I don't like it or what happens to the characters involved...so no.

Patterns of Love: Complete, but in revision. This one is a direct sequel to Advice above, focusing on Chiaki and her friends instead of Kana. It arises because when I finished Advice, having settled the Fujioka thing, I was still dissatisfied with the resolutions given to the subplots I had opened. I had intended to leave those open-ended, a reflection of real life but...I ultimately didn't have the discipline, and once I started down the path of thinking up ways of finishing it, there was no going back. It's...very deep. I'm plumbing character depths I never thought existed. There's some lingering inconsistencies in the plot, primarily having to do with the fact that I don't plan every single detail thirteen chapters in advance. I'm trying to deal with these.

It also comes with a nice three-chapter omake detailing the past of Yoshino and Uchida. Being relatively minor characters, I have a freer hand to guesstimate their past. I will note, however, that Yoshino is mentioned to be rich in volume one of the manga, though apparently the author discarded this idea, since it never came up again.

Three Stories: Complete, slated for revision. Sort of an elaborate prequel to Patterns, and partly to Advice, it deals with the emerging core character interactions that will drive the plot of Patterns. It is also intended as a bit of a character development patch between the actual canon and the crazy stuff I'm writing.

Breaking the Cycle: Resolves the arc dealing with Yoshino and Uchida, and which started with the omake to Patterns. As a story it's pretty far out there, but I had an idea and I'm running with it (more accurately, I had an idea, added another idea on top of that, got more ideas from various sources...). Waiting on Revision.

In Progress:

Nothing at the moment

Planned:

(title not-yet-determined): A conclusion to this pretentious trilogy of sorts, it deals with Haruka, the sacrifices she's made for her sisters, and the latent affections of Natsuki and Hosaka (yes, Hosaka! I swear I can make him a plausible character, even if still just as crazy...)

MESSAGE: Originally, I had planned to do this in parallel with the Madoka story, but my schedule unfortunately just won't support two things at once, so it's on hiatus for now. Sadly. I even have the first few chapters planned out, but...such is life.

Ideas I'm kicking around but probably will never do:

-What if Touma didn't announce her true gender to Kana and Haruka as the very first thing? She was caught in a rather compromising situation with Chiaki, after all...

-Genderbending is fun stuff, especially as a parody. Might introduce an "unknown" girl...

-"Those Soft Eyes" is sort of a window into another chain of possibilities that I ended up not doing. Perhaps, from it, I could incarnate another plausible world, totally different, but from the same basic source...

Chronology

In case anyone ever gets confused what order the chronology runs for the main line of stories, it goes:

-Patterns of Love Omake 1-3 (Except for the very end)

-Three Stories, Ch. 1 and 2

-Advice

-Three Stories, Ch. 3 (partly overlaps Advice 6 and 7)

-Patterns of Love, except Omake

-Patterns of Love, very end of Omake

-Future Haruka Story

-Breaking the Cycle