me = blind go reveal
Ha! I'm stunned nobody guessed me correctly on
blind_go ! I thought for sure my style was easy to get as I've been doing angsty vignettes forever. See the reveal here.
From my guesses, I seem to have only gotten one right out of seven guesses! It really is amazing how little we end up knowing people's writing style.
Er, so I guess it's time for fic commentary. My first! Before that, I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who reviewed these fics!
RIVALRIES: This is really the first fic I wrote after my arm healed. Well, the first completed one and there was much difficulty with the title. It was supposed to be "Agony of Victory", but that was perhaps giving in too much to the melodramatic side of me (which I do too much already).
One of the biggest concerns I had with this fic was that Shindou seemed OOC because I remember Shindou as a more upbeat character and this seems to be the common interpretation. I actually wanted to rewrite it for Waya, since it seems more like something Waya would feel. But at the same time, it seemed too cliche to do it that way and I guess I wanted to experiment with the whole Shindou/Touya rivalry. Finally, I just decided to stick with it the way it was---except for trying to insert themes.
It was more of a writing exercise actually. I was pretty worried since I wasn't sure how well I would write after such a long hiatus and I haven't seen Hikago for about a year so my grasp on canon is pretty loose nowadays. Still, it is an interesting piece.
What really surprised me is how much people thought it was canon-like. Maybe I've just read too much cheerful!Shindou, but I didn't expect people to see this fic as something that reflects canon!Shindou at all. Considering I haven't watched Hikago forever, I'm very very glad you thought so!
FIVE TALES OF WAYA: This hit me about a few days before the
blind_go
deadline. It started as this image of Waya getting a death note, but because I'm really unfamiliar with the series and stopped reading it after around chapter 50 or so, before it really exploded into full-fledged fandom, the first drabble was a struggle to write. I finally just shrugged and decided to go with it---since I didn't even have DN manga or scanlations, I couldn't even parallel it which is probably why some of you may have had trouble recognizing it.
Another inspiration of this fic is all the "Five..." fics I've been seeing, although I confess to reading very few of them. And after writing "Rivalries" and "Pretty Girl", I wanted to do a more comic piece that really is just me on crack. XDDD
Trying to think up other crossovers was both fun and mind-twisting. I really wanted a series of crossovers for super-popular fandoms but my mind kept blanking out. Probably because I'm not a much of a mainstream follower---I usually end up liking obscure anime/manga, except for a few series like Naruto, Gundam Wing, Hikago, etc. Still I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did---especially the Valdemar one. That last drabble was me grasping at straws. I was ready to say quits at the third one.
And to the curious, my favourite was the Ranma one! ^_~
PRETTY GIRL: I read Beauty Pop around the same time the themes for
blind_go was released and so Kaneko/Mitani flashed into mind instantly. It felt weird though because
aishuu wrote "Not A Pretty Girl" a while back, and that was nearly enough to discourage me from writing this in fear of being a subconscious plagiarist. I think it is in part what inspired the fic---the pairing at least. I went back to her fic to look over the first part just to make sure I'm not mimicking, then decided to just go with the Beauty Pop crossover. Initially, I titled it "Look & Look Again" but the way it wrote itself out lent to "Pretty Girl" as a title instead---which, yes, I was fighting against because of above reasons.
I have to admit I felt a lot disappointed at first at the lack of comments but you guys made up for it in the end! *g* I'm surprised when people said Kaneko's very IC. The fic didn't have much dialogue at all, but I'm very happy that Kaneko and Mitani's characterization worked out well.
This fic gave me the most headaches. For one thing, this is the one that was about 3000 words---it had more dialogue too. I really wished I read the
blind_go guidelines better before writing it. Probably would have saved me tons of grief. Cutting out 2000 words meant practically rewriting the thing---and I had to do it about four times in one night! Then there was the fact that I pretty much cheated by plonking three-quarters of the themes as book titles---yes, after reading how well others integrated the themes, I am very, very ashamed of myself. So much that it makes me cringe re-reading this fic and it makes me itch to just cross out that entire paragraph. I don't know if I'll leave it there for masochism or as a lesson that really cheaters suck. Probably more the latter.
Still, I think I understand now why writers sometimes prefer to concentrate on lesser characters. It gives an opportunity to explore them without so much the limitations that comes with main characters.
I'll probably be posting these fics in FFnet in a day or two. And I'm hoping this year will be more writing than the last! ^_^
blind_go ! I thought for sure my style was easy to get as I've been doing angsty vignettes forever. See the reveal here.
From my guesses, I seem to have only gotten one right out of seven guesses! It really is amazing how little we end up knowing people's writing style.
Er, so I guess it's time for fic commentary. My first! Before that, I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who reviewed these fics!
RIVALRIES: This is really the first fic I wrote after my arm healed. Well, the first completed one and there was much difficulty with the title. It was supposed to be "Agony of Victory", but that was perhaps giving in too much to the melodramatic side of me (which I do too much already).
One of the biggest concerns I had with this fic was that Shindou seemed OOC because I remember Shindou as a more upbeat character and this seems to be the common interpretation. I actually wanted to rewrite it for Waya, since it seems more like something Waya would feel. But at the same time, it seemed too cliche to do it that way and I guess I wanted to experiment with the whole Shindou/Touya rivalry. Finally, I just decided to stick with it the way it was---except for trying to insert themes.
It was more of a writing exercise actually. I was pretty worried since I wasn't sure how well I would write after such a long hiatus and I haven't seen Hikago for about a year so my grasp on canon is pretty loose nowadays. Still, it is an interesting piece.
What really surprised me is how much people thought it was canon-like. Maybe I've just read too much cheerful!Shindou, but I didn't expect people to see this fic as something that reflects canon!Shindou at all. Considering I haven't watched Hikago forever, I'm very very glad you thought so!
FIVE TALES OF WAYA: This hit me about a few days before the
blind_go
deadline. It started as this image of Waya getting a death note, but because I'm really unfamiliar with the series and stopped reading it after around chapter 50 or so, before it really exploded into full-fledged fandom, the first drabble was a struggle to write. I finally just shrugged and decided to go with it---since I didn't even have DN manga or scanlations, I couldn't even parallel it which is probably why some of you may have had trouble recognizing it.
Another inspiration of this fic is all the "Five..." fics I've been seeing, although I confess to reading very few of them. And after writing "Rivalries" and "Pretty Girl", I wanted to do a more comic piece that really is just me on crack. XDDD
Trying to think up other crossovers was both fun and mind-twisting. I really wanted a series of crossovers for super-popular fandoms but my mind kept blanking out. Probably because I'm not a much of a mainstream follower---I usually end up liking obscure anime/manga, except for a few series like Naruto, Gundam Wing, Hikago, etc. Still I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did---especially the Valdemar one. That last drabble was me grasping at straws. I was ready to say quits at the third one.
And to the curious, my favourite was the Ranma one! ^_~
PRETTY GIRL: I read Beauty Pop around the same time the themes for
blind_go was released and so Kaneko/Mitani flashed into mind instantly. It felt weird though because
aishuu wrote "Not A Pretty Girl" a while back, and that was nearly enough to discourage me from writing this in fear of being a subconscious plagiarist. I think it is in part what inspired the fic---the pairing at least. I went back to her fic to look over the first part just to make sure I'm not mimicking, then decided to just go with the Beauty Pop crossover. Initially, I titled it "Look & Look Again" but the way it wrote itself out lent to "Pretty Girl" as a title instead---which, yes, I was fighting against because of above reasons.
I have to admit I felt a lot disappointed at first at the lack of comments but you guys made up for it in the end! *g* I'm surprised when people said Kaneko's very IC. The fic didn't have much dialogue at all, but I'm very happy that Kaneko and Mitani's characterization worked out well.
This fic gave me the most headaches. For one thing, this is the one that was about 3000 words---it had more dialogue too. I really wished I read the
blind_go guidelines better before writing it. Probably would have saved me tons of grief. Cutting out 2000 words meant practically rewriting the thing---and I had to do it about four times in one night! Then there was the fact that I pretty much cheated by plonking three-quarters of the themes as book titles---yes, after reading how well others integrated the themes, I am very, very ashamed of myself. So much that it makes me cringe re-reading this fic and it makes me itch to just cross out that entire paragraph. I don't know if I'll leave it there for masochism or as a lesson that really cheaters suck. Probably more the latter.
Still, I think I understand now why writers sometimes prefer to concentrate on lesser characters. It gives an opportunity to explore them without so much the limitations that comes with main characters.
I'll probably be posting these fics in FFnet in a day or two. And I'm hoping this year will be more writing than the last! ^_^