Where Words Fail: Book 8, Chapter 5, Part 4 and Epilogues
Aaand...scene.
Holy shit guys.
When I started this fanfic back in December of 2007, I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would get as far as it has. I can't even begin to explain how much of a ride this has been; start to finish, front to back, just an incredible experience. I would have given up long ago, and almost had on a couple of occasions, but you guys...my fans, those of you who spoke up and those who didn't...you kept me afloat. You kept me going, even when I'd burnt out, when it looked like I had hit my limit and couldn't go any further. The reason I was able to finish WWF is because you guys had faith in me, that you read and loved the story that I'd put so much effort into.
I learned a lot from writing it. WWF had initially been a practice exercise - taking on a short, multi-chapter project to keep my writing skills up to par, and I've progressed a long way since then. I've learned the importance of show-not-tell; I've learned that thesaurus.com is your friend, if you want to enrich your tale with vivid words; I've learned to write from a single character's perspective, to use their voices even when speaking from a third-person perspective, to drag you into their heads, to experience what they're experiencing. What started as a quick, four-chapter practice turned into the monstrosity you see before you.
I've also learned that preparing ahead is a good thing, and that four months was too long of a wait between finishing the rough draft and starting to post the second. >_> I feel like that time difference made the story suffer, but only at first. Things seem to have come around since then, and the story continues to pick up momentum even though it's over.
Now, I'm sure you guys all want to know the same thing: will there be more? Do you plan to continue WWF? The answer is no, unfortunately; that same burnout I'd mentioned before hasn't been completely dispelled, and after spending two and a half years on a writing exercise like this one, it's time for me to move on. I've got original story ideas, stuff waiting in the eaves of this noodle o' mine, characters and events and places that have been percolating for years, far longer than I've been working on WWF. There comes a time when one needs to put the fandoms away, and sometime around early spring this year, I hit that point.
(That doesn't mean that I won't ever write any Avatar/Freedom Fighter stuff ever again...just that it wouldn't be anything big. It'd probably be a little drabble, like the Tales of Symphonia stuff I've been posting.)
That said, I'm willing to bet a lot of you are brimming with questions; I'm going to host a Q&A of sorts using the reserve journal I'd posted earlier today. Go ahead, ask me anything you want - anything about the WWF universe, about what could have been, about what wasn't, about my writing process, about Spatula and Pestle and Mortar and Bubbles, about easy-good waffles...go nuts. I'll be glad to answer all of them. :) I'll also add some Director's Cut materials - ideas that never came to pass, highlighting a lot of the homages and cameos I'd made, so on, so forth.
Lastly - I'd mentioned a couple entries ago that somebody had hacked my YouTube account and deleted most of my videos, including much of the Where Words Fail Unofficial Official Soundtrack!!. Rather than bust my hump getting all of that back in place, I made a little present for all of you. Don't tell anybody where you got it though. :D Shhh! It also includes the final song of the soundtrack: the "end credits," Happy Ending by Mika.
With that, I take my leave. And by "leave" I mean I'm going to ConnectiCon over this weekend, and I probably won't have anything else to post between then and now. :) If you'll be in the area, I'll be wearing my Hunter cosplay again, so say hi if you manage to track me down!
With love,
- TEi
Where Words Fail
Book Eight: Coming Full Circle
Chapter 5, Part 4: The rest...is silence.
deviantArt | Fanfiction.net | SkyeHawke
Epilogue 1: To die would be a great adventure
deviantArt | Fanfiction.net | SkyeHawke
Epilogue 2: ...And straight on 'til morning
deviantArt | Fanfiction.net | SkyeHawke
Previous: Book 8, Chapter 5, Part 3 - Table of Contents
Holy shit guys.
When I started this fanfic back in December of 2007, I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would get as far as it has. I can't even begin to explain how much of a ride this has been; start to finish, front to back, just an incredible experience. I would have given up long ago, and almost had on a couple of occasions, but you guys...my fans, those of you who spoke up and those who didn't...you kept me afloat. You kept me going, even when I'd burnt out, when it looked like I had hit my limit and couldn't go any further. The reason I was able to finish WWF is because you guys had faith in me, that you read and loved the story that I'd put so much effort into.
I learned a lot from writing it. WWF had initially been a practice exercise - taking on a short, multi-chapter project to keep my writing skills up to par, and I've progressed a long way since then. I've learned the importance of show-not-tell; I've learned that thesaurus.com is your friend, if you want to enrich your tale with vivid words; I've learned to write from a single character's perspective, to use their voices even when speaking from a third-person perspective, to drag you into their heads, to experience what they're experiencing. What started as a quick, four-chapter practice turned into the monstrosity you see before you.
I've also learned that preparing ahead is a good thing, and that four months was too long of a wait between finishing the rough draft and starting to post the second. >_> I feel like that time difference made the story suffer, but only at first. Things seem to have come around since then, and the story continues to pick up momentum even though it's over.
Now, I'm sure you guys all want to know the same thing: will there be more? Do you plan to continue WWF? The answer is no, unfortunately; that same burnout I'd mentioned before hasn't been completely dispelled, and after spending two and a half years on a writing exercise like this one, it's time for me to move on. I've got original story ideas, stuff waiting in the eaves of this noodle o' mine, characters and events and places that have been percolating for years, far longer than I've been working on WWF. There comes a time when one needs to put the fandoms away, and sometime around early spring this year, I hit that point.
(That doesn't mean that I won't ever write any Avatar/Freedom Fighter stuff ever again...just that it wouldn't be anything big. It'd probably be a little drabble, like the Tales of Symphonia stuff I've been posting.)
That said, I'm willing to bet a lot of you are brimming with questions; I'm going to host a Q&A of sorts using the reserve journal I'd posted earlier today. Go ahead, ask me anything you want - anything about the WWF universe, about what could have been, about what wasn't, about my writing process, about Spatula and Pestle and Mortar and Bubbles, about easy-good waffles...go nuts. I'll be glad to answer all of them. :) I'll also add some Director's Cut materials - ideas that never came to pass, highlighting a lot of the homages and cameos I'd made, so on, so forth.
Lastly - I'd mentioned a couple entries ago that somebody had hacked my YouTube account and deleted most of my videos, including much of the Where Words Fail Unofficial Official Soundtrack!!. Rather than bust my hump getting all of that back in place, I made a little present for all of you. Don't tell anybody where you got it though. :D Shhh! It also includes the final song of the soundtrack: the "end credits," Happy Ending by Mika.
With that, I take my leave. And by "leave" I mean I'm going to ConnectiCon over this weekend, and I probably won't have anything else to post between then and now. :) If you'll be in the area, I'll be wearing my Hunter cosplay again, so say hi if you manage to track me down!
With love,
- TEi
Where Words Fail
Book Eight: Coming Full Circle
Chapter 5, Part 4: The rest...is silence.
deviantArt | Fanfiction.net | SkyeHawke
Epilogue 1: To die would be a great adventure
deviantArt | Fanfiction.net | SkyeHawke
Epilogue 2: ...And straight on 'til morning
deviantArt | Fanfiction.net | SkyeHawke
Previous: Book 8, Chapter 5, Part 3 - Table of Contents