will write for food...

[edenfalling]

I am having serious trouble working up motivation to write, which is frustrating. Like, I will open a document, check where I was in the story, type maybe five words, and... nothing. Blank. It's particularly annoying if I've been mentally juggling and arranging ideas earlier in the day so I know roughly where I want to go and just can't quite get

Comments

[wistfulmemory]

Ayakawa Yukiko and educating the next generation, please. :)

Pay It Forward (1/2)

[edenfalling]

This fill, uh, got away from me a little. *twitch* What can I say; education is a topic about which I have Feelings. In timeline terms, this scene probably happens three or four weeks before the opening chapter of "The Guardian in Spite of Herself." (The ficlet is also acting as a Cotton Candy Bingo fill, for the prompt opportunity, because why not

Pay It Forward (2/2)

[edenfalling]

Iruka leaned back against the sun-warmed wall of the apartment building and folded his arms. "You're not the first to ask me that," he said with a pensive expression. "Officially, the answer is that the academy treats all students the same. Students who don't work beyond the basic curriculum on their own lack the necessary ambition to be chuunin, which is why they're never promoted. Unofficially, of course clan children have an advantage. They work beyond the curriculum because their parents have the knowledge and motivation to give them supplemental training, not because they're inherently better than civilian children. Even more unofficially, Konoha needs a pool of unpromoted genin to manage the long-term and low-skill missions that stabilize our income, and civilian parents -- or parents who are also unpromoted genin -- are much less likely than shinobi parents to object if their children end up in that pool

Re: Pay It Forward (2/2)

[wistfulmemory]

I completely understand as I am a teacher, and I am continuously aware of how I am currently educating the new generation of shakers and movers.

This was a fantastic fic (and I'm so glad it was able to double as a fill for your Bingo). I love how you examine the everyday structure of Konoha's society, how it works, and the flaws involved in the system. It makes your stories come alive in a way that many don't.

You can just tell how much love Yukiko and Iruka have for Naruto, Shinnin, and Sakura (and Iruka for all of his students).

Re: Pay It Forward (2/2)

[edenfalling]

Thanks! One thing I really love about Yukiko is that because she's both part of the ninja system and an outsider to it (civilian background, and a viable civilian career), she sometimes looks at Kishimoto's worldbuilding and says, "Hey, wait a minute..." The funny thing is that sometimes the worldbuilding elements in question are ones that I never particularly noticed as a reader until I had to write them from Yukiko's POV, at which point I realized they were kind of weird and/or had awkward implications. It's always neat when a character takes on that kind of life.

Yukiko likes to think she's a cynical grump, but she's really kind of a marshmallow. *wry* Iruka just genuinely likes people in general, I think, and these three kids in particular, though he does try to be evenhanded toward all his students so as not to abuse his position.