Juniper Again

I haven't really worked on Juniper since last weekend because I've been sick all week but I'm looking over it again and I'm still thinking that I'm going to delete at least 'Snakes II' and rewrite it into the next update. I'd do the same with 'Snakes I' but it's long and it isn't as confusing as the second part of the chapter. I'm gonna re-read it again and then decide.

Sick as a Dog

Obviously there hasn't been an update yet this week and I'm not sure when I'll get it out next week, but it will come out then. I've been sick all week and while that would normally be a great excuse to sit in front of the computer and write I just haven't felt up to it so I'm a bit behind.
See you next week.

Juniper

So I spent saturday morning re-reading Juniper and then I worked on the story's outline for a bit. I'm getting ready to work on the next chapter but I'm kind of hesitating a bit - not because of writer's block this time.
While re-reading it, I was looking over the first 2 parts of the chapter 'Snakes' and I'm not happy.
Part 1 is technically okay and I don't think I'd mind leaving it as is, though I think I might edit it a bit. Part 2 though was just bad. I can still remember writing it and I was pretty much just hurrying it to get it done. I think it's confusing and I think trying to continue the chapter from that base is going to be a problem for me.
I'm gonna let it sit for right now and then go back and re-read it and go over my outline for the rest of that chapter and then I'm going to decide whether or not to take down 'Snakes II'. If I decide to take it down I'll wait until I'm ready to post the next chapter and just work the old stuff into the new one.

Ro7 - When You're Sleeping

New Chapter again for Role of Seven, 'When You're Sleeping Pt 3'.
I mentioned this in a post earlier this week but I miscalculated a bit. I had hoped to keep this chapter to just 2 segments but it's going to be 5 instead. The next two will be up sometime over the next 2 or 3 weeks but there might be a few delays since I'm working on Juniper for a bit.

Here's the notes for the chapter:
Hifukidake is my name for the capitol so that I don't have to keep calling it the capitol. For a ninja going fast they could probably make it from Konoha to Hifukidake in six or seven hours (like the run Rin and Kakashi made before chapter 1); average pace for civilians, especially a large group would be two or three days.

I used the name Kokushi for AtD. She's one of Hana's personal dogs; if I remember correctly, the name means 'beauty mark'.

And Takara's back from AtD, sort of. I hope you weren't too attached to her original form because I wasn't. I changed her a bit so that I could get rid of two other characters and decided to change her name as well since I was sick of typing 'Takara'. Meet Kushoku (Koushoku means yellow/amber, but her mother dropped the first o); it's an awkward name and she hates it.
Kato, Daiki, and Suzu are back as well; there won't be any really noticeable changes for any of them but they will be in a bit more to pick up the slack of said missing characters.

Anraku is made up place. For those of you new to this, it's the home city of the Nami family and it will be in this story more than it was in AtD.

Rishito's parentage wasn't always popular in AtD so I'll say pretty much the same thing here. Kakashi and Rin can hardly be called more than friends, even with a kid. This'll be explained later (though some of you might remember the joke). I normally only ship Kakashi as a joke anyways - and that's normally just to piss off homophobes - so there you go.

I'm trying to keep Rin's sarcasm to a minimum. Anko and Kakashi are probably the only ones who will bring it out much since she strikes me as being more long suffering. Especially around Tsunade and people like that I'm going to really try and keep it in check - it got out of hand in AtD and made no sense.

And the Akatsuki. They've shown up more here than in AtD as well. I kind of floundered with them for a while and then just stopped talking about them in AtD so I'm trying to do better with them this time. It still won't mesh with canon Akatsuki but hopefully it'll be better this time.

I'm also working to get more into the characters with more than just conversation. I think I've mentioned this before, but the conversations were getting out of hand and I keep feeling like I'm either leaving stuff out or just repeating it too much. It doesn't show in this segment but hopefully in the next two segments and then the next few chapters we'll be spending more time on individual characters - like inner monologues and stuff. I just don't want to get as angsty as I did when writing AtD; I thought it was funny at the time but I just don't think I could handle trying to write like that again.

I think that's all for now. See you in a week or so. Less time if I get anything done with Juniper.

Just a Quick Note

Okay here's the deal. I know I said I was hoping that this chapter 'While You're Sleeping' would be short but I was obviously wrong. I've posted two parts but I'm currently writing the fourth and fifth.
So my current plan is this. Sometime this weekend or early next week I'm going to post the third part. Over the next two/three weeks the fourth and fifth will go up.
In the meantime, rather than jump straight into chapter six I'm gonna try and do a bit more planning. I've had an outline done since before I started posting Ro7 but I want to try and fill it out a bit more.
Once I'm happy with that, I really need to try and write at least a chapter for my other fics, especially Juniper. Evil Genus suggested a technique to try and break my writer's block on that fic so I'm gonna give it a try. I honestly doubt I'll be able to stop working on Ro7 while doing this, I just don't expect to get quite as much written as usual, hence the whole rationing of posts that I've already written.

Edit 5/22 - Yeah, next chapter of Ro7 will definitely be up to tomorrow. I'm working on Juniper now but I'm also sort of switching over and re-reading the manga every once and a while. The manga might distract me a bit so there might be a few delays.

My mistake

Evil Genus just reminded me that I was spelling Kushina wrong so I'm going to go back and fix it in No Good Deed as soon as I get the chance. I was spelling it Kuchina because I was used to typing Kachuu so the 'ch' was stuck in my mind.
If anyone catches something like that again, please mention it so that I can fix it.
Thanks,
Agent Spielplatz

Update: Okay that's been fixed. Again, if you notice anything else like that let me know.

No Good Deed - Chapter 2

There's finally a new chapter up at No Good Deed.
'3 and 1/2 Years to Kyuubi's Sealing'
Here's the notes:
If you don't remember Kachuu from the first chapter of it, he's meant to be Minato's teammate from when they trained under Jiraiya. In this fic, I decided that he was also Kuchina's older brother. People seemed to really like her from the manga, so I decided to give her a cameo in this chapter. Uchiha Eriko is made up, she's Kuchina's former teammate.
We've also met Taji, briefly, in Chapter 1 & 2 of Ro7.
Ibara is not technically original. She's one of the b****es who makes fun of Naruto after he fails the genin exam - I don't remember which off the top of my head but this was the name one of the fan sites gave her.
Suzu has been mentioned within Ro7 as well.
There is a second part to this chapter but I don't think I'm going to put it up until after Chapter like 12 of Ro7 (by my numbering not fanfiction's).

Because it's been so long since the last update and the first since I started this blog I figured I'd explain it a bit. Basically No Good Deed is meant to house the back story of Role of Seven.
My plan is to update it as needed so that you don't get too many spoilers and instead NGD complements Ro7 in its 'revelations'. This means that NGD won't always be updated chronologically (although the first two chapters have been). To help you with this, the chapters are nicely titled with their time line.
If you have any questions, just let me know.

Role of Seven - When You're Sleeping Pt 2

New update for this week. Chapter 5, "When You're Sleeping Pt. 2", for your reading pleasure. Sorry for the slight delay, I decided to add the funeral scene kinda last minute and then I decided ,to take it out again. So it's still kind of short but the next part should be longer.

Okay, here's the end notes:
I'm gonna be kind of honest and admit that both of these scenes got away from me. I had three scenes that I had planned on writing for this part of the chapter and I ended up cutting one of them because it sucked (it was the dinner with the Daimyo if you were wondering. That meant I couldn't really cut either of these scenes without losing the information in them, which would make part 3 of this chapter really confusing.
I mean, I know what I'm trying to say in them, but reading them back I just don't like them and I don't know if they're actually conveying what they're supposed to but I re-reading them multiple times hasn't really given me any ideas on how to fix them so you get the update instead.

Also, you might have noticed above but I'm changing the 'translation' of shunshin to body flicker within the story because of something I read on the tv tropes wiki. I don't know if the explanation they gave for 'flash step' was accurate, but I can't get it out of my head so I'll stick with body flicker so that I can type it without giggling - I would use shunshin more frequently, but I always spell it wrong.

Lastly a question: Do I avoid using 'said' too frequently?
I was reading this blog about writing a few weeks ago and the guy/gal writing it suggested that all the replacements are actually more distracting. I try to use them to convey more about how something is being said, but is it ineffecitve?

Update? What Update?

Yeah, I changed my mind; though, I might still manage some time tonight. I want the next post to be a bit longer so I'm adding another scene to it. It's almost done already, which is why I might still manage tonight, but if I don't finish it early, it'll go up tomorrow instead.

Hmmm

Next update might be tomorrow if I take time to edit it soon. Otherwise, later this week.
We'll see.

Role of Seven - When You're Sleeping Pt 1

Yeah, I made up my mind. Mainly because I found an okay stopping point. So this chapter will come in pieces as well. Probably 3, maybe 4, not sure just yet. I was gonna wait until like Wednesday anyways, but I don't actually like sitting on chapters for so long.
Anyways, we are now officially on Chapter 5, 'When You're Sleeping'.

And here are the notes:
My spell checker totally hates me because I always end sentences with prepositions. I know it's technically bad grammar, but it's the way I talk and I can't really break the habit in writing without things seeming awkward. Also according to spell checker, you can't be angry 'at' someone just 'with', screw that.

Is it silly to have all the guest quarters in the administration building?
Probably.
Did it make it a lot easier since they were all in one building?
Yes.

Also, I don't think 'cloak' is really the right word (I tend to imagine cloaks as being sleeveless), but jacket doesn't work for me either when I look at the ones worn by both the Forth Hokage and the Akatsuki. I guess they're more like trench coats, but that's a long phrase and I don't feel like typing it a lot so you get 'cloak' instead.

Characterizations are still off. It's technically for in story reasons, but it actually bothered me a bit because it feels forced. When I was writing the first version I found this funny, and I still do find it kind of funny because at least I recognize how forced it is, but that doesn't actually help raise the quality.

I think that's it for now. Next update will probably be end of this week or early next week.
Spielplatz out!

Next Chapter?

I'm debating when to post the next chapter of Ro7. I've gotten pretty much done, but I don't know if I want to post in a bunch of smaller parts like I have been, or if I should try and finish the whole thing first. If I take the first option, I could technically post a section now. If I take the second option, it might be another week or two.
I'm definitely leaning towards the first option - I'm a bit of an attention whore and I thrive on reviews.
Oh well, if I give an and take the first option, expect an update by Wednesday or Thursday. If not, it'll probably be a week or two.
It mainly depends on how distracted I get over the next few weeks since I'm determined to re-read the manga. Right after posting the last chapter I got lost on the tv tropes wiki and I treated myself to a few spoilers from the recent manga chapters. Since I haven't actually read the manga since last fall (oops) I decided to just start from the beginning (yes I am insane). Expect a few delays while I'm doing this.

Role of Seven - 2000 Years Pt. 4

Okay, new update.

I'll be honest, I wanted to write more of a fight scene, but I just didn't feel like it in the end. I've gone back over it a few times to try and put more in, like after Anko and Sakura left, but I finally just decided to leave it as it is.

Also, if you've read anything else I've written on this site, then you know I am not capable of treating Ibiki with respect. He ends up ridiculous in everything I write because he's just such an easy target.
Naruto's eyes actually shifted last chapter (Tsunade noticed it). Just like Kakashi told Ibiki, it doesn't mean anything for the seal, Naruto's just really pissed of at the attack on top of being on edge because of pretty much the entire day. You can draw any other conclusions you want for the time being.

There was a hint in this chapter about what might become a spoiler later in the story. If you don't know enough about Asuma's history canon-wise to know where that belt thing comes from, then it'll be a spoiler when it gets explained here, but that won't be for a while. (I've also seen his belt called a loincloth, it just doesn't look like one to me so I'll keep calling it a belt)

And yes, Kakashi is another character who is almost never in character when I write him. He seems to be becoming more hot-headed in this fic (as opposed to insane which is how I normally end up writing him). I'll work on him a bit more in the future but I really don't want to break the stride too much; so as long as he isn't horrible, I'll probably just keep going with whatever comes out of my head at the time (if you want an example of something coming out of nowhere - that fight with Ibiki was totally not planned but I ended up liking it).
Feel free to tell me if he's horrible.

Tsuande on the other hand shouldn't normally come across like this. Hopefully it'll be more understandable once I get the next chapter up.

I also decided to give the poor ANBU a name since I was picking on him so much. He also got a back story. Jiro was one of Itachi's teammates, but he's several years older than Itachi. He might never ever show up again (after a brief scene next chapter) but I felt he deserved this much.

The next chapter will be up some time next week and it will actually be the start of a new chapter!

After the Dream vs Role of Seven

This post will contain spoilers if you haven't already read 'After the Dream'.

So lately in reviews I've had a few people note the rather large differences between Role of Seven (Ro7) and its former version After the Dream (AtD). I figured I'd take a small break in my normal ramblings to try to explain things. If you never read AtD then don't worry about this, if you have, enjoy.

Basically, I know Ro7 seems completely different from AtD. When I started the first version of this story, I did so on a whim. I was bored and procrastinating during exam time. I didn't plan it out at all and instead just eagerly wrote up the first few chapters more or less out of desire to write an angsty Naruto. I don't really know why but I'm guessing that I was reading other angsty fanfics at the time and wanted to try my hand at it.
After, oh I don't know, chapter 5 or so, I decided on the next big move - namely Naruto and Sakura leaving Konoha. I was already bored with writing angst and wanted to get them out of there as fast as possible. Once that was done, say by chapter 10 or 11, I was stuck again.

Essentially, I had written out 10 or 11 chapters without placing any foundation for a longer plot.

I paused for a bit and tried to plot out the rest of the story. Having done so, like I said, it was more or less without foundation, just lucky randomness that I had dropped into the early chapters that I decided I could use later on.
I didn't really like that.

Most of what's been changed in early chapters this time, is stuff that I would have wanted in place had I continued AtD because we'll get to a point (probably around chapter 15) where the similarities will become much more obvious and we'll start falling back in with AtD.

That doesn't mean that from chapter 15 (or so) onward I'm just going to be reposting old AtD chapters, that would be silly. I didn't restart this just rewrite the early stuff. As I had went over the old version a lot of things stood out to me as being really annoying, too random, or too cliche.
Some of the changes are purely out of spite towards my own characters (I got sick of a few of them and decided to get rid of them, you'll notice this later).
Does this make sense so far?

Anyways, another way to look at what makes this seem so different is the length so far. Technically we'll still on chapter 4. The Chuunin exam (which I admit was a last minute addition) ended up taking a long time to get up because of computer problems and writers block. Since then, I've pretty much gotten back on track.
If you read AtD, we're actually right on target with what's about to come next.

If there are any questions (especially if I've confused you more) just let me know in comments. I'll either respond to them in the comments themselves, or I'll put up another post later to respond to all of them if there are a lot.

Oh yeah! I know I put up the link to AtD somewhere, but I figured I'd put it here too.
After the Dream
Role of Seven

No Good Deed

So, I'm taking a short break from Role of Seven to work on one of the chapters of the side story No Good Deed. It's included in this brief bit of inspiration because it's the back story for Ro7.
Since I haven't worked on it in forever I was going back through the outline, and posting schedule (chapters are posted out of chronological order to compliment Ro7), and I realized I totally didn't want to give away everything that would happen in the next chapter, but that some of it was really meant to go along with stuff you learned in various parts of '2000 Years' (chapter 4, Ro7).
After thinking for a while, I decided it would be alright to completely confuse readers by splitting Chapter 2 into 2 parts. You'll get one of them some time after the final part of '2000 Years' goes up and the other will come way in the future.
Yay me for confusing you people more!

Role of Seven (again)

Yep I was right there will be an update for Role of Seven this week. Probably thursday or friday. After that, I can't say for sure, but it is going well. I'd like to keep the next chapter in no more than two parts but it might be more if I end up with some good places to stop off. We'll see.
Still no word on the other fics yet but I promise I'll get to them eventually.
In the meantime, I'm knitting!
Yeah it's spring but I figure my sense of time is bad enough already that I can just pretend it's fall instead.
Anyways that had nothing to do with fanfic so I'll stop now. See you later this week.

Role of Seven

I don't want to jinx myself so I'll be brief. I think I've actually hit my stride again with Role of Seven. I have no clue why or how but I've doing really well with it . For the next few weeks or so, I'm going to try and just focus on it instead of trying to bounce between fics. I have no clue if this will mean anything for Role of Seven but it does mean that I probably won't get an update for any other fics done for a while. I'll try to keep you guys up to date with how I'm doing and I can safely say that the next update for Role of Seven will be later this week (like I said, I really think I've hit my stride right now).
That's it for now,
Spiels

Role of Seven Update

Yep I was right, update today.

Part 3 of Chapter 4 this time. Technically, I really should have just waited to post until I could post this and part 2 together, but I was having a lot of trouble getting this part done so I decided to go ahead with it earlier this week. I realize my chapter system is kinda weird since I keep uploading the chapters in part, sorry if that confuses people.

I do have a bit of a question before I get into my general ramblings about stuff. Did the pacing work in this chapter? Like seriously. I was trying to build up anticipation near the end that's why the scenes started getting shorter and then I started flipping between the main two ones a lot, but I'm not sure it worked.
I mean when I thought of it and when I read it, it worked. I'm just not sure it'll read the same way for anyone else, because I think part of the reason it worked is because I know what's supposed to be going on so I can visualize it in my head.
Was it just annoying to try and juggle the two conversations at once? Or did it actually seem to like build up the pace?

And now on to random ramblings.

I'm not really sure why, but I have a tendency to pick on Hanabi. She's one of those side characters you can do soooo much with but I almost always start her out as a brat. How much she actually knows is up to you to decide. I think she's just trying to sound smart and toss around big words that she wasn't supposed to hear in the first place.

Oh, and those bickering women with Sakura's mother?
I have a confession to make: I've been re-reading Anne of Green Gables. The gossip in it is ridiculous and I just couldn't stop myself from throwing in some gossiping women.

And Sakura probably comes off as really odd in those scenes. I hope it seems natural in the sense that she's digesting a lot (if you don't know what she's digesting...I really messed up and I promise it will be made much clearer within the next to updates).

Also, 'performance' is the most annoying word ever. For starters, I can't frikkin' spell it. It's also dumb. Just really, really dumb but I don't know what else to call it because for some reason, dance looks really dumb too, and it's not technically a play. Bleh.

Lastly...Draaaammmaaaa!
Okay not really, but I don't know what else to call this part of the chapter but my attempt at the dramatics. As in, heaveily staged, I don't think this is going to seem even remotely natural drama - does what I'm writing even make sense? I doubt it, I'm kinda loopy right now.
You'll eventually start noticing that when I post in the morning, I sound loopy, this is because when I post in the morning, I've probably been up all night. But hey, it get's you updates, right?

....
No wait, okay I think this will be the last bit. Is it worth it to just keep updating whenever I finish a chapter, or would you rather I try to set some schedule?
I think I like it this way better - especially since schedules haven't worked so well in the past.
Okay I think that's it.

No wait, one last thing, promise.
You guys know what's coming right? :P
Prepare for angst!!

Role of Seven

Speaking of Role of Seven, there will probably be another update some time today or tomorrow. I'd like to go over it a bit more, but I think I have a good size section and good stopping point. It means separating this chapter a bit more than I had planned, but I think it'll be worth it.

Juniper

It's sad; I'd really like to be working on Juniper right now, but I just can't. It's not like I'm super absorbed in anything else right now, though I am doing ok working on Role of Seven, so at least something is getting done, but not working on Juniper is really bother me because it's been so long since I've updated it (not to mention Yuusen, but I have a bad track record with that story anyways).

Hopefully, the bug will bite soon. I've tried re-reading it a few times, but that almost seems to make it worse. I think by this point it's anxiety that's getting to me. I've been anticipating the chapter that I'm working on now for a long time. I feel like I know exactly what needs to happen in this chapter, but I just can't seem to write it. The transitions especially, but that happens a lot too. I might try just writing one or two sequences that I feel like I know by heart in my head (you know like I have them completely visualized already). Maybe if I can write one of those, the transition will write itself.

It's just that people seem to complain a bit that I'm leaving parts out but that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to write the important stuff and then when I can't write the more boring transitions the chapter feels disjointed and I have to place larger time jumps into chapters.

Bleh, anyways, I'll keep trying and hopefully an update for Juniper will come sometime in May.