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.