Tuesday, January 5, 2010

So...

Okay, the holidays are over and I'm just about as destressed as I'm gonna get. I'm starting to work on getting back to people who left reviews and I'm trying to work on new chapters and stuff so hopefully there will be updates within the next month or so.
I'll let you know how it's going in the next week or so.
Thanks again for putting up with me.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Meh

'pologies folks.
I think the holidays have eaten my brains.
Or maybe just killed my muse.
I'll get working on it when I can.
I'll also get back to people who have commented and reviewed when I can. Sorry about that.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Apologies

My apologies for the delays. I did manage to sign into fanfiction.net but then I decided I hated the interlude I had ready. Since then I haven't had the time to rewrite it (or check my email, sorry).
If I haven't been able to rewrite it by like next weekend or something, I'll probably just post it as is.
Sorry again for not saying anything earlier.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Site trouble?

I'm having a bit of trouble logging into Fanfiction.net. I was trying to respond to a few reviews and it wouldn't let log in. I'm gonna wait til tomorrow and try again. Hopefully I'll be able to respond to reviews and post the next chapter then.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Juniper - Interlude 7

Before I get to the notes for 'Interlude 7' (if I can think of any), I wanted to address a running trend in last chapter's reviews. Namely that some of you were very confused by the 'Anko's cousin' thing.

I try not to just spell everything out in my fics. I like leaving people guessing a bit.
...Apparently I did that way too well this time.
I tried over the past chapters to make people wonder just why Anko was involved. I had Kakashi and Sasuke question it, one of them directly to her.
I made multiple notes of similarities between Naruto and Anko.
I had her talk to him more than anyone else about her family...namely her Aunt.
I had her teach him a family style of taijutsu.
Obviously I didn't spell out that Naruto was Anko's cousin until this past interlude, but I'm kind of surprised that no one at least guessed that it was a possibility.
I don't know if this is because Naruto's heritage has been officially revealed in canon, or if I'm just bad at getting readers to consider possibilities.
It could be either. And I apologize to those who were very confused by it.

As for the interlude...not much to say right now. Maybe I'll come up with something later.

Oh one last thing, unless I get another sudden burst of motivation, there will only be 3 more interludes. Unfortunately, unless I get another sudden burst of motivation, there may be a gap before the main chapter is posted because I'm still not making a lot of headway on it. I'll keep you posted on progress but let's just say that right now I've mostly managed to throw out the majority of what I had planned previously and rewrite the summary for the chapter. That's a good start, but obviously isn't much.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Juniper - Interlude 6

Okay I'm gonna use these notes to talk about my characterizations for a bit.
But that's in a minute.
First off, Interlude 6 is up. This is the direct follow up of Interlude 4. Chronologically, this takes place before Interlude 5 but I wanted to break 4 & 6 up a bit. If you were wondering why the Hokage was so...abrupt in last chapter, this is why.
Originally, I was gonna hold off fully clearing up Naruto and Minato's (4th Hokage) relationship until the chapter after 'Snakes', but it just didn't make sense to do that once I sat down to write this. Hopefully the original 'reveal' scene will just be funny now since you know exactly who Naruto's father is - namely that it's the same as canon.

So now onto characterizations!
I tend mention trying to keep characters 'in character' with canon, but I'll be completely honest, if I want a character to be different, they're gonna be different.
I don't label my fanfiction's as 'AU' but I treat them that way just by default. I'm not writing 'speculative' fanfiction here. I'm writing for fun and I'm playing with another person's long developed characters. I let Kishimoto handle the canon stuff. I let my fanfiction handle the 'I'm bored and wanna write weird shit' stuff.
Most of the time when I come up with a story, at least some part of canon is completely dumped so that I can run with a plot bunny. That changes characters by essentially removing a whole chunk of experiences and I try to take that into consideration.
Clearly this story's Kakashi is an example of this. He's possibly insane - though that's up to debate and he's not gonna clear it up any time soon.
Another example: Sarutobi.
I tend to be really, really mean to Sarutobi when I write fanfiction. I like his character in canon. But to mess with these characters, someone in power takes the fall. Sarutobi is an easy target. He'll probably never be a full on villain, but sometimes he is surprisingly pragmatic. And sometimes he is senile. He does care for the characters as he says he does, but he also has a village to run. Sacrifices get made.

I think that's all that needs to be said.