I have this MEGA PLAN...

This idea was birthed maybe a few months ago. While I was writing "I Want To Be A Turk!" I thought, wouldn't it be great if i could also write a OCxRude and OCxTseng story as well? The best part? They all happened in the "I Want To Be A Turk!" world!

funny i said that, since 'I Want To Be A Turk!' is supposed to be 'canon' :P but yeah... maybe someday, when i'm exhausted from my work and i have absolutely nothing to do or write about... then i'll consider it :P

No, i won't give you any plot bunnies, because it might whet your appetite :P not when i'm still trying to finish 'i want to be a turk!' XDD

enjoy the weekend :)

Please don't ask me how it happened...

It just did.

I was finishing my last assignment for my entire college life... when an hour before the deadline, my file disappeared. into thin air. what sorcery is this? so the only copy i had left was 80% completed... and that 20% alone takes me 2-3 hours to finish.

great, so yes i submitted my work late. never in my life did this happen (it shouldn't happen to you guys, alright?) ive explained to my tutor and so i hope that nothing will go wrong (if not my assignment will go down one grade :(()

but anyway i'm done for my assignments! so i'll upload the new chapter past midnight, because well, i wanna go have fun :)

So it's been a week, huh?

Can't believe a week went by so quickly... and so slowly. I miss writing fanfiction, seriously. to those who are still clueless to what has been happening to me, i've been sent for my internship. and well, for privacy purposes, that's all i'm gonna say (though those who have been in contact with me will probably remember?).

so yes, it has been a tough week (mainly because I'm trying to finish my last college assignment due Friday 0.o). honestly, i don't understand how i can take days to write a 4000-5000 word assignment when i can easily do the same for fanfiction... in under a day. :/

the good thing about the internship is that i get to read while i'm on the job (like for half an hour everyday). So I'm trying to reread Eragon. While waiting for Brisingr, I've stopped reading and now that even Inheritance is already published, I better catch up XDD

I haven't been writing, though i'm at the stage where I've finished writing whatever i've planned and i'm doing planning again (i'll explain another time XD). to me, it's always fun to plan, more than to write. :P

perhaps that's why i used to go on hiatus and stop my stories, because after a while i'll finish my story in my head and i get too lazy to write it out. that's kinda how it was for a short period of time (especially chapter 46-52). if it wasn't for the fact that majority of the events are 'lifted' from the canon storyline, i would've had great trouble writing them.

honestly, i'm not very flustered by the fact that i've not written for the past week. while it IS worrying because my writing WILL get rusty, i kinda have enough chapters in "I Want To Be A Turk!" to last me a long long time :) no worries, I'll do my best to write here and there. I don't want to lose the momentum... Tch. honestly, the momentum was lost the week before I started internship but oh well, i'm going to do my best to juggle work and writing!!

hopefully i can finish my assignment by tonight, then i can upload my story tomorrow afternoon :3 if not... it's probably friday past midnight XD

well, i wonder how is everyone else (i.e. the readers)? has life been busy? ahh, i guess it's a passing phase :3 let us work hard at working hard, but remember to enjoy the smaller things in life... like a new chapter from your favourite fanfic author (i know it's hard to believe since i'm usually so snobbish, but i wasn't referring to myself XDDDD).

in other news, NOW i know that whenever i'm stressed, i have this incredible urge to buy... makeup. like... wut??? i've gotten two foundation samples and a sunscreen and i'll gladly talk about it... just that this is a writing blog and not a makeup blog XDD

New Word (1): Reticent + Misc. Stuff

Imagine my joy when one of my favourite authors in fanfiction, S-, replied me after seven months of not ever seeing her speak a word apart from her awesome author profile and A/N in the first chapter of the story.

In my foolishness and tactlessness, I blurted my desire that she would speak more and even said that I figured that she was probably a more reserved person than the other authors that I've met. So she messaged me saying that I was the first person to call her reticent. Heheh.

She even gave me her link to visit so I can revel myself in more of her ramblings :P in which i saw that sometimes she posts words that she learnt and she tries to use them more often. That gave me the inspiration to do the same. I mean hey, we're all about learning, aren't we?

As such, I'll try to (whenever I remember) write new words that I've learnt and we'll see how it goes? Let me know if you like this idea... then again, nvm. I'll post them whether you like it or not :P

New Word:

RETICENT (adjective): "ret-uh-suhnt"

Adjective:	Not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily.
Synonyms:	taciturn - reserved - silent - uncommunicative

(from Google Search)

Back to work I go!

And oh yeah, I'll post my new chapter on Saturday morning! :)

Plans for this blog

Well, the fanfiction site is down so I guess I can only upload Chapter 44 in the morning.

Anyway, I was thinking... apart from putting my author's notes, I was thinking if I should make my writing blog... more like a writing blog.

Over my years in college I've picked up some random here and there tips and knowledge regarding literature. Just today, I spent two hours playing with poems and it was enjoyable (which goes to show how dry my other lessons were). Yes, one more step to being really pompous: lecturing on writing as if I'm an expert.

I just want to share whatever I know with you guys, and I hope you all will enjoy or learn a thing or two :)

So as of now, whenever I'm free, I'll write on:

- Book reviews (but I hardly read nowadays so we'll see where THAT will take us)

- Movie/Musical reviews (focusing more on story development/plot/character development rather than acting :P)

- Random writing tips (if they are truly useful for me, why not share it for the world to hear? :D)

- Other Literature-related facts (e.g. what is a poem? what is the difference between a first person and third person story? ... something like that :))

see you... with the new chapter! :)

I Want To Be A Turk!: Chapter 44

finally, the site was up and I could upload my chapter!!

nothing much in this chapter, seriously.

Well, to those well-versed in BC story, the player Turk meets Aerith for the first time, when she was running away from her house. The Turk didn't know that Aerith is an Ancient and protected her from AVALANCHE's plans to take her away. Initially I wanted Meia to be the player Turk, but I couldn't fit her in nicely, so hence my chapter. Since I didn't make it explicit to you in the chapter, I'll do so here. Basically Meia meets Aerith and after she left, Aerith seriously considered Meia's advice on leaving Midgar. Hence she ran away from home but bumped into Jasper, who genuinely don't know how Aerith is. The last part is not mentioned in the chapter, so only ppl who read/watched BC will figure that out. :P

I enjoyed writing the conversation between Aerith and Meia. Aerith did play a sister figure to Meia, though they don't interact with each other very often. Often enough for Meia to feel like she needed to protect her friend.

Finally, a Crisis Core scene after many many chapters. Okay, this is a DMW sequence so I guess it doesn't count. a fellow reader did her own rendition of the scene and I thought it was cool to give it a try. Well, it turned out alright.

the following chapter will be on Costa del Sol. I think you'll like it.

I Want To Be A Turk!: Chapter 45

Anyway, we're back to Crisis Core scenes after many many chapters :) Finally.

much to cover for this chapter so let's go!

Pam, the girl who told her amazing almost-escapade with Reno. I actually did mention Pam in Chapter 40. Initially in Chapter 40, Reno was supposed to just say he's meeting some unnamed girl. But when I wrote Chapter 44, i thought to myself, "Ah heck, might as well make this Costa del Sol girl the girl that Reno was meeting in Nibelheim." The wonderful benefits of writing chapters ahead.

Finally! I’ve been waiting for AGES to write out the scene between Cissnei and Zack. At least with the addition of Meia, it makes sense that Tseng would say ‘Heads up, Genesis copies!’ before we actually see them. To those who are clueless, when I was reading the Crisis Core playthrough, many people commented that it was a conspiracy that Tseng would know that there were Genesis copies lurking in the water before he actually saw it. XD So in comes Meia to resolve this… loophole =P

If you realize, the conversation between Cissnei and Zack is a little ‘inaccurate’. That is because for Crisis Core scenes, I referred to both the Japanese and English versions. Some sentences I feel are better portrayed in Japanese (Like Zack saying that he didn’t need suntan lotion rather than just brushing away Cissnei’s offer =X). Of course, the English translation will be first priority, but yes, some sentences are actually translated from Japanese instead.

This was one of the chapters that I was proud of because Meia could stay hidden quite well. I even used her to address the Tseng-Genesiscopies issue. Also, I just found it funny to rehearse the part where Zack was fighting the Genesis copies. (“Genesis copies?!”, “An umbrella?!” and who couldn’t miss out Tseng saying that Cissnei sounded like a summon!)

Oh yeah, about that. DMW are memories made into some sort of limit break. But I’m not going to make the characters aware of DMWs and limit breaks. In this story, it should only be a boost in confidence, or a surge of power and etc. So naturally, unlike the game, Cissnei will NOT pop up at random places saying “You can do it, Zack!” but likely she has said it to Zack sometime before. Similarly for Tseng.

And finally… Eau de Lustress… Don’t ask me what I was thinking, I seriously laughed out loud when I typed it!

Yeah, my days as a student is over. 6 weeks of school and then BAM! I'm thrown into my workplace without a day of rest! (I start work this Monday!) Thinking back, I wrote this chapter in mid December 2011. Considering the fact that I'm currently working on Chapter... (dare I say it?) 56... I did write a heck lot of chapters in the past two months. (two months... when I could've used them better for my assignments T_T)

From now on, I must don the mentality of an adult. No more childishness. No more immaturity. Yet I pray that I don't lose the ability to have fun. If anything, I hope that I don't lose my childlikeness for the sake of work.

Musical Review (1): Wicked

Finally! Let's talk about something else!! Because going on and on about "I Want To Be A Turk!" is just not interesting enough :)

(Taken from google picture search!!)

Yes, I specially went to find the poster as advertised in Singapore. So yes, on Sunday, I watched the musical "Wicked" with my sister at Marina Bay Sands. It's like this newest casino-shoppingmall-hotel-fancyschmancyrestaurantgalore-touristattraction place. Now, if you google 'Singapore', you'll most likely see (apart from our dear ol' Merlion, yes it's a portmanteau of mermaid and lion) pictures like this:

(surprise surprise, i had to google 'marina bay sands' XDDD). Looks like Singapore is still best known for their cityscape (refer below):

Yes, that thing sprouting water? That is the merlion.

Enough bragging on my side. Anyway, I watched "Wicked" and here is my humble review.

Generally, I like it. As with all other musicals I've watched (which is a rather shallow collection of 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'CATS' and 'Chicago'). it was full of song and dance. However, I feel that this musical is really suitable for people who are musicals-beginners. If my friend has never watched the musical, I'll recommend this to him/her. Provided, of course, he/she has read/watched 'The Wizard of Oz', but I'll talk about that later.

Comparatively, Wicked has a more comprehensible storyline, like Chitty (Sorry! I'm only gonna use my other three musicals for comparison so pardon my lack of expertise!!). CATS and Chicago MIGHT need some (or a lot) of explaining and straining your ears to understand what they were singing. With Wicked (and Chitty), there is a nice balance of song and drama. However, if you're talking about dance and stunts? CATS will fulfill that need better.

I want to talk about the other stuff, like costumes, music and props etc., but I simply don't have time!! I mean, this wouldn't be a writing blog if I didn't talk about the story and writing, would it? So I better get down to the real deal.

To those who have never read/watched "The Wizard of Oz", go read/watch them, you bunch of born-after-2000 babies!! XDDD It is one of the children's classics and it's worth reading. Wicked is best watched when you have the prior knowledge of the events in The Wizard of Oz (i'm going to drop my "..." because I'm lazy!!) Those who remember fondly of Dorothy and Toto, read on :)

Simply put, Wicked is the classic (or cliche, but who am I to judge?) story of the misunderstood-villain. ... That's it. XD that's really saying everything in a nutshell. But here are some things that I noticed in the musical.

My favourite character is Glinda the Good, simply because she has the quirkiest character. the character is the epitome of being naughty while looking nice. It really got me thinking: How do I create a character who is so flawed, yet so lovable? That sounds like a real nice challenge for me. Try creating a character that makes you go 'I will NEVER be friends with her, but if I really am, she'll bring lots of fun."

The only one that I can think offhand is Yuffie Kisaragi (from Final Fantasy 7). She is annoying to the brain cells, but you gotta admit, she's cute :3 Oh gosh... I can't think of others. Any help here? No one of that sort in Harry Potter, huh? Not in Eragon, nor any of my obscure fantasy novels either. Ah, Veronica in the Archie Comics!!! She's... flawed, not that I like her, but she does have her cute moments too. Something like that! (Unfortunately, no one is flawed in Twilight so no comparison there. I'm not really saying it as a compliment :P)

Moving on. Story plot is rather... coherent and it's funny to see how they fit in new details such that it fits nicely into the canon storyline. For example, Glinda gave Elphaba (future Wicked Witch of the West) a black, pointy hat that she didn't want... it turned out to be a staple in the Wicked Witch's costume... carrying it all the way into the main story of "The Wizard of Oz". And they pulled this kind of stunt almost all the time.

I'm amused by this because... it really reminded me of how I squeezed my brain cells trying to introduce new details into my "I Want To Be A Turk!" so much so that my details is the influence of what you see in the canon story...

... Example (since that was quite a chunk to digest), okay, simple one. In order to keep my BC Turks even after the Banora incident, I had to introduce two original characters (Marshall and Patricia, remember?) so that they can die in the Banora incident and not any of my BC Turks XD (refer to Chapter 21 to ). Another example is making Rude like Tifa Lockhart (Chapter 42) many years before the events of FF7 so that it wouldn't feel too abrupt for Rude to say that he likes her (after only meeting her once or twice).

Anyway, they did a lot of those, using new characters to explain how did the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man come about and all. It was interesting to see how they cleverly fit everything but as a fanfic writer you'll think: Meh, I do that all the time.

Are you anymore convinced that fanfiction has its worth? It's a common writing tactic for fanfiction writers, and all other story developers when they are making a prequel or a side story.

The dialogue was well-written. Every character had a humour that was unique. This is something that maybe we all can learn from. Not everyone shares the same kind of humour. Dry humour, quick-witted ones, animated ones... Well, it's not something I can master anytime so soon, so it's not a priority that I'm looking into. :P

All in all, the musical was not bad. I enjoyed it thoroughly, I didn't really understand why I told my friend that it was alright. *shaking my head* Now, I'm feeling really sleepy and I've yet to start on my work so if you would excuse me... I'm going to do my work XD

Disclaimer: Despite the official term, the above review is not a wholesome and fully critical one. The blog entry merely reviews and reflects the performance on based on story writing and other literary elements.

Quick note for myself

Because remembering everyone's ages is hard.

Taking from December 0002 (recent chapter is in June 0002), these are how old the Turks (and other main cast characters would be)

11 years old (1991) - Shelke Rui, Yuffie Kisaragi

13 years old (1989) - Elena

15 years old (1987) - Meia, Tifa

16 years old (1986) - Cloud

17 years old (1985) - Aerith, Cissnei (shruiken)

18 years old (1984) - Zack, Jasper (nunchaku)

19 years old (1983) - Rod

20 years old (1982) - Reno, Rufus Shinra

21 years old (1981) - Cassie (shotgun)

23 years old (1979) - Tseng

24 years old (1978) - Rude

Of course, this is based on MY story. The ones in italics are canon, based on FF wiki. I might continue adding and removing, based on whether I need to include the ages of other Turks: Alana, Leia, Haato, KK, Kido, Mason.

That is much better. I can refer to this anytime I want.

I Want To Be A Turk!: Chapter 43

When I compare the chapters that I've just finished, and I read this chapter, the feeling is like, "Oh man... how many times have I read this crap?" I wrote this chapter in December, so you can imagine how excited I am proofreading the chapter.

At last, a short chapter! 3500 words! Whoopee!

Another Sephy cameo :) Not that I like him, it's just a nice change to write someone that is not the Turks. That's why I enjoy writing Zack scenes a lot :)

Yes, I did realise that Cissnei was a little too feisty in my previous chapter. I hope I toned her down better here :) Honestly, I never saw her as the quiet type. XD She seemed pretty.. perky in Crisis Core :P

There you go, the picture that I was trying to depict.

The arrow pointing down meant that that would be how Reno saw Jasper and Meia... If this was Floor 56. Likewise, Jasper at Floor 54 can easily look up and peek at the other levels. It's never explained whether there are windows in every floor... and most likely this centre-hollowed-out structure is probably only for a few floors, because we don't see it in FF7 :P

I hope the picture was clear enough :P

Some quick responses to your reviews (generally):

- No, as this chapter states, there WON'T be a love triangle RenoxOCxJasper

- I appreciate you guys wishing that Reno have to work for Meia, but life isn't that perfect all the time (for Meia anyway). Still, there WILL come a time where Reno have to work hard for Meia... it's just not here :)

Thank you to all who have been alerting and faving like lunatics :DDDDD i'm so honoured that you think my little story is worth any of your approval. okay so half is sincere and true, straight from my heart. half is pure "HELL YEA" satisfaction. To those who aren't authors, once you've reached fanfiction Nirvana of spending a hundred hours (i'm not joking) researching on the canon plot, writing and erasing your sentences to make sense... you'll think that "HELL YEA" deserves a place here :P

Update: Chapters that I've completed: 44 - 51 and 54. Yes, people. I've written more than I should this week. My entire week of school work has been neglected. So next week, no more writing for me!! >.<

Quick Post

a quick little update before i fly to school, well, not literally but you know what i mean :P

With regards to "I Want To Be A Turk!"

here are the chapters that are completed (and ready to be published, weekly XD):

43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49.

here are the chapters that lack just one or two scenes before they're completed:

48, 50, 51.

all the chapters after that are either empty, or they have one or two scenes written. some including the ever popular crisis core scene where cissnei let zack fair escape (WHYY????).

ahh, so NOW you know that if i completely stop writing, i can last another 1 month or so :P or even 3 months, if i upload fortnightly, WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

i'm just excited because i'm very close to the end of this story. The FIRST PART, mind you. Unless you guys are not interested to know what happens to Meia in the events of FF7. I'm predicting that "I Want To Be A Turk!" will end around Chapter... 70? *hides behind sofa from a volley of rotten eggs* I know it's long but hey! that is 7 years of storyplot that I covered!!!

The second part wouldn't be as long, since the events of FF7 only lasted... 3 months? Maybe 30 chapters or less. Of course if you guys are sick of Meia and want something else, let me know k? :)

P.S: thank you for the reviews! I've broken the 3-review-curse this week!... with four! :D