Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Only Exception: Chapter 2 to 13

For the benefit of new readers, since I've just advertised for my blog recently, this blog is a random collections of my thoughts of writing, including my thoughts for the chapters that I've written.

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Well I'll be.

I have not written a single thing regarding this fanfiction since the year started. Then again, it's been a while since I wrote anything.

The last fanfiction post that I've written was actually on the last chapter of "Days of Exile". Since then, I've begun writing yet another story in the Final Fantasy 7 fandom, which was "The Only Exception". I've also written a story in the Katekyo Hitman Reborn fandom, but that's a story for another time.

As I have mentioned in my story, the inspiration of this story came from the song "The Only Exception" by Paramore. I like many songs from the band and you'll see that if I were to write a fic on singing, I would draw the inspiration most from Paramore.

The initial intention was to make each story one chapter each, thus ending this in 4 chapters. Alas, I was unable to. Even now as I'm writing Vincent's story, I marvel at how I could keep Tifa's story within 3 chapters.

Story of Tifa

This part is most like a shoujo manga. Short and fast paced, with ridiculous story development. I enjoyed writing the story and I'm glad that I could finish it in three chapters. I wanted to finish it in two though.

One of the things that I could never come to terms with is Cloud's personality. Should he be carefree? Gloomy and pessimistic? Thanks SquareEnix, for creating a schizo character that fanfic writers cannot put their fingers to.


Also, this is one of my BIGGEST mistakes when typing on my ipad. It frustrates me to no end.

Story of Aerith

For this one? I planned to end in 4 chapters. I ended up writing across 7 chapters.

It was natural that the Tifa and Aerith story were connected, but I did not intend to connect the latter two stories in any way. The connection between Tifa and Aerith's stories gave me the idea to continue connecting so that it becomes a whole, just like the song.

Aerith's story was a little hard to churn out as there were many routes that I wanted to take. The one that you are reading right now (Zack being KAI and Gast was really a bad father) was the original idea. However, when I was writing Chapter 8, I struggled a week because I had another idea which was that Gast was actually KAI, not Zack. Zack was the song writer for Gast/KAI. Zack helped Aerith reconcile with her father. That was seriously a route that I considered, but I decided to stick to my original idea in the end. Didn't turn out too bad either, I thought.

There was also an idea to link the main character of the fourth story to be the step-sister of Aerith, but that was (thankfully) scraped. Later on, when I was writing Vincent's story, I thought it would be awesome to help Elmyra Gainsborough as Vincent's housekeeper. Oh well, too late. The story of Aerith was already published, so Elmyra will remain as an accountant :)

Story of Vincent

Another unexpected story. I am still writing it (very painfully).

It's funny because I have the story in my head. All I had to do is to write it, but getting down to it was easier said than done.

Making Vincent Valentine a protagonist was a first for me. I admit that Vincent was a little out of character in some instances, so in terms of character portrayal, I'm not terribly proud of myself. Still, I like how the story is progressing. Better luck with the fourth story *pats own back*

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Okay, that's all I've gotta say for now. More to come... I hope.

Fellow writer to fellow writer

So at my workplace, there was a child the age of 9. When I first met her, she was 7 and she wrote and drew her own picture book one fine day and surprised all my colleagues. I have not read it before and I wished that I would have the chance to.

Two years have passed since I first knew her and I met her again recently.

"Are you still writing?" I asked her.

To that, she shook her head and said that she has become too busy to write.

"But do you enjoy writing?" I probed. A large part of me prayed really hard that she still did and that she was not bogged down by the restrictions of Singapore's examinations.

"Yes, I love writing."

Phew! As long as her passion was still around, she should not give up. And that's what I told her, along with whatever advice I could scramble for her. Notebook of plot bunnies and ideas, writing just 30 minutes a day...

To her, it seemed like an adult telling a child what she thought would be best. Honestly, adult or not, we are all starting and running on the track of writing an awesome work. So when I was talking to her, I found myself talking to her like a fellow writer to a fellow writer. It was a nice feeling and I could not wait to see more people in my life who can step up and say "Let's share our experiences as writers!"

I also hope that this little girl will continue her desire to write.

In other news... I'm supposed to upload my new chapters. Hehe.