4 years!

Wow. Look at that.

It's been 4 years since I've started this blog. My original idea was just to have some kind of place for me to go on and on because I realised that I was talking too much on fanfiction.net. And now, my little blog has exploded to something of a whole cauldron of book reviews, writing experiences and chapter notes.

Writing to an invisible (and probably non-existent, heheh) Internet audience, reading and recording my thoughts of each book that I read (how else do you think I can create my reviews after such a long time?) and penning down the various thoughts I have whenever I write another fanfiction title... these are all things that I treasure very much and I am glad that I have started this blog. One day, even if I were to stop writing altogether, I have this little thing to remind me of what I was once passionate for.

Hey, let's not get paranoid here... I'm still writing. Well, trying to write amdist my busy-ness. No one is saying that I'm not writing for good.

Whether anyone is reading this, I just want to thank you, my fanfiction readers, for keeping me going for such a long time.

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.

First post for 2015!

Happy New Year folks! Here is my first post for 2015. Here are some plans that I've come up with, with regards to writing.

1. Read lots of manga
Sadly, this one is here to stay. I know that I have been neglecting my writing because of this. But then again, I've neglected manga for almost 10 years for my other things in life. Therefore, I shall now focus back on my (technically) 'first love'.

2. Write fanfiction outside FF7
I thought it would be fun if I write other fandoms too. On top of FF7, I'm currently writing one that is from the Reborn fandom. If you like Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn, stay tuned!

3. Brainstorm on original YA fiction 
'Nuff said. It's about time I get started on writing outside fanfiction. I may not write anything, but I want to start gathering ideas.

4. Create stories for children
I tell stories to children. Sometimes, I would create my own stories on the fly, as mentioned before. This year, I want to see if, apart from YA fiction, I can write stories for children too.

What have you been doing since the year started? For me, I'm back at work and trying to get my life organised. My table was in a mess and I've just finished clearing it out. I'm also reading manga, letting the chapters fly by by the hundreds.

Since yesterday, I've been reading "Days of Exile". I started at Chapter 29. I did not know that there were a few errors and typos per chapter. It's pretty embarrassing. But is it arrogant of me to say that I enjoy reading "Days of Exile"? I really like reading the chapters, it almost feels like it's not mine.

All the best to everyone in this new year. May you continue to enjoy reading and writing!

Days of Exile: Chapter 60

It is over! I'm super excited.

I've rambled quite a lot in the chapter itself, but I've saved the blog post for things more personal. 

Now, regarding the story where they went to Wutai, should I continue? I'm really in a dilemma about it. On one hand, I desire to write it out. On the other hand, I feel that it's time to break away from this world. I have to move on and try something new. If not, I may just ride on this 'success' and never improve in other things.

That is the biggest reason, among many others. It's also because I lack details and story plots to make it a good one. I don't know about you, but I never launch a story without planning up to 40% of the story. 40% means a skeleton of the story progression, the ending, some milestones of the story and solid, believable characters. Even my intentionally-crappy story on 9gag vs FF7 was planned. The only one where I did minimal planning was Samurai Deeper Kyo's "Dress Off!", which ironically, was the most successful story in my profile. That had implications on many levels.

I'm also afraid of the amount of time that I have to put in. As of now, I am uploading "The Only Exception" and I'm not sure how committed can I be with this story. Even now, I'm not very sure what is going to happen after Tifa's story. I'm pretty unprepared, hurhur. 

Then again, if I start moving away from the world of "Days of Exile", it means that it will take A LOT to get back into the world. Maybe a rereading of "I Want To Be A Turk!" and "Days of Exile". Just the thought of it is enough to get my lazy soul crawling back to the couch.

Here is the link to the web novella that I've mentioned. I'm sure you can find those youtubers yourself with their usernames, right?

Alrighty, time for fun facts of "Days of Exile"!

1. Every letter in the alphabet is used in the titles. I finally managed to get it done. If you are not sure what I meant, you can check out my post where I found out that I missed out "Y".

2. None of the chapter titles were words mentioned by Meia throughout that particular chapter. I'm pretty sure of that, but then again, I could be horribly wrong.

3. I absolutely love rewriting the game scenes. It may seem easy since I don't have to think of dialogue, but that's all that is easy. The setting, the actions, even the mistranslated sentences have to be looked into and mulled over before I could write out something more realistic. It was hard to understand what the game was trying to portray sometimes.

4. Many of the scenes were thought of last minute, and thanks to that, I found myself going in a direction that I was not expecting. One of them was Meia disguising as Matilda Ederfeld. Turned out that she was under disguise for a long time, and that led to her going to the Northern Crater, thus being more able to describe what happened when Cloud passed the Black Materia to Sephiroth. However, with that unplanned writing meant a lot of loophole filling.

5. My initial plan was to write the backstories on all the BC Turks, but the main story took up too much time. I've managed to cover Cissnei, KK, Alana, Cassie, Mason, Jasper and a bit of Leia. For Rod and Haato, I have mentioned it in the story but honestly, there was supposed to be a development from their stories so... Oh well. Since there may not be a chance anymore, Kido's backstory was that he was a lackey from Don Corneo's, which I've mentioned in "I Want To Be A Turk!" before but never developed further from that.

6. Oh well, it's pretty obvious that Kido is my worst character to develop. For some reason, I could not fit that taciturn character into the story. Better luck next time.

7. In case you are wondering about KK's name still, I really have no idea what it means, because I've never thought about it.

8. My favourite characters in "Days of Exile" were Reeve Tuesti and Kent. I enjoyed how Reeve became such an emotional character with so much potential for development. 

9. There were many character that regrettably, not written to their full potential. Kunsel and Kido were some examples. The one that I had the most regret towards, was Kent. I wish I could tell you what kind of backstory he had. In fact, actually I did, but I doubt anyone would be able to detect. You kinda need serious detective work, or owning the author's brain, to find out.

10. I would say the same for Lindy and Eddie too. The two of them are featured in Chapter 56 for a reason... which we may never know too. 

11. Two of my titles are exactly the same. Chapter 60 was supposed to be "Reunion" but I just found out that it coincides with Chapter 4. Oh well. That's why it's not "Reunion" anymore.

From these two stories in the last 3.5 years, I learnt a few lessons that I thought would be fun to share:

1. Always do your research. That is not exactly a lesson learnt, but I can never emphasise enough.

2. Thinking about your stories when doing something repetitive, like running or swimming, helps ease the exercise a little better. However, you don't get very far as you will find yourself getting back to square one. For me, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Furthermore, the frustration when you do think of a novel idea, but you can't stop to jot the idea down.

3. Try not to write a story for more than 40 chapters. Lesson painfully learnt.

And that's all I have for you, folks. Thank you and... hope to see you around in my other stories.

Writing 101 (2): Idea Hoarder (inspired by "Words Fail Me")

Today, I was browsing randomly in the bookstore and I've decided to get this book:



Well, it's not the kindle edition. I got the paperback. It's a book about writing. Don't ask me. I hate nonfiction, especially exposition, but reading all about the English language never bores me. I relish discussions and conversation explaining and arguing which preposition is more suitable for the verb and so on. Not that I'm an expert, but it is always an enlightening and satisfying moment when I get an answer, or acknowledgement that I knew was correct.

Anyway, I'm not done with the book (I just bought it, geez!) but I particularly liked a chapter where the author Patricia explained about organisation. As it turned out, she encouraged budding writers to hoard their ideas and keep them somewhere. You never know when you need them.

It's something I wished someone taught me before I threw my stash of laughable drafts away.

Anyway, after reading the chapter (actually I'm only halfway through the chapter but I'm pretty motivated now), here is my plan:

1. Write.
As Patricia T. O'Conner suggests, words, phrases, ideas, conversations, punchlines... Everything, anything. Write them down.

Noted with much gratitude. Looks like I'm going to be walking around with something to jot down all the time. Maybe it's time to buy a voice recorder. Nah, that would be too creepy. I'll lose friends at that rate.

2. Keep all plot bunnies 
Even if they are fanfiction or fiction, I'm going to now keep all my plot bunnies in a nice place. No more "Bah, that's stupid." *toss it to one side* EVEN IF it's stupid, I'm gonna keep it.

3. Keep a vocabulary notebook. For real.
I don't see this happening anytime soon, but I had a vision of collecting a compendium of new vocabulary words. Yup, I'm not going to upload them on the blog like before, because it'll be hard to maintain. It's not happening because I don't have the guts to get started. Seriously. I wish I can, but I barely know where to begin. It's supposed to be an attempt to improve my vocabulary, but now I see that it's necessary. Maybe I've got to do one for English and one for Japanese. Stay tuned... IF it ever happens.

So that's all I have planned so far! I'm going to head outta here and capture all my lost plot bunnies. Have a good Sunday ahead!

Picture taken from:
Book Cover

Oh my! The mess!

The intention of quoting "Fifty Shades" was completely unintentional.

I've been doing changes to my labels on the side, but I realised that perhaps most of my posts are not properly labelled. So it's time for me to start reorganising my blog labels. Also, it has been a to-do for me to create a page on this blog stating basic navigation and label guide for the newbies.

Maybe I should begin. Like, pronto.

So I apologise for any inconvenience during this time of reorganisation!

Days of Exile: Chapter 17

It has been a while since I wrote chapter notes on my blog :D

So thanks to one of you, I had a sudden paranoia that you guys may note even understand what I'm writing all this time, so here's a quick story recap. If you guys need THIS to understand what just happened in the last 16 chapters, it's high time I do something. If you guys still don't know what it is about, then I should retire into seclusion...

Since the destruction of Zirconiade...

1. The exiled Turks are living on their own... until President Shinra was assassinated by Sephiroth. Veld called the the Turks to ask for their help to support Shinra (without their knowledge because only Veld will be in contact with Tseng). In addition, they had to remove of the Jade WEAPON, who are after them because they destroyed Zirconiade.

2. Meia is in Shinra as lookout and intelligence, under the disguise of Professor Hojo’s assistance.

3. Sephiroth seemed to be alive and running around. Cloud’s party and the Shinra Turks are chasing him across the Planet (by the way, THAT is the storyline of FF7... at least at this point).

4. What is the purpose of Sephiroth? No one knows… not yet.

There. I hope it was clear enough this time around. Please tell me if the story is not coherent at any part of the story. You see, having played/read every installment, it's pretty hard to write for readers who have no FF7 background. If you spot any incoherence, let me know so I can rectify. Of course, certain incoherences are present... because it is meant to be so :P

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Tseng’s POV was indeed adapted (if not retold) by the FF7 novellas: Case of Shinra. Also, I know some of you talked about Elena. I love how indeed she is so out of the loop even though she’s a Turk. Eventually she’ll know everything, though how I’ve not figured! In the coming chapters, I'll be using "Case of Shinra" heavily to bring across the Turks' perspective.

Also, December is ending. So please take note, chapter updates will resume to once every two weeks again! The next chapter release is 12 Jan 2012.

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Time for my replies to your reviews!

Takara: Haha, no need to be so angsty there :) Elena being surprised is completely normal. Don't be jealous just because Tseng asked her for dinner ;)

TWA: hurray! doomsday has granted us more time! Reeve is going to be a character I'll try to divulge and analyse more. Hope I'm able to write him in his fullness by the end of this story (Yes, I'm hinting that he'll appear more often in the story).

Rachel: Great that you enjoyed Don Corneo's scene! I loved writing that too, though I had to rewatch the scene to fully capture that moment again. So seeing Reno flip his hair countless of times can be considered as irritating XD

Dontgotaclue88: Yeah, Reno is quite the poor chap, although the game didn't perceive him so. Really tough trying to fit a humane side of him in the story, but so far so good, huh?

rnn21: Yeah, the story is quite fast paced, I admit. I wrote it with the assumption that everyone has played FF7 (because I forget how young all of you are). It is next to impossible to write this story with half the portion retelling the game. It will not do this story justice because I don't have the stamina and the standard WILL be diluted. 

Days of Exile is no where near 25% of completion. If I had wrote more of FF7, this story will never end and truth be told, as much as I love this story, I am eager to finish this so that I can focus on new projects too. I know you don't need me to retell everything, so I'm doing my utmost best by selecting the scenes in FF7 most relevant to Meia and the Turks. If I'm not retelling, I've most likely explained what had happened through reports and narration. So I will take a risk by telling you to read it without thinking how it ties in with FF7 (it will... very very soon). I'm not sure if you've played the game, but basically most of the time Cloud and gang are just chasing Sephy all over the place. Haha!

Jefri: It was never specified how much Reeve controlled Cait Sith, so here's my own answer. Cait Sith has its own mind and intelligence, but Reeve has the ability to control its will. Reeve is able to command Cait Sith to tell a fortune, but neither Reeve nor Cait Sith has control over the results of the fortune. :)

Kadajclone100 (longest for the last!!):

First up, thank you for constantly trying to bring me back to focus. I admit, there are many MANY underlying themes/POVs/overlapping arcs in this mega story and it’s really hard to juggle them all. I’ve noted your questions about the grey area of morality and have been trying to, bit by bit, fit them into the story.

Regarding the BC Turks, not everyone joined Shinra with a vengeful intention. Over the course of the two stories, I’ve mentioned some Turks’ backstories. Cissnei, KK, Masons’ were explained sufficiently and everyone else’s were hinted at here and there… except Cassie (I’m currently writing it!). Not to worry, it has been my intention to eventually write about every single BC Turk and you’ll see that most of them joined Shinra because they ran out of luck in their own trouble and saw no better alternative. These people didn’t hate Shinra at all, they merely see the company as an escape route.

Indeed if Shinra had not turned on them they would continue to be a Turk. As for looking down on Heidegger and Scarlet, it’s pretty human for people to do the ‘pot-calling-the-kettle-black’ thing. Since they’re all equally guilty, it didn’t matter. Then again, you’ll see that in this story, no one can call on distinguishing the line clearly. It had been pretty evident from the beginning that everyone thinks they knew what they are doing… but they don’t. So if I don’t clear up the mess myself, that might be what’s going to happen, haha!

Morality is one of the hardest themes in this story, but it’s thanks to people like you that I can recalibrate my bearings so that I can write with more focus. In the future chapters you’ll see this theme being unfolded more so hold on to your horses. I intend to end this mess by the end of the FF7 timeline so that we can focus on ‘the future of Midgar’!

I certainly hope that I have appeased your question. Do let me know if I have been giving satisfactory answers so far. It’s so hard to give a straightforward answer without spoiling. Feel free to ask more if you’re not sure.

Yeah, plain irritating about the Don Corneo part (let’s not spoil the surprise… in case I intend to continue writing X_x) Have you read “The Kids Are Alright”? Where did you get the material?  Been trying to find the translation in vain.

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Whew! What a long post! I have tons of things I wanna share, but I'm simply too tired to write. I'm starting work again this Wednesday and I've not prepared for the new year! Let's hope that God is merciful enough to give me time to write always!

Have a happy new year lovely people and see you in two weeks' time!

Headaches, headaches

I am having a massive headache right now.

Background info: I stopped playing FF7 when I was in Disc 3. Although storywise I'm almost done, I don't remember many things. I've finally finished watching the FF7 playthrough (just to be sure of my details again...) and thank goodness I did. Indeed, there were many many things that I didn't know existed. What exactly was I playing then, haha. A lot of things that I (definitely) didn't understand when I was 15 years old, made sense to me now.

So anyway I'm done with the playthrough and I realised that I'm missing a lot of things in my story. I've found out recently that some of you did not play FF7, some of you have NO CLUE what happened in the game. Although Crisis Core gives the best perspective, I believe that every FF7 fan MUST watch FF7 playthroughs!! You'll really understand Advent Children better. I always tell my friends the order of games to play to enjoy maximum enjoyment is:

1. Final Fantasy 7
2. Crisis Core
3. Advent Children.

Then, in whichever order you like, Last Order, Before Crisis and Dirge of Cerberus.

Ah, I digress.

I'll be back to the chapters that I've yet to publish, expanding them more so that people understand what the heck I am writing. More specifically, I'll be putting myself in the shoes of people who do not understand what are the events in FF7 and explain. However, I assure you that I won't be retelling the story. The story still centres Meia and other what-would-be minor characters in FF7. I'll also be back on talking about the exiled Turks. Try to. Ten POVs makes many chapters, after all.

Yup, the chapters are going to be LONGER. Much, much longer. I'm looking at 5000-6000 words. Unless I can break them up. Argh. Can you see my headache now? I hate rearranging events just so that they can fit in chapters nicely.

Honestly, I know that I don't have to explain these all to you. Someone once said that a good author doesn't need to explain his stories with author's notes and all. And I want to do that because I too, want to know if my readers can understand me without my need to explain. But I like talking (much obviously) and I enjoy talking to my readers. But yeah, I'll make a note to talk less about my story content, heheh.

In other news, I'm very very impressed with Scribbler's writings. Seriously, why doesn't she get the reviews she deserve? But I'll talk about her (properly) another day.

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 :)

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 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

Updates on my writing so far

dear folks, i've just finished chapter 50 of "I Want To Be A Turk!" WAHAHAHAHAHA!

well, not that it's fully done, i still have chapter 45, 48, 49 where some scenes are not written yet.

but what i mean is that i'm going to stop advancing into chapter 51 and all.

now, I'll focus on refining the chapters from 41-50.

some chapters lack good flavour, it's plain dialogue and i thought the story at some point became a little bland. also, some chapters (especially during the Nibelheim incident) have too many words but you know what? just for the fact that the Nibelheim incident is such a milestone event, i WILL write more than 5000 words for that chapter. Hope you understand (I'll give you a heads-up when it comes!)

that's the update for my Turk fic :)

Recently, I'm thinking of continuing my "The Only Exception" fic, a mere 1000-word progress so far. I've been pouring my creative juices into Meia's story that I feel so inspiration-less for the others :P

Also, i want to write "AVALANCHE!" still... im still getting some scenes thought out, but nothing substantial for me to start writing. *sigh* looks like i can't get anything done till the meia story is done. damnnnnn >.<

Just a little teaser, AVALANCHE is a spin off from "Moves Like Jagger", but the protagonist is Tifa, not Elena :) Maybe the last chapter of "Moves Like Jagger" will give you some inspiration :P

Ahh, how could I forget? I've been wanting to write "Be My Knight!", a fanfic based on FF8. I've only uploaded Chapter 1, though I've written another chapter after that. Looks like I won't get it done anytime soon too. *sigh*

If only i get paid for writing fanfiction :P

I Want To Be A Turk!: Chapter 40

And so the aftermath begins...

Gosh, 4000 words still. I really should cut you guys some slack and write some 3500 word chapters once in a while :p and i did write some shorter chapters later on, just that i always find trouble in reading long chapters, so i try not to make you guys suffer the same. nevertheless, i guess for the sake of this story i HAVE to write long chapters, if not i'll never finish my LONG story.

Yes, i'm worried if i made Meia a little too mopey, though i've seen worse (i'm looking at you, NEW MOON!). i'm trying to make meia concentrate all her efforts into finding things to distract her from thinking about Reno, but i realised that after chapter 45 i kinda didn't talk about it anymore, heheh.

also, the many line-break monster strikes again! XD

again, another kunsel scene. but yes TWA, Meia and Kunsel will never be together, no matter how hard we hope it to be. truthfully, i planned them to be together first, before she realises that she likes reno. but i like kunsel... i don't want him to be thrown aside T_T i did consider a kunselxOC fic too, but no ideas so far, and i doubt there are people who likes kunsel fics XDDDD

Also, at last, an alana (Gun (Female)) scene. i haven't wrote much about her so far but im hoping that when the canon storyline dies down a little (probably after zack dies), i'll focus on the BC turks. for now, it's more of following the canon storyline in BC and CC so most of the scenes (from chapter 44-50) are a reenactment with added scenes, not that i lifted them entirely, okay??

the rude and reno part was my favourite in the chapter, all the scenes. FYI, the scene where reno 'found out' that rude likes tifa was one of the very first scenes that i wrote when i was planning for 'I Want To Be A Turk!', guess you can imagine how excited I am that finally, after 7 months of waiting, I can publish this portion :)

even though it is only stated in canon that Rude admitted that he likes Tifa in FF7 events, i thought it was strange that Rude would only like Tifa after meeting her less than 2-3 times. So hence, i created this scene where Reno and Rude actually meet Tifa waaayyy before FF7 time, so that at least we know that Rude has a crush on Tifs for a long time. Maybe not consistently, but i thought it'll make more sense that he knew Tifa for a substantial amount of time to conclude that she is a good girl to like, rather than 'love at first sight' (because i don't see rude as... that sort XD)

naturally, i gotta make reno so drunk that whatever he pointed out to rude that night was forgotten the next morning, hence removing the discrepancy that Reno was genuinely surprised to hear Rude say that he likes Tifa in FF7. confusing? like what my tutor in college/university says, "try and keep up" :P

also, the last two scenes, where Reno desperately tries to forget Meia by one-night-stands (do people REALLY do that????)... the last portion where you know, Reno ends up in the bar again (because he chickened out) was also another one of those first scenes i wrote before i started 'I want to be a Turk!'... it was heart-breaking to imagine him so, and i hope you guys caught the torture he felt? :)

anyway, another long A/N for you :) things are getting a little more interesting from here, so enjoy the ride :D

gosh! as i was doing some random planning for future chapters for "I Want To Be A Turk!"... i realised an important possibility.

i can finish the BC and CC events witin 15 chapters after the Nibelheim incident.

*GASP*

i know you guys must be like 'yeah... so?' XD just so you know, the Nibelheim incident is coming around the corner XD okay, maybe i'm excited about things that you can't see yet. this is because i'm writing the Nibelheim incident and so i can already see that the first half of the story (events up to before FF7) is going to be completed.

i'm so happy :D this kinda motivates me to go on further, now that i see the faintest light at the end of the (first) tunnel!

okay, that's all :P

in other news, i wrote a ff7 x 9gag fic for new year. well, for fun. but i'm not going to talk about it so that's all :P

just so you know...

updates on my writing on "I Want To Be A Turk!".

As some of you know, I love prefer to write at least 5-7 chapters ahead. (you didn't know? where have you been?) I'm currently finishing up the Costa del Sol scene (yes, the one shown in Crisis Core) and the Nibelheim scene (BC version) concurrently and...

I'm tired.

before you guys gasp and scream "not another incomplete story!", i just want to complain, that's all. i've been writing this story non-stop since May. Everyday (well, almost) I write a sentence or two to the story. Sometimes I get high on writing and churn out 4000 words a day (yeap, i finish chapters in a matter of hours!).

finally, after 45 chapters (yeap, I'm writing Chapter 46 now!), I'm starting to feel tired. It's really tiring to link and link and link canon details ACROSS different games. I had to switch on gunshotromance for BC content, sorumian's crisis core walkthrough and my own chapters to cross-reference, to ensure i'm not creating loopholes, to... GAHHH XD

i don't plan on giving up yet. i'm still damn determined to finish whatever i've set out to do. and damn well i want to finish this.

forgive me. it's just that the nibelheim incident, one of the BIGGEST milestones in FF7 timeline, is such a "pansy" to write. some parts of the story really flow through smoothly, then there are discrepancies between BC and CC themselves. *sigh* SquareEnix, Y U NO CHECK YOUR STORY?

anyway, the Nibelheim incident is just the tip of the iceberg to everything that I have in plan for you. I could only hope that you guys don't get bored and give up. (This is why I fight so hard to ensure I post a chapter once a week... it'll be hard to attract or keep readers if i update irregularly.)

also, I intend to cheat myself a little and jump here and there. Perhaps I'm not doing you guys enough justice, but I'll most likely cut some BC scenes and make the story go a little faster. So to those who knows their BC stuff, I intend to cut away the Wutai and Rocket Town scene. Yeah, Yuffie and Cid just got to delay their cameos a little later.

After the Nibelheim scene, which is Year 0002, I'm going to a particular BC episode in Year 0003. Then we'll jump straight into the juicy bit... when Zack escapes after being locked up for 4 years (Year 0006). Sounds good?

i've got a long battle ahead. *check Materia* i'm ready.

I Want To Be A Turk!: Chapter 34 and 35

Yes folks, I'm back! I'd talk more about my trip but that's not the purpose of this post.

Two words for me: Happy Birthday!

Yup, it's 5th December, 1:15 AM. So to share my joy (which isn't a lot as of now because I'm dead tired from my Taiwan trip), I've posted two chapters for your viewing pleasure. It's also to compensate the two weeks that I disappeared.

Chapter 34 is pretty straightforward, in my opinion. Reno realises that he has feelings for Meia, and spends a laughable amount of time convincing himself otherwise. How would he behave from now on? The first climax of the entire story is fast approaching and I can't wait to see your (disappointed?) responses at the turn of events. XD

Just an FYI, I wrote in the chapter that Reno's birthday falls in August. It's not canon, I just thought that he'll be cool as a Leo. I've always thought his horoscope should be Aries, Leo or Sagittarius.

Chapter 35 is interesting in my opinion. I had a headache writing it because I have to try and reconcile the massive boo-boo that SquareEnix made. You see, in Crisis Core, Wall Market is in the Sector 5 slums but in FF7, it is technically in Sector 6. But eventually I found a way to weave through the loopholes and hopefully it works.

I was particularly not satisfied with the conversation with Cissnei and Meia. I was cringing from the fluff and all while I was proofreading it. So I kinda made Cissnei a little less.... giggly and chirpy. Still, it's not the best I have for you :(

the rod scene was pretty fun to write for me, i kinda like the dynamics i've tried to create with rod and meia. it's kinda like a frenemy (a portmanteau of friend and enemy).

Now that most things are said and done... I gotta say Chapter 36 will be fun :) I just finished the chapter today. I left a gaping hole in the chapter because I didn't know how to fill it up till today (yeah, it took me almost two months to come up with something!!)

Thank you for your reviews!

TWA: description, huh? perhaps. sometimes, when my chapters go all the way up to 4500-5000 words, i'll cut down on description. a lot. well, in the first place i never considered my writing to be flavourful and full of description. i simply don't have the stamina to keep the description muscle working :P i'll take note and will spruce it up... the next chapter :P

Takara: thanks :D now that i'm back for a while, i hope you enjoy the chapters I've posted!

Moves Like Jagger: Chapter 5

This chapter is uploaded as a tribute to one of my first few supporters in my FF7 writing 'career'... The Writing Artist (or TWA). Happy Birthday, TWA :) I hope you managed to read this chapter before your birthday ends!

Okay, so I uploaded a little too quickly this time, the next update will be end Nov to Dec, but that would be the last chapter! Whoopee! I'm half done with that chapter so I can't wait till my exams are over so that I can work on it :D

Honestly, writing a RenoxElena fic wasn't as hard as I thought. I admit I didn't pay too much attention on character development, but it wasn't THAT bad right? I sincerely hope my characters aren't OOC >.<

I admit, I wanted to give you guys a surprise by writing that Cissnei is the saboteur instead, but I decided not to because I MIGHT be starting another story that is based on this universe! It’ll be a little tricky to have such a big character as Cissnei become the baddies =P Not that it's confirmed that Cissnei will be a big character in that new story, but I like to give myself less restrictions so that I won't find myself stuck when planning the new story... just in case.

Yeap, you've heard it. I might start another story, but no guarantee. I have dozens of plot bunnies waiting to birth, so… =) That being said, I'm quite excited about the new story I have in mind, so hopefully everything will work out :)

There we go! Chapter 5 and hints of a new story! Please read, review and comment! :)

P.S: GAHHH the log in page is not working!! i hope i can get this out quickly!!

Planning is such a pain.

oh gosh. As the title says, planning is such a pain. I spent two hours trying to pace my "I Want to be a Turk!" story properly to have minimal loopholes but it looks like i'm gonna fail :P I've decided to make a time lapse... though it wont be an abrupt one, but it will still be a time lapse XDD writing this story, though i still love it, is becoming really tiring :(