wherein Liz thinks about her NFE assignment

NFE assignments are out, and having looked at my recipient's prompts and letter, I have to say, my biggest question here is not, "Can I work with this?" (the answer is YES, by the way; thank you, snacky!) but rather, "Is it even worth trying to be anonymous?"

Well, I could easily be anonymous on one of the prompts, because I have never written anything about that particular part of canon (and everyone can just wonder for several weeks whether I am using 'part' to mean book, era, character, location, or something else), but the others... um. Let's just say that they would be VERY EASY to write, and they would give me away in half a heartbeat.

Unless I go AU to my personal headcanons. Which could be really interesting! But I hate unnecessarily reinventing the wheel, and it's oddly frustrating to create something that would fit into my Lost Chronicles timeline except for Thing X, whatever Thing X may be.

Heh. You know what? This is where I wish I were rthstewart and had other people writing fanfic of my fanfic, because then I would have at least a little built-in plausible deniability. *wry*

...

Or wait. It suddenly occurs to me that this is the perfect excuse to explore certain OTHER vague notions that I haven't had any excuse to work into stories, but have kind of idly speculated about over the years. My recipient's prompts are very broad and forgiving in that fashion. Oooh. Yes. Okay, I think I have a plan...

*disappears in a flurry of evil laughter*

[Fic] "The Guardian in Spite of Herself" index page -- Naruto

Sorry, this is not a new chapter. It's just internet housekeeping time again.

...

Okay, and it's an announcement that I have moved "Guardian" to the top of my to-do list and am actively working on it once more. I am not sure if anyone still cares at this late date, but hey, I want to finish the story for myself as much as for any hypothetical readers. I mean, I still don't know the ending! Not in any great detail, at least. And I really want to know what happens.

So cross your fingers for me, and we'll go find out together. :D

---------------

The Guardian in Spite of Herself: WIP, 72,000 words so far, started Dec. 2005. The reward for a job well done is a bigger job. In this case, Ayakawa Yukiko's new job is a lot more complicated than anyone expected. The Uchiha massacre and its aftermath, in the world of The Way of the Apartment Manager. Post-traumatic stress, extreme familial dysfunction, attempted social/political/military revolution, dubious ethical choices and discussion thereof.

"Guardian" is a darker story than "Apartment Manager," partly because of the subject matter, and partly because I decided to unpick the implications of the socio-cultural and economic system of the ninja villages rather than accept them as the status quo. Also, I structured it the way I would structure an original novel, which may have been a mistake from a fanfiction perspective. In other words, three of my four POV characters are OCs, only two of whom were introduced in the previous story, and the new OC is also meant to be a semi-sympathetic antagonist whose worldview challenges the moral principles of career ninjas.

In contrast to "Apartment Manager," this story has taken (and is still taking, so help me) forever and a day to write. I think that's partly because I wrote most of "Apartment Manager" in the throes of madly passionate new-fandom love, which is not sustainable, and partly because stories with multiple POVs and plot arcs are inherently more complicated than stories that have only one of each.

But I will win eventually. *resolve face*

[Note, 1/3/16: Read the story on AO3 or ff.net. The journal version is a beta draft with all the attendant glitches, though it may be of some minor interest as a historical artifact.]

( The Guardian in Spite of Herself - Table of Contents )

I suspect "Guardian" will be 30-35 chapters when complete. My current outline lists 28, but my outlines almost inevitably expand in the writing.