which contains hints about "Guardian" and some general thoughts on writing

[edenfalling]

Wrote about 500 words for NaNo -- yay fight scenes with bandits, and Totally-in-Denial!Talin.

Then I spent a couple hours laying groundwork for "The Guardian in Spite of Herself." Dude, that story is going to be so much fun to write. It's also going to take a lot of research and coordination (the characters are in different places on different missions, which are all somewhat interrelated) but if I can pull it off... whoo. I am taking shameless advantage of the Uchiha massacre and the early years of Akatsuki (they had to build the organization up somehow), and also gleefully mucking around with theories of how exactly the canon backstory fits together and how I can change it with a tweak here or there.

As for canon characters... I'm tossing Kurenai into the story, because I like her. I also really like genjutsu as a concept and she and Yukiko provide very different approaches to illusions. Kurenai is combat-oriented; Yukiko is very much not. There is a woman -- Suzume, I think? -- who does clerical work of some sort in Konoha. If anyone knows about her, please tell me details. Also, any details on Ibiki and Ebisu would be greatly appreciated, as well as the exact date for the founding of Hidden Sound. And maps. If anyone has a good map of the continent, I'd be very grateful.

(I'm going to research myself, of course, but my research consists mostly of rereading the manga to get a sense of the characters in action. If you have access to other sources of character information, please tell me. I reserve the right to blatantly contradict stuff I don't like, but I'd like to know exactly what I'm contradicting.)

Kakashi, Iruka, and Naga will be returning, as well as some new original characters, most notably Fuuma Seichi, a Leaf jounin who specializes in quiet deaths. This contrasts with Kakashi, who seems to have specialized in messier, more public deaths -- it's the difference between a blatant show of power and intimidation and the quiet chill that runs up the back of your neck because someone might be watching you, right behind you, and you'd never be able to tell... *rubs hands gleefully*

Oh, this is going to be such fun! World-building, character development, desperate searches running out of time, little kids getting into the middle of terrible situations, revenge, redemption, information and disinformation, misdirection, the way things do and don't connect... Yeah, it's going to be fun. Heck, I may even experiment with cliffhangers. :-)

I've been looking back over my stories and I haven't used cliffhangers, with the single exception of Naga's backstory. I meant to use one between the announcement of Yukiko and Akaro's fight and the actual scene in the arena, but the pacing didn't work out that way. It's a technique I'm interested in mastering. "Guardian" will also be a way for me to practice split storylines and multiple POV voices, and an experiment in tying multiple plot strands together so they -- hopefully! -- arrive at a conclusion more or less at once. I'm doing that on a lesser scale in my NaNo novel (only two POV characters, though there are many, many plot threads) and it's a definite stretch for me as a writer, something I've only really been learning to do for a year or so.

You have to keep trying new things. What's the point if you don't?

Comments

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

(Made my way here from Fanfic.net, big fan of the writing *nodnod*)

There is a woman -- Suzume, I think? -- who does clerical work of some sort in Konoha. If anyone knows about her, please tell me details.

There's a Shizune, but she's Tsunade's friend/aide/confidante. Not sure if that's the same person you're talking about, but I don't recall any other similar-type person.

[karit.livejournal.com]

...wow. If that's going to be half as interesting to read as I think it will be, I'm gonna be one happy reader. Really, I can't even imagine how hard it'll be for you to write that. But I think if anyone can do it, you can. I certainly don't know any other authors I'd want writing it. :)

[askerian]

Shizune is Tsunade's assistant/student. At first glance she appears rather shy and plain, but she's a very good medic nin and she has these neat throwing thingies in her sleeves. I need to find you screencaps. She also gets very very pissed off if someone tries to hurt Tsunade (emotionally at least -- tsunade can fight on her own) She didn't hesitate to stand between Tsunade and Orochimaru and Kabuto. ^^ Once Tsunade is hokage, she spends her time carrying reports and papers and trying to make tsunade work more. XD

If you meant Suzume the teacher, the only things we know is that she's rather a stereotype/caricature of the teacher with frizzy hair and big nerdy glasses. She gave me a bit of a trelawney vibe, if you see what I mean. She's in charge of the flora discovery/flower arrangement class and probably other kinds of kunoichi-only lessons, too.

Map of the five countries!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/Asher/map_countries.jpg

About Kurenai and Ibiki... :

Yuuhi Kurenai
Kurenai's the teacher for Hinata's team. Even though she's female, she's the newest addition to the Jounin group. She respects Kakashi a great deal and refers to him as "Kakashi-senpai"

Morino Ibiki
Captain of the Leaf Village interrogation (aka, torture) team, Ibiki is the instructor for the first chunnin exam. Kakashi (as well as many other jounins), consider him a sadist. Kakashi silently pities his students for being under his supervision because of that fact. But Kakashi also acknowledges Ibiki in not only having skills of torturing physically, but also mentally.


Ebisu is a special jounin, not a full jounin. He's an instructor, tutoring selected students. he's Konohamaru's tutor. He despised naruto at first, but he changed his mind after seeing him train and help konohamaru change his attitude. He acts stuffy, and he's proud of his abilities as a teacher. He makes me think of Faith's watcher, what's his name again? Wesley?

As for the founding of Hidden Sound, it wasn't said, but I know where you can get an idea...
http://forums.narutofan.com/showthread.php?t=12409


AKATSUKI!!! EEEEE. *_______________* ohhhh that sounds so awesome. *waits* *waiiiiits*

o.o? I give you fanart?

[gabriel-chaos.livejournal.com]