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edenfallingThank you to everyone who offered thoughts on Itachi's motivation!
Chapter 1 of "The Guardian in Spite of Herself" is finished. It ends on a cliffhanger, because I can do that. And you don't get to see it until December, because I can do that too. *beams*
I've outlined the story up through chapter 8 (which, knowing me, will probably be at least chapter 12 by the time I actually reach it... *sigh*) and am trying out various ways of connecting and intertwining my various plot threads. I've also decided not to kill a certain character. Instead, I will simply cripple her for life in various horrific ways and leave her unconscious in a hospital, because that gives me some interesting plot options later on. There will be plenty of other deaths. This is a story about ninja, after all, and some of them are hunting a mass murderer while others are out on an assassination mission.
(I always feel a little odd when designing characters for other characters to kill. It's one thing if they're nameless plot devices -- the killers may feel something, but I don't much care. It's a totally different thing if the characters have names and personalities, backstories and goals, and they want to live. I can't really empathize with a plot device, but if a character becomes a real person to me, and I still have to kill him or her... Eh. Playing god isn't always fun. Sometimes you have to load the dice, and I always feel kind of weird after doing that.)
Meanwhile, in my other fandom, "Secrets" chapter 10 is at 2,300 words. Go me!
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I've been reading![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
limyaael's entries on various things to keep in mind when writing fantasy. I don't agree with everything she says (the day I agree with everything some person says, I think I will pass out from shock), but she makes a number of good points. Something she said here particularly struck me:
Speaking from personal experience, one of the hardest things to do when you maim a character is to remember not to pluralize words you're accustomed to pluralizing. If the character's missing a hand, remember not to have him dragging firewood around "in both hands." If ravens have plucked out his left eye, remember that he can't glare at anyone "with burning eyes" (oh, and that he has a blind side). There might be very good plot reasons that you did this, but if you don't treat them with respect, no one else will be compelled to give them much respect either.
This is the hardest thing about writing Kakashi. Okay, so figuring out how much he'd let show through his various masks is tricky, and what he'd let back in to touch himself is tricky too, but the single hardest thing is remembering that he only has one visible eye. The blind side isn't quite as important, since he's a ninja and presumably good at sensing when people are approaching him (and because in a serious fight he will uncover his Sharingan eye). But I constantly had to go back and weed out plural references to his 'eyes.'
And even when he does have both eyes visible, they don't match, so you still can't always describe them as a unit. *bangs head against table*
The terrible thing is that if Kakashi were a real person, I bet he'd find that amusing.
Chapter 1 of "The Guardian in Spite of Herself" is finished. It ends on a cliffhanger, because I can do that. And you don't get to see it until December, because I can do that too. *beams*
I've outlined the story up through chapter 8 (which, knowing me, will probably be at least chapter 12 by the time I actually reach it... *sigh*) and am trying out various ways of connecting and intertwining my various plot threads. I've also decided not to kill a certain character. Instead, I will simply cripple her for life in various horrific ways and leave her unconscious in a hospital, because that gives me some interesting plot options later on. There will be plenty of other deaths. This is a story about ninja, after all, and some of them are hunting a mass murderer while others are out on an assassination mission.
(I always feel a little odd when designing characters for other characters to kill. It's one thing if they're nameless plot devices -- the killers may feel something, but I don't much care. It's a totally different thing if the characters have names and personalities, backstories and goals, and they want to live. I can't really empathize with a plot device, but if a character becomes a real person to me, and I still have to kill him or her... Eh. Playing god isn't always fun. Sometimes you have to load the dice, and I always feel kind of weird after doing that.)
Meanwhile, in my other fandom, "Secrets" chapter 10 is at 2,300 words. Go me!
-------------------------------
I've been reading
limyaael's entries on various things to keep in mind when writing fantasy. I don't agree with everything she says (the day I agree with everything some person says, I think I will pass out from shock), but she makes a number of good points. Something she said here particularly struck me:Speaking from personal experience, one of the hardest things to do when you maim a character is to remember not to pluralize words you're accustomed to pluralizing. If the character's missing a hand, remember not to have him dragging firewood around "in both hands." If ravens have plucked out his left eye, remember that he can't glare at anyone "with burning eyes" (oh, and that he has a blind side). There might be very good plot reasons that you did this, but if you don't treat them with respect, no one else will be compelled to give them much respect either.
This is the hardest thing about writing Kakashi. Okay, so figuring out how much he'd let show through his various masks is tricky, and what he'd let back in to touch himself is tricky too, but the single hardest thing is remembering that he only has one visible eye. The blind side isn't quite as important, since he's a ninja and presumably good at sensing when people are approaching him (and because in a serious fight he will uncover his Sharingan eye). But I constantly had to go back and weed out plural references to his 'eyes.'
And even when he does have both eyes visible, they don't match, so you still can't always describe them as a unit. *bangs head against table*
The terrible thing is that if Kakashi were a real person, I bet he'd find that amusing.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 12:57 am (UTC)*does the happy dance of joy* More fic from you! Yay!
And I bet Kakashi would be amused at that.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 01:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 01:09 am (UTC)*cracks up* you know, he probably would XD
The Guardian now sounds very interesting, I wonder who you're planning to maim *puzzles*
but if a character becomes a real person to me, and I still have to kill him or her... Eh. Playing god isn't always fun.
That's very true, I have a tendacy towards the darker fics myself (and have written more than a few) and I do tend to get an uneasy, slightly guilty feeling when I have to hurt/kill someone, particularly when it's someone I'm rather fond of.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 01:43 am (UTC)Weirdly, I don't mind killing or hurting my protagonists as much as I mind killing characters who were created specifically to be killed. Like, say, the targets of assassination missions. *sigh* This may be why I'm having trouble writing "Undertow" at any sort of reasonable speed; the entire point of the story is to kill Tsukimaru, and while he's a terrible person and arguably deserves to die... well.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 01:29 am (UTC)That was really bothering me for awhile writing young!Kakashi fic. Except for the few canon characters I'm using, the chances are high that everyone else I've created is dead by the time you hit the present Naruto timeline. It's kinda depressing.
The terrible thing is that if Kakashi were a real person, I bet he'd find that amusing.
He so would *g* I'm always struck by how weird it sounds to refer to someone doing something with only one body part in these cases. "looking him in the eye" just doesn't have the same ring to it, ne?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 01:48 am (UTC)*sigh*
*lights virtual candle in Akaro's memory* He was a good character.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 11:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-11 01:08 pm (UTC)...
Of course, she also makes me want to pull out stories and characters I've been leaving in metaphorical cold storage because I don't have time to write them or haven't been able to make the details coalesce into a workable form. Which is not helpful. *firmly pushes away the post-apocalyptic fantasy novella with human sacrifice and vaguely incestuous undertones*