Durarara

...I kind of want to write fanfiction for it. I'll have to read up on what's there and see if I can get things together for a drabble or two. Drabbles are sort of what I'm into now, I guess, but I dunno. I've just slowly moved out of the long term fanfiction range for some reason. There will be more discussion on that later, I suppose.

If you haven't seen Durarara already, I would encourage you to go ahead and watch it! I like it a lot. It's not forced, it flows and it's not cluttered with shit that deters you from enjoying the content of the show. The characters are memorable and loveable. It's a similar vibe to K-ON!, if you liked that.

One Word

It's calling me. It's a really nice prompt system, and I really, really want to do something with it. However, I'm busy with so many things: The YGO contest, random requests and school and special projects; I'm not sure if I can do a whole story of it...

Not much to report, I'm afraid...

As for right now, there's not much to talk about. I'm being swamped by the YGO fanfiction contest whilst trying to finish up the Smut 69 challenge on LJ...

Keep on Truckin'

So things are just coasting at the moment. I'm waiting for my new laptop to come in the mail, and while I'm doing that I'm pretty much just updating the drabble series and entering rounds of the contest, so there's nothing pressing going on at the moment and my story plans have been halted for the most part.

We'll have to see if I can get back to my regular schedule of juggling way too many stories soon.

On Yami and Mokuba~

I actually got out of bed this morning thinking about brushing my teeth, and ended up writing a drabble about Mokuba having dirty thoughts about Yami while sitting through a sexual harassment seminar for KaibaCorp employees.

Yep. This is how all of my mornings go.

In any case, I'm taking a bit of time to write down how I feel about the two of their personalities based on the "Be Cool" universe. The drabble in question, which will surely be up on fanfiction.net very soon, is oddly from Mokuba's point of view. It really only could be, considering the setting. Now, I know that I've pegged both Yami and Mokuba with the badass! personality for this particular universe, but at the same time, there are differences between the two of them, made obvious in the story. I'm hopeful that these differences would become more apparent through the drabbles and one-shots that I'll be posting.

In my opinion, regardless of personality, Mokuba has always been the softer of the two Kaibas, and I imagine that it will always be that way unless something really fucked up happens to Mokuba while he's away from Seto. Even though he sort of has a devil may care attitude, he does *care* a little about how his actions affect others. I showed him pulling away from Seto a bit in "Be Cool," but even in that story he acknowleged that he wouldn't desert his brother completely--beause he knows how that would affect his older brother.

Yami, on the other hand--he's this spirit, thrust into a world he has no background in or any hope to become fully assimilated into--he addresses this at some point by expressing his being content at running the Kame Game Shop for Gramps. He has no educational background, no hope for what could be considered a functioning future--and while he's the same valiant man, willing to protect others, when it comes to his own personal health he's a bit self-destructive. I'm not sure that it was particularly clear in the story, but for example, he smokes. A lot. Mokuba has a few more cigarettes near the end of the story than he did in the middle, but Mokuba was actually being truthful when he told Yami he rarely smokes. Yami...just happened to have a new pack on him, and I think it worked at fooling readers into thinking that it was the same case with him. Just that alone is one of the functioning analogies between them that represent subtle differences.

Another example of this are their roles while having sex with each other. Yami is always ridiculously loud, regardless of where they are or what they're doing--even when he's bottoming, Mokuba's the most quiet. He's just a quiet type of lover, reserved. He would be louder if someone asked him to, but Yami doesn't care enough to even ask.

Similar, but very different. And I like that characterization of them. I can't wait to write more about the two of them together.

Contests and Such~

I've found myself with a desire to enter them lately. I still have a request fic that I need to do, badly, but I haven't had any inspiration for it.

I recently entered a drabble contest on livejournal--I finally started an account there and had a friend explain it to me--and I've also entered a contest on the YGO forums on fanfiction.net. I'm trying very hard to do things that will challenge the type of fiction that I write, because I am interested in developing beyond my expertise (which has always been romance and lemons in general). I'm not bad at action or general fics--I just don't write them. And entering into some of these things will give me no choice but to write something other than what I'm used to.

I think it'll make for a fun experience. I've been writing fanfiction for year; might as well enter a contest or two...

Oh. Right: My computer died.

That's very important.

I thought that for anyone actually giving a damn and reading here that they should know that. A lot of my updates to this blog are going to be in groups, because I actually write down my thoughts for this blog when something spectacular or particularly boring happens.

...I'd forgotten...

Reviewing Spree #2

I'm not really sure what inspired this, but I'm in the mood to do some more reviewing today. My focus this time is Mokuba/____ stories; meaning stories with Mokuba in the pairing. I would like to specify that none of these stories will be Mokuba/Seto, because I'm not really into the incest thing. I allow it for the Host Club fandom, but only because of the fact that it's a running gag in the show.

So far...I haven't found anything good. It's very frustrating to read and read and read, and not find anything of substance. So far I've found run-on sentences, block paragraphing (block paragraphing?! Are you serious? *pulls at hair*), and badly done lemons. I'm searching specifically for M-rated stories at the moment, as Lemons are my expertise and I can actually offer help on them.

...I have to tell you...perhaps it's because I'm on fanfiction.net, but...It's looking like a wasteland out here... I'll edit this later with more commentary.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
EDIT:

So...yeah, yesterday was ridiculous. There are no amount of words to express what I went through yesterday. It just didn't make any sense. In any case, what ended up happening in short was that I found a fic that really needed improving, I tried to explain it in the review and I didn't really feel like she knew where I was coming from so...I... *cough*

...I re-wrote her fic.

Now, this isn't something that I do all the time, and I know that this makes me a complete douche and a scumbag, but I didn't do it just to be a jerk; I actually wanted her to see the potential that her fic had. Her FF.net username is in both the summary, and in the author's notes before and after the story as a disclaimer letting everyone know that it's her story AND it's only intended for learning purposes.

In the review, I told her that I would be willing to take the fic down any time she wanted, and I stand by that.

...I've never done that to someone before. I've never re-written another person's fic, even when I was asked to. I'm not really sure what came over me, but I would prefer if I never had to go through that again...really. It took three hours of work to do that, and I wasn't even really a fan of what the fic entailed....

Older Works.

So...I got a good look at something that I wrote quite some years ago.

It was absolutely terrible, even by my own standards. It was written back in 2005, however, back when I was just getting into fanfiction. When I was going back to it, I thought that it was going to be cool...and then it totally wasn't. Even the corrected version doesn't change how the chapter was actually written.

I drew maps for the story, there's lore about the towns and cities there, and for some reason there was a cacophony of languages inserted. I still think that the story had a good concept...just not good writing. I'm rather disappointed in myself about it, as I could easily compare what I'd written to things that I'm definitely not into now in any way, shape or form--in fact, I can compare it to things that I hold in disdain...

I'm thinking about trying to re-write it because of all the work that I put into it, but I'm not sure whether or not it would be worth it. I've thought about publishing my own short story/novella, but I'm not really sure that I'm up to snuff. On the other hand, I'd rather not prove other authors right and be in the statistic of decent writers who aren't making money because they're too caught up in fanfiction. It's in this capacity that I can appreciate part of the fan market in Japan--not only can you be recognized for your talents, but you can still do fanwork and be recognized for your original stuff, too.

I'll have to find my groove, but I promised a very special person that I would wipe it all and try to start it over again. I hope that I'm up to the task with my original fiction, although something tells me that I'm not.

Sneaking at Work~

This is not something that I usually--who am I kidding? I do it all the time. I just wanted you all to know that I'm definitely trying to get that last chapter of Be Cool up. I'm very proud of how it ends, although I'll give you a hint and say that it's a bit in complete. I feel like this is going to become my new "Oh, to see the Light!" series, wherein I create small one-shots for this pairing set in the same universe. I've got ideas spinning in my head already.

Back to the subject; work. I'm definitely one of those people who sneaks on the internet at work. I'm not really a facebook person as far as that goes, though [although I have used my work computer to go onto facebook once or twice], and I spend most of my time listening to music as I work and typing up fanfiction/RP posts wherever I go. Speaking of, I'm going to have to write a post one of these days about how I feel about RPing...

Anyway, can you tell I'm bored at work?

Hmmm...

Yep, I'm still working on things. I've been with a couple friends over the weekend, trying to forget about the fact that I don't have a computer. It was very therapeutic, but now I have to get back on the grind...

For fans of Be Cool~

...I lost chapter 6. It was really good, and it was perfect, but my laptop died (I'm at work right now), and there's nothing more that I could do, unfortunately. I've started writing out another version of the chapter, but last night I had to sob to myself because...it was so perfect and...perfect. Whatever else I write will never be as good.

...just had to vent on that.

Also, updates may or may not be slow because of my new lack of a laptop. While I do have resources, the time using these resources to type things is very limited, which would explain why I just posted more than one journal entry at once although they were written during separate hours of the day.

Specifically about Kratos Aurion~

I keep having this urge to do more Kratos fanfiction lately. I'm not sure how to feel about this. I honestly thought that Lloyd/Zelos was my ship for this fandom, but I can't help but feel that things have definitely changed in this capacity.

I've had at least three other Kratos fanfic ideas in the last twenty-four hours. I think what I like is the challenge of it all. Kratos has a very difficult type of personality to convey, because a lot of emotions run underneath his exterior, and he is the epitome of a person who only says what is necessary. He is neutral in all matter that he feels does not concern him--and a lot of those situations that he removes himself from could be be seen as personal by a more emotional individual/character. He let his own son choose his fate despite any mistakes that he may have made along the way, even if some of those mistakes could be attributed to himself due to his involvement with Cruxis.

As I've said in a previous post, that's the difference between Kratos and Seto--or one of the differences, rather. Kratos is a deeply evolved character with four thousand years of history. He met Mithos on the battlefield as an emissary of peace, and Kratos decided to train him and later was betrayed by Mithos's perversion of Martel's ideals. He's got a disjointed family, guilt for his dead wife and is distanced from his closest friends, whom he is reminded of with Lloyd and his group. There's more to add, for those who are not familiar with the character, but suffice it to say that he's a character that represents many important philosophical ideals.

I want to practice with his personality, to give him a bit of insight into him in a good way. A lot of ToS fanfiction is unacceptably OOC. Terrible. Like with Mokuba themed YGO fanfiction, I would like to correct this.

Juke Box Idea?

All the time, I heard songs that make me wonder if I should include them in a fanfic of somesort. For quite some number of years on and off I've thought about creating a fanfic dedicated to songfics from all the fandoms I like. It would technically be a cross over, but they wouldn't necessarily be in the same universe; each chapter would just feature the pairing in question from their own universe. I guess it depends on the perception of who's reading it.

Maybe I should just stop being lazy and create OOC one-shots for this type of thing?

I dunno. I haven't made up my mind...

Thoughts on Zelos and Kratos~

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3681928/1/These_Lies_We_Tell

The story above is an excellent example of how I want to write this couple. I don't know whether or not it's going to be as plot driven, but MeeLee's characterizations are awesome, and I really love the way that she made the situations fit the characters. There are several lines that you'll swear came from the game themselves, and I like that. It put things in perspective and reminded me how Kratos is.

I used to equate Kratos with Seto Kaiba from the YGO fandom, but they're not really the same, actually. Kratos does indeed care, as opposed to Seto who more so only cares if it benefits himself or Mokuba directly; Kratos has more character development in his background. Seto's...just a rich boy with a good job. XD

In any case, I'm definitely looking for ideas for this couple. It's not difficult to write Zelos for me--I like upbeat, witty characters who are a bit more-than-meets-the-eye (*coughs*Mokuba*coughs*)--and I look forward to writing something with the two of them that both I and my readers can be proud of.

About Seto Kaiba~

Just random thoughts that I'm having atm ^^

I'm not really sure what else to say on this end. I mean, I like the idea of Seto Kaiba--tough guy with money and superiority complex--he's nice on paper, very malleable for fanfiction, and it's supposedly just as easy to fit him together with Jounouchi Katsuya [I personally like it better when Katsuya is Jou's first name rather than last], but...very honestly, I don't like him very much.

If anyone reading this has also read my fanfiction, it's not difficult to see that I don't. Seto usually has an opposing role to the main character in a work--who is usually Mokuba XD--and I don't think it's difficult to see why. The idea of what Seto could be, I think, is much more romantic and idealistic than what he actually is. I mean, I bend personalities just as easily as the next authoress, but Seto's so rigid that even I feel uncomfortable making him out of character.

Usually, when this his happens with a character, I make the point of setting the character in situations that denote their personality, so that they don't seem as unyielding as usual--if a scenario calls for that sort of reaction, the reader is much less likely to question or think of the character of as harsh as they really are, because it seems reasonable by comparison. It's a dirty trick, I know, but it works.

With this in mind, I actually like reading stories where Kaiba's a bit more upbeat. Personally, however, I...can't write it. Kaiba being upbeat is something that seems horrendously wrong when I write despite the fact that I love it when other people do.

That's my primary reason for not having a lot of Kaiba/Jou stuff up. There's only so much Kaiba that I can handle in a fic because I feel he brings the mood down. samurai-ashes does a very good job of writing interesting stories that would involve Kaiba needing to be that way, and Jou deals with him in a realistic (but also rather depressing) way, but it's a very good combination and she writes good stories for them, nonetheless.

...sometimes, I just don't think I'm deep enough to write Kaiba/Jou, because my concepts for the couple just aren't deep enough.

Future Fanfic Summaries

[SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO READ MY FICS]

Planning for certain fics in the brainstorm:

Prefects Anonymous:
In a meeting of prefects, conversation goes from being professional to sexual with ease. Hermione silently fumes about the lack of professionalism involved and tries to ignore them for the duration of the meeting. After the meeting on her way back to Gryffindor Tower after evening rounds, she meets with Draco, etc. [possible fluff/small amount of activity, probably rated T. Small chance of becoming a lemon.]

The Dewey Decimal System:
Hermione has a rather interesting way of teaching Draco the sections of the Dewey Decimal System [definitely mature.]

At A Glance:
A story detailing Minerva and Dumbledore's subtle relationship--silent aspects of it. Passing glances in certain situations that reveals much more emotion than usually thought.

A Dozen Roses:
Twelve short drabbles in which Kratos delivers. Twelve different roses to her--each a different color.

Fresh:
Colette's taking a shower, and Sheena decides to join her to get soap from that one spot on her back. [maybe mature]

Just Right:
Regal takes our Presea out to dinner, but she's awkward and not very lady-like. Although she's trying to become more like her sister, she's very discouraged about dating Regal because she's not Alicia. [T at the most]

Random Zelos/Kratos drabble:
Kratos confronts Zelos one evening because he knows that Zelos is a triple agent.

Celebrity:
Some tabloid snaps photos of Kaiba and Jounouchi together at a dinner, and the couples life spirals out of control due to the publicity. Will Kaiba take the opportunity to boost his sales by keeping Jou around, even when it's obvious that they aren't getting along at all? What happens when Jou calls it quits on their performance (featuring alcoholic!Jou, in school!Jou)

Ma Mère:
When a woman comes to Domino, claiming to be Seto and Mokuba's mother, how will they react? (mult-chap)

Kiss the Sun:
Fic from Kaiba's point of view about waking up in the morning next to Jou.

Highest Bidder:
Jou is suggested for a fund raiser featuring males at his college. Everyone is invited, but Mokuba and Yuugi end up fighting to win him. Who will actually get Jounouchi in the end?

Chain:
A newspaper is doing a story on the Host Club permanently and jointly owned by the Host Club members. It is a very successful business that they all do on the side of their own endeavors despite the reputation. The reporter insists upon getting into every aspect of their lives, even after hours at the shop.

Charm:
Haruhi finds a cute charm on her desk at school, and tries to figure out who it's from. [implied everyone/everyone, definitely Haruhi/Kyouya]

For Safe Keeping - To Samurai-ashes

Many of you who are aware of my history and what I do will recognize this old except from my page at fanfiction.net (see the link on the left). It's a message that I wrote to samurai-ashes, the author that inspired me to start Yu-gi-oh fanfiction and to improve to reach her level overall. She's an excellent authoress, and I would encourage everyone here to both read her works on fanfiction.net as well as MediaMiner if you like either YGO or good writing in general. A couple years ago, she announced that she was leaving, and it made me very sad because of all that she is to me. She's back on and off now, but I wanted to keep the message because it embodied a lot of my perception of fanfiction in general. So I kept it up on my bio on FF.net. But now that I have this place, I think that I'm going to very much leave it here, so that I can move on from that portion of my life and rejoice in the fact that she is indeed still on ff.net. So, here I place it for safe-keeping. ^^




OLD ANNOUNCEMENT:

I wanted to announce that the authoress that inspired me to better my own writing skills and major in English (with concentration on Creative writing), samurai-ashes, is leaving fanfiction.net. She says that she’s grown out of fanfiction, and that she’s going to go into more original fiction.

I want to say, first, that I HATE it when authors/authoresses do that. I think that if you decide to become involved in fanfiction that you should do it for life. I understand that there are things in life that happen and that people want to actually be legally published and all of that, that you want an education, that people in your family pass on, that you may lose your inspiration. But I would suggest a HIATUS rather than leave fanfiction. Take myself for example. I’m in college now. I’ve been on fanfiction for almost five or six years. Things change. Interests change. But you can still connect fanfiction to them. I plan on writing fanfiction as long as possible, just so you all know. I might take a while to post things. I might be busy, but I will never QUIT, and it bothers me that people are doing that. These are people who inspire others with words. People who give others hope that yes, an anime ending might suck, but that they can read better. There is hope that one day, there will be a professional writer who began with fanfiction and knows how to do things right/the best way possible. Some of these stories affect people’s lives; they keep people from crying at night, they make people laugh right after a family member has gone. They parallel the lives of characters we love to our own, no matter if you like anime or movies or books, or if you like YAOI, YURI, or just regular HET pairings. Fanfiction is a way of life, of sustenance, and a lot of people do not appreciate it…

Samurai-ashes leaving scars me more deeply than you all will know. There were times when I wanted to quit writing fanfiction, because I thought I wasn’t good enough. I was new and scared that I had no skill. I didn’t know the rules. I didn’t know how to write fanfiction at all. But she helped me. She spoke to me and counseled me and through reviewing and critiquing her fiction I learned how to construct my own, how to take ideas from seemingly nothing and spin it into a nicely themed one shot, or how to write a PWP and make it so enjoyable that it was acceptable. And when she reviewed my stories, I felt like GOD had come down from Heaven and personally held a conversation with me. You all think I’m a good writer, but I wouldn’t have been HALF as good as I am now without reading her stories. I read her livejournal. I read her Mediaminer.org stories (which were slightly better, as they were unedited versions of her works and I enjoy well written lemons). I told everyone I could about her. Half of my friends read YAOI because of her story Third Grade Logic, which is one of only two stories on this entire site that made me cry while I was reading it. I was rooting for her. I loved her, and she’s leaving now…I just wish that she would reconsider, just a little. She doesn’t have to start writing new stories. I would just like her to stay and help other people develop their skills some more. There are others who will still be reading her stories months from now. Will she ignore the ‘Review Alerts’ emails? Will she refuse to reply to someone who has taken the time out to give her an honest opinion of her story? I still feel incomplete in my writing skills, and I feel like there’s a hole being ripped in my artistic soul because after she leaves, I’ll just be some stranger to her. I will no longer be ‘one of her fans’ or ‘that girl who read her stories’ or anything like that. It bothers me that, in the end, I will just be a screen name on fanfiction. She doesn’t know my name. She doesn’t know where I live, and she certainly doesn’t know how she changed my life. When I email her, she’ll think, ‘who the heck is this?’ because in the end, I mean nothing to her. I was just a portion of a part of her life that is now over.

I just had to get that off of my chest, because people quitting fanfiction breaks my heart. She was one of my favorite authoresses…

However, to cope with the loss, I will be saving all of her stories as Word Documents on my new laptop to commemorate her memory. One day, six years from now, I will find her on livejournal, or I will go to see her when her original fiction becomes published, with a copy of Third Grade Logic in my hand, and I will ask her to sign it. And I will tell her who I am. And I will tell her that I am one of her oldest fans. And I will cry. Because I fell for her writing style and she broke my heart.

I keep saying ‘samurai-ashes is leaving’. It’s a testament to my denial—

The truth is she’s already left.

Brainstorming for future Pairings/Stories/Fandoms~

Just a raw list of mine of things to try to do. I can't guarantee that all of these things will be made into fics, but the fact of the matter is that whatever it is that I write down physical (or type, in this case) is more likely to become a fic because of the way that things go in my head. XD Things stick around in my head if I expend the effort to write them down.

[Spoilers for people who read my things! If you want my possible future works to be a surprise to you, please, please don't read. If you want to suggest something that I should watch or read, go ahead and comment. Anonymous ones are also accepted.]

*These plot bunnies have summaries in the next blog post.

Tales of Symphonia:

• Kratos/Raine drabble*
• Maybe some Lloyd/Zelos
• Colette Sheena drabble*
• Regal Presea drabble (older!Presea)*
  

Yu-gioh!: Undone/Rarely done pairings--

• Kaiba/Jou - Celebrity (mult-chap)*
• Finish up "Be Cool" (last chap.)
• Other random Kaiba/Jou drabbles*
• Maybe Yami/Mokuba fics in the "Be Cool" Universe? Smut 69 themes.
• Finish drabble "Walk in the Sky."

Harry Potter:

• Dramoine <--------that is a terrible name for a ship. God.

1. Prefects Anonymous -------> Catchy name.*
2. The Dewey Decimal System ----------> Drabble/Lemon*

• Maybe a Draco Lupin fic?
• Maybe Harry/Ron
• Maybe Ron/Lavender (coming of age/first time fic WITHIN THE CANNON, FOR ONCE.)
• Keep updating Flames of War.
• Continue submitting chaps of Velvet Persuasion (after corrections) to FictionAlley, and then update FF.net with corrected version.

Host Club:

• Haruhi/Honey - Curious DONE!
• Finish Crave (last chapter - 6)
• Write Gaia request (Kasanoda/OC)
  -REALISTIC EPISODE TYPE STRUCTURE-
• Haruhi/Kyouya*
• Something as sentimental as "Pieces"?
• Group pairing story (Various; Everyone/Everyone)*

Inuyasha (questionable and may not happen at all):

• My Lady (Kag/Sess Lemon)
• Maybe planning for "Serene" (Calm sequel)
  

Moving~~

Well, I've decided to put this thing up. I've seen a few other authors that I know have blogs about their writing and I thought I would see how this goes. <3

In any case, at the moment, I'm in the process of moving my favorite works to MediaMiner.org (see the link on the left for my page there) I've had an account there forever, probably almost as long as I've been at fanfiction.net, and I'm not exactly sure why I did like the site--well, that's not true; I was under the perception that it's a lot more difficult to find good fanfiction there--but I've finally decided to expand my horizons, so to speak.

Along with that page, in the box on the left I have three other locations that I currently post my fanfiction. Feel free to check if you want, but I'd like to make the point that fanfiction.net is my home and is likely to have any updates that I make first. But that's kind of what this blog is for, so that there can be a central/neutral place for me to list updates to fanfiction/my efforts to create good fanfiction. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have another link box on the right side that lists some writing resources and such for helping purposes.

I'm not sure how familiar anyone else traveling here with my fanfiction, but I mostly write Romance and yaoi. I used to try at het fics, but it's been a while since I've written any. Actually it's one of my recent goals to write more het fiction, hence my very recent fic on FF.NET called "Curious," a cute Host Club fic about Honey/Haruhi.