Re: Rebound - A Lilly NE Epilogue / Iwanako Story
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 2:01 pm
Oh, wow, thanks! I've been away for a while and still am right now, but I'm glad people are still interested in these stories.
I actually recently came back to Rebound, reading through it again about a week ago and trying to reformulate my ideas for Chapter 10 as well as the future of the overall story.
One thing that stood out to me during that reading was one of your criticisms here: the characters talking too much and getting repetitive. It actually was really bugging me. Of course, some degree of that is needed in the first few chapters of the story as Hisao processes what went down with Lilly, including processing it out loud with several different people. I've gone through similar processes myself, as I'm sure many of you have. But it definitely struck me as too much. It's something I wanted to get away from in Chapter 10, which is intended to be more of a character introduction and get-to-know each other chapter.
On the subjects of Hanako and setting both: my favorite scene remains the part where she and her friends are taking pictures in front of Mt. Fuji. I agree that significant setting description doesn't add much to fanfiction, which is by its nature character-focused, but a little goes a long way in my opinion. I did something similar by having a scene take place at the foot of the Sendai Daikannon in my other major project here. Hanako's perspective was intended both to give an alternative to the simple back and forth between Hisao and Iwanako, and to include and somewhat develop a character I really like. I'm still uncertain to what degree she will remain central as the story progresses, but don't count her out yet. Chapter 10 will be from her perspective as well.
Iwanako's development as a character remains my largest goal and most difficult challenge in this story. Given virtually nothing to work with from the VN itself, I'm more or less creating her out of thin air as I go along. Strangely, I found that a bit easier with Hitomi, my OC in TMtM, possibly because she was completely created in my head, while Iwanako is an existing character with at least a few parameters. The spark that drove my initial creation of TMtM was the concept of Hitomi as a character, rather than the story surrounding her and Hisao, while for Rebound the spark was the concept of him re-reading Iwanako's letter in the light of his loss of Lilly. A lot of the focus was on Lilly and Hisao's relationship for me, and Iwanako was not the creative driving force of the story. As an inexperienced writer, I find it difficult to make that creative force happen the way I want it to. Although I doubt that many writers can.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read, and to give your thoughts! In particular, thank you for giving me an opportunity to rethink this story, which has largely gone by the wayside for me. No promises, but ideas are swirling again, and that's never a bad thing.
I actually recently came back to Rebound, reading through it again about a week ago and trying to reformulate my ideas for Chapter 10 as well as the future of the overall story.
One thing that stood out to me during that reading was one of your criticisms here: the characters talking too much and getting repetitive. It actually was really bugging me. Of course, some degree of that is needed in the first few chapters of the story as Hisao processes what went down with Lilly, including processing it out loud with several different people. I've gone through similar processes myself, as I'm sure many of you have. But it definitely struck me as too much. It's something I wanted to get away from in Chapter 10, which is intended to be more of a character introduction and get-to-know each other chapter.
On the subjects of Hanako and setting both: my favorite scene remains the part where she and her friends are taking pictures in front of Mt. Fuji. I agree that significant setting description doesn't add much to fanfiction, which is by its nature character-focused, but a little goes a long way in my opinion. I did something similar by having a scene take place at the foot of the Sendai Daikannon in my other major project here. Hanako's perspective was intended both to give an alternative to the simple back and forth between Hisao and Iwanako, and to include and somewhat develop a character I really like. I'm still uncertain to what degree she will remain central as the story progresses, but don't count her out yet. Chapter 10 will be from her perspective as well.
Iwanako's development as a character remains my largest goal and most difficult challenge in this story. Given virtually nothing to work with from the VN itself, I'm more or less creating her out of thin air as I go along. Strangely, I found that a bit easier with Hitomi, my OC in TMtM, possibly because she was completely created in my head, while Iwanako is an existing character with at least a few parameters. The spark that drove my initial creation of TMtM was the concept of Hitomi as a character, rather than the story surrounding her and Hisao, while for Rebound the spark was the concept of him re-reading Iwanako's letter in the light of his loss of Lilly. A lot of the focus was on Lilly and Hisao's relationship for me, and Iwanako was not the creative driving force of the story. As an inexperienced writer, I find it difficult to make that creative force happen the way I want it to. Although I doubt that many writers can.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read, and to give your thoughts! In particular, thank you for giving me an opportunity to rethink this story, which has largely gone by the wayside for me. No promises, but ideas are swirling again, and that's never a bad thing.