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Re: After the Dream—Main Index & Extras (upd 20140423)

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:21 pm
by brythain
dewelar wrote:
brythain wrote:Now that Misha's story is done, the main work is complete. Who knows what else remains to be told?
All of it.

That is one of the greatest beauties of a work like this. You -- or anyone, really -- can add pieces to it and let it grow. It'll take a while before I really know where this mosaic fits in the pantheon of KS stories, but firmly in the upper echelon, by my reckoning.

*tips hat*
Thank you very much! It's been a very intense period of my life. People like Rin are still wandering in and out of the hallways of my mind, saying the darndest things… and… "Who knows, with Rin?" :D

Curator's Update (20140429) Rika's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:16 pm
by brythain
For those interested in the legendary Rika Katayama, whose narrative may or may not be read as part of 'After the Dream' (but, hey, it's a lot more fun if it is), her story arc is now complete and can be found here.

Some additional navigation aids might be needed:

Rika 1 — The Chance of a Ghost
Rika 2 — Watching the Watchers
Rika 3 — Counter-clockwise
Rika 4 — Sword of the Mountain
Rika 5 — Heartache
Rika 6 — Ghost Clockwork

Thanks again for being a great community!

Curator's Update (20140505)

Posted: Sun May 04, 2014 1:11 pm
by brythain
After some trouble with the second part of Mutou's story, Choices of Life, the chapter has been updated. Enjoy!

Re: After the Dream—Main Index & Extras (upd 20140506)

Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 8:07 am
by Numb
Jeez man, I just read the Emi arc. You really know how to create an impact, that hit hard. Not hard enough for manly tears, though it is generally more difficult to cause those in other writers, but hard enough for chills. You can bet your ass I'll be reading the others, and following the continued development. I'll leave my usual thing here, if you ever need any help, I am more than happy to offer it. There's nothing I love more than helping people develop a skill.

One thing I did find strange was your style of writing, the weird blend of first and third person that you have took some getting used to. Don't get me wrong, it works incredibly well for this project, and considering I have yet to see any of your other works, this might just be a stroke of genius, but for anything beyond this, stick to one perspective. I feel like I shouldn't be saying anything right now, because I only read one arc, but that is my only criticism, one that doesn't even apply to this mosaic :lol:

Re: After the Dream—Main Index & Extras (upd 20140506)

Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 8:55 am
by brythain
Numb wrote:Jeez man, I just read the Emi arc. You really know how to create an impact, that hit hard. Not hard enough for manly tears, though it is generally more difficult to cause those in other writers, but hard enough for chills. You can bet your ass I'll be reading the others, and following the continued development. I'll leave my usual thing here, if you ever need any help, I am more than happy to offer it. There's nothing I love more than helping people develop a skill.

One thing I did find strange was your style of writing, the weird blend of first and third person that you have took some getting used to. Don't get me wrong, it works incredibly well for this project, and considering I have yet to see any of your other works, this might just be a stroke of genius, but for anything beyond this, stick to one perspective. I feel like I shouldn't be saying anything right now, because I only read one arc, but that is my only criticism, one that doesn't even apply to this mosaic :lol:
Hey thanks, man! I've read 'Lustre' (so far) and 'Blossom' (what there was of it, which was actually quite a lot!) and I think you had a few short pieces too. I'm always learning from the great and often very talented community here. Most people around here just PM me if they feel the need for improvement in my work. I don't mind either way; it's all good to me.

I tend to write third-person to convey distance (as with Shizune's claustrophobic mindspace) and first-person to convey immediacy. With Emi, it was a bit uncertain because she's very in-your-face and thus hard to write at first-person continuously, so I had to vary it. (Yeah, Ms Ibarazaki, you can stop making faces at me now. :) )

Re: After the Dream—Main Index & Extras (upd 20140506)

Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 10:13 am
by Numb
I'm surprised people still class Lustre as one of my works :lol:

I want to do more work on it, because ~400 words isn't enough for me to be satisfied with leaving it for a bit, but VN work has been pretty intensive, and there's still schoolwork and my self study of Japanese to make time for. I'll probably give up one day specifically for Lustre writing once the exam period is over, because I have some nice plans for Misaki.

The only thing I can really help with for this that hasn't already been done by people better than myself is give any information you need for a Miki arc for the mosaic. I still have all my notes, so anything you need for her, assuming you even write a Miki part, is safely on my hard drive. Just PM me if you do want help with that :D

Re: After the Dream—Main Index & Extras (upd 20140506)

Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 12:16 pm
by brythain
Numb wrote:I'm surprised people still class Lustre as one of my works :lol:

I want to do more work on it, because ~400 words isn't enough for me to be satisfied with leaving it for a bit, but VN work has been pretty intensive, and there's still schoolwork and my self study of Japanese to make time for. I'll probably give up one day specifically for Lustre writing once the exam period is over, because I have some nice plans for Misaki.

The only thing I can really help with for this that hasn't already been done by people better than myself is give any information you need for a Miki arc for the mosaic. I still have all my notes, so anything you need for her, assuming you even write a Miki part, is safely on my hard drive. Just PM me if you do want help with that :D
Any Misaki is good. :) I would love to write a Miki arc; been thinking of it for some time. Currently, almost all my Miki is in Rin's arc. Thanks!

Curator's Update (20140509) Mutou's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 1:39 am
by brythain
For those of you interested in Akio Mutou's life and times, his arc in this mosaic is now complete, thanks to Hanako Ikezawa's skilled editing.
You can find the starting point here.

The arc sections are as follows:

Mutou 1 — Duties of Care
Mutou 2 — Choices of Life
Mutou 3 — Theories of Humanity
Mutou 4 — Dreams of Happiness
Mutou 5 — Points of Transition
Mutou 6 — Hopes of Redemption
Mutou 7 — Moments of Despair

There is also a substantial side-story concerning his long relationship with Rei Miyagi; she was Lilly's form teacher — Pavane

Mutou's of course one of those side-characters that many people don't think too much about. But I'm glad to have been able to present part of his life here. Once again, thanks for being a great community!

Curator's Update (20140514) Akira's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 1:08 am
by brythain
The inestimable Akira Satou's arc is now complete, wherein one finds out many of the secrets of her life and times (but not all).
You can find her starting point here, after all the navigation links.

The arc sections are as follows:

Akira 1 — Willing
Akira 2 — Working
Akira 3 — Wedding
Akira 4 — Wishing
Akira 5 — Wanting
Akira 6 — Waking

Once more, I have to apologise for the emotional load that some of these pieces carry.
If it's any consolation, I felt them too, over and over again.
Some characters do get happy endings, though, and for that I'm very grateful.

Warm regards to the whole wonderful KS community.

Interlude (20140515)

Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 12:06 pm
by brythain
"Hey, you."

If bourbon had a voice, this would be it. Or maybe bourbon with a side dish of tako balls. Or something.

"You really gonna tell my story? Or one of those Ikezawa-polished things?"

"Oh, hello, Miki."

She flips her long dark tresses out, letting them unfurl in the glow of my reading lamp, then letting them fall in slow motion like black smoke. Wicked, her eyes seem to say, I can be very wicked. Also, a skirt shorter than Misha's, which is saying something.

"Well?"

Auctorial decision-making time, now. I hate swearing and I have an obsessive urge to polish bad grammar and clunky sentences.

"Your story. But I'll edit a bit. Your spelling sucks."

"Hey! Not fair!"

But she's smiling at me, now. It's a good start.

Interlude (20140518)

Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 12:23 am
by brythain
"Hey, man."

I'm used to this now, or I ought to be. Of all the characters I've been talking to, this one has the most well-developed… voice.

"I had professional help, you should know. But I've brought a friend since you two need to work together a bit more."

"Hello, Miki, nice to seeya. I mean, see you."

She laughs, a throaty, comfortable laugh.

"Meet Natsume Ooe. She's the one who got me started with this anyway. World-class journalist, bit stiff but generally very nice. Yeah, nice."

It's as if my lighting's suddenly gone astray. The young lady who's now sitting next to Miki has her legs primly but uncomfortably crossed at the ankle. She's in a simple white cotton blouse and a faded denim skirt that's a lot longer than Miki's. But the main thing is her eyes. They're green-gold and lignite-brown, one each.

"It's called heterochromia. You know all about that, though. I've watched you do the research, from the day you first saw Aura's avatar. You're doing fine, and nobody's really angry at you yet, so you won't make a journalist. Story-teller, that's about right. Pleased to meet you."

I stare at her. This is one person I don't know much about, and the itch to want to know more is getting to me.

"Aha. I've seen that look before. It's perhaps better for me to reassure you that my story's out of bounds, and I'm only here because I promised Miki I'd lend her my support. She gets really shy around you sometimes, perhaps worse than Ikezawa used to be. Hey!"

Miki's just slugged her gently in back of the head with her left fist, a gloved prosthetic that looks rather stylish.

"Man, my friends are all like that. Just cos I'm good-natured, they tease. A lot."

She grins at me.

"But so do I, right? Ha. See you later!"

=====
For those interested in Tsushima cats, here's a starting link for you.

Curator's Update (20140523) Miki's Arc (Complete)

Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 9:54 am
by brythain
Miki Miura's arc is now complete. Despite light editing by a long-time friend and my own judicious work… warning: some profanity. :)
The arc looks at part of her childhood and ends where it does. Clearly, a lot of it was meant to remain private.

The arc sections are as follows:

Miki 1 — Recovery Position
Miki 2 — Changing Rooms
Miki 3 — Treading Water
Miki 4 — Across the Pool
Miki 5 — Deep End
Miki 6 — Flip Turn
Miki 7 — Butterfly Strokes

I'm grateful once again for this community, that's always working to make better writers and better writing. :)

Re: After the Dream (Post-Yamaku One-Shot)

Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 10:29 pm
by brythain
Silentcook wrote: If you feel the need to provide this as a footnote to your writing, the footnote is as large as the piece, which suggests that you should have made the piece rather longer. If you don't, then why are you explaining to the reader what should be taken away from the piece of writing? :?:
Mirage_GSM wrote:Also what SC said: If the annotations are longer than the story there's something wrong with the story.
These were comments fairly made when I was young and innocent, on Feb 26/27 this year.

At that time, I only had the vague outlines of this huge tapestry, with the barest inkling of how the multiple threads would work together.

In that respect, Silentcook and Mirage_GSM nailed it. They made me ask myself whether I was willing to really 'go after' the whole white whale.

I think that about 150,000 words later, I've managed to sink a few good harpoons into the monster, and I have people like that to thank for it. :)

Re: After the Dream—Main Index & Extras (upd 20140530)

Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 8:50 pm
by Serviam
I don't know how you did it, but the AtD-verse really got me hooked.

Re: After the Dream—Main Index & Extras (upd 20140530)

Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 11:33 pm
by brythain
Serviam wrote:I don't know how you did it, but the AtD-verse really got me hooked.
That makes me very happy, but I must honestly say it was the many other good authors on this forum who first inspired me! :)