Unforgiven is my first original fic. I started this fic more than ten years ago, and until now it has not seen an ending. It has gone through one or two major rewrites a year in the span of those ten years, but all those drafts have either been discarded or lost. Since NaNo is the easiest way to sprint word count, I decided to go for it with this story, with the hopes of finishing it for good. The bad news is ... it's not likely to happen. But this doesn't mean that I'm giving up on the story.

( Inspiration )

( Title )

( Storytelling approach )

( Character Profiles )

Much of what I have to say about this year's attempt has already been said in my LJ, so it's best not to repeat that drama, I guess. If I may add to that, I really wish I could have finished Unforgiven this year, but it was obviously not going to happen. *le sigh*

Anyway, I put all 50,667 words on a chopping block, and after the butchering was done, I ended up with 33K. *facepalm* That's more than 17,000 words worth of shit! (excuse my French)

I say that this year's NaNo was a pathetic attempt, hands down. But even so, I will do the primer for this year's attempt, and I'll try *cringe* to post one more excerpt. I know that some parts did not shit. LOLZ.

I think it's about time I posted something related to NaNo here. Never mind that I'm struggling at 34K and the light at the end of the tunnel seems so dim. It was worth taking the plunge.

I'm sure as hell that there are a lot of grammatical errors and/or long-winded paragraphs. That's NaNo for you, quantity over quality. But this is one of the better-written chapters (I just LOL when i read the rest). And I must be sick, deciding to make this post public.

Oh well. Here goes everything.

It is November! Before Christmas comes, NaNoWriMo arrives. And it's on like Donkey Kong!

It's the same game - 50,000 words in 30 days. Last year's NaNo was finished 8 days shy from the deadline. I wonder if I can be as lucky this year. I'm not too optimistic, given the prevailing circumstances.

But in any which way, it's always nice to try, right? On my first day yesterday, I got 6,067 words done. But of course, the question remains - can 50K be done by end of month? That remains to be seen.

This year's NaNoWriMo is a rehash-slash-rewrite of Unforgiven, one of my first original works. I think I started on it when I was 12 or 13 years old and it has remained unfinished until now. *facepalm* So if you think you procrastinate a lot, think again. Bwahahahaha.

One of the reasons why I'm choosing this is because of the length of time this story has remained unfinished. It has to happen soon, and NaNo may just catapult it to near-finished status. Another reason why I've chosen this is because I have a plot - a defined beginning, middle and end. This is crucial, cause Arcadia seriously lacked a middle part. (I remember how excruciating it was to write the middle, but that's another story) The last, and probably the most practical reason for choosing this is the amount of writing and rewriting spent on this story for the past 10 years will be a great stepping stone for this year's effort. Most of the originals have been teared up (when I wrote them on paper) or deleted (when done in the PC). The only stuff that remain are side stories, which of course, are useless without the main storyline and are scattered safely across the Internet. LOLZ.

So, having all that said, I present my weapons of warfare:


The Ideapad S10. Not mine (unfortunately), but will be semi-mine once I make the move to Canlubang. Since the upstairs PC died a few months back and the downstairs PC is almost always occupied, I have resorted to the portable. LOLZ. The S10 is what I now use to write Arcadia, and also the one I used for After Dark.


Theodor, my trusty hard drive and container of everything grim that I can unleash on Earth, goes hand in hand with the S10. =D

Okay, that's it for my NaNo 2009 primer! It's great that I'm finally in my turf when it comes to writing (fanfic is so not me) but I wonder how all this will turn out.

50K BY NOVEMBER 30! AJJA!

Here is something new, and something finished for a change. A SaiMono fanfic, based on the world of Haruki Murakami's After Dark.

This fic is birthed from one of the prompts in saiunkoku_fic, the first one, specifically:

1) Ryuuki and/or Shuurei, any of the main cast – in a modern urban fantasy setting. Think Charles deLint, Neil Gaiman, etc.

アフターダーク is my favorite Murakami novel thus far. It's a short, one-shot read that's written in an engaging way, featuring characters that you can relate to. Despite the realism, the story goes on a paranormal/fantasy path, which is really haunting. Aside from this, the story puts the spotlight on real issues like isolation, social expectations and the like. To those who'd like to explore Haruki Murakami's work, this is a good first read.

A lot of the novel's elements and settings figure into the the fic, which I have yet to title. Right now, I just want to call it the After Dark/Saiunkoku mashup fic. Yes I'm really lazy when it comes to names. After Dark has its morbid moments, which is understandable given the situation the story presents, so some of the characters (Ryuuki especially) may come across as a bit OOC.

Even if it is a fanfic, in the strictest sense of the word, of both a Murakami masterpiece and Yukino Sai fandom, it's been a lot of fun to do, and I'm quite proud of how it turned out.

All chapters can be accessed with the After Dark Saiunkoku AU tag.
Disclaimer, legal stuff:
None of the characters, the setting in which these characters move in and the issues they face are mine. Purely done for fun.

Warnings:
Pretty much K at first going to M, due to themes and violence.

Definitions:
Hikikomori - A Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement because of various personal and social factors in their lives (Wikipedia). SPOILER FOR FIC FOLLOWS, HIGHLIGHT TO READ. Although not mentioned explicitly, this is Seien's condition in the story.
Toudai - Tokyo University. Toudai is an abbreviation of Tokyo Daigaku
Love ho - Love Hotel. Short-stay hotels operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy to have sexual intercourse.
Salaryman - someone whose income is salary based; particularly those working for corporations. Typical Japanese white-collar worker.


Chapters:
( Fifteen chapters happening in the course of seven hours, and an omake three months prior. )