20 replies to this topic

[Aaron Nowack]

Well, I'm now pretty sure that there's not enough interest in this story on these boards to really justify an update thread. It's not all that surprising, since the story isn't quite a NaruSaku story, due to Naruto and Sakura only seeing each other at the beginning and end of the story, among other things. Still, I felt the urge to do a status update and the boards looked so desolate that I figured it couldn't hurt.

Status report: Chapter Six is now roughly halfway done, I think. I'm starting to get a little concerned about the size of these things - this chapter is only five days long but at the current rate it's shaping up to be as long as Chapter 5. I don't think it'll ultimately be that long, but it's a little odd.

I also just recently finished a rather pivotal scene, where something very important to the remainder of the plot is revealed. I'm actually a little surprised nobody's figured it out yet (at least, nobody who's told me) since by Chapter 5 I think there's enough information to put the pieces together.

[Muttz]

personally i dont think theres anything wrong with long chapters...i like it better actually...you get more out of it and you can always remember your spot and read in installments. love the story by the way.

[Aaron Nowack]

Quilted Remorse, thanks for the kind words.

I just noticed that Chapter 5 wasn't showing up in the fanfic library here, so I re-uploaded it.

Chapter 6 is nearing completion, but it'll probably be another week or so before its ready to release.

[Canis Black]

How many pages is it at currently? I'm curious to know how my writing pace (when I'm actually writing) compaires.

[Aaron Nowack]

How many pages is it at currently? I'm curious to know how my writing pace (when I'm actually writing) compaires.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't usually use pages as a meter for my writing. Right now, the plain text file for Chapter 6 is 82.1 KB. For comparison, the shortest complete chapter to date - Chapter 4 - is 93.8 KB. The longest chapter - Chapter 5 - is 143 KB.

Loading it up quickly in OpenOffice, I get 21 pages for Chapter 6 to date. OpenOffice also tells me I have 14,298 words.

For comparing writing speeds, I started work on Chapter 6 on January 23.

[Aaron Nowack]

And a double post to say that the first draft of Chapter 6 is now complete. There's still some scenes that need work, so it'll be a bit longer before I have a version ready for release.

[Aaron Nowack]

And a triple post to say that Chapter 6 is now up at the Fanfiction Library here and at Fanfiction.Net.

[Canis Black]

Click For Spoiler

This was a really good chapter, especially liked the bit where Sakura and Co. stole Team Kurenai's scroll. That was a twist I haven't seen in this type of fic.

The bit with the Haruno connection to the Hidden Mist is curious. I look forward to seeing how that develops.

Finally, there wasn't much of Naruto OR Jiraiya in this chapter, though I understand the focus was on the second part of the Chunin Exam. Still, I hope he has a significantly larger part in the next chapter.

[Aaron Nowack]

I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter!

Click For Spoiler

I pretty much had to take Naruto off-screen for this chapter. It's only five days long as opposed to seven, but it's as long as most of the other chapters. If there'd been five days' worth of Naruto plot also, it'd be far too long, even for me.

Rest assured, Naruto and Jiraiya will be back in full force in Chapter 7.

[Aaron Nowack]

I love it when a story comes together. One of my favorite parts of writing is when a plot arc finally stops being a random collection of ideas and things that need to be done and starts being a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Unfortunately, the plot arc that's coming together in my mind right now is Naruto's penultimate plot arc for One Hundred Days, which won't be starting until around Chapter 12. So it will be a while before I actually get to write that arc.

Doubly unfortunately, Naruto's current plot arc is not coming together quite so well, though I've got everything that needs to happen in Chapter 7 more or less plotted out, except for one or two problematic critical details. It's the stuff after Chapter 7 that's still a little too vague for my comfort. Ah well.

Status reportage: Three days out of seven done for the next chapter. Current size: 55 KB.

[Aaron Nowack]

It's always kind of depressing when I triple-post...

Status reportage: Chapter 7 is nearing completion - I'm actually writing this post while procrastinating on working on the last two-three scenes. It's on target for the first draft to be finished in the next couple days, with the final release a few days to a week after that.

I suspect that some people will be disappointed that this isn't going to be a pure-Naruto chapter to balance out the last chapter, which was almost purely on Sakura's side of the story. Those people will probably also be upset when Chapter 11, a two-day chapter which will also have very little Naruto, due to most of the chapter being taken up by the fourteen consecutive fight scenes of the third exam, rolls around.

At the moment, it looks like Chapter 8 will have significantly more Naruto than Sakura, however, though that could always change once I sit down and outline the chapter.

[Aaron Nowack]

Quadruple-post for the obligatory "Chapter 7 up at the usual places" announcement.

[Vespar]

You have an amazing fic, Aaron! I've been meaning to read it from time to time, but it kept slipping my mind and I've been sorely interrupted each time I start.

Once I started, I found a difficult hurdle had been getting passed the OC's, since they tend to give me an adverse reaction -for the same reason Naru/Hina fics usually do. They're both usually written terribly. (I file filler characters under this too, since I don't bother with the filler anymore)

However, your engulfing writing style and extensive plotting (as well as flawless grammar and spelling) had the staying power to keep me going, and my only regret, was not reading it sooner! Again, simply amazing! You deserve far more recognition than you currently get!

I look forward to your next chapter!

[Aaron Nowack]

You have an amazing fic, Aaron! I've been meaning to read it from time to time, but it kept slipping my mind and I've been sorely interrupted each time I start.

Once I started, I found a difficult hurdle had been getting passed the OC's, since they tend to give me an adverse reaction -for the same reason Naru/Hina fics usually do. They're both usually written terribly. (I file filler characters under this too, since I don't bother with the filler anymore)

However, your engulfing writing style and extensive plotting (as well as flawless grammar and spelling) had the staying power to keep me going, and my only regret, was not reading it sooner! Again, simply amazing!

Thanks for the kind words!

I like to think that my OCs are at least somewhat well-written, but I still try to keep them to a minimum. Fanfic should be about the canon characters, after all. Unfortunately, the type of story I wanted to tell pretty much required a vast array of OCs - we know almost no characters from outside the Leaf, Sand, or Sound Villages canonically, and most of the Sound canon characters are dead by the end of Part 1.

You deserve far more recognition than you currently get!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can't really argue with that!

I'm about to cross 100 reviews on fanfiction.net, which is a milestone for me, but I sure wouldn't mind seeing some larger numbers on my stats.

[Vespar]

I like to think that my OCs are at least somewhat well-written, but I still try to keep them to a minimum. Fanfic should be about the canon characters, after all. Unfortunately, the type of story I wanted to tell pretty much required a vast array of OCs - we know almost no characters from outside the Leaf, Sand, or Sound Villages canonically, and most of the Sound canon characters are dead by the end of Part 1.

Sorry, I suppose I should've went into more detail about my thoughts your OC's. I meant to say that though I'd been hesitant at first, but I'd found them so well written, that I had to keep going and thoroughly enjoyed your fic!
Little to no canon characters outside Leaf, Sand and Sound, does make your choices understandable. I'm just glad that, unlike too many other authors out there, you don't abuse your creative license to twist the protagonists and the setting to completely detract from the original experience, but instead enhance on the character aspect to justify the growing changes.

(I should know... I'm pretty much guilty of the former. ^^; )

Again, great fic!

[Aaron Nowack]

Thanks again for the kind words, Vespar!

It looks like I jinxed myself with a last post, though. My review count has been sitting at 99 since then, which is a little odd/depressing since review 100 would be only the tenth review of this chapter on Fanfiction.net and the last couple got more than twice that number. Since what reviews I've gotten have been positive and the hit-count has been as high as always, I have to wonder what the cause for the drop-off is. Ah well.

Status Reportage: Chapter 8 is completely outlined.

[Canis Black]

Probably you're doing TOO good a job. People don't have much to complain about and your regular readers have run out of good stuff to say without sounding redundant. After all there's only so many ways you can say "Great Job!" without sounding like sycophantic fanboy/girl with their "kewl dUde!" and other less grammatically correct babbling over fics that don't have half the plot of yours (I'm being generous to the hack writiers since not ALL of them are that bad) never mind the skill of your writing. The only thing that will get you more reviews is a particularly shocking twist or new readers.

Canis Black

Disclaimer: These are only the opinions of Canis Black and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of others or even reality itself. Thank you and have a nice day.

[Aaron Nowack]

Probably you're doing TOO good a job. People don't have much to complain about and your regular readers have run out of good stuff to say without sounding redundant.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I certainly hope that's the case rather than some of the other alternatives I can come up with!

Status Reportage: I wish I could say a lot has been written, but it hasn't. I've been somewhat busy, but hopefully I'll be able to get back up to speed with writing shortly.

[Aaron Nowack]

I just finished the first of two scenes in Day Fifty, which I believe puts me at halfway done with the story. I figured that warranted an update.

Status reportage: Chapter 8 is currently 42.9 KB long, with 6 out of 15+ scenes written. (I'm a little unclear on how many scenes precisely Day Fifty-four will take.) Writing has been a bit slower than I'd like, but I'm still hoping to get back up to speed in the near future.

[Aaron Nowack]

Status reportage triple-post: First draft of Chapter 8 is finished, which means that if all goes well and I don't need to do any extensive rewrites, you folks should be seeing it within a week.

Fun factiods: length of the chapter plus author's notes is 137 KB or 23,967 words.