Ryuno: oops, messed up the bulleted list

2012-04-30T20:36:32Z

oops, messed up the bulleted list

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:36, 30 April 2012
Line 119:		Line 119:
	the next book).		the next book).

	• How exactly did Kouma Yon know what Death Drive would say after the things		* How exactly did Kouma Yon know what Death Drive would say after the things went out of what was planned (pretty easy one if you were paying attention to how the story went, but I will state it on screen next time to make sure no one misses it)?
	went out of what was planned (pretty easy one if you were paying attention to		* Who is Koukishin Shinzou?
	how the story went, but I will state it on screen next time to make sure no one		* On whose side is Kouma Yon?
	misses it)?		* What happened to Morimoto Ayaka?
	• Who is Koukishin Shinzou?		* From the point the festival happened to the final scene in the hospital, it is implied at least one week passed: how did the conflict between a Ryo on-the-run, a potentially dangerous Kouma and a paranoid-but-with-reasons-to-be Shin-tsu got “resolved” to a point where the three of them can be in the same room?
	• On whose side is Kouma Yon?		* Regarding the many magical and odd things one can only assume (based on the evidence presented so far) to be Mystery, was Shin-tsu lying about his past, telling the truth or being delusional?
	• What happened to Morimoto Ayaka?		* Where is Ryo’s mother?
	• From the point the festival happened to the final scene in the hospital, it is		* What the hell did Shin-tsu do to Lang Shou?
	implied at least one week passed: how did the conflict between a Ryo on-the-		* Why is Rin so perfect (asked by my editor)?
	run, a potentially dangerous Kouma and a paranoid-but-with-reasons-to-be Shin-		* What exactly happened between Ryo, Death Drive and Shin-tsu (prequel, prequel!)?
	tsu got “resolved” to a point where the three of them can be in the same room?		* How will things progress now that the one person who knew what was actually
	• Regarding the many magical and odd things one can only assume (based on
	the evidence presented so far) to be Mystery, was Shin-tsu lying about his past,
	telling the truth or being delusional?
	• Where is Ryo’s mother?
	• What the hell did Shin-tsu do to Lang Shou?
	• Why is Rin so perfect (asked by my editor)?
	• What exactly happened between Ryo, Death Drive and Shin-tsu (prequel,
	prequel!)?
	• How will things progress now that the one person who knew what was actually
	going on is in a coma? Will Shin-tsu keep his word and take Reikoku’s place?		going on is in a coma? Will Shin-tsu keep his word and take Reikoku’s place?
	• What was the teacher’s backup plan and why is Shin-tsu so afraid of it?		* What was the teacher’s backup plan and why is Shin-tsu so afraid of it?

	If you think of any more, contact me on http://thatguyfroma.wordpress.com . Next book		If you think of any more, contact me on http://thatguyfroma.wordpress.com . Next book

Ryuno: And done.

2012-04-30T20:30:35Z

And done.

New page

Greetings, I am Ryuno.

It has been little more than a year since I wrote my first ‘Afterword’, hasn’t it? A lot
changed since then, but one thing didn’t: writing this novel was absurdly exhausting
too, and while the intensity of it might have changed (and it’s safe to say it escalated to
levels I was not aware of) the essence of the exhaustion did not. That said, I take pride
in saying I worked on some of the deficiencies of the first volume in this one.

I am really glad you stayed with me so far and thankful for the friends I made due
to writing this. To meet such like-minded people and even be able to have some
individuals fairly different from me relating to my story, these were things that filled me
with joy. You all made a creature really happy just by saying “hey, I read your novel”
and replying nicely to my common honest and self-depreciative answer, “sorry about
that”.

As I am fairly sure I mentioned several times before, and pretty much everywhere,
from the moment I decided to get serious about the story the first novel was established
as build-up. Not just it, to be honest: even now that I merged the plot of two stories
into “d.m.c.” the schedule remains for three novels that come before the story I actually
want to write yet don’t find myself ready to as a writer. While I am adept of the
philosophy of always aiming for a higher level than the one you usually can achieve
and forcing yourself to become the worker to perform it properly rather than dumbing
down the product so you can manufacture it with the means you have at the moment, I
simply cannot release the story I actually want to finish because it is a good concept that
deserves a better execution than I can provide now: if I let it out as it is, I’d be better off
just releasing it as an outline and letting other people fill the blanks or write it for/along
with me.

Which I have been tempted to many times in the past, to be frank.

I would not be entirely honest to anyone if I said this book took a year to write, and a
better alternative would be to say it took a year to get done with. Were procrastination
a magical skill I would be one amazing creature. My editor, Hegemon and close friend
Zehava gave some amazing input in the matter, which I will transcribe here.

Get over the whole "if I'm not in the mood" thing on creativity. The reason I even have
to hit you with deadlines is because you don't get work done for a dog's age unless
you're being pressured. I understand that, and I know I can be like that too, but I cannot
abide when other creative people claim lack of muse or whatever as their excuse not to
get things done. If it's a weakness of yours, then just bite your arm and force your way
over it. I'm aware of all the burdens you have now, but I've also seen you goof off when
you could have been planning out your schedule and reducing it.

I know you made fun of me half a year ago when I told you about planning my days.
Hell, I made fun of me too. But the thing is, even that rough outline has helped me get
things done that I'd never have gotten done otherwise. So as a friend, as a client, as
your editor and technical superior, I'm telling you this.

Start planning.

Force yourself to stick to your plan and get stercus done already.

It was very convincing to say the least. Sure I had a lot more on my mind and
considerably less time than I had when I wrote the first volume because I have been
working a day job with shifts that are, from most points of view, disproportional to
their remuneration. Even after work, I do not have the time I used to have because my
priorities have changed along with emotional needs. I am not complaining in any way,
for there has not been a time in my life when I could say I was “genuinely happy despite
unfavorable, not to say generally soul-crushing odds” without lying as much as Shin-tsu
does.

During the course of this year I failed people and I am sorry they feel bad. Like Kouma,
however, I have my reasons and will stand by them unless they are not enough to give
me the results I require. What I am saying here is that the only situation in which I
would have done things different would be if I could get equivalent or better results
than now. Judging by the time travel/Butterfly Effect mechanics I not only believe in
but know exist and function not only in the book, all of this is very likely and unlikely
simultaneously, but either way absolutely unpredictable thus not worth pondering over.

Other than that, postulate on everything: such is the nature of Science: as long as there
is a possibility, question. Sometimes we forget about that and it leads to bad, derivative
work. While humans are a species that learns by imitation (much like monkeys) better
than by, say, osmotic inspiration, the problem with having derivative scientists lies
in the fact you don’t get, if we were to compare them to musician terms, the core of
Progressive Metal.

You get Metalcore instead, a whole scene of.

At some point, though, it is bound to spawn higher quality products by mixing with
other subgenres and experimenting, defying tropes and playing clichés straight when
you expect them not to specifically because it is an author tract to avoid them. Even
the worst specimen of anything has to have a quality or two in order to survive even
if they seem to be nothing but flaws. Natural selection, albeit limited by the absolute
randomness of Chaos, tends to be too harsh on the ones who try and escape the roulette
of abilities, be them uncanny or not. I refer to both the escapees and the abilities.

What does this all have to do with the book?

I refuse to write the same book twice and am sorry if you felt bad by how your
perceptions of the characters changed by the end of this one. If you stay tuned, it will
happen again and again so you might enjoy it more next book. However, I do not
apologize for writing them.

The first story established the setting: that is a given. The purpose of this one is to point
flaws in it and raise questions; as a consequence, I understand how it could have been
seen as a much darker tale, even though once you re-read the first book you will be able
to see better how the darkness was always lingering and you just did not know about
it much like fish probably don’t have a word for water, but would have if you made
them aware of it. Alternatively, you would only feel that way because I told you of
this possibility, the effect known as the “Historian's Fallacy”. After the author says a
character is X, it’s easy to see traces of it even when they weren’t there.

Which is one of the reasons why I raised more questions than delivered answers this
time; the other would be to make sure people would get the point of having a first-
person perspective on a book nowadays, as in the postmodern world.

Shin-tsu lies.

Maybe not all the time, maybe not about everything, but he clearly does and it’s time
for everyone to consider questioning him at least once in a while: I had to go and
establish it as a fact that he does, however, because the nuance just wasn’t reaching
most and that was probably a direct result of me not being a good writer in the first
place. Kouma’s chapter, more than give insight on the character, did not show this as
much as shove it on the reader’s face.

What else is left to be asked, then? Well, several things. I will list some to entice
speculation, so feel free to make threads about it or pass by the official blog to discuss
these with me (although answering them directly would most likely count as spoiling
the next book).

• How exactly did Kouma Yon know what Death Drive would say after the things
went out of what was planned (pretty easy one if you were paying attention to
how the story went, but I will state it on screen next time to make sure no one
misses it)?
• Who is Koukishin Shinzou?
• On whose side is Kouma Yon?
• What happened to Morimoto Ayaka?
• From the point the festival happened to the final scene in the hospital, it is
implied at least one week passed: how did the conflict between a Ryo on-the-
run, a potentially dangerous Kouma and a paranoid-but-with-reasons-to-be Shin-
tsu got “resolved” to a point where the three of them can be in the same room?
• Regarding the many magical and odd things one can only assume (based on
the evidence presented so far) to be Mystery, was Shin-tsu lying about his past,
telling the truth or being delusional?
• Where is Ryo’s mother?
• What the hell did Shin-tsu do to Lang Shou?
• Why is Rin so perfect (asked by my editor)?
• What exactly happened between Ryo, Death Drive and Shin-tsu (prequel,
prequel!)?
• How will things progress now that the one person who knew what was actually
going on is in a coma? Will Shin-tsu keep his word and take Reikoku’s place?
• What was the teacher’s backup plan and why is Shin-tsu so afraid of it?

If you think of any more, contact me on http://thatguyfroma.wordpress.com . Next book
is about acceptance and reconstruction and in order to close the cycle properly before
starting the story-I-really-want-to-write I need to know what subplots I need to solve. I
want to be sure I can give this story the “end” it deserves.

Thank you for your time, hope you enjoyed this and I can’t wait to meet you again.

January 29th, 2012.

- Ryuno.

The Longing Of Shiina Ryo:Volume2 Afterword - Revision history

Ryuno: oops, messed up the bulleted list

Ryuno: And done.