There’s still so much left of the previous playlist that I’m not adding anything to it right now. Next week I’ll probably need a whole new one, though. And as for snacks? I’ve actually heated up some leftovers a couple of times and had what you might call meals. This is unusual for weekends.

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La Confrérie de la Lune Révéré — All right, the story from here on out is almost entirely conversation. Not that it hasn’t been pretty conversation-heavy up ’til now, but, seriously… there’s a lot of talking to come. And the question is, how detailed does it need to be? Yet another point that I probably won’t figure out to my satisfaction until long after the story has reached linear completion XD

Sano’s Badass Adventure — I am so deliciously close to having this entire scenario in the Saitou quest fully playable from beginning to end. And here’s the thing: there are six suspects, and five or six scenarios for each; which combination of scenarios you get is determined randomly when the quest starts. And having the first scenario for the first suspect completely written will make writing the other scenarios for him soOoOo much easier, since a lot of the dialogue will be similar (just tweaked to fit the current scenario). So it’s very exciting to be so close.

No, I haven’t figured out the answer to the question I had before, and, no, I haven’t posted on the forums about it yet. One of these days, maybe.

Aku Soku Zan(za) — Oh, this story. OK. So, planning to make chapter 28 my October item of Saitou and Sano, it has seemed expedient to reread the entire thing. And, not having made any recordings of it yet (for reasons I have discussed elsewhere), I’ve been listening to it, on the way to work and as I go to sleep, read aloud on my phone by @Voice Aloud Reader, a fabulous Android app that I highly recommend.

So the first thing I wanted to mention is that this voice often pronounces “he” as “heh” or “huh,” and for some reason this never fails to make me think of a certain internet meme, so the phrase frequently comes to mind, “I think Aku Soku Zan(za) is a pretty cool guy. Eh cons gangs and doesn’t afraid of anything.” Yeah, it doesn’t quite work, since you could take the phrase “Aku Soku Zan(za)” as an epithet for Sano rather than the story title (well, and in the title, even I the author am not entirely clear whether it’s an epithet for Sano or a reference to a concept, or both), but still.

That silliness aside, OH, THIS STORY. It is in such desperate need of an overhaul that I’ve been wincing every moment of my life since I’ve been rereading it. Of course I don’t have time to start overhauling it right now if I want to actually get chapter 28 done for October, but it’s risen to a very high place on the to-do list. Because, holy crap. I mentioned last week how much I love and am interested in the story, and that hasn’t changed… which is a large part of why I so desperately want to fix it up.

The biggest problem with it is something I mentioned once a long time ago but did not, at that point, recognize the full extent of in this context: it seems like everything in the story happens over the course of about three days, and nothing has time to develop believably. I think this was caused by the huge length of realtime between chapters that made it feel to me as if vast amounts of time had passed in the story as well, whereas in the actual narrative no such feeling is present. Then there’s all this emphasis on how long Saitou’s been wanting Sano and “it’s about time” and “how long he’d had to wait” and shit, and I’m rereading it going, “It’s been, like, two minutes!!”

Besides adding weight to the passage of time within the story itself, the writing needs to be, essentially, reworked entirely, just like last year’s rewrite of He Can Be Taught, and a lot of things need to be fleshed out. And this is a project to which I am hugely looking forward. As I’ve been rereading, I’ve been thinking as I go along, Oh, I know just what I want to do to make this part better! It’s very exciting. I need to get this chapter done so I can freaking work on that!!

Of course the question arises of what I’ll do with the made-up names. In my He Can Be Taught rewrite, I ruthlessly removed all fake Japanese and replaced it with real stuff, despite any nostalgia connected to the original words… but the nostalgia here, for names like Yaoku and Raihishuu, is greater. However (again, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere), that nonsense (Raihishuu in particular) is what’s kept me from making a recording of this story. Once I get to rewriting, I’m going to want a recording more than ever, so that may overcome the nostalgia and send Yaoku and Raihishuu the way of Ketteru and Sottoro.

As for this chapter I’m working on right now, it bounces back and forth between conversation and summary as the final part before we really get going with Kyoto arc events at last. There’s an important development near the end, but still this is a very montagey chapter.

I could drag this stuff out into two or three chapters in order to give more detail and possibly make them less summary-ish, but I have no desire whatsoever to pay more attention to the Raijuta storyline than I have to, and Tokio’s investigation of the assassination ring could fill an entire separate story that I don’t have time to write. So I’m just gritting my teeth and getting through it, knowing there are better things ahead. Except for that important development I mentioned near the end; that part’s pretty great already :D

Actually, a sort of procedural side-story starring Tokio and Katsu and detailing her investigation of the assassination ring is really tempting all of a sudden… not that temptation provides time for such things…

All right, it’s been a productive weekend! Now let’s have a great week!