tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76176732012-02-05T03:28:56.248+13:00Centuries after the fall of Crystal Tokyo ... it is time for a new band of senshi to come together. Some of them are new faces; others are old faces, reborn yet again. But all of them are in trouble ... because the enemy that destroyed Crystal Tokyo is still out there. And it is waiting for them.<br><br> This blog is for comments on the story &quot;Sailor Moon 4200&quot;—progress reports, updates and general random musings.Angusnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-59833608137413985212011-08-21T17:50:00.007+12:002011-08-22T21:27:46.999+12:00

Been a long time since I posted... Well, I haven't been completely idle. Just mostly idle, I fear. Frankly, the writing muse has been far from me for a long time. Mostly that's due to living with my partner; instead of me eating dinner in the evening, and then going and writing, nowadays the two of us eat dinner together, and spend the rest of the evening together as well. (I wonder how many

Angusnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1170758805733927122011-03-22T22:29:00.002+13:002011-03-22T22:31:56.397+13:00

Yes. Rather slowly, but actual progress being made.Chapter 15 stands at 3000 words. Not very much, true, and I think that chapter 15 will be a lot shorter than 14 (at least I hope so), but still. Things are moving a little.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-47429568876339688062010-09-06T07:08:00.002+12:002010-09-06T07:15:59.468+12:00

Yes, there was a major earthquake in New Zealand (where I live) over the weekend. And, no, I wasn't affected. I live in Wellington and the epicentre was in Christchurch, hundreds of kilometres away. There's been a fair bit of damage to poor old Ch-ch, but perhaps miraculously, no fatalaties.(Chillingly, my brother had been working in Christchurch for some time—but he returned home to

Angusnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-85039023167943532742010-08-08T16:29:00.002+12:002010-08-08T16:35:45.903+12:00

My, it's been a while since I posted, hasn't it?Well, the good news is that the surgery is well and truly over and doesn't seem to have found anything alarming. I was off work for three days, and that was about all.The bad news is that I've made barely any progress on chapter 15 of SM4200; in fact I'm really a little more interested in working on a novel at the moment (a chapter and a half

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-19402059871240329932010-07-06T19:58:00.003+12:002010-07-07T22:05:51.040+12:00

Going into hospital for throat surgery tomorrow. My doctor says I have a "suspicious lump". Probably nothing, probably benign, but ... possibly not, so let's make sure.Sigh.It'll be just a day visit, not overnight, so I'll be home again tomorrow night, but they tell me I might have a certain amount of pain (all right, a lot of pain) swallowing for the next couple of weeks.Oddly enough, I

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-66248492805773293382010-05-29T15:31:00.002+12:002010-05-29T15:32:35.855+12:00

Okay. The new chapter is up. Only on my web-site and the FFML for now; FF.net will follow a bit later. But still.Enjoy. (I hope.)

Angusnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-28645773483776566072010-05-15T14:13:00.003+12:002010-05-15T14:25:40.225+12:00

I'm alive! And, yes, it has been a while, hasn't it?Truth is, the last few months have been very full for me and I just plain haven't had much time for anything. Including, sadly, writing -- or even blogging. There have been a lot of reasons, but the big one is: I'm now engaged.But anyway. There has been a small amount of progress; I've done some revisions to the chapter and posted a second

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-41675916037525969482010-01-24T18:03:00.001+13:002010-01-24T18:04:33.277+13:00

I've finished the revisions to the chapter, so it's off to the pre-readers...Whew.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-4551972793462045772009-12-31T16:56:00.003+13:002009-12-31T17:01:08.440+13:00

Chapter 14 is complete: finished today (31st December) at 16:54. Total word count for the draft is 87,111. File size is 495,971 characters. This chapter is indeed the length of an average novel.Whew.Next stage is that I'll give it a few days, read the draft over and fix any egregious mistakes, and then turn it over to the pre-readers. They can expect to see it early next week, I hope. After

Angusnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-36715690671490848172009-12-21T18:38:00.004+13:002009-12-21T18:41:27.078+13:00

Here's a little something that might amuse you while you wait:Saint Nicholas, Vampire HunterIf you like it, tell your friends! Tell everybody! Tell the whole world! Ah-ha-ha!

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-9516352689028669532009-09-26T21:56:00.002+12:002009-09-26T22:04:16.573+12:00

Well.   I suggested that chapter 14 might be finished in two or three weeks, and that was … er, nearly two months ago. Clearly things haven't gone to plan.Lots of things have gotten in the way. Holidays. Girlfriends. All kinds of stuff. But …I've broken 80,000 words. And I'm working on the final scene of the story. It may turn out to be a longish scene (it deals with some final revelations

Angusnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-64772424905550053242009-08-02T18:05:00.003+12:002009-08-02T18:15:47.422+12:00

Yup, still alive. And writing again, more to the point.Went through another long patch where I couldn't see any way forward. But I've made good progress in the last couple of weeks (now at 77,190 words, or 440K if you prefer), and I have to say that I'm getting real close to the end.No promises, but let me say that if I can keep up the current rate, the chapter could be finished in two or three

Angusnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-260437953458232752009-05-25T23:12:00.002+12:002009-05-25T23:17:26.813+12:00

Playing around today, and I've changed things a little so that SM4200 should display a lot better on handheld devices. (Always assuming that anyone would want to read it on a handheld, of course.) Thus:There is an alternate contents page, which should look a lot better on a handheld. With luck, handhelds should automatically redirect to the new version, but I'm not sure that's working yet. (

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-64399311885309174642009-05-21T07:03:00.002+12:002009-05-21T07:12:48.281+12:00

Yes, making progress. Glacial progress, but progress nonetheless.I am so sick to death of the big combat scene in this chapter. There's nothing clever about it, just characters battering away at each other for page after page. It's close to finished, thank goodness, but these days I'm doing well if I can grind out more than three or four paragraphs at a time. Worse, the writing sometimes gets

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-7387990094678004662009-04-01T07:02:00.002+13:002009-04-01T07:08:13.971+13:00

Spent the last month or two writing a mammoth combat scene, thousands and thousands of words, and I rather think that I'm going to scrap most of it. I look back at it, now that it's finished, and what I mostly see are ridiculous excess, plus plot elements that I really don't want to see entering the story just yet. Instead I'm considering a much smaller, but tighter, combat sequence that,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-40921200139656495002009-02-22T00:06:00.002+13:002009-02-22T00:18:48.121+13:00

Yes, I've been away for quite a while. Sorry. It hasn't been voluntary.Last time I posted, I said I was about to move house. Well, the move itself went very smoothly. (4000+ books notwithstanding, I was completely unpacked within two weeks. Just in time to host some visiting family for Christmas Day.) I'm now living in a quiet, peaceful, rather beautiful neighbourhood in eastern Wellington

Angusnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-13545549828137531802008-12-08T07:32:00.003+13:002008-12-08T07:39:30.005+13:00

I’m moving house today and tomorrow. The packers will be arriving in just less than an hour. I’ve done all the prep I can think of, and now there’s just waiting to see how it turns out.I have over 4000 books to move, so this will be a big job.Kind of nervous.Progress update—I did a reasonable amount of work on SM4200 while I was in Melbourne: typing away in my hotel room, mostly in the early

Angusnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-14817428043644916902008-11-15T16:22:00.003+13:002008-11-15T16:33:55.042+13:00

Well. My life has been somewhat chaotic for the last few weeks, and looks like remaining that way for a while too. Haven't had a lot of time for writing lately.I've been planning a trip to Australia for some time: spending nine days in Melbourne and the surrounding area. I've been to Melbourne once before and it's a nice place. And I've got a lot of air miles to use up before they start

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-58967137452288318092008-10-29T15:44:00.002+13:002008-10-29T15:51:57.728+13:00

Okay, you've all been very patient. So I've posted a little bit of what I've been working on. Just a taste, to tantalise and annoy you.As far as progress goes, yes, inevitably work continues. Chapter 14 is now up to 58,000 words. It isn't quite as long as chapter 9, the champion to date, but I rather suspect that it's going to be longer than 9 by the time it's done.Funny. When I started this

Angusnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-41002677524954748262008-08-13T22:04:00.002+12:002008-08-13T22:47:36.741+12:00

Someone made an interesting comment on my last posting. Who do I write so slowly? It must be admitted: a year or more is a hell of a long time to take per chapter.On the other hand, they're pretty big chapters. Not novel-length, most of them (though chapter 9 actually was the size of a short novel, and chapter 14 is getting into that territory), but still pretty damn big. Back when I started,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-35642562177254933072008-07-20T21:44:00.003+12:002008-07-20T21:52:54.251+12:00

Okay, I'm a little stuck over a minor point, and could use some expert knowledge. Does anybody reading this speak any Hindi?The situation is this. I have a scene with Dhiti at home, chatting with her parents. Now, her background is that she's lived in Japan all her life—and in fact her parents probably have, too. They speak Japanese to one another. It's possible, even likely, that Dhiti

Angusnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-80720274527084480792008-07-20T11:53:00.002+12:002008-07-20T11:55:54.199+12:00

I've finally broken the back of the character deadlock that had me stalled. I don't think all the issues raised will be wrapped up this chapter (and that's probably all to the good, as they're rather complex) but at least I've found the way to move ahead.Chapter 14 has hit 44,000 words. Probably about 80% done, at a guess.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-24706399652745078912008-06-27T17:50:00.002+12:002008-06-27T17:55:18.627+12:00

Well, well, well. It has been a while, hasn't it?I'm still writing, but it's hard at present, yet again. My current problem is that chapter 14 sees a major rift develop among the senshi—an essential one, one that's been building for at least eleven chapters now—and some of them are being pretty unpleasant to one another. And it's hard to write.The real problem is that my own opinion (and, I

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-61524846204736240382008-05-10T13:36:00.006+12:002008-05-10T16:07:00.923+12:00

In response to a comment from Ledde, who asked how I go about outlining monster chapters, I thought it might be more interesting to go through the whole process of how SM4200 has come to be. (Then again, it might not. Well, you're under no obligation to read it.)This will be a fairly monster post, so be warned.So. SM4200 wasn't my first Sailor Moon fanfic. That honour went to Recessional,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-51146041506564641642008-04-29T22:55:00.002+12:002008-04-29T22:56:51.012+12:00

So much for self-pity. Tonight, sat down and cranked out 500 words, almost effortlessly.Huh.^_^

Angusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-46683985053761525412008-04-28T20:47:00.002+12:002008-04-28T21:00:30.208+12:00

Yes, it's true. By some unbelievable chance, I have still not been struck by a meteor, or vaporised by a runaway nuclear reactor, or devoured by rabid yaks. I can only put this down to an incredible failure on the part of the universe as a whole.Have to admit that I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, though.Chapter 14 stands at 33,600 words, or thereabouts. For the last few weeks I've

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-26549971567261581162008-02-10T22:33:00.001+13:002008-04-11T07:20:34.762+12:00

Yup, been a while since I posted last. (Damn, nearly a month!)I haven't been making nearly as much progress as I'd have liked for a while, because there were a couple of scenes that I'd written that were pushing the story into some uncomfortable, and unjustifiable, directions. (Uncomfortable I don't mind so much. Unjustifiable, I mind a lot.) I had to do some serious thinking and a fair bit

Angusnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-48379351324240938602008-01-14T07:02:00.000+13:002008-01-14T07:03:56.282+13:00

... Except that I've broken 22,000 words. This chapter is just stretching out ridiculously.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-38734978875622198312008-01-03T22:33:00.000+13:002008-01-03T22:38:34.354+13:00

Happy new year, all. In honour of the occasion I've actually updated my profile photo, since I shaved my beard off a few months ago. Now I'm sporting a whole new hideous look. :)Meanwhile SM4200 continues to grow. Chapter 14 has finally broken 20,000 words. The bad news is that I think there's quite a bit to go yet!Some of what's going into the chapter lately is kind of grim. I'm starting

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-2647815753526166432007-12-09T22:43:00.000+13:002007-12-09T22:47:20.065+13:00

Truth to tell, I've hardly gotten anything written in the last week. I've been feeling very run-down, and have had to be putting in some fairly long hours at work. The two may be related, of course! But basically, when I have had any time to write, writing is the last thing I've been wanting to do.(Hard to get up the motivation to do anything at all, lately, to be honest. Even reading a book

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-5265907201118289252007-12-02T22:42:00.000+13:002007-12-02T22:49:09.537+13:00

It's been a busy weekend. I spent most of Saturday putting up all the Christmas decorations, and mounting all the lights in the windows. (My fingers are still sore. Fixing 240 lights to the window-frames takes all afternoon, and it's cramped, finicky work. Plus it's summer here, and I was working in direct, hot sun. Have to admit that it looks quite nice when they're all on, though.) Then,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-50836022862977190222007-11-15T17:58:00.000+13:002007-11-15T18:01:15.474+13:00

12,000 words. Some interesting points emerging; as usual, ones I hadn't fully considered before. And the fallout from the Senshi's raid on 'M' Division continues to accumulate; the crows are coming home to roost…

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-53878315406750395172007-11-11T00:17:00.000+13:002007-11-11T00:29:59.561+13:00

Chapter 14 has hit 10,000 words.The scene I wrote about in my last post (a month and a half ago!), about Iku and her family, was pure hell, and I eventually had to scrap everything I'd done of it—over a thousand words—and start over. From there, it got squeezed out a few sentences at a time, which was about all I could stand to do. But now, at last, it's finished. I'll probably have to do some

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-77331347971862833452007-09-29T08:58:00.000+12:002007-09-29T09:06:40.945+12:00

It's been a while since I posted. Yes, I'm still working on chapter 14. But very, very slowly.I could give a bunch of reasons, but the big one—the granddaddy—is that I've written myself into a corner. Done it quite deliberately, too. There's a scene that I need to write that I quite strongly don't want to write. But I do need to write it…so I've pushed myself into a space where I can't go on

Angusnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-81344564388996744252007-08-22T21:27:00.000+12:002007-08-22T21:34:33.946+12:00

First off, thanks to you all for your kind words! They mean a lot.Just to confuse things a little, I've uploaded a new version of chapter 13 tonight. It contains a couple of extremely trivial corrections. Firstly, the new Moon is now explicitly acknowledged as being the daughter of the Queen. (I'm avoiding naming names, for the sake of those who may not have read it yet.) Secondly, chapter

Angusnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-10949937727083898702007-08-13T18:16:00.000+12:002007-08-13T18:18:18.839+12:00

I've received a spectacular set of new fan art from Allenby B., which is now up on the art page. Thanks!

Angusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-10283889580973322902007-08-12T07:18:00.000+12:002007-08-12T07:28:43.665+12:00

Chapter 13 is now posted.’Bout time, huh? ^_^Actually, it should have been posted a day earlier. I spent all yesterday morning and half the afternoon re-writing the script that converts the plain-text version of a chapter to HTML. (It needed a face-lift to handle the “new” HTML template that I switched to a couple of months ago.) Then one final read-through of the chapter—during which I

Angusnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-74671146498364989772007-08-06T18:44:00.000+12:002007-08-06T18:50:01.634+12:00

Oh, boy, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry.Okay, the situation is this: I've pretty much finished the revisions to the chapter. It's taken a lot longer than I expected, partly because I've also been trying to work on chapter 14 at the same time (that hasn't been working so well; when it comes to writing, I'm not too good at multi-tasking. Still, there's about 3600 words there)…and partly

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-16646871975453072262007-07-07T09:47:00.000+12:002007-07-07T10:03:39.148+12:00

Nearly a thousand words of chapter 14 done so far, and most of it will have to be scrapped or re-written. I'd gotten the timing wrong. I'd been writing all the characters as being exhausted as they went to school, after the big battle at the end of chapter 12 and start of chapter 13. But I've just looked back at my timeline and seen that the battle was on a Saturday night. (It's so easy to

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-7095456077501502152007-07-03T22:56:00.000+12:002007-07-03T22:58:20.419+12:00

The revisions are complete. (Took a lot longer than I expected, to be honest.) The chapter is now 42,964 words long, and that's after I removed a fairly significant scene.It's now been sent out to the pre-readers. For better or for worse.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-88263652655132327572007-06-24T00:31:00.001+12:002007-06-24T00:43:57.558+12:00

Yes, really. The first draft of chapter 13 is complete. Grand total: 42,831 words—about 247K.The last 3,000 words were written today. The very last bit finished was the in-recent-chapters blurb, which always takes a while because it has to be hand-justified. (If you read the text version of SM4200, you'll know what I mean.)sigh   Whew.What happens next: I'll take a day or two's break, and

Angusnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-49480633775623202242007-06-17T09:47:00.000+12:002007-06-17T10:02:15.865+12:00

It's been an interesting week. I've started going to a gymnasium after work, three days a week (sadly, the gym's name is not "Olympus"), and have been left predictably sore and tired. It's good for me, I suppose, but why are the good-for-you things hardly ever fun?On the downside, my landlord has told me that he's putting my apartment up for sale, so it's possible that I may have to move in a

Angusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-75048913931585956392007-06-10T19:47:00.000+12:002007-06-10T20:02:58.238+12:00

36,000 words. But that figure may drop sharply soon; there's quite a chunk (nearly 2000 words) that I think I'm going to have to throw away and rewrite. The scene I've been working on for the last week or so has been going in the wrong direction, and most of what I've been doing to the story this weekend has been repairs. I think I know how things need to go, now, but there'll be a bit of

Angusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-69333924703403695622007-05-29T22:43:00.000+12:002007-05-29T23:00:33.212+12:00

33,000 words. Chapter size: 191K.I have a decision to make. This coming weekend is a holiday weekend; I have Monday off. And the NZ national SF convention, Conspiracy II, is being held here in Wellington. I've been trying to decide whether to go.I don't go to cons very often. There has to be someone I really want to see, or some event I really want to attend. That's not the case this year;

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-80115922026826827832007-05-23T22:24:00.000+12:002007-05-23T22:25:40.505+12:00

31,000 words. Getting pretty close to finished now.I think.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-4751111340322380502007-05-13T10:04:00.000+12:002007-05-13T10:11:11.616+12:00

28,000 words now; file size 162K. Still a fair bit smaller than chapter 12. But if you want some good news, I'm really getting quite close to the end of the chapter. Could be finished by the end of the month; certainly before the end of next month, unless something dire happens.And boy, will I be glad to have it out the door.Then, of course, I'll just have the next chapter to worry about…!

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-42980027288213502062007-05-05T00:12:00.000+12:002007-05-05T00:19:36.317+12:00

Okay. The reaction was pretty positive, so I've gone ahead and converted all the previous HTML-format chapters to use the new stylesheet. (I've tweaked the stylesheet a little, actually, to improve a few minor points.)I've gone through all the chapters and everything looks okay to a cursory glance-through; but obviously I haven't had time to re-read the whole lot. (Trust me, that's a good

Angusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-47465914807589678042007-04-30T22:08:00.000+12:002007-04-30T22:12:51.809+12:00

Okay, here's a little experiment. I'm tinkering with a new stylesheet for the story, one that I think is more readable than the current one. It also lets me simplify and standardise my HTML to a considerable degree. But it's very different-looking to the current one.I've created an alternate copy of chapter 9 of the story, using the new stylesheet. You can find it here. Please, if you have a

Angusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-73116616620856948882007-04-29T22:14:00.000+12:002007-04-29T22:22:19.782+12:00

25,000 words. It hasn't been as productive a week as I'd hoped, but not too bad.You could say that chapter 13 falls into three "phases": first, the battle against the vitrimorphs, and the revelation of Sailor Moon. Second, the discussions that follow. ("Many meetings," as chapter 12's coming-up-next blurb put it.) Third…"The fight carried to the enemy." Well, I'm about at the end of phase 2,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-23184063939778329762007-04-25T23:58:00.000+12:002007-04-29T22:23:18.521+12:00

In commemoration of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who died at Gallipoli in the First World War.They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old.Age shall not wither them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,We will remember them.Amen.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-89845464625219586902007-04-25T22:49:00.000+12:002007-04-25T23:00:32.682+12:00

I've been on holiday this week. Officially. That's the theory. I was planning to get some serious writing done—really. But…total words written at the end of day five: zero.Truth is, holiday or not, I've been at work anyway. Just a little thing that I'd agreed to do from home—it was only going to take a little time, maybe an hour or so, so why not? I wasn't intending to go away or anything;

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-62389047025385038802007-04-22T22:58:00.000+12:002007-04-22T23:07:35.638+12:00

23,000 words now. I haven't had so much time to write, the last couple of weeks. Still, things are moving along. Here's another little sample—it's a snippet that I rather like, but which may get cut in the final version (because it veers rather sharply off-course from the subject of the scene).Miyo grinned. "You obviously never met Haruka and Michiru.""Who?""They aren't in the 'Queen Serenity

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-27282640085447672502007-04-09T01:22:00.000+12:002007-04-09T01:30:22.370+12:00

Happy Easter, everyone. If you celebrate Easter, I suppose! ^_^ As I write, it's the end of Easter Sunday; been a long day, with rather too much food to eat and definitely too much chocolate. Fortunately, I managed to squeeze in a decent amount of exercise this afternoon to make up for it.Pretty good day, on the whole.Productive, too. 21,000 words now. The long dialogue section is complete,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-88502196214823878462007-04-01T22:07:00.000+12:002007-04-01T22:11:40.396+12:00

Now up to 18,000 words. I seem to have slowed down a bit, but not too much. Still going well.On the other hand, the last 6000 words have been straight dialogue. I really hope this doesn't turn out too dry. The segment has been planned for a very long time; I just never thought it would turn out this long. But there's a reasonable bit of action at the beginning of the chapter (as seen in the

Angusnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-55373776014089417062007-03-18T22:32:00.000+12:002007-03-18T22:42:49.332+12:00

15,000 words. (I decided to skip 14,000 entirely. ^_^)I've reached a long section that's all talk-talk—3000 words of it so far, and quite a lot to go!—and I'm a little concerned that it's going to seem boring. But it's quite important talk-talk, and is in fact one of the major important scenes of the chapter—a scene, in fact, that I've been working toward for several chapters now. Inevitably,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-18040232816149206442007-02-28T22:55:00.000+13:002007-02-28T22:56:17.053+13:00

13,000 words. I was on a roll tonight!

Angusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-52101603612210403382007-02-28T21:23:00.000+13:002007-02-28T21:28:01.511+13:00

Okay, I've bitten the bullet. There's a teaser segment for chapter 13 posted—the first 7000 words or so. It's not linked off the main page, because I see it as something of a reward for those who still read this. ^_^You can find it here. Text-only for now, I'm afraid, because that's how I write. (I don't even use Word. Just plain text.)Let me know if you see any problems…

Angusnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-47646637029596093722007-02-25T22:32:00.000+13:002007-02-25T22:36:22.689+13:00

I've hit 12,000 words. Most of the tough bit that I've been wrestling with for so long is now complete. I'm expecting (or at least hoping) to be advancing a bit faster now.Also…I'm not wedded to the idea, but I've actually been thinking about posting a part of the chapter. The first chunk of it, at least. I'm not keen on posting incomplete work, but…heck, it's been a year and a half. I might

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-26074770551843774332007-02-24T15:51:00.000+13:002007-02-25T07:55:24.062+13:00

After all this time, I'd still never posted chapter 12 on FF.net. No idea why; I guess I just never got around to it. Well, it's finally there now.It's a slightly updated version. I've also posted the update on the main SM4200 page, naturally. But don't get excited; it's about as trivial an update as it could be—trivial enough that I didn't even bother changing the "last update" dates. There

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-23085284190453536402007-02-20T22:27:00.000+13:002007-02-20T22:28:08.386+13:00

11,000 words. I'm just sayin'.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1170752747984083952007-02-06T22:04:00.000+13:002007-02-06T22:05:47.996+13:00

My thanks to those of your who've showed your support. It's greatly appreciated.And. Um. Chapter 13 has hit 10,000 words. I'm writing again. Sometimes.That's all for now…

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1169459631096353722007-01-22T22:49:00.000+13:002007-01-22T22:53:51.110+13:00

As some of you may have gathered from past entries in this blog…I've been going through some tough times for a while now. I keep thinking that I'm over the difficulties, but the truth is that on some levels, that's just not so. The immediate problem is over, but the consequences are going to last for…well, years, and living with them will be tough. Lately I've been finding that a lot of things

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1162965335784139592006-11-08T18:43:00.000+13:002006-11-08T18:55:35.800+13:00

Well. It's been a while since I posted. Sorry.As I said last time, I was away for a few weeks, visiting Singapore, Germany, Austria and Italy. (If you care, I liked Singapore and Munich; thought Salzburg was okay; didn't like Venice.) Since I got back, things have been…difficult.I've done some of the most prolific writing I've ever done—over 17,000 words in a week—but none of it was fanfic.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1155888382035938452006-08-18T19:52:00.000+12:002006-08-18T20:06:22.046+12:00

Thank you all for the comforting messages. They do mean a lot.I guess, if you're reading this, I owe you an explanation for what's happening. Basically, I have been stalled on SM4200 for quite a while now. Stalled for technical reasons.The situation is this: chapter 13 is a turning point in the story, as you might guess. Quite a few plot-lines are intersecting; it's not unfair to say that

Angusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1151313599383326332006-06-26T21:07:00.000+12:002006-06-26T21:19:59.450+12:00

I had a productive weekend. Scrapped over 700 words of what I'd done, but managed to add more than 1,300 more in their place, so the total stands at 8,675. Current chapter size is nearly 51K. The new Sailor Moon character is proving hard to write, but fun.(They're all that way to start with. Until I've been able to live in their heads for a while, the new characters are difficult. Suzue was

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1150625856472385752006-06-18T22:11:00.000+12:002006-06-18T22:17:36.483+12:00

I go through "writing" and "non-writing" periods. Periods where I really feel like cranking the words out (though they may not come easily), and periods when I just can't face the idea of the text processor.Lately, I feel like writing. I'm still not getting much done, because I also feel like catching up on a massive backlog of books and anime (and, er, PS2 games), but the spirit is there, at

Angusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1148295634755690162006-05-22T22:56:00.000+12:002006-05-22T23:00:35.306+12:00

Yes, I'm still alive. Still pecking away at the new chapter.I've been going through an extended bad patch; the section of story I've been stuck on really didn't want to come together. But it's finished at last (and about time!), so I can get on with more interesting segments.Current word count is 5009. Not a hell of a lot to show for all the time I've spent, sorry, but I am at least making a

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1145265879454196872006-04-17T21:22:00.000+12:002006-04-17T21:24:39.483+12:00

Making a little progress on chapter 13, but nothing to write home about (as it were).In the meantime, I've added a new short story to my main fanfic page: a Sailor Moon / Ranma crossover called "Anything You Can Do…" It tries to make a point that I suspect a lot of fanfiction writers have forgotten. ^_^

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1143360624848214552006-03-26T19:58:00.000+12:002006-03-26T20:10:24.860+12:00

Well, I'm still alive, and even still working. Very, very slowly.The framing sequence I'd planned for chapter 13 is not working at all well, and I may end up having to scrap it. But wrestling with it has taken me forever… *sigh* There's only about 2600 words of chapter 13 done, which is a tiny fraction of where I'd hoped to be by this time.Also, I have to admit that i've been downloading quite

Angusnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1137977056267397552006-01-23T13:39:00.000+13:002006-01-23T13:44:16.280+13:00

Two updates today:First, I've posted the revised edition of chapter 9, both here and on ff.net. Most of the more agonising purple prose is gone, or at least less purple. ^_^ No story changes; just language fix-ups.Second, I've posted two new pieces of fan art, kindly donated by Ami Hopke. Thanks, Ami! And with that … you're probably wondering what's happening with chapter 13. The answer, I'm

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1136619722481621922006-01-07T20:35:00.000+13:002006-01-07T20:42:02.493+13:00

Happy new year, everyone!I've just posted some new fan art: a picture of Dhiti by Ian Roll. Also taken the opportunity (for no particular reason) to conver the entire Fan Art page into validconforming XHTML. I hope this doesn't make it look worse for anyone!Been watching some odd anime lately. There is, believe it or not, an anime series entitled "Great Detectives Poirot and Marple". Yes,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1134880591980536752005-12-18T17:24:00.000+13:002005-12-18T17:36:32.006+13:00

Been a while since I've posted. Frankly, there hasn't been much to say. I just haven't had time lately…for much of anything.You may be hoping for news on how much I've done of chapter 13. The answer is that that's one of the things I haven't had much time for. There's about 700 words done, and that's all.I have, at least, managed to finally post the promised update to the Who's Who appendix,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1133156140363305242005-11-28T18:33:00.000+13:002005-11-28T18:37:54.496+13:00

I've updated chapter 12 with three minor corrections. Two were spelling errors; the third was in the episode recap, where I referred to the ghost of Serenity giving a "henshin wand" to an unidentified girl. It was, of course, a brooch, not a henshin wand. Whoops! My thanks to Dallbun for pointing this out.Will try to get the updated Who's Who appendix uploaded tonight.Finally, to those who've

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1133058695833333232005-11-27T15:27:00.000+13:002005-11-27T15:31:35.843+13:00

Done. It's posted, on the home page and to the FFML.I still have grave doubts about some parts of it—particularly the ending—but I think at some point I just have to give in and say that it's as good as I'm going to get it any time soon. No doubt it'll go the way of earlier chapters: in a year or two I'll be able to see exactly what's wrong with it, and do something about it.Sufficient unto the

Angusnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1130983155103747302005-11-03T14:55:00.000+13:002005-11-03T14:59:15.116+13:00

♫ Happy birthday to me … ♫^_^

Angusnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1130747780357005552005-10-31T21:34:00.000+13:002005-10-31T21:36:21.106+13:00

Chapter 12 has now been sent out to the pre-readers.It took a lot longer than I'd hoped, because the final read-through revealed a whole lot that needed re-working. In particular, the last 5000 words or so! I'm still not 100% happy with them, but they're a great deal improved now.I suppose it's time to start thinking about chapter 13…

Angusnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1130536605637216192005-10-29T10:53:00.000+13:002005-10-29T10:56:45.656+13:00

There are 338,666 in the series so far (including chapter 12).The most common words in the story are:"the"   (14,726 occurrences)"she"   (9,283 occurrences)"a"   (8,837 occurrences)"to"   (8,804 occurrences)"and"   (7,701 occurrences)"her"   (6,308 occurrences)"of"   (5,946 occurrences)Angus apparently has too much time on his hands. ^_^

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1130351410926371182005-10-27T07:26:00.000+13:002005-10-27T07:30:10.933+13:00

Finished rewriting the ending. Much longer now—I added a thousand words—and I think, considerably better. I had to up the ante quite a lot, and it's now almost nothing like I originally planned (back when I started writing SM4200), but I think it works.I'll give the whole chapter one last read-through tomorrow, and then it goes out to the pre-readers.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1130129681336579022005-10-24T17:50:00.000+13:002005-10-24T17:54:41.343+13:00

The first draft of chapter 12 is complete. It weights in at 33,586 words (192K). The last 4000-5000 words were written in two days.Before you celebrate, I have to say that I'm very unhappy at the ending, and suspect that the final thousand words or so need a complete rewrite. (I'll be able to judge it more objectively in a day or so, perhaps.) But for now, it is at least there.And about time,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1129959700024544172005-10-22T18:31:00.000+13:002005-10-22T18:41:40.030+13:00

My thanks to those who've given sympathetic comments after my last posting. Without going into details, I can say that the situation is pretty bad, but not quite as awful as I'd initially feared. Time will tell. Meanwhile, life goes on.I've posted revisions to chapter 6 today. As usual, they're basically pretty minor, amounting to slight rewording here and there, and a few tweaks to keep in

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1128587309606511952005-10-06T21:24:00.000+13:002005-10-06T21:28:29.606+13:00

Some rather horrible family news yesterday. Maybe as bad as what happened to Miyo's family. I won't go into details; they're nobody else's business. I'd like to write to try and forget for a little while but I'm just kind of numb inside.It's cold and it's raining outside and I'm tired.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1128198108779054412005-10-02T09:02:00.000+13:002005-10-02T09:21:48.786+13:00

I posted chapter 4 a couple of days ago. Planning to do one a week.The general results of putting SM4200 up on ff.net have been…good, but disappointing. There've been no negative responses, and I've even had some actual commentary back—ie, someone posting a review that actually went through the story and commented on particular points. That commentary was, I think, based on a line-by-line

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1127726979420357602005-09-26T21:20:00.000+12:002005-09-26T21:29:39.433+12:00

Made a fair bit of progress over the weekend. The story is now at 27573 words, and the last big scene is complete. It still needs revision (I haven't gone back and re-read yesterday's work at all yet, so it's pretty rough) but it is there.Just a few smaller ones to do now. And, of course, the cliff-hanger. ^_^Regarding my posting the prelude and first three chapters to fanfiction.net…I have so

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1127482977917227332005-09-24T01:29:00.000+12:002005-09-24T18:07:03.716+12:00

Okay. I've just uploaded a revised version of the Prelude to SM4200. I've also posted it (in slightly modified format) to fanfiction.net. Updates to at least chapters 1-4 will follow, though not immediately.(Let me tell you, developing a general script to convert from plaintext to HTML, especially creating the normal version plus a "dumb HTML" version for ff.net, is no picnic. Coping with

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1126943483519426562005-09-17T19:43:00.000+12:002005-09-17T19:52:47.476+12:00

Election day in New Zealand. I'm slightly distracted. ☺ Still managing to crank out a little, though. The hacker "Trio" has reappeared.I've been thinking about posting SM4200 on fanfiction.net. I'm concerned about their policy of editing stories without consulting the authors—removing characters if they feel they're "not needed" to tell a story!—but still…  I've updated the script I use to

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1126780645388144332005-09-15T22:24:00.000+12:002005-09-15T22:37:25.396+12:00

Chapter 12 is really turning out to be an Itsuko chapter. The other characters are appearing, certainly; but Itsuko is the main focus. Which, considering how the previous chapter ended, is I suppose not that surprising.A lot of what's slowed me down is that, when I outlined the overall plot, many of the implications of what happens in this chapter didn't really occur to me. I knew that some of

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1125397531880055352005-08-30T22:21:00.000+12:002005-08-30T22:25:31.880+12:00

I've just noticed that this blog is now more than a year old.Kind of a scary thought. Back when I started, I was still wrestling with the big combat scene in chapter 11. Now, I've spent the last few weeks wrestling with a scene where…um…Miyo makes a rather startling revelation to the other senshi. (That scene's finished now, thank God, and I'm getting stuck into another one what could be

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1125396916612429882005-08-30T22:03:00.000+12:002005-08-30T22:15:16.626+12:00

It's all too easy to get carried away, sometimes.The lay of the land is one thing. I don't think I can over-emphasise what a fantastic tool Google Maps is; being able to zoom in on a satellite map of Japan, right down to the level of individual buildings, is amazingly handy for getting geographic details right. (I'll have to revisit chapter 10 sometime, with its excursion to the countryside, to

Angusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1125124852860107232005-08-27T18:39:00.000+12:002005-08-27T18:40:52.866+12:00

I've just posted a short teaser for chapter 12.It's, er, kind of grim.Also, I noticed that I'd somehow never added chapter eleven to the contents list for the "framed" version of the page. I've fixed that, too. Sorry to anyone inconvenienced.

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1124261125620580812005-08-17T18:43:00.000+12:002005-08-17T18:45:25.626+12:00

The things you learn, doing research for a story!  I'd never even heard of a minimiser bra before. Well, what do you know.You can consider that a hint for chapter 12, if you want. ^_^

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1122123873232526542005-07-24T00:51:00.000+12:002005-07-24T01:04:33.650+12:00

There's a film festival in town at the moment, and I'm booked to see a number of films on the big screen. Last weekend it was Ghost in the Shell 2—gorgeous to look at, but dense and sometimes not easy to follow. Tomorrow it'll be Howl's Moving Castle, and next Thursday I'll be seeing Steamboy.Tonight I saw Godzilla Final Wars.Wow. Just wow.It must have taken immense courage to make a film so…

Angusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1120470349893775182005-07-04T21:18:00.000+12:002005-07-04T21:45:49.906+12:00

It's been an awkward week.Last Wednesday, I was out jogging at around 7:30pm. It's winter here, so it was pretty dark. The upshot of which is that I managed to fall, dealing myself a number of minor injuries—including one hand torn open, which is the chief cause of the awkwardness I mentioned—it's just hard to work one-handed—and totally destroying my iPod.If you don't happen to own an iPod,

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1119869695025775642005-06-27T22:46:00.000+12:002005-07-04T21:47:41.996+12:00

I've hit 20,000 words. Just so you know.Oh, okay. A few more details, perhaps. (You know, I really thought chapter 12 was going to be comparatively short. There just wasn't a lot of material that I needed to cover. But the more I work on it, the more that material grows…)So, there are three major scenes left to write. (Major in terms of story impact, I mean. Not necessarily major in terms

Angusnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1117016499683036212005-05-25T22:12:00.000+12:002005-05-25T22:21:39.690+12:00

All right, so I haven't updated recently. Sorry.Truth is I haven't had a lot of writing time lately. (My recent vows to write every day notwithstanding.) The story is still plodding on; but recently, plodding has been pretty much accurate. Currently it stands at 17500 words.Whole bunch of things contributing to the delays. I've been bogged down in a couple of scenes—one where Artemis spies

Angusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1114423113930685592005-04-25T21:44:00.000+12:002005-04-25T21:58:33.930+12:00

Just finished one of the fiddliest parts of a new chapter: the "previous-chapters" summary.You're probably thinking: huh? What's the big deal? But in fact, these are fairly difficult to do, and I sometimes wish I'd never started. The problem is that, in the plain-text version of the story, these segments are fully-justified text; and the justification is done, not by adding extra space between

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1114218391065736412005-04-23T13:00:00.000+12:002005-04-23T13:08:50.520+12:00

Two terrific new pictures by Genevieve D.—one of Itsuko, and one of Miyo. Thanks, Genevieve!I've also redesigned the fan-art page, so each artist now has his or her own "block". I think it looks rather better now—let me know if you disagree!It should, I hope, go without saying that further fan art submissions are most welcome. (Hint.)In terms of writing progress…It's been slow, the last week

Angusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1113127634268749832005-04-10T22:04:00.000+12:002005-04-23T13:09:58.853+12:00

Haven't posted here in a while; sorry. For the record:Progress continuing nicely. The chapter is now standing at 14300 words (around 83K). I'm buried in the middle of a Dhiti scene at present; and as with most Dhiti scenes, she keeps on talking and bouncing from subject to subject and refusing to get to the points I actually want to cover.Oh, well. ^_^Things weren't flowing right and I though

Angusnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1111120898268723102005-03-18T17:26:00.000+13:002005-03-18T17:41:38.270+13:00

I broke 11,000 words last night, and the new Crystal Tokyo flashback is done. It's a brief scene that follows Rei in the hours after the big sequence in chapter 9, as she wanders through the ruins of Crystal Tokyo. Not what you'd call a fun piece.To be honest, it may get cut entirely in the final draft; I'm not entirely happy with the logic of having the scene there, and it really only serves

Angusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1110704541686500482005-03-13T21:58:00.000+13:002005-03-13T22:02:21.686+13:00

Pretty satisfactory, all things considered. Now at 10448 words. That's the size of the complete chapter 4.I've found myself in the middle of another Crystal Tokyo flashback. As before, rather depressing writing. This one shouldn't be too long, fortunately.I'm currently in one of those stages where I'm enjoying writing. Just have to hope it lasts. ^_^

Angusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617673.post-1110581362911689162005-03-12T11:08:00.000+13:002005-03-13T22:05:29.336+13:00

Spent a lot of yesterday doing a major revamp of my website. The fanfic pages haven't really changed, but the root one has been completely redesigned, with new photos, etc, and some actually-genuine personal information.Also added a new story on the "Original fiction" page: Space Dudes, a story that I wrote years ago but for some reason never did anything with. It's (deliberately) written in a

Angusnoreply@blogger.com2