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Starbound: Introspection
Feb. 22nd, 2014 07:38 amJust completed a one-shot Starbound spinoff fic about Rokuna last night, telling the first chapter from her perspective.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10131844/1/Starbound-Birthday-of-Destiny
With that, let's take a look at what actually motivated me to write each chapter of the main story.
Conception:
It all started around Thanksgiving of 2011, when I was feeling nostalgic of the days I was playing Earthbound during my last few months of 4th grade, along with the similarities between that and its prequel (which I never actually played until 2010). I thought it would be interesting to create something new with the same graphics and game mechanics of EB, but since game development wasn't an option for me at the time, a fanfic was the closest I'd be able to get with it.
For most of the year following, I had no actual idea how things were going to play out after Kagami, Konata, and Miyuki each got their hair updone, nor did I have any plans then for Rokuna from Mon Colle Knights to play a role in things. Also wanted to play Mother 3 first before starting the fic, but didn't actually do so because I wanted to get a new computer so that I could play it smoothly enough, or at least get the one we had to smoothen up. Even though I was able to play it on my laptop, the only Mac-compatible emulator I was ever able to use wouldn't let me save files even on other games, and as a result, I wouldn't be able to complete the Battle Memory due to some weirdness involving the initially unwinnable ZombieShroom battle on Tanetane Island. (That's actually where I stopped playing the first time around, even though I wasn't focused on the BM that time; I misread on Starmen.net's walkthrough and thought it had to do with actually progressing onward.)
Christmas of that year was the one on which I got all eight ever-to-be officially translated volumes of the Lucky Star manga. Similar to how obtaining 9 and 10 have had mainly to do with Tamaki Yamanobe and Miku Busujima (not even just for Starbound), these first eight had mainly to do with seeing how much more focus Ayano Minegishi would get than in the anime, albeit mainly for the sake of unrelated fanfic commissions. They were worthwhile in their own right, though, especially when we drove to Boston and back the following summer, and the fic's first scene owes its existence to the first few strips in volume 5 and Ayano's inter-chapter appearance in volume 6.
Chapter 1:
While I never actually wrote anything of the fic for a year until after conceiving it, I did keep myself busy much of the time with Kanji in Context. It had been shortly after I completed the first of two books in KiC that I decided just to get on with the fic, but not before playing all three games in the Earthbound trilogy. At the time, while Worthless Yellow Rocks also had an important part to do with actually planning out the chapter, I was also thinking that if I was to get people in on things to brainstorm ideas (this was months before Chelle talked me out of that the first time), then the time to get started would be while Lucky Star still is popular.
http://dmxrated.livejournal.com/2012/10/15/
Played Earthbound Zero. Check. Wrote up the first draft of the first chapter, and had Chelle look it over, but then just wanted to get on with Earthbound. Check. Between Earthbound and Mother 3, I made a point of creating a whole spritesheet of each of the main characters, one set for Tsukasa, two for the other mains, one each with their normal hairstyles, the others with their hair updone.
Some other stuff had gotten in the way as well. For one thing, barely more than a week after I finished Earthbound, Grandpa Bob would be occupying my room for most of the week of Thanksgiving that year, so I also made a point of playing Getter Love!! for what time I'd still have my room to myself. Then, while Grandpa and Marie were here, Mom and I found myself driving myself nuts from overworking myself on the spritesheet, so I decided instead to spend some time with Angry Birds so that I wouldn't be too pissed off the whole time before they'd leave. And then, since the Nintendo Power magazine series was ending at that time, and since Wonder Project J2 made such an impression on me when I discovered several screenshots in it, I also wanted to make a point of playing that game through once and for all upon completing the spritesheet. (Ended up still playing it even after Christmas Day that year, when I got NP volume 1 to commemorate the magazine's end, and I ended up not beating it either after what later turned out to be a repeated mistake on my part with Josette's RP.)
In any case, I did get around to playing Mother 3, and was able to get a final critique for the Starbound chapter from Chelle some point before completing the game, and so I was able to mark my completion of the Earthbound trilogy on a bang, hosting both the spritesheet and the fic in their respective locations to be linked to at the end of an epic entry the following morning.
http://dmxrated.livejournal.com/2013/01/11/
Chapter 2:
Can't remember exactly when I got started with this one. While I was doing various other things at that time, the whole chapter came naturally once I decided when Kagami's hair would've been done up (offpage) and would start the fic with an allusion to that. The rest came naturally enough, and any breaks I had taken while writing this chapter mainly had to do with burning out and wanting Chelle to critique what I had thus far before I'd come back to it.
It was during my first of two stays at Uncle Robby's house last year that I actually posted the chapter, and received a copy I bought of Mother: The Original Story around the same time. Before that, though, I had worked on the final chapters of the fic, before deciding just to wrap chapter 2 up already. (And, as it turned out, Chelle actually didn't intend to review it before that decision, since she would have to critique it one more time anyway upon actual completion.)
Chapter 3:
Upon completing the previous chapter, I did manage to get a little into this, but not much before deciding to have some fun with Mother: The Original Story. Transcribed three chapters of that into a notebook, played Getter Love!! for a week after burning out with that, looked into actually translating it into TextEdit, but eventually broke down about eight pages towards the end of its second chapter. Mentioned on my blog the following morning that I wish Chelle would get back to me regarding some mid-endgame chapters I had written, but she told me that she'd rather wait until that bridge was to actually be crossed. Up came my second of two visits at Uncle Robby's, to span for two weeks. Spent the first week playing Getter Love!!, and then the second writing May's first chapter of Parasitic Trio.
My muse for Starbound returned when I was thinking about the Beehive Brigade and found myself unable to derive any pleasure from thinking about the girls' hairstyles, even when I combined it with other fetishes of mine. Turned out that what I really needed was some actual events to place anyone in, be it the brigade or the Lucky Star girls (and the latter I chose).
That is why I've been so obsessed with continuing the main story ever since. I mean, at least being able to work on anything related to the fic, which I started last November, is better than nothing, but receiving that pic of Rokuna from Jake's friend sure made me wish I was able to write anything for a regular chapter, instead of re-reading chapter 3 (although it is directly responsible for having revived my muse for Rokuna's fic).
Admittedly, I do have vague ideas for stuff yet to happen, and had even discussed Daví's debut in particular with Jake. However, there's a difference between generally knowing what will happen in a story (or part of one) and actually having the muse to write it. Chelle herself even told me as much when I asked her about the Kanon giantess fic I had commissioned her for, and I myself was unable to solidify anything when we tried writing it together through DeviantArt.
-----
Anyway, right now, I've already decided to hire an online service to translate any LS strips involving Tamaki and Miku. After that whole failure of mine with Mother: The Original Story, I just have no intention to attempt it myself, even though it's considerably less of a job than that or Makeruna! Makendou Z. In fact, given how relatively small it is, it shouldn't cost nearly so much as would either of the other two.
There are also some things Jake has asked me to clarify regarding Starbound, since he would like to write a similar fic himself. So far, I've already given him a detailed explanation of how the Magé Stones work, and have started a rough draft yesterday about the aliens and Philosoma.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10131844/1/Starbound-Birthday-of-Destiny
With that, let's take a look at what actually motivated me to write each chapter of the main story.
Conception:
It all started around Thanksgiving of 2011, when I was feeling nostalgic of the days I was playing Earthbound during my last few months of 4th grade, along with the similarities between that and its prequel (which I never actually played until 2010). I thought it would be interesting to create something new with the same graphics and game mechanics of EB, but since game development wasn't an option for me at the time, a fanfic was the closest I'd be able to get with it.
For most of the year following, I had no actual idea how things were going to play out after Kagami, Konata, and Miyuki each got their hair updone, nor did I have any plans then for Rokuna from Mon Colle Knights to play a role in things. Also wanted to play Mother 3 first before starting the fic, but didn't actually do so because I wanted to get a new computer so that I could play it smoothly enough, or at least get the one we had to smoothen up. Even though I was able to play it on my laptop, the only Mac-compatible emulator I was ever able to use wouldn't let me save files even on other games, and as a result, I wouldn't be able to complete the Battle Memory due to some weirdness involving the initially unwinnable ZombieShroom battle on Tanetane Island. (That's actually where I stopped playing the first time around, even though I wasn't focused on the BM that time; I misread on Starmen.net's walkthrough and thought it had to do with actually progressing onward.)
Christmas of that year was the one on which I got all eight ever-to-be officially translated volumes of the Lucky Star manga. Similar to how obtaining 9 and 10 have had mainly to do with Tamaki Yamanobe and Miku Busujima (not even just for Starbound), these first eight had mainly to do with seeing how much more focus Ayano Minegishi would get than in the anime, albeit mainly for the sake of unrelated fanfic commissions. They were worthwhile in their own right, though, especially when we drove to Boston and back the following summer, and the fic's first scene owes its existence to the first few strips in volume 5 and Ayano's inter-chapter appearance in volume 6.
Chapter 1:
While I never actually wrote anything of the fic for a year until after conceiving it, I did keep myself busy much of the time with Kanji in Context. It had been shortly after I completed the first of two books in KiC that I decided just to get on with the fic, but not before playing all three games in the Earthbound trilogy. At the time, while Worthless Yellow Rocks also had an important part to do with actually planning out the chapter, I was also thinking that if I was to get people in on things to brainstorm ideas (this was months before Chelle talked me out of that the first time), then the time to get started would be while Lucky Star still is popular.
http://dmxrated.livejournal.com/2012/10/15/
Played Earthbound Zero. Check. Wrote up the first draft of the first chapter, and had Chelle look it over, but then just wanted to get on with Earthbound. Check. Between Earthbound and Mother 3, I made a point of creating a whole spritesheet of each of the main characters, one set for Tsukasa, two for the other mains, one each with their normal hairstyles, the others with their hair updone.
Some other stuff had gotten in the way as well. For one thing, barely more than a week after I finished Earthbound, Grandpa Bob would be occupying my room for most of the week of Thanksgiving that year, so I also made a point of playing Getter Love!! for what time I'd still have my room to myself. Then, while Grandpa and Marie were here, Mom and I found myself driving myself nuts from overworking myself on the spritesheet, so I decided instead to spend some time with Angry Birds so that I wouldn't be too pissed off the whole time before they'd leave. And then, since the Nintendo Power magazine series was ending at that time, and since Wonder Project J2 made such an impression on me when I discovered several screenshots in it, I also wanted to make a point of playing that game through once and for all upon completing the spritesheet. (Ended up still playing it even after Christmas Day that year, when I got NP volume 1 to commemorate the magazine's end, and I ended up not beating it either after what later turned out to be a repeated mistake on my part with Josette's RP.)
In any case, I did get around to playing Mother 3, and was able to get a final critique for the Starbound chapter from Chelle some point before completing the game, and so I was able to mark my completion of the Earthbound trilogy on a bang, hosting both the spritesheet and the fic in their respective locations to be linked to at the end of an epic entry the following morning.
http://dmxrated.livejournal.com/2013/01/11/
Chapter 2:
Can't remember exactly when I got started with this one. While I was doing various other things at that time, the whole chapter came naturally once I decided when Kagami's hair would've been done up (offpage) and would start the fic with an allusion to that. The rest came naturally enough, and any breaks I had taken while writing this chapter mainly had to do with burning out and wanting Chelle to critique what I had thus far before I'd come back to it.
It was during my first of two stays at Uncle Robby's house last year that I actually posted the chapter, and received a copy I bought of Mother: The Original Story around the same time. Before that, though, I had worked on the final chapters of the fic, before deciding just to wrap chapter 2 up already. (And, as it turned out, Chelle actually didn't intend to review it before that decision, since she would have to critique it one more time anyway upon actual completion.)
Chapter 3:
Upon completing the previous chapter, I did manage to get a little into this, but not much before deciding to have some fun with Mother: The Original Story. Transcribed three chapters of that into a notebook, played Getter Love!! for a week after burning out with that, looked into actually translating it into TextEdit, but eventually broke down about eight pages towards the end of its second chapter. Mentioned on my blog the following morning that I wish Chelle would get back to me regarding some mid-endgame chapters I had written, but she told me that she'd rather wait until that bridge was to actually be crossed. Up came my second of two visits at Uncle Robby's, to span for two weeks. Spent the first week playing Getter Love!!, and then the second writing May's first chapter of Parasitic Trio.
My muse for Starbound returned when I was thinking about the Beehive Brigade and found myself unable to derive any pleasure from thinking about the girls' hairstyles, even when I combined it with other fetishes of mine. Turned out that what I really needed was some actual events to place anyone in, be it the brigade or the Lucky Star girls (and the latter I chose).
That is why I've been so obsessed with continuing the main story ever since. I mean, at least being able to work on anything related to the fic, which I started last November, is better than nothing, but receiving that pic of Rokuna from Jake's friend sure made me wish I was able to write anything for a regular chapter, instead of re-reading chapter 3 (although it is directly responsible for having revived my muse for Rokuna's fic).
Admittedly, I do have vague ideas for stuff yet to happen, and had even discussed Daví's debut in particular with Jake. However, there's a difference between generally knowing what will happen in a story (or part of one) and actually having the muse to write it. Chelle herself even told me as much when I asked her about the Kanon giantess fic I had commissioned her for, and I myself was unable to solidify anything when we tried writing it together through DeviantArt.
-----
Anyway, right now, I've already decided to hire an online service to translate any LS strips involving Tamaki and Miku. After that whole failure of mine with Mother: The Original Story, I just have no intention to attempt it myself, even though it's considerably less of a job than that or Makeruna! Makendou Z. In fact, given how relatively small it is, it shouldn't cost nearly so much as would either of the other two.
There are also some things Jake has asked me to clarify regarding Starbound, since he would like to write a similar fic himself. So far, I've already given him a detailed explanation of how the Magé Stones work, and have started a rough draft yesterday about the aliens and Philosoma.