Jisu (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
friendshipbeam) wrote2011-12-24 12:02 am
friendshipbeam) wrote2011-12-24 12:02 am
Entry tags:
Thoughts on three years
Whoa.
That's the first thing I can think of to say. I mean, seriously, three whole years of Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon?
Okay, taking that much time and only putting out twenty-one chapters, not counting bonus content, isn't exactly impressive to most people. Perfume Preppy started around the same time and is already done, and Bia kept to a weekly schedule! Still, considering my previous track record of dropping projects after a chapter or so, sticking with this story is huge. To keep it in perspective, the only multichaptered fic I've ever finished (before now; I do plan to finish Blue Moon!) was my very first, and it was only eight chapters long. (I wrote that awful thing in grade six. I deleted it years ago. You will never find it.)
This fandom has changed a lot since an anonymous 2chan user tried to pass a design sheet with two girls and a mascot off as real. The most relevant change is that OC fic is now okay; more than that, it's embraced, with tons of stories popping up in the wake of Blue Moon and Perfume Preppy (hey, I can't steal all the credit -- Bia deserves it, too!). The same happened, interestingly enough, in Japanese Precure fandom thanks to Bouken! Precure Days, which was also based off the same design sheet. Yes, I've heard of it. No, I didn't know about it when I started. No, I sincerely doubt that Toshi-P has heard of Blue Moon, but I do wonder what he'd say if he had.
The canon's changed, too. Toei discarded the old art style and started changing it with each season. Mascots no longer have sentence enders based on their names, and monsters no longer have names ending in -naa. (I still do these things.) Villains can look human even if they're not going to turn good. (I did that first.) I'd be remiss to forget to mention the Heartcatch newbie boom, which, we can all agree, completely transformed this fandom. In related news, we actually have subs, and almost every season is finished! Precure fandom is a different place, that's for sure, and it really reminds me how long three years actually is.
To tell the truth, in the beginning, I thought no one would look at my work. The reason Blue Moon uses the "it's always Pretty Cure" convention while I use "purikyua=Precure, puritii kyua=Pretty Cure" convention everywhere else is because that was what was popular then and I hoped more people would read it! I also never thought I'd actually keep writing this past the first chapter. I had two other fics in the planning stages, which will now probably never see the light -- now I have new ideas! I was terrible at character design, and I was honestly very scared of how the fandom would react to OC fic. I figured that, at worst, you'd run me out of the community, and at best, you wouldn't read it and we could all get on with our lives.
You read it.
Some of you -- a lot more than I ever expected -- even liked it.
This keeps me going. Sometimes I wonder why I write this -- I take months between chapters, or Toei uses some plot twist that I've been planning for years again, or I find myself shaking my head at the fandom's craziness. (Sorry -- I love you guys!) I wonder if I can manage to tell this story, and if I can tell it right. I need to write, rewrite, add, and subtract over and over to get something readable. But then I find out that somebody's showing my fanseries to their friends, or that they've updated its TV Tropes page, or that they're translating it into another language and they now want to become a translator when they grow up. I keep working to get this story out and to pay you back for... well, for noticing me. For paying attention to me.
Life's different now. It's hard to get used to, but it's always been that way. If, with Blue Moon, I made somebody believe that it's important to be yourself and that the world is a good place even when it hurts, I've done my job. If you just read it for fun, I've also done my job.
Three more chapters and this is done. I might just stretch it out another year to stick around you guys longer.
Or maybe not. You deserve a quick solution. More than that, though, you deserve a good one. I'll do my very best to deliver.
Sincerely,
Jisu
friendshipbeam @ LJ & DW
That's the first thing I can think of to say. I mean, seriously, three whole years of Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon?
Okay, taking that much time and only putting out twenty-one chapters, not counting bonus content, isn't exactly impressive to most people. Perfume Preppy started around the same time and is already done, and Bia kept to a weekly schedule! Still, considering my previous track record of dropping projects after a chapter or so, sticking with this story is huge. To keep it in perspective, the only multichaptered fic I've ever finished (before now; I do plan to finish Blue Moon!) was my very first, and it was only eight chapters long. (I wrote that awful thing in grade six. I deleted it years ago. You will never find it.)
This fandom has changed a lot since an anonymous 2chan user tried to pass a design sheet with two girls and a mascot off as real. The most relevant change is that OC fic is now okay; more than that, it's embraced, with tons of stories popping up in the wake of Blue Moon and Perfume Preppy (hey, I can't steal all the credit -- Bia deserves it, too!). The same happened, interestingly enough, in Japanese Precure fandom thanks to Bouken! Precure Days, which was also based off the same design sheet. Yes, I've heard of it. No, I didn't know about it when I started. No, I sincerely doubt that Toshi-P has heard of Blue Moon, but I do wonder what he'd say if he had.
The canon's changed, too. Toei discarded the old art style and started changing it with each season. Mascots no longer have sentence enders based on their names, and monsters no longer have names ending in -naa. (I still do these things.) Villains can look human even if they're not going to turn good. (I did that first.) I'd be remiss to forget to mention the Heartcatch newbie boom, which, we can all agree, completely transformed this fandom. In related news, we actually have subs, and almost every season is finished! Precure fandom is a different place, that's for sure, and it really reminds me how long three years actually is.
To tell the truth, in the beginning, I thought no one would look at my work. The reason Blue Moon uses the "it's always Pretty Cure" convention while I use "purikyua=Precure, puritii kyua=Pretty Cure" convention everywhere else is because that was what was popular then and I hoped more people would read it! I also never thought I'd actually keep writing this past the first chapter. I had two other fics in the planning stages, which will now probably never see the light -- now I have new ideas! I was terrible at character design, and I was honestly very scared of how the fandom would react to OC fic. I figured that, at worst, you'd run me out of the community, and at best, you wouldn't read it and we could all get on with our lives.
You read it.
Some of you -- a lot more than I ever expected -- even liked it.
This keeps me going. Sometimes I wonder why I write this -- I take months between chapters, or Toei uses some plot twist that I've been planning for years again, or I find myself shaking my head at the fandom's craziness. (Sorry -- I love you guys!) I wonder if I can manage to tell this story, and if I can tell it right. I need to write, rewrite, add, and subtract over and over to get something readable. But then I find out that somebody's showing my fanseries to their friends, or that they've updated its TV Tropes page, or that they're translating it into another language and they now want to become a translator when they grow up. I keep working to get this story out and to pay you back for... well, for noticing me. For paying attention to me.
Life's different now. It's hard to get used to, but it's always been that way. If, with Blue Moon, I made somebody believe that it's important to be yourself and that the world is a good place even when it hurts, I've done my job. If you just read it for fun, I've also done my job.
Three more chapters and this is done. I might just stretch it out another year to stick around you guys longer.
Or maybe not. You deserve a quick solution. More than that, though, you deserve a good one. I'll do my very best to deliver.
Sincerely,
Jisu
friendshipbeam @ LJ & DW
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