[Naruto][RFC] Considering Writing A Sequel To An Old Fanfic And Need Some Advice...
04-10-2011, 04:49 AM
04-10-2011, 04:49 AM
So, several years ago I wrote a Naruto fanfic called One Hundred Days, which some of you might remember vaguely. Or maybe not!
After several years of burnout, I'm considering trying to get my writing juices flowing again by working on the long-promised sequel to that story. A few problems presented themselves, most importantly:
1) Canon has gone down strange and unexpected paths since I wrote the original story, and it would be nigh-impossible to match up as a divergence from the canon plot even if I was inclined to. Which I'm not, because I'm not overly fond of most of post-timeskip Naruto.
2) One Hundred Days was kind of a large and complex story. It's not fair to expect people to remember it well three years later, and I don't want to force old readers to reread it or new readers to go through it before (hopefully) enjoying my new work.
So, I decided the obvious solution was to summarize One Hundred Days at the start of my new story for the edutainment of my theoretical audience. However, due to largeness and complexity, I failed. Then I decided to throw out any pretense of completeness or seriousness. But I'm far too close to the source material to tell whether the result actually works as a summary. That's where you come in! I would appreciate any comments on whether the below works as a summary and entices you to read the sequel that might follow, or whether it falls flat and turns you off. I'm interested in the opinions of both anyone who might remember One Hundred Days, and those who never read it.
So, if you made it this far, thanks for listening to me blather, thanks in advance for your help, and here we go:
What Has Gone Before, Or 368,971 Words In Four Big Paragraphs, Or More Spoilers Than You Care About
Naruto: Goes on his training trip with Jiraiya. Learns earth element ninjutsu from one of the Jiraiya's friends, Iwakuro Hojo the soon-to-be Thirteenth Tsuchikage, violating future canon in multiple independent ways. Has numerous misadventures, including a fun bit of business with a slaver pirate missing ninja which Jiraiya decides to base his next book on, since it involves cross-dressing, a vengeance-driven kunoichi killing her evil S-class missing ninja relative (making Sasuke jealous when he finds out), snow maidens, and the fate of nations. Discovers that the seal is weakening. After further misadventures, rescues Kakashi from the Cloud Village (oh yeah, Kakshi gets captured by the Cloud!) through a sequence of events that ends up with the Raikage dead and the High Priestess of the Thunder Dragon (the second most powerful person in the village, and another friend of Jiraiya's) revealed as a member of Akatsuki and dead. Then he gets captured by Orochimaru. Oops.
Sakura: Fights with her mom and moves into Naruto's apartment. Gets trained by Anko. Teams up with Ino and Chouji to go to the Chuunin Exams. Finds out that she is related to the Haruno Clan of the Mist Village, which is persecuted for almost having a Bloodline Limit. This makes her psycho cousin from the Mist pissed at her, for really deep and complex reasons. Gets trained by Anko some more and learns to summon snakes, pissing off Tsunade. Becomes a chuunin, then finally gets accepted as Tsunade's apprentice, making Tenten jealous. Finds out that her mom was a spy for the Mist and kills her, making Sasuke super-jealous when he finds out (Sakura is less thrilled). Goes to rescue Naruto and succeeds (possibly some other people help). Yay! Then the two of them fight Sasuke to a draw. Yay! Then Kabuto shows up while totally not running in fear from Shizune and drags him off. Boo!
The World: Skips merrily over the brink of war as the Mist, learning nothing from the example of the Sand, team up with the Sound to take on the Leaf via a sneak attack. This time they wait until after the Chuunin Exams, which makes the plot arc totally different. The Rain switch sides and join in the fun, curbstomping the Grass (who totally exist and are allies of the Leaf in canon). Then the Rock show up and curbstomp the Rain, but it's okay because Jiraiya called in a favor from the new Tsuchikage, so they're here to fight the Sound. Orochimaru turns a peace conference into a battle and pins the blame on Tsunade, because that's one of the ways he gets his jollies. Jiraiya kills the Mizukage, who wasn't important enough in the story to have a name. Sorry, guy who can't exist in canon because you aren't a jinchuuriki or female! Tsunade almost kills Orochimaru, but the slippery son of a very classy lady gets away. But he's probably pissed when he gets back home and finds out Sakura (and maybe other people) have rescued Naruto, defeated his new Sound Five who haven't been mentioned yet but included Sakura's psycho cousin, and left a whole metric ton of Rock ninja all over the Rice Field Country. Actually, Tsunade might be a little irritated about that last bit too when she finds out.
Canon: Mysteriously goes missing after the conclusion of the Rice Field Country filler arc of the anime. (It may be hanging out with those Matrix sequels that never got made.) Random characters and ideas may have survived this mysterious mystery, but may not have been left unchanged by the harrowing ordeal. So don't be suprised when it turns out that Tobi isn't Madara, but is actually Kakashi's long-lost twin sister, Jiraiya's spy in Akatsuki, and also Tuxedo Kamen. (Ps. As part of the Kyuubi's contract, upon mentioning Madara I am legally required to note that the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox is a uncontrollable creature of all-consuming rage, and that it would find the idea that some puny human with fancy eyes could order it around offensive if it wasn't so hilarious.) (Pps. Naruto is Sailor Moon, duh.) In other words, consider this story officially an AU, and One Hundred Days retroactively one also. I promise fewer generic Chosen One prophecies and plots to take over the world with magical moons than the leading competitor.
Aaron Nowack
After several years of burnout, I'm considering trying to get my writing juices flowing again by working on the long-promised sequel to that story. A few problems presented themselves, most importantly:
1) Canon has gone down strange and unexpected paths since I wrote the original story, and it would be nigh-impossible to match up as a divergence from the canon plot even if I was inclined to. Which I'm not, because I'm not overly fond of most of post-timeskip Naruto.
2) One Hundred Days was kind of a large and complex story. It's not fair to expect people to remember it well three years later, and I don't want to force old readers to reread it or new readers to go through it before (hopefully) enjoying my new work.
So, I decided the obvious solution was to summarize One Hundred Days at the start of my new story for the edutainment of my theoretical audience. However, due to largeness and complexity, I failed. Then I decided to throw out any pretense of completeness or seriousness. But I'm far too close to the source material to tell whether the result actually works as a summary. That's where you come in! I would appreciate any comments on whether the below works as a summary and entices you to read the sequel that might follow, or whether it falls flat and turns you off. I'm interested in the opinions of both anyone who might remember One Hundred Days, and those who never read it.
So, if you made it this far, thanks for listening to me blather, thanks in advance for your help, and here we go:
What Has Gone Before, Or 368,971 Words In Four Big Paragraphs, Or More Spoilers Than You Care About
Naruto: Goes on his training trip with Jiraiya. Learns earth element ninjutsu from one of the Jiraiya's friends, Iwakuro Hojo the soon-to-be Thirteenth Tsuchikage, violating future canon in multiple independent ways. Has numerous misadventures, including a fun bit of business with a slaver pirate missing ninja which Jiraiya decides to base his next book on, since it involves cross-dressing, a vengeance-driven kunoichi killing her evil S-class missing ninja relative (making Sasuke jealous when he finds out), snow maidens, and the fate of nations. Discovers that the seal is weakening. After further misadventures, rescues Kakashi from the Cloud Village (oh yeah, Kakshi gets captured by the Cloud!) through a sequence of events that ends up with the Raikage dead and the High Priestess of the Thunder Dragon (the second most powerful person in the village, and another friend of Jiraiya's) revealed as a member of Akatsuki and dead. Then he gets captured by Orochimaru. Oops.
Sakura: Fights with her mom and moves into Naruto's apartment. Gets trained by Anko. Teams up with Ino and Chouji to go to the Chuunin Exams. Finds out that she is related to the Haruno Clan of the Mist Village, which is persecuted for almost having a Bloodline Limit. This makes her psycho cousin from the Mist pissed at her, for really deep and complex reasons. Gets trained by Anko some more and learns to summon snakes, pissing off Tsunade. Becomes a chuunin, then finally gets accepted as Tsunade's apprentice, making Tenten jealous. Finds out that her mom was a spy for the Mist and kills her, making Sasuke super-jealous when he finds out (Sakura is less thrilled). Goes to rescue Naruto and succeeds (possibly some other people help). Yay! Then the two of them fight Sasuke to a draw. Yay! Then Kabuto shows up while totally not running in fear from Shizune and drags him off. Boo!
The World: Skips merrily over the brink of war as the Mist, learning nothing from the example of the Sand, team up with the Sound to take on the Leaf via a sneak attack. This time they wait until after the Chuunin Exams, which makes the plot arc totally different. The Rain switch sides and join in the fun, curbstomping the Grass (who totally exist and are allies of the Leaf in canon). Then the Rock show up and curbstomp the Rain, but it's okay because Jiraiya called in a favor from the new Tsuchikage, so they're here to fight the Sound. Orochimaru turns a peace conference into a battle and pins the blame on Tsunade, because that's one of the ways he gets his jollies. Jiraiya kills the Mizukage, who wasn't important enough in the story to have a name. Sorry, guy who can't exist in canon because you aren't a jinchuuriki or female! Tsunade almost kills Orochimaru, but the slippery son of a very classy lady gets away. But he's probably pissed when he gets back home and finds out Sakura (and maybe other people) have rescued Naruto, defeated his new Sound Five who haven't been mentioned yet but included Sakura's psycho cousin, and left a whole metric ton of Rock ninja all over the Rice Field Country. Actually, Tsunade might be a little irritated about that last bit too when she finds out.
Canon: Mysteriously goes missing after the conclusion of the Rice Field Country filler arc of the anime. (It may be hanging out with those Matrix sequels that never got made.) Random characters and ideas may have survived this mysterious mystery, but may not have been left unchanged by the harrowing ordeal. So don't be suprised when it turns out that Tobi isn't Madara, but is actually Kakashi's long-lost twin sister, Jiraiya's spy in Akatsuki, and also Tuxedo Kamen. (Ps. As part of the Kyuubi's contract, upon mentioning Madara I am legally required to note that the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox is a uncontrollable creature of all-consuming rage, and that it would find the idea that some puny human with fancy eyes could order it around offensive if it wasn't so hilarious.) (Pps. Naruto is Sailor Moon, duh.) In other words, consider this story officially an AU, and One Hundred Days retroactively one also. I promise fewer generic Chosen One prophecies and plots to take over the world with magical moons than the leading competitor.
Aaron Nowack
