progress

Despite everything else going on, I found myself drawn back into writing yesterday and today. T was working late yesterday night, and I ended up spending a lot of time with the game, making notes and just watching. Then this morning I started turning the notes into text, and I got a good chunk of the next chapter drafted (along with a scene that probably isn't going to make the cut; too bad, because I liked it. But it doesn't really serve the story, so out it goes. I did save it in a separate file. Maybe it will morph into a one-shot someday -- it's too long for a drabble). These replays have been really useful, reminding me what these characters look and sound like, how they react to events and one another. Although I wish I had known a couple of years ago that I was going to be doing this. I could have saved a lot of slogging through pointless battles if I'd held on to a few more saves. Now I'm paranoid about overwriting any, since I never know what I'm going to want to watch again!

I'm still in the bridge material, leading up to what I consider the next major event in the arc. I'm writing far more of Yuna's pilgrimage than I had originally intended, but I think it's all been necessary -- leave too much out, and the story becomes choppy. Not that anyone reading the story doesn't already know what happens in the game; they can certainly fill in the gaps. But I want the thing to have a cohesive narrative on its own. Silly, I know.

No guess yet when this will be done. There's still a scene largely undrafted, some other bits are still rather rough, and the cats are a perpetual (if thoroughly welcome) distraction. Maybe in the next couple of days.