Final Author's Notes: Free Talk
I'm glad this mother's finally over. Everyone's noticed the last few chapters (the ending especially) really, really stank. I noticed it too, but just didn't feel like fixing it. The reason? I'm working on a much larger scale project (and no, not my Final Fantasy Tactics Novelization).
Perhaps if I had finished the novel of Breath of Fire II during the summer, the ending would have been better. In fact, I know it would have been better, because back then I had momentum. The initial 20 chapters were heads and shoulders over the last run of them. Back then, I had the game clear in my memory, I had a direction I wanted to go in, and I had time to put it all together.
Then school started and I took a day off. It became two days. Then it became a week, two weeks, and by the time I got around to writing the final half of the Highfort story arc, I had a really forced death scene for Sten (not to mention all the glaring accent errors in the rest of the Highlanders; seems Sten had mutated vocal chords or something). The problem only got worse. An ending run that should have spanned a total of 10 chapters was condensed into 4.
So it goes.
Of course, I already noticed the trend. I could have put an end to it early on. I eventually found the time. I just kept on not doing it. It is called laziness, and I am not ashamed to admit it as a flaw.
That wasn't the only reason for the inevitable death of Breath of Fire. I was losing interest, fast. I knew I had to finish it before I just said, "Screw it." I won't go back and rewrite those last 6 chapters. I won't go back and fix all the errors. I probably won't even bother to look at the fanfic again.
Why? My interest went off to another project. It's a big project. This time, I'm allocating my time, taking it slow and easy. I'm 1/3 of the way through outlining the story, and I know exactly what I want done and where it ought to be done. I drafted the main characters three times before I was satisfied with how they would play out in the story arc. I even rewrote some portions of my outline. By the time I'm done with pre-production, I should be able to crank out all twenty-five 20-page chapters in as many days, simply because I'll know the story inside and out.
What I did wrong in BoF was trying to work without a solid guide; I thought I could finish it using only raw memory of the game and a few twists and turns. I knew that if I took too long, I'd lose interest, so I tried going as fast as I could. Now, for this denser project, I'm doing the opposite.
I already knew what flaws I had. BoF served to remind me of them. BoF is the stepping stone I'll be using for future writings and future dreams.
Cest la vie, boys and girls.