So in the next chapter or two, the first arc of SHONEN ALLIANCE RE:BIRTH will be done.
One problem with the original SA was my utter ineptitude for planning resulting in a scatter shot narrative that contradicted itself often or presented plot points that never developed and were ultimately forgotten. For example, did you know Isabella, Rinoa, Silphia, and Valeria could turn Super Saiyan? Neither did I. Unfortunately, that was apparently an aspect of their characters I decided on later, because rereading the early arcs, all four transform at least once. Hell, one question I received during Book of the Shadows' writing was why nobody gave Queen Fiona a Senzu Bean after Orihime couldn't heal her. I still don't have an answer to that question.
I want to avoid those issues in RE:BIRTH, so I've decided that between sagas, I am going to take one week off from writing in order to plan. This will give me a chance to set out plot points, plan character motivations for the arc, catalogue any plot points to be introduced in the arc that will be picked up later, reread old arcs to see if any old plot threads need to be wrapped up, and properly plan out any new characters the arc will include, among other valuable bits of prep work.
Unfortunately, this does open me up to a potential and very potent problem. Burn out is a problem every creative fights a never ending battle against, and heaven knows I'm no exception. Heck, I've lost that battle more times then I care to admit. It's the reason I've adopted many of current tactics for creating, including my Daily Sketches on DeviantArt and my current writing schedule of writing one page a day from two different projects, for a total of two a day.
One page I write every day is for a novel I'm in the process of writing which I work on every day. The second page is the relevant one to this, as five days of the week are devoted to one page of SA a day with the other two devoted to writing my Fire Emblem: Summoner's Tales, a series of very short, two page, bondage and damsel in distress focused stories I only post on my ssvineman DeviantArt page.
Unfortunately, another major problem any creative must be wary of is complacency, which I'd argue is the flip side of the Burn Out coin. It's equal but opposite force. The problem born of being to lenient with oneself as opposed to to forceful. Losing one page of writing for five days, even if only once every few weeks, would greatly increase my chances of running afoul of this problem.
Which has led me to the proposal of SHONEN ALLIANCE: ALTERNATIVE. Short, one-shot stories written while the main story is in the planning stage.
These stories strictly occur outside the canon of the main story, and my only rule for them is at least one character from SA must appear, either from an SA series or an OC like Vine of the princesses.
Beyond that, anything is fair game, including series outside of the main Alliance or even anime in general. For example, I could tell the story of a team up between the Saiyans and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or a story where Naruto and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have to rescue Hinata and April from the Shredder. A comedic retelling of Romeo and Juliet staring Nepgear and Yang Xiao Long, or a fierce brawl between Vine and Baldren Gasenarl. Basically, whatever idea rolls into my head when I sit down to write it.
I'll write the first ALTERNATIVE story after the completion of the current "Unity Arc"
