Absence: Afterword
Dec. 11th, 2011 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesSince this story took such an unholy long time (and energy) to write, I thought I could indulge myself with an afterword of sorts.
First, some words on the setting of the story.
I first started writing this story in the last days of 2008, in reply to an anonymous prompt at the old anonfic meme op-fanforall. I posted the first few chapters on the meme, unbetaed, then moved the story to my journal and revised those chapters in the process, now with beta.
By that time the manga was still in the midst of Impel Down. Like the rest of the readership, I had no idea how the Marineford arc would end, nor did I suspect a two-year timeskip was coming up. I set the story in the New World - what I pictured as "a few months into the future from where the manga is now" - pretty much for sentimental reasons. Though at the start I didn't yet know if Usopp really had died, if it turned out he had I wanted him to have had a few more adventures with everyone than in canon before the fic started. While I didn't really know where Oda was going, I did expect Ace to be saved from execution, everyone learning something useful where they'd ended up and then re-union in a near future.
Then chapter 574 happened. I was shocked, stunned, and heartbroken, as I think most fans were. I considered abandoning the fic as possibly redundant now. Eventually I decided to continue it but (as you have seen) retcon it to be a Divergence AU where Ace survived. In part because otherwise Luffy might not react in such an extreme way as he does in this story; in part because it simply felt too cruel to let something like that happen to a canon post-Marineford Luffy.
I couldn't do the same thing later when the timeskip occurred, though. The Sabaody defeat still happened in this universe, therefore so did the timeskip. In retrospect it would have been easier to set the whole fic pre-Sabaody, but my sentimental reasons still held and were in fact even stronger than before. Thus the fic was now post-timeskip by default, and still set in the New World. But I must admit the characters are largely based on the pre-timeskip selves, as I have not gone back to revise those aspects in earlier chapters. And while the end of the Fishman Arc looks set to Joss this fic even more as I write this, I'm not doing any more rewrites. The fic exists in its own conceptual space now, I guess, its connection to canon more nebulous than I could wish. But them's the breaks.
Now, about the plot and writing process.
The plot of this story developed in a fairly organic fashion, or in other words through "making it up as you go along", pretty much – which may have been the major reason it took so long to finish. At the start I wanted to plumb Luffy's reaction, just as the original prompt said; but for a long time I was unsure whether Usopp was truly dead or not. Nevertheless I widened the scope to the whole crew from early on, as it just didn't feel right otherwise.
The longer I wrote the story, the harder it felt to make it into a "Surprise, he was alive after all!" plot. It felt like that thing had been done, and to use it again in an interesting way needed a more skilful writer than me. Meanwhile, watching Movie 6 had made me wonder what would happen to Luffy if he did lose someone in the crew for good, and to the crew. But it still took me quite some time to find out what had actually happened on the island, and what would happen once the Strawhats returned there.
In retrospect I wish I could have been clever enough to provide for narrative tension without raising futile hopes for Usopp's physical survival. But to be honest I'm still not sure how that could have been done, even if I had been more clear-eyed about the outcome when I started out. If there wasn't uncertainty, there wouldn't have been the same drive for closure in the cast – or so it seems to me now. I could be wrong.
A minor remark: I did find myself surprised at how troublesome it was sometimes, on a purely practical level, to write a Strawhat ensemble fic without Usopp around. There were quite a few times when I needed someone in the crew to do or say something that I'd normally give to Usopp, and now I had to cast about for an alternative.
This was a hard fic to write in many ways, and if I hadn't gotten feedback I suspect I would have abandoned it a long time ago, despite being very invested in the story. I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to each and everyone who's ever commented on the fic, no matter how briefly. All of it has been much appreciated. However, I'd like to give particular mention to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dethorats and alice_and_lain, whose continuous and thoughtful support and commentary have never failed to gladden me.
I also want to thankwendytigges for stepping in with feedback very early on, when it was sorely needed, and then providing beta and encouragement up through chapter seven. Thanks awfully, Wendy. ♥
My very heartfelt thanks totonko_ni, who has not only gone way over and above beta duties for the whole story but was also my sole audience during the writing of the last five chapters of the fic, which has taken quite a few months. Her contributions have been truly invaluable. Thank you forever, tonko_ni, you are quite simply enastående! ♥
Lastly, thank you to everyone who stuck with me this far, despite all the angst and the often horrendously long wait between chapters. I'm sorry it's been taking so very long.
First, some words on the setting of the story.
I first started writing this story in the last days of 2008, in reply to an anonymous prompt at the old anonfic meme op-fanforall. I posted the first few chapters on the meme, unbetaed, then moved the story to my journal and revised those chapters in the process, now with beta.
By that time the manga was still in the midst of Impel Down. Like the rest of the readership, I had no idea how the Marineford arc would end, nor did I suspect a two-year timeskip was coming up. I set the story in the New World - what I pictured as "a few months into the future from where the manga is now" - pretty much for sentimental reasons. Though at the start I didn't yet know if Usopp really had died, if it turned out he had I wanted him to have had a few more adventures with everyone than in canon before the fic started. While I didn't really know where Oda was going, I did expect Ace to be saved from execution, everyone learning something useful where they'd ended up and then re-union in a near future.
Then chapter 574 happened. I was shocked, stunned, and heartbroken, as I think most fans were. I considered abandoning the fic as possibly redundant now. Eventually I decided to continue it but (as you have seen) retcon it to be a Divergence AU where Ace survived. In part because otherwise Luffy might not react in such an extreme way as he does in this story; in part because it simply felt too cruel to let something like that happen to a canon post-Marineford Luffy.
I couldn't do the same thing later when the timeskip occurred, though. The Sabaody defeat still happened in this universe, therefore so did the timeskip. In retrospect it would have been easier to set the whole fic pre-Sabaody, but my sentimental reasons still held and were in fact even stronger than before. Thus the fic was now post-timeskip by default, and still set in the New World. But I must admit the characters are largely based on the pre-timeskip selves, as I have not gone back to revise those aspects in earlier chapters. And while the end of the Fishman Arc looks set to Joss this fic even more as I write this, I'm not doing any more rewrites. The fic exists in its own conceptual space now, I guess, its connection to canon more nebulous than I could wish. But them's the breaks.
Now, about the plot and writing process.
The plot of this story developed in a fairly organic fashion, or in other words through "making it up as you go along", pretty much – which may have been the major reason it took so long to finish. At the start I wanted to plumb Luffy's reaction, just as the original prompt said; but for a long time I was unsure whether Usopp was truly dead or not. Nevertheless I widened the scope to the whole crew from early on, as it just didn't feel right otherwise.
The longer I wrote the story, the harder it felt to make it into a "Surprise, he was alive after all!" plot. It felt like that thing had been done, and to use it again in an interesting way needed a more skilful writer than me. Meanwhile, watching Movie 6 had made me wonder what would happen to Luffy if he did lose someone in the crew for good, and to the crew. But it still took me quite some time to find out what had actually happened on the island, and what would happen once the Strawhats returned there.
In retrospect I wish I could have been clever enough to provide for narrative tension without raising futile hopes for Usopp's physical survival. But to be honest I'm still not sure how that could have been done, even if I had been more clear-eyed about the outcome when I started out. If there wasn't uncertainty, there wouldn't have been the same drive for closure in the cast – or so it seems to me now. I could be wrong.
A minor remark: I did find myself surprised at how troublesome it was sometimes, on a purely practical level, to write a Strawhat ensemble fic without Usopp around. There were quite a few times when I needed someone in the crew to do or say something that I'd normally give to Usopp, and now I had to cast about for an alternative.
This was a hard fic to write in many ways, and if I hadn't gotten feedback I suspect I would have abandoned it a long time ago, despite being very invested in the story. I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to each and everyone who's ever commented on the fic, no matter how briefly. All of it has been much appreciated. However, I'd like to give particular mention to
dethorats and alice_and_lain, whose continuous and thoughtful support and commentary have never failed to gladden me. I also want to thank
wendytigges for stepping in with feedback very early on, when it was sorely needed, and then providing beta and encouragement up through chapter seven. Thanks awfully, Wendy. ♥My very heartfelt thanks to
tonko_ni, who has not only gone way over and above beta duties for the whole story but was also my sole audience during the writing of the last five chapters of the fic, which has taken quite a few months. Her contributions have been truly invaluable. Thank you forever, tonko_ni, you are quite simply enastående! ♥Lastly, thank you to everyone who stuck with me this far, despite all the angst and the often horrendously long wait between chapters. I'm sorry it's been taking so very long.