I feel like I owe everybody an update and an explanation. So that is what the first post of my In Fire Forged focused blog shall be about, to provide context for its continued existence.

Let’s start out with the obvious part: IFF is not abandoned, nor was it ever. IFF is in fact still being worked on, and the work hasn’t stopped in the time that I have not been posting updates. Granted, the writing of the story itself has been going very slowly, but the lore and overall story and arc plot and structure have seen major revisions while the story has been on hold.

I have mentioned, earlier, the 50.000 words of lore and plot that I started the story with. Most of that is now utterly irrelevant or outdated. So a lot of things have happened since last summer.

Why did I stop writing?

When I originally began my aggressive schedule of one update every two weeks, it was to keep on the pressure and ensure that I would actually write because I was in constant panic mode. This ground to a quick halt after a few months. I think that there were several reasons for this.

First of all, a series of real life events happened that quickly stripped me of the mood, will and time to write. Mostly this has been very non-dramatic, mundane stuff. My laptop broke down during the winter where I’d been planning on writing a lot. University projects can be very time consuming, and I often found myself without the energy and motivation to sit down in the evenings and write.

Second of all, the pressure to write stripped me of the pleasure of writing. This one I had not predicted and it came as a surprise to me, though it seems obvious with hindsight. Especially the part about needing to publish chapters immediately after writing them got to me. If I had to do that, the chapters had to be perfect. If I realized that I’d committed a mistake down the line, it would be too late to fix it since the prior chapters had already been published and committed to.

Third, the arc I was trying to write, beginning with chapter eight, is really complicated. As I started writing chapter nine, I realized that the plot simply didn’t work. Several characters were holding major idiot balls to make the whole thing work out as I wanted it to, and the plot had huge, gaping holes in it. I had the choice of either proceeding and committing to the impending train wreck (see point two), or calling a full stop just in time and re-examining in detail the entire plot of the arc, and volume one of IFF by extension, to make sure that everything was sensible before I proceeded.

This process turned out to be sorely needed.

Writing something really complicated turns out to be kind of difficult

Who’d have thought, right?

Trying to write characters who are not holding idiot balls is very difficult. Trying to write several of them attempting to one-up each other, and having your protagonists survive the process, is even more difficult. I try not to fall prey to tropes like Why Don’t You Just Shoot Him – if they can, and ought to, then they do. If there is something that a character couldn’t possibly miss, then they shouldn’t. And if any of this breaks the plot, well, then I need to change the plot, or make up a consistent explanation.

As quickly became apparent to me once I started writing, the fact that a character is holding an idiot ball is not always immediately obvious in a plot summary written for your own benefit. It is not until you start trying to explain the plot to somebody else, or until you are faced with actually writing a scene with the character who is holding the ball, that you start asking yourself, “Actually, why doesn’t the character just do this instead? Why is this character even in this situation in the first place?”

And then you have to make them drop the ball, and everything changes, and you start over again.

I am starting this blog now, because I think that I am getting to a point where my plans are solid enough that I can finally write this plot without outright feeling ashamed of myself, or thinking that my story is populated with idiots. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s at least good enough. Additionally, I’ve been quiet for too long, and I don’t want people to think that the story is dead when this is far from true.

So what is The Forge?

The Forge is my pretentiously named blog about In Fire Forged. It’s going to contain, amongst other things, updates on the progress of the story and any other musings that I think my readers might be interested in. Sometimes, I might be faced with an issue regarding some obscure piece of lore, and, supposing the readers are into it and no spoilers abound, a discussion might take place.

Also, did you like those intro and exit info blurbs in the story? Then you’re going to love this blog, as I will be writing longer lore posts in that style when my muse does not have the stomach for writing on the story itself. This shall a) hopefully prove to be interesting reading if you’re into world-building and b) force me to truly flesh out many different parts of the lore, since writing notes for yourself in bullet point lists is one thing, and trying to write for another’s comprehension is another thing entirely, and finally, c) provide a handy lore reference for myself and others to refer to.

So far, this is the list of topics that I intend to explore in lore posts, in the rough order in which they should appear:

Chakra sciences (or, what is known about chakra generally) Hand seals and their workings Written seals and their workings The core three techniques (body flicker, substitution and transformation) History of bijuu seals and jinchuuriki How exactly Sakura’s explosive scrolls work History of the Land of Fire Fire Court politics The Royal Guard History of Konoha Konoha politics and administration Konoha’s military organization, divisions and force distribution The Chuunin Exams Ninja psychology and culture Ninja recruitment and training in modern society

If you’ve any preferences or suggestions regarding this, please leave a comment with your thoughts and desires so I can take them into account. This is still all very up in the air, though all of these are topics which I plan on eventually writing about.

What am I doing now?

I am currently writing the whole next arc of the story, to be posted once it is finished and consistent. This means I can write without worrying about the chapters being perfect straight away, since I can always go back and revisit the first drafts later before I post the entire arc. This is the best compromise I can think of, between writing the entire story and then posting it, and posting it chapter by chapter. I am counting on the arc spanning around 50.000-80.000 words, and I predict (though I do not state with certainty, as I have learned my lesson) that it will be finished some time in the summer. I appear to have set a much faster pace for myself lately, with seven thousand words written on chapter nine in the last four days, but I don’t know for how long I can keep this up.

I am also touching up the original chapters of IFF, to make sure everything fits with the new, slightly revamped plot and lore. The necessary changes are mostly minor and cosmetic. For example, some early mentions of too advanced technology need to be culled, and more mentions of the world’s current tech level should be inserted here and there. If possible, there are a few larger things I would like to change, such as the whole beginning scene of the first chapter, but writing more on the new arc takes priority. These changes will go into the story as soon as they’re done, before the next arc is finished.

Commitments for the future

I plan on updating this blog twice a month with progress reports, every second sunday – however brief they must be. Any other content shall not be on a schedule, though I hope I will be posting more often than that.

If you’ve any requests or suggestions for different kinds of content you’d like to see, pages that should exist, or lore topics that are not on the list above that you’d want me to expound upon, then please comment to let me know. If you want to be updated whenever something new happens, remember to subscribe.

That’s it for now!