Here marks the first of what is likely to be a lot of very long rants about who even knows what. This one is not even very interesting, but I’m terribly generic and feel the need to at least write some sort of intro post.
A couple of housekeeping things before we begin. Firstly, I made a mistake registering my blog’s URL and waited all summer for it to clear up so I could use it again… only to find that it wouldn’t let me anyway. So that was a massive waste of time and now I’m using [ rambleravenfanficfox.blogspot.com ]. Secondly, I fiddled with the template and colours of the design, but as nothing's really up yet (until this gets posted anyway) I don’t actually know what it’ll look like. It’ll almost certainly be seeing some changes as I get acquainted with all the bits and bobs.
So. Hi! Nice to meet you. I’m “The Raven and the Fox” (somewhat misleadingly just one person), or R+F for short. I’m a nineteen-year-old female Canadian studying animation in the UK, but here I’m a SasuNaruSasu fan writer and artist. You can find me on Fanfiction.net under the same name. In fact you probably came upon this blog from there. So hi again, dear readers! I ought to tell you how much I love you. I want to link my R+F internet identity to my regular one, but there is a large possibility that that identity will become known to potential employers in the future and I feel that letting them know I write porn – not just porn with reason, but porn for the sake of porn and fanfiction at that – is maybe not the best idea. I’m already leaving evidence scattered everywhere and I really shouldn’t, but I can’t help it! So unfortunately I have to ask that, should you ever find out that R+F and the other identity are in fact the same, you please keep it to yourself… I mean, you can always send me a private message here or via FF.net, and we can talk. That’d be awesome. In fact, go ahead and do that anyway. I love meeting new people!
If you didn’t come here via my FF.net profile… well, I guess you now know I write porn. Well then. A bit about my writing: I mainly work within SasuNaruSasu (Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke from the manga/anime Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto), although I want to expand a bit if I can. R+F actually started out as a name under which I could upload my explicit works only, but then I more or less abandoned my other account because by then I’d a] gotten better at writing and b] generated a bit of a fanbase as R+F. But not everything I write is explicit. Most of my works on FF.net are PWPs (“Porn Without Plot,” although admittedly now they are almost always “Plot With Porn” and are in fact just one-shots with sex scenes), but the work that has put me into what my friend calls Middle Name Fan status (as opposed to Big Name Fan, or BNF) is Two Face.
Two Face is 336,000 words / 111 chapters / 600 pages / two years / two thousand reviews / a LOT of filler, fluff, angst, sex, clichés, improvement, frustration, happiness, encouragement, support, betas… the list goes on. It is, in a nutshell, a high school AU fic wherein Naruto and Sasuke find themselves. Personally I don’t know why so many people love it; the longer I look at it the more I see where all the flaws are. But then sometimes I go back and reread bits and I guess I can kind of understand it. It has a way of deceiving you into believing it’s better than it is (ahaha…). And (this is a biased opinion from the writer herself, so don’t take my word for it) I think it touches on some very universal themes. It has the kinds of elements that most fanfiction readers frown upon – several OCs, squealing fangirls, ridiculous amounts of angst, OOC canon characters – and, well, it’s a high school AU, which seems to be one of those things you either love or hate (not that in-betweens can’t exist as well). Yet time after time I get reviews telling me how they liked the story despite or even because of these. Those kinds of reviews always make me feel special, so thanks to those readers who put aside their prejudices to give Two Face a shot.
Am I rambling for the sake of filling words now? Yes I am. Bad self. Here’s some of the things you can expect to see on this blog in the future:
- Analysis of characters, settings, and so on: there’s so much to say about these characters that aren’t even mine. Sasuke, who chose his past over his present. Naruto, who values his friends over his own life. Sakura, who gave up her past crush to protect her current best friend. Sai, who never knew love and yet was shown what bonds truly are. Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. As I discover more fanfictions, doujinshi, and fanart, I find new ways to interpret these characters. (As a SasuNaru shipper first and foremost, it is usually those two I explore the most.) With Sasuke’s first goal accomplished and his second goal on its way (god I don’t even remember what he’s up to now; it’s been so long since he’s shown up in the manga), will Naruto still be able to convince him to return? Naruto is growing in confidence and skill; will he now have the conviction he needs to bring Sasuke home? What if the Sasuke he knew is gone? What if Sasuke decides to return and finds everything has changed? There are many, many things to consider, and this is where I’ll be doing it.
- On writing: being a writer is hard. I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately, and as a highly introspective thinker kind of person I’m always looking into myself to try to figure out what’s not clicking. I’ll also try to give tips and hints for fellow writers. I’m no professional, and I tend to be bad at explaining things, but I can always try to analyze my way around a problem. If anyone would like some advice and doesn’t mind it being disjointed and possibly not quite relevant, they can certainly drop me a message with a question or request, and I’ll address the point here.
- On drawing: though I stick mainly to writing as R+F, I do toss in the occasional piece of fanart. Naturally there will be less writing about drawing than writing about writing, but I might touch on it now and then. Most of my art goes to my main internet identity, but fanfic-related pieces will typically find their way here instead.
- On my works: artist/author comments are always a joy for me to read. As I said I’m very introspective, and thus I like to see how other people’s thought processes work. For those of you out there who are like that, I can certainly provide some insight into my own works and characters (and interpretations of canon characters). You can always ask me a question to answer, and I’ll probably find some of my own thoughts to ramble about. I want to say I’ll try not to talk about myself too much, but the simple fact is that I love self-analysis and have something of an ego. And anyway, this is my blog; what are you expecting? Heh. I’ll try to make it relevant to everyone though.
- Sharing: I love sharing! I’ll fill this place with fic recommendations (not so many since I don’t read that much fic), doujinshi (hopefully with links for online reading – Blogger doesn’t allow download links), fanart), music, videos, website links, and more. They won’t always be directly related to fandoms, but I’ll try to keep it at least inspired, for example if I find a good musician from an AMV, or a song reminds me of a character.
- Other fandoms: the only reason I’m as into SasuNaru as I am is because of the amount of fanfiction I’ve read and written, as well as doujinshi and fanart. It takes time and dedication to fall in love with a fandom, even accidentally. There are quite a few fandoms I’d love to fall in love with, as it were, so I’ll be exploring things like that here too. Right now I find it easiest to collect fanart on the subject, and as I delve deeper into the characters’ psychologies, I can become more attuned to them. No. 6, Star Driver, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Durarara!! are some of my interests at the moment.
And, of course, anything else anyone can think of. The great thing about the internet is that we can all communicate, so I’m open to suggestions! What do you want to hear me ramble endlessly about? (Nothing, probably. Ha…)
You can always contact me through comments or messages here, or by way of a review or PM on my Fanfiction.net profile. Though I check my email about fifty times a day (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t much of an exaggeration), I admit to sheer laziness and may not reply for a while. Typically, though, I will reply almost right away.
Hope to hear from you soon,
The Raven and the Fox
