Choices: Dilemma
Author's Notes

     Considering it took me nearly two years to write this
chapter, I have surprising little to say.  I guess I should of just
tagged this on at the end of the fic itself.  Oh well.
     I won't offer excuses for the delay -- believe me, I had good
cause to put this story aside for nearly an entire year -- but the
length of time it took me obviously had its effect on my writing the
fic.  Most obviously, of course, the way one writes changes over a
two year period.  I like to think I'm better now than I was (though
that may just be wishful thinking), but at the very least it's going to
change the overall style and feel of the story.  I guess it gets kind of
fragmented, coming to it time and time again after three, four, six
month absences.
     Perhaps because of this, I'm not entirely pleased with the
way this chapter turned out.  There's redundancies, repetition, and
the same thing gets said more than once.  How often does Ranma
berate himself for hurting Akane?  How often does he dwell on his
guilt?  Looking at some of the earlier stuff I wrote, he sure seems
to whine a lot.  I guess in some ways he's quite OOC -- Ranma
rarely comes off as all that great of a thinker (although, in all
fairness, I think most people underrate both his intelligence and
awareness of what goes on around him).
     Writing Nodoka, Nabiki, and Ucchan was interesting -- and
difficult.  Never really tried using them before.  Hope they came off
as believable.
     Judging from the feedback I've received so far (from when I
dropped the first half of this on the FFML about eight months ago),
I've seen very little sympathy for Akane.  That's unfortunate, really,
and I guess that's a failing on my part in writing _Dilemma_. 
Problem is that there are very few scenes given from Akane's POV,
so we never really get her opinion on what's happened; she's
denied the opportunity Ranma's had to sift through her feelings and
reveal her motivations. _I_ know what she's feeling, and I've tried
to leave little hints . . . but it's something I guess I'll have to
address for the final RAAC version.
     Problems aside, hope everyone enjoyed the story, and that the wait
was worthwile.  I know that, plotwise, it's fairly tame -- then again, I
guess it's more a character study than anything.
     (I really need to try something different.  I'm getting tired of
all this angst and thinking and emotions and stuff.  I wanna write fight
scenes, dammit!)
     I would also like to thank those who helped in the writing of
this: first, to those who commented on the earlier FFML draft of
this eight months ago; but I'm also greatly indebted to my
prereaders: Zen, Raphael See, Krista Perry, and Freemage.  Thanks,
guys!  And thanks to Mike Loader and Lara Bartram for giving me
permission to poke a little fun at their recent fic -- I mean, a degree in
English has to be good for _something_, right?

     So, do I know where I'm going with this story?  Yup, and
I'm not telling -- although I skimmed a few scenes of the end of this
chapter that may have radically changed the focus of the story.
<shrug> Hope it was the right choice.  How much longer?  I figure
I'm almost at the halfway point.  When's Choices: Decision coming
out?  In less than two years.  I hope.
     Will I ever shut up with this pretentious sounding blathering? 
     Done.

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 At bidding of a Will, to which we bend		| Michael J. Noakes
 (and must), but only dimly apprehend,		| Honours English Lit.
 great processes marches on, as Time unrolls	|   at the
 from dark beginnings to uncertain goals;	| University of Ottawa
	-J.R.R.Tolkien, from Mythopoeia		| s669330@aix2.uottawa
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