I'd like to welcome you to this blog, where you are no doubt eager to read the next chapter in the thrilling novelization of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time by yours truly. Either that, or you've wandered in here looking for something that I cannot help you with or I would rather not know about. Regardless of why you are here, you are still very much welcome, and I invite you to read through what is currently available. To all newcomers to this site, however, I would first invite you to read this front page letter so you may have a better understanding of what the bloody hell is going on here.
Where were you when you first heard those annoying, shrill words: "Hey! Listen!" We all know how big of a phenomenon Ocarina of Time was when it was released on the Nintendo64, and the fact that it's still considered a benchmark of the series shows how much staying power this gaming classic has. I can't count how many times I played through that game, and when I was finished with actually playing the game, I decided to turn to my other major hobby, writing, as a way of reliving the story. And, because I felt so generous, I wanted to share my efforts with anyone who cared to read it, hence posting the fic on FF.net.
Ah, but as the words started flowing from my fingers and into my laptop keys, a quick search revealed that I was not the only one who had chosen to novelize this game's story. Indeed, OoT novelizations were a dime a dozen on the internet, and I realized that my novel would be one more to add to the pile unless I did something to make it stand out. And so I pondered what I could do with my fic that would set it apart from all other novelizations.
And then it hit me: realism. And by realism, I meant taking a story that is told within the framework of a game and bringing it into a more realistic setting. And this didn't just mean eliminating things like random rupees, health potions, and heart containers. It also meant re-examining the main story of OoT and tuning it so it actually makes sense. For example, why were there things like ladders and doors inside the Great Deku Tree? Since I felt there wouldn't be there in a more realistic story, I removed them. As another example, would the Kokiri Sword really be guarded by a boulder that rolls around a square corridor endlessly? I figured not, so that was gone as well.
These were just some of the things of what I looked at when I re-evaluated the game's story. Finally, on March 14th, 2001, a day after my 18th birthday, I posted the first chapter of my novelization on FF.net, giving it a silly description about its "realistic take" on the game's story in the hopes of catch other readers' interest. To be perfectly honest, when I started posting the first few chapters of my novelization, I didn't think it would get that many readers. After all, who would read something that many have tried before, even with my different take on it?
Several years later, and I am still humbled by the number of people who took time out of their lives to read my silly writings. It seemed that with each new chapter I posted, several more people would come across my novelization and tell me in excruciating detail how much they enjoyed it. With each new chapter I posted, I felt a part of that excitement, wanting to give all my readers the best damn story I could write and hope that it would satisfy their increasing appetites.
Alas, after several years of frequent updates, those new chapters started to appear less and less frequently, until eventually they stopped altogether. Oh, sure, there were sparks of hope here and there, but a return to a frequent update schedule never emerged. The
I will readily admit that I grew lazier as I got older. It's not something I'm particularly proud of, and I've tried to correct it several times over the years, but each time I kept falling back into my terrible habits of procrastination. There were times where I really wanted to get myself back into writing this fic, but something always got in the way, whether it was something important or myself being a colossal couch potato. It still amazes me that every so often I get an email begging for me to continue fic, what with my horrendous work ethic over the past several (?!) years.
But no more! Now it is time to break the shackles of my laziness and finish this fic once and for all! I can't say that I will succeed, or that the end result will be what people have wanted, but it's time to finish what I started way back near the end of high school. This fic will be finished, it will be completed, and I will not let it die.
If you want to join the fun, you're more than welcome to. For all you newcomers, you can always start at the beginning (just please excuse my atrocious writing in the earlier chapters...dear lord, was I really that bad?). For those of you who have been waiting for years for me to continue (why would you do that to yourself?), I only hope the wait was worth it.
We shall see, we shall see...
