Not quite “in hoc signo vinces”…

…but at least a sign that I managed to write 50 000 words of more or less coherent novel text during National Novel Writing Month. So that’s a step up from last year, although I have made it twice before.

In the end, the story that grew to 50 000 words was “TSI”, my fanfic for the movie “Buddha Saitan” (The Rebirth of Buddha) based on a book by Ryuho Okawa. The connection to the movie is actually quite loose: The eponymous organisation is referenced numerous times in the movie and also in my story, but there is very little about the actual organization in the movie. We know that they have meetings in large halls where Taiyou Sorano, the Buddha Reborn, speaks in simple but deeply moving and uplifting words to the congregation, who then begin to glow with an inner light (presumably only visible to spiritual sight, as the main character of the movie has).

Unfortunately my story takes place in a nameless city in the USA, so Master Sorano only appears on a big screen. Plus, the city only has about 150 TSI members at the time of the book, so it is unlikely that any bigger events will take place unless my hero makes a trip to the nearest temple (or whatever they are called in TSI).

The story is therefore mostly slice of life, with none of the movie characters actually appearing in person. (This has the benefit that I might rewrite it into a non-fanfic if need be, but that would take most of the fun out of it for me.) The story is told in first person by a male college student, born and raised in America by Japanese parents. Things don’t go too well in college: He begins to go drinking and partying in order to have sex, which is a long time in coming (insert bitter comments about prejudices against Japanese male reproductive apparatus here) and even when it finally happens it is not all it was supposed to be. He turns to online gaming, and gets totally hooked. His grades decline further. All things collapse.  His father gets a terminal illness, his love life goes straight down the drain as his online girlfriend turns out to be a guy, and his online guild is destroyed by his careless mistake. Lonely and miserable he cries alone in the park, when a small girl comes by and gives him a book of Master Sorano’s Teachings of the Mind.

Actually, his father still dies and his love life still sucks, but now he has Buddha’s Truth and friends he can trust, so he is happy anyway. ^_^

Well, a lot of things happens. After all, if slice of life was interesting, people could just read my journal instead, right? So there are dreams and visions and girls with crushes and guardian angels and stuff, not as dramatic as the movie but more dramatic than watching other people’s kids play soccer.

I still have water in the kitchen, long my it last! The river froze over tonight. Still no snow.