User blog:Exdeathmore/L☆PC!07: Behind the Scenes

After about a year's worth of writer's block, chapter 7 of Lucky☆Pretty Cure! is finally complete. I had to completely rewrite this chapter from scratch 2 or 3 times before I finally got a working version. I thought I'd write this blog post to talk a little about how I finally overcame this hurdle.

With this chapter, there were 2 elements that were non-negotiable. First, that the fourth villain, Merak, would make his debut. Second, the story of Sachiko and Nanami's first meeting would be told. The former was easy enough, but the latter was where I ran into the most problems.

Version 1: In the first draft of this chapter, it started with Sachiko and Nanami helping Mr. Ogata in his store, and hearing from him about an old amusement park being torn down. The girls would go to see the park one last time, and tell Flush the story of how they first met and became friends there. After telling the story, Merak would appear and turn the park's carousel into a Kyoujin to attack them. Lucky and Chance would split up, with Lucky trying to stop the Kyoujin from rampaging in the city, and Chance fighting off Merak on her own. One problem with this was that I focuses too much on the battle between Chance and Merak, and the other was that the scenario of the girls' meeting didn't feel realistic, so most of it was scrapped.

Version 2: In the second draft, Sachiko, Nanami, and Flush visit another park in the city (not the one from the first chapter) to view the cherry blossoms, only to find that the trees haven't bloomed yet. They meet the park's elderly caretaker who is having trouble keeping the park clean. He says that since people no longer visit it, the city is planning to tear down the park and replace it with office buildings. Sachiko and Nanami decide to help save the park by planning a flower viewing party, and inviting their classmates from school to join in. Some aspects of the first version were carried over, but when I tried to put them together, it felt even more unnatural, so the chapter was scrapped again.

As for the origin story for the girls, there was only one previous version: when Nanami's family first moved to Jizen City, Nanami wandered off while her parents were unpacking, and she ended up getting lost. It was then that she would meet Sachiko for the first time, and they would spend the day together visiting different places in the city, eventually ending up in the park where Nanami's parents would find them. This story was scrapped because it sounded too similar to the plot of chapter 5, and I wanted the young Nanami (before her incident from the chapter 6 flashback) to be more independent and mature for a child her age. I also wanted a way to show off a little more of Sachiko's uncanny luck, in ways that people might not normally attribute to luck and coincidence.

With the third and current version, I feel that I addressed all the issues I had with the previous versions. It took months of planning, and I didn't have anyone to bounce ideas off of, so I hope that anyone who reads the chapter enjoys it.