The K.E.Y. Written Content Workshop

[Aspirety]

This topic will be used to communicate what kinds of written content we’re looking to fill The K.E.Y. with, and for you guys to respond by linking to paragraphs for us to use.

If you want to be included in The K.E.Y., the most effective way is to go into one of our many forum topics for a series, route or character, share a paragraph briefly summarising the plot and what it means to you, and linking to that post here in this topic. If we like what we see, we’ll include it in the final product, requesting adjustments as necessary.

When submitting here, you are invited to include any of the following:
Chosen Name / Alias
General Location
URL (Can be a link to Twitter, Tumblr, personal website, anywhere you’d like to direct people who want to find more of you)
A link to your paragraph

Right now, I’d like you all to focus on describing a particular route or story arc from a Key title that really connected with you. Go to that route or arc’s forum topic (say, Ayu Route for example), and post a paragraph or two describing the main points of the route and what it means to you. Try to be as concise as possible, but don’t be afraid to reflect! This isn’t a summary of the route, it’s what meaning it holds for you.

[andrewcee]

What Key work inspired you the most to do better in life?

Hello, Hello friends For over a decade, Key has been responsible for so many things. Making us cry, laugh, and find new friends both behind the screen and in real life. Hell, I even met the love of my life because I had a dango sticker on my binder in High School. I love Key a lot. The stories I learned from their works were kept close to my heart for as long as I remember. I believe that all of Key’s works inspire me in a certain way. For example, Little Busters! made me want to go out and cr…

Andrew
California
http://myanimelist.net/profile/Andrew_C

Am I doing this right?

[Aspirety]

Yeah that’s pretty much it.

The only thing is that we’re looking for more specific paragraphs on what one of Key’s stories mean to you. Think of a route or story from a Key game that you really liked, go to the corresponding forum topic (Say, Kanon Ayu Route for example) and share a paragraph there briefly summarising what points of the story stood out to you, what the route really means to you. Try to really describe the route and it’s strengths as concisely as possible.

[JDC]

Planetarian - General Discussion

For the K.E.Y.: In the world of planetarian, hope is nowhere to be found. Worn down by war, the few people left on Earth live only for the sake of living, doing whatever it takes to survive. The Junker is no different, until his enormously improbable meeting with Yumemi. Her good cheer, serenity, and gentleness—artificial though they may be—shine even brighter than the stars she loves. Almost against his will, the Junker finds himself being changed by her. After Yumemi sacrifices herself for hi…

JDC
Georgia

[Aspirety]

This is what I’m talking about! :kyogrin:

[SuikaShoujo]

Little Busters! - Komari Kamikita Route & Character Discussion

When I first read Komari’s route, I was a freshman in high school. I was still somewhat reeling from the loss of my father a couple years back, I was struggling to make friends in my new school, and I wasn’t really sure how to cope with any of it, so I just bottled up my negative feelings in hopes they would go away entirely. But when I watched Komari come to the painful realization that she had to face her problems head on in order to live without her trauma getting in the way, I realized that …

SuikaShoujo
Illinois
https://twitter.com/SuikaShoujo

[EisenKoubu]

AIR - AIR Arc Discussion

A compression/paraphrasing of my thoughts written specifically for the K.E.Y.: The AIR route holds a ton of heart, and I feel Maeda wanted to convey something personal to him with Haruko and Misuzu’s struggle together. It stands apart from its sister routes in terms of both quality and emotion, and it taught me two important life lessons. First, it reminds me of how my mother is always there for me. She’s not a perfect soul, but I always look up to her, and even today she serves as the perfect …

EisenKoubu
Texas
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6402471/

By the way, is each forum member only allowed to look at one route? I would like to share my thoughts on another route in a different Key VN if I can.

[Aspirety]

You can submit as many contributions as you like. It’s up to us which ones are included in the final product.

[EisenKoubu]

Rewrite - Lucia Konohana Route & Character Discussion

For the K.E.Y.: It may not be my favorite route in Rewrite, but Lucia’s route is one of the first routes I think of when the topic arises. Lucia’s character and personal struggles are relatable to me in hindsight, particularly in terms of how rigid and strict she acts around others. Much of her anger stems from the fact that she can’t experience the joys of interacting with the world around her. Her route tackles this problem in an unconventional but respectable way, never once betraying her hu…

Little Busters! - Mio Nishizono Route & Character Discussion

For the K.E.Y.: My family has some history of certain mental problems, and we’re all pretty smart, so it is fairly easy for me to find someone like Mio Nishizono attractive. I love her route for how it explores her character in ways I haven’t seen a Key route attempt. Mio isn’t put down because of her strange sense of humor and enjoyment, or misunderstood because of her above-average intelligence. She’s wholeheartedly welcomed into the Little Busters because she fits in well with their weirdnes…

CLANNAD - Kotomi Ichinose Route & Character Discussion

For the K.E.Y.:

CLANNAD had many amazing routes in it, but the one that stuck with me the most was Kotomi. It feels like the prototype of Little Busters in terms of how memorable the characters are and how entertaining yet thought-provoking the story is. Even Tomoya experiences a small bit of character development in this route, something other routes wish they could have. Themes of family, friendship and the development of oneself help carry the route, but it does something only Planetarian would ever try to accomplish. That is, it tries to answer questions that go beyond our understanding.

The inspired truth this route carries is one of the strongest points of Kotomi’s route to me. Holding on to the hope that someone benevolent as well as omnipotent is watching over us is not an easy task. Kotomi’s faith is constantly tested, and there are times when circumstances cause her faith to waver, and she becomes lost trying to redeem her mistakes. The last part of the story is magical to me because despite all that’s happened to her, someone who loves her always watched over her. It makes me sad that Yuuichi Suzumoto is no longer with Key, because I would love to see an after story for Kotomi.

(Had to avoid double-posting on that last one, so that’s why it looks different. ^^; )

EisenKoubu
Texas
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6402471/

[DangoDaikazoku]

Connor Boulet
Southern U.S.A
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4119304/The-dudeoffanfiction

CLANNAD - Nagisa Furukawa Route & Character Discussion

Of all the heroines in Clannad, Nagisa is the most human and relatable. Her ambition to reform the Drama Club in order to form a lasting memory and overcome her insecurities is compelling from the start. As the lone artifact in an ever-evolving environment, Nagisa is worried her new third-year peers will be unwilling to bond with her. A simple gesture not unlike Tomoya shatters those concerns. His decision to lift her spirits means little to him, but for Nagisa, it’s an answer to prayer. From th…

[Sonic112003]

CLANNAD - Nagisa Furukawa Route & Character Discussion

For the K.E.Y. Of all the routes in CLANNAD, Nagisa’s route stands out the most. The opening scene where Tomoya meets Nagisa for the first time while walking the uphill path to school amidst the falling sakura petals is filled with such beauty that so many readers immediately fell in love with Nagisa’s character. Tomoya had told her there are fun as well as happy things in life despite the fact that she loved going to school and couldn’t be there at times due to health problems. She is a kind a…

Sonic112003
Ohio
EDIT: (9/10/16) https://twitter.com/Sonic112003NGA

[Aspirety]

This is really good, but I feel like we need to think about restructuring these posts to take the ‘I’ out of them. They’re going to make up the main body of the book where we talk about Key’s stories. It’s still possible to talk about what they mean to us without making it ‘about’ us and our subjective feelings.

For example…

“Of all the routes in CLANNAD, I think Nagisa’s route stood out to me the most. The beginning scene when Tomoya met Nagisa for the first time while walking the uphill path to the school with the sakura petals falling was so beautiful that I fell in love with her character.”

This is what you’ll be seeing when you open up to her page. But what if we wrote it like this?

“The opening scene where Tomoya meets Nagisa for the first time while walking the uphill path to school amidst the sakura falling sakura petals is filled with such beauty that so many readers immediately fell in love with Nagisa’s character.”

Like that. Feels more like a book now doesn’t it? The message is still conveyed, but we’ve taken the ‘I’ out and replaced it with ‘the readers’.

Though I guess curating this content like this is my job anyway But what do you guys think? Is this the kind of angle we should be tackling it from?

[DangoDaikazoku]

I definitely think so for the reasons you said. These entries will still have the personal authenticity in my mind, even if first person isn’t used.

[Sonic112003]

I try re-editing my post earlier. Is this good enough or does there need to be more adjustments to make?

[Aspirety]

Um… Now it’s kind of a mess…

“the readers may think Nagisa’s route would stand out the most” ???

“amidst the sakura falling sakura petals is filled with such beauty”

“that they were fun and happy things”

And some of the sentences are really long running. It needs a lot of editing. I might just need to do it myself.

[Aspirety]

I guess I’ll put a hold on Written Content for now. We’re still figuring out some things with the book, and I want to provide contributors with more comprehensive guides of what kind of written content we’re looking for before continuing. Please stay tuned!