(This is a rant about The Story. If you didn't like it then, you aren't going to like this rant either. Feel free to skip.) After a while, I went back and reread my stories, and then I realised how childish they were. Despite me having planned massive story arcs, backstory and technological advances and levels, apparently, my writing is still horrible. It's bloody obvious I haven't thought through how I should start to tell the story.
The problem with it is that it was originally conceived as a television series of sorts. Within this series itself, it was planned somewhat for half-hour episodes, not the normal one hour shows that normal sci-fi shows tended to extend to. In this manner, it was much like anime. In fact, it was meant to be animated realistically via 3D. (When you're young, you dream a little less realistically.)
Thinking about it now, it's probably far more appropriate to think of it as more of an anime-style project. After a while of going nowhere, I then decided that I should start writing it out as a set of short sections, with the aim of completing an entire book by the end of my university life - which is what I did try to do on the blog.
The problem was that since I originally conceived it as a show, I couldn't get it out of my mind that it was a TV show of sorts. As a result, my writing suffered, from both my inexperience and the fact that I visualised it as a show.
How large was I actually planning the project? Believe it or not, I planned for the long-run story arc to run over five seasons. After that, I intended to conclude the greater Fantasy of War arc (which is actually meant to run over several movies or miniseries, but this is the only running TV series) with two 2-hour miniseries episodes. Sounds really ambitious, no?
And funnily enough, the Fantasy of War as it is now is actually 2 seasons shorter compared to when it was originally conceived. If you've actually bothered to read it, you would've noticed the medical vessel seems kind of pointless - since Cass and Kanya almost instantly get a transfer to a military-class ship, the Aegis.
Originally, Harrison was a main character too, especially since the show was actually supposed to run on the medical vessel for one season, and then Kanya was to get a transfer and then meet Cass on the Aegis. Now, I've cut that part of the story for simplicity's sake. The fact that Kanya and Harrison start off in the story in the medical vessel is important (even after the story cut). It's also important point that Cass was originally on the ship.
What else is important? The fact that there is no war to speak of in the first season, merely a buildup of one, as well as important facts of what happened from several previous wars in the FoW universe.