Basically, I'm writing a "light novel"-esque story.  But, what does this mean, you might ask?  Let's ask Wikipedia...

"A light novel (ライトノベル, raito noberu^?) is a novel with anime or manga style illustrations, primarily targeting teens and young adults. The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called ranobe (ラノベ, ranobe^?) or rainobe (ライノベ, rainobe^?) for short."

Okay, that was a bit too much on the katakana side, but you get the idea.  And how are these written (when not in Japanese, of course)?

"Light novels also frequently have very short paragraphs, often only one or two sentences in length, and are usually driven by dialogue. The overall effect is for a very fast read."

That's the basic effect I'm trying to master.  I just want it to be read quickly, to where the audience doesn't have to spend days trying to finish a single volume.

See, this idea came about out of the blue, and even I don't know exactly where I got the idea.  I guess part of the inspiration came from reading the translated Haruhi Suzumiya light novels, and because I liked the style of writing so much, it stuck with me.  Now, I think this would be the best way for me to write a novel series.

Considering how few light novels there are out there that are actually translated for an English-speaking audience, shouldn't we English-speakers have our own alternative?  I've been looking around the internet, but I gotta tell you, I haven't found a single idea like mine.  I've found fan manga written and drawn in the way I'm doing so, of course, but not a full blown literary series like I'm planning.  I think I've essentially cornered the market on the subject matter I'm going to tackle.

And while I know I'm going to get shellacked on this choice, I'm obviously going to go with Japanese names, terms, and overall culture as the backdrop to the series.  It just makes sense, considering I'm lifting the entire writing style from them, so why not just go all the way?  And, in a way, it feels like I"m going something every other anime fan wants to do: create my own series.  Sure, it won't be animated, but this is the next best thing.  If I can also find a decent artist to make illustrations to go along with the chapters, then so much the better!

This project is basically an outlet for ME, so I can do what I like (write) and have fun with it.  I'm making it available to the masses simply because it'd be nice to have feedback.  I can't edit my mistakes by myself, you know!

Just for the record, I'm not even done with a single chapter yet.  I'm doing so much preliminary work, like character personalities, designs, storylines, settings, character arcs, etc.  This is the sort of thing that's done by serious writers. :P

I'm thinking of doing all this preliminary work while I'm still in high school, and once I'm in college, I'll start the actual process of writing it.  Sound good?