Update: Re-writing and trying to improve as a writer.

Hey guys, I haven't updated in a while, but I just wanted to update everyone on my status at the moment. School's been making me incredibly busy lately, and all my writing time has evaporated. Normally, I'd still be able to release a chapter a week despite the multiple deadlines they give us on a daily basis, but I've decided to suspend putting this out on RRL and making new chapters for a bit longer as I want to improve things in the new fiction a lot more.

The worldbuilding, for instance, is something I really want to improve. I want to go past just the basic fantasy formula and make new, interesting races that I can put into the world. Aside from elves, dwarves, and orcs, I want to have races that take a spin on these archetypes and have their own unique cultures and customs. The feeling of being swept away into another world has always been what I loved about fantasy, and I've reconnected with that feeling lately. I want to write about a world that'll take more than just a couple breaths away in the same way that The Wandering Inn recently made me feel. Really glad I picked up on reading that one.

Secondly, I want to rewrite the chapters I currently have out. Some scenes don't go well with me, and I feel like what happened in some areas was simply bad writing. The incident of Theo rushing at the guards for example felt really rushed and thoughtless to me, and despite the naivete I want to convey, the way I portrayed him in that instance is not the way I want his character to be. I also want to make a clearer sketch of the plot, along with make the reveal of Tiberius's real personality less abrupt, along with a few more changes so that I don't feel as if I'm rushing through the plot.

Finally, I want to read a bit more. Lately, I feel like my writing is suffering, and I haven't pinned down the problem exactly, but I feel like the problem is more with me as a person than as strictly an author. I haven't been reading much lately, and I really want to get back on that. I don't have the same passion for writing as I did, and lately, I only feel that passion come back when I read something that really takes me away. I want to observe that feeling and I want to find out what causes it. I want to have that same voice and feeling of wonder in my work that some authors have. I'm working on it, and I want to give everyone a set date on when I will be back.

November.

My midterms are in two weeks, and I hardly have the time to write with all the things I've got on my schedule. I'm about to head into college in two years as well, so I want to be as prepared as possible for that. As such, I won't be releasing anything on October to give myself breathing room and time to really reconnect with that I love about reading and writing. I won't charge anyone on Patreon for October either as I won't put anything out during that month. That time will be for myself and my writing alone. So for the next month, I will continue to work on this project, and on November, I promise to be back with something that I can be proud of.

Thanks to everyone so much for sticking around. I know I haven't exactly been the most reliable person as of late, but I hope to make up for all the silence when I finally come out screaming from my little hovel. I'm trying to become a better writer as it's my passion and my dream, and I hope to come out of this better than I ever was.

Again, thanks for reading!

P.S. For the character contest winners, don't you guys worry. I have plans for those characters already. I haven't forgotten about them. Hell, I like them more than my current characters, which really shows how much I have to work on these guys. One of the characters from the contest will appear early on, so look forward to it!