Hi guys…Been a while…hehe.
Sorry for the sudden disappearance. Life’s been a doozie. Specifically school had been a pain in the buttocks, to the point where I dropped several classes and am transferring to next semester. Needless to say, I think I have the situation under control now.
I’d be lying if I also didn’t admit that I’ve been a little anxious going through with this but I think it's for the best.
So, let’s talk about the story. I’ve recently gone back to reread and correct some of the mistakes. After taking a step back for this month and some change and going back, I realize…this story is a mess. Honestly I’m not a fan of it.
There’s a whole bunch of whimsical decisions I made, and just bad ones that I really don't like.
As such, I’ve thought of doing something different…well kind of. Let me explain.
I have three different ideas for stories but I only think it's right that you beautiful readers have a say in what goes on.
And even with whatever story is selected, if y’all would still like me to upload this one, albeit at a very whimsical and random frequency…that’s cool too. Just let me know.
Also, I’m planning on writing all of these, eventually, it’s just a matter of which one I put my attention on first.
Okay, I think that's everything….Without further ado….
OPTION 1: The Maua Choice
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Gender Bender, Girls Love, Isekai, Slice of Life, Romance
So you guys are smart. You can probably already guess what this is. The idea is to essentially rewrite this story, but have Maua be the main character. Funny thing is, Maua was originally the main character. But for some random reason, I changed everything, and we ended up with the Saga of Slug. I would also like to remove the litrpg system, and replace it with something more original. I’m hoping that this will make the story as a whole flow better. If it's not obvious, there will be no Slug-chan in this. For that matter, I’ll be refraining from using Japanese honorifics. It just felt force. Speaking of forced things, I’ll be sure to give a less confusing backstory, which hopefully leads to more solidified personalities. This would make the Saga of Slug an alternative universe of sorts.
OPTION 2: Tiamat Time
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Gender Bender, Girls Love, Isekai, Slice of Life, Romance
Again, you guys are intelligent. This story would follow Tiamat, in her journey. It would be a prequel of sorts to the Maua story. However, it wouldn't end with the start of the other story, but intersecting before continuing on. It would follow the conventions I talked about in the previous option.
OPTION 3: Stellar Space Fun
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Gender Bender, Girls Love, Sci-Fi, Slice of Life, Romance
A regular guy gets abducted by aliens and gets experimented on. His body changes, changing him into a different being and a different gender. But that’s the least of their worries. They find themselves on the run from the law in a world that they had no clue existed.
So yeah. Let me know what you guys think. I 'll check on this in a couple of days and respond to messages if you send them. After a little while I'll start on the backlog of whichever. Whenever I feel its sufficient, I'll start posting.
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Option 1 Votes: 53 43.8%
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Option 2 Votes: 9 7.4%
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Option 3 Votes: 51 42.1%
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Yes Votes: 77 63.6%
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No Votes: 8 6.6%
Honest thoughts [ Take this with a grain of salt, I haven't written a story yet but have read alot of them tho ]
Firstly - Making a story about Maua is gonna have a lot of complications, either you completely disconnect it from this story or you have to incoporate it.
And also Maua doesn't really have background to her yet, all we know is that she was a mortal before reaching godhood and she had a lover that she loved dearly.
Secondly - The current state of the story is quite a mess alot of info dumps that could have been slowly integrated to the story and the dungeon taking too long but lacking actual plot story-wise, most of it was just face value things like he fight, he answered, he asked, he did and that - making it so that story haven't progress that much, reworking the last few chapters after he left the twillight zone can greatly benefit this story.
Thidly - I feel this story has potential but I just want you to know (and don't take this in a bad way), this i basically Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka? Basically the same premise, got reincarnated has friends across the continent but in a different time period, meeting them after years has gone by.
Conclusion - I think the story has potential, but i've seen stories rise and fall, so I would be watching how you would take this story to another level
Love honest thoughts! I'm a firm believer in listening to anyone takes the time out of their day to comment, and I think that a reader's perspective is just as important as any writer's. So thanks! Now let's get in it.
I would agree a Maua story would have tons of complications...if it took place in the same universe. The idea is to essentially rewrite this story, cleaning up the info dumps, the long dungeon, and the general lack of plot, with Maua replacing Slug-Chan as the main character. It's better that Maua doesn't really have a background as of yet, but it's pretty inconsequential as it would change to something more along the lines of Slug- chan's backstory anyways.
I do definitely agree that a rework is necessary for those chapters, but I'd argue the vast majority of chapters could use some finetuning. That's why I'm hoping working on this Maua story helps me sort out somethings in this story, even if it ends up being a complete rework.
I can totally see the Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka? similarities. I'm totally a fan...but by no means did I mean to steal their premise. Actually I've gotten several comments about the time skip not making much sense, so that may be something that gets fixed up.
I thank you for your viewership? Does that sound weird? Whatever, thanks a bunch.
Maua-"Where have you been!? I've been waiting to find out what happened next to my beloved slug chan and you just disappeared!"
Slug-chan-"Be nice coconut head, we both know you were just worried about her and hoped she was doing ok."
Maua-"!! Not like I really care about her wellbeing...but if she isn't doing well, I can't find out what happens to you next!"
Hope everything is going better for you now. While I'd love to see more of slug-chan, I can sort of see the wheels on this series spinning a bit like you're not sure where to take it. The dungeon ended up taking a while to get out of, and even before we did we had it apparently take over a century in universe. If the LitRPG thing is part of what's making this story stall out you could always remove it, wouldn't be the first time I saw an author start with a LITRPG and later realize it was getting tedious/out of hand and they wanted to change to something else. One series I read had an in universe reset through various plot things, including dumping the old system and having it get replaced by a new one.
If you want a suggestion of how you could pull this off in this story you could either have the system get reset/removed when slugchan is put in stasis while they're evolving the first time, or it could be part of Tiamat's blessing/them leaving the dungeon-the LITRPG parts could have just been something exclusive to Tiamat's dungeon-something like people get started over with a completely new system to see if they can still make it to Tiamat despite having to start over, and then after they get out of the dungeon they go back to their old system/stats along with any gains the made in the dungeon and her blessing being converted to work with whatever the old/outside system was. That wouldn't be an entirely flawless solution to the LITRPG elements being removed/changed since I think there were a few parts where slugchan was outside the dungeon, but I don't think they actually used the system much/at all before they fell into the dungeon. So you might be able to change only a few parts before the dungeon started to remove the LITRPG mentions, have them active and kept the same in the dungeon, and then change the parts outside the dungeon to have them removed and replaced with whatever you want the new system/setting to be
For new story-Maua gets my vote. Let's see alt world coconut head!
Thank you for the concern, Mark. It's always a joy to read your comments.
I'd love to say that the LitRPG was the story fuzz out but that's not really it. There's a big 'blah' when it comes to Slug-chan for me. I had troubles really hammering out a lot on them. That included their personality and appearance, among other things. I think that it was just salt in the wound that Maua was my original main character who I replaced on a whim, and she (at least in my opinion) was a better character even in a side role. As far as the LitRPG goes, that's honestly not to bad an idea, but I'll probably keep the system for this story, and just lessen the importance of it going forward. Could the novel you be referring to be The New Chimera? Love that one.
@Lulla that is indeed the story I was referring to! Loved the original, but still haven't had time to read the rewrite. I really need to get on that.
As a suggestion for figuring out slug-chan better-it probably doesn't help that they're so poorly defined at this point almost as a matter of course-as a slug like they are they're genderless and since they keep evolving their physical appearance also keeps changing, meaning there is little to hang on to and keep as the core of their character and help keep them firmly in focus. Perhaps you should mentally skip ahead a few (a lot?) of steps and jump to when she has a human form and what she'll look like then, and what she'll act like then? Having that end destination in mind would really help you map out the path there and have her much better defined in your head for when you're writing her, both in terms of appearance (so you have a clear mental image of what she looks like when she's doing things) and in terms of character (so you have a better idea of what is in or out of character for her, as well as what her tone of speaking and such would sound like). Anyways-not saying you should have her immediately get a human form right after she's done with the village or whatever (though, who knows-maybe she will get a human form that soon since she'll be moving out of the water pretty soon and slugs aren't very mobile on land, high Dex score or not), but planning out what she'll look, sound, and act like once she *does* get a human form will be a big help in allowing you to get slug-chan to that point. Also-getting what her actual name will be will also help define her more clearly for you when writing about her-"Slug-chan" is a lot less clear and well defined than "Lucy" or "Anna" or whatever her name will be (Jolyne? I remember the JoJo joke near the beginning)
hah! Stray thought-perhaps as a gag her initial human form is slug sized? That would be pretty entertaining
@MarkofWisdom
Firstly, I totally recommend you take the time to read the New Chimera rewrite at some point. It's essentially the same story for the most part, but I think Fighterman did a great job of tying up some loose ends. And the story has progressed a bit from the point where the original left off.
Moving on to the main point... this suggestion is great. But see the thing is I've attempted to take those mental steps forward, setting up a humanoid form, name, etc. That's really what made me take a step back and contemplate what I was doing. The way my brain is set up, it comes up with an idea, and the proceeds to freak out until its happy with the outcome said idea. Case and point, Maua's name. I went through about 8 or 9 different names before my brain was like "Okay. That's the one." And for slug-chan, on most of their character, that simply hasn't happen. As a matter of fact, that's part of the reason why it took so long to get out the dungeon. I was attempting to give myself time to figure it out their name, general personality etc...the other reason is just me flailing around but we'll just ignore that. Which is why I'm a bit irritated with myself. If I didn't make the sudden decision to switch my main character entirely, I probably wouldn't be writing this. So I'm hoping that taking the time in the Maua Alt world will give my brain time to figure this slimy situation out.
@Lulla Ok, neat. I've moved The New Chimera rewrite up my list of things to read.
that sounds familiar with the brain freak out thing. And yes, going with Alt Maua (Maua Alter?) to help give you some space on this story to try and figure out slug chan better sounds like a great idea. Slug chan shall miss you until you return, and main Maua will be grumping and being a tsundere worrying about you until then, but slug chan can rein her in until you get back