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Yes (No change in author's notes) Votes: 19 82.6%
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No (Author's notes reserved for announcements and similar things) Votes: 4 17.4%
Hey all, it's me, back to wrap up some "loose ends". If you didn't read the chapter I posted yesterday, please do that first and then return here! If you're archive binging and this isn't the latest chapter, you can probably ignore it safely.
That being said, let's talk the future of the series. Updates will remain as normal for the foreseeable future, so don't worry about that, I'm more talking more the "immediate roadmap".
Next couple of chapters are going to be Lilith's PoV on the events of last chapter. And while it will tread lightly over stuff we've already seen, I've made an effort to skip over non-essential parts so we don't have two chapters in a row where nearly exactly the same thing happens. The chapters are, by and large, new stuff. I'm tentatively putting these chapters as "between arcs" - I like the last chapter as an "arc end", but these two also don't feel like the start to a new arc, so the "official" start, for what it matters, is later.
At some point in the future I'll be posting Lilith's updated status, but I've been working on that in bits and pieces so it's not quite done yet. For now, here are her stats after leveling her Racial Classes and having Progenitor and High Arbiter at level 100 (subject to some change once I decide what her "actual" Class is at the moment):
HP: 26,274/27,274 (+4,644) (+23.4/s)
Mana: 15,822/15,822 (-1,758) (+16.2/s)
Stamina: 21,440/21,440 (+24.5/s)
Power: 2,256 (+262)
Defense: 1,906
Magic Power: 1679
Magic Defense: 1,639
Speed: 1,621
Charm: 1,222
But, that's not really important at the moment. What is important is questions. And answers.
So, while I asked this around the time I caught up in posting this, I asked if people wanted me to keep doing author's notes. The answer was a yes, so I did, but I recently had someone suggest I try to let the narrative say a lot of the stuff the ANs say instead. As this is a valid opinion and something I've considered myself, I've decided to re-open the question to all of you, this time using a poll, as I feel it's easier to get more responses to that than just asking for feedback in the comments, and as such would be more representative of the overall opinion of the readers. Your input is greatly appreciated here, as I want to give the most enjoyable experience to you all. The poll closes six days from now, so whether or not next chapter has an author's note will properly reflect the poll results.
But this isn't a one-way street. If you missed the announcement a week or two ago, I'm going to try and hold an official Q&A every arc. This time around, I've decided to do an "in-character" Q&A, where you ask questions to a character and they answer in-character. The reason behind this is that, IMO, I'm basically already doing an out of character Q&A constantly, because I love to answer any and all questions given in the comments below chapters. Well, provided they don't veer into spoiler territory, that is.
If you want in on this Q&A, either send me your questions in a direct message, or do so via the comments below, whatever's easiest. While originally I was going to close questions this Friday (the 20th), I've decided to extend that date for a few reasons. The first is that I don't have any questions yet, and the second is that the next arc won't "officially" start for a couple of weeks, so I think it makes sense to post the Q&A right before that starts. So, new close date, Friday the 4th of October.
As for limitations on the questions...there's basically none. Send in as many as you want, I'll try to answer all of them, unless I get so flooded that it's just not feasible, but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it, and I don't think we will. I also reserve the right to withhold information if it is deemed a spoiler, and to make questions more 'family friendly' (basically, putting them at the level the story itself currently is. That way, anything really raunchy or otherwise potentially offensive is filtered somewhat. I'll try not to actually change the content of the questions themselves unless it's just unsalvageable without it, but basically I just want people who read the novel to not have to worry about a shift in things like language use or sexual content going into a Q&A). If we get no questions, there'll be no Q&A, no big deal. Guess that just means that my job was done well enough that people don't feel the need for clarification.
Also, if you feel like it, I'd love to hear everyone's opinions on the last arc. I'm interested how people think it compares to old stuff, what was good, what was bad, what could have been done better, etc.
And, unless I'm forgetting something (which is always a possibility), I think that's all I have to say for the time being. As always, thanks for reading!
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Mike GB for mom 3-some when
Honestly...if it's a one-off thing that Jessica and Siph want to try (and they do want to try, they're very much so experimenting right now), I give it a year and a half (of in-story time) before he caves and tries it out. It won't happen on camera (at best we'll see a nod to it), but a permanent change isn't in the cards for him right now.
Of course, that's subject to change if I get some brilliant idea that requires it, but for the time being he's staying as-is
@Fighterman481
Id love a Raphael side story... perhaps exploring what it means to (fill in the blank) as a girl? Or how biochemistry has affected her stats compared to male Raphael?
That's a good idea. For some reason, I hadn't thought about a Raphael PoV, but now that I am thinking about it, I really like the idea. Thanks!
@Fighterman481 oh I do want the author notes so I voted yes since it was not clear why it was reopened. After knowing the reason I think it is a good reason and I have felt it some times too that; instead of you explaining why an event or decision went as such. I would rather have it come to my understanding through the narrative. I think that will be more immersive and readers get a felling like 'oh so that's why it happened this way' or 'I figured this out this character us planning that in the future'
I don't know whether I was able to convey my intent. And as always thanks for the hard work.
@Tizon I think I get it. Still do the author's notes, but try and explain thought processes and plans a little less, right?
@Fighterman481 yes let's us readers draw our own conclusions from the story rather than you explain why in the notes. I have encountered a few chaps where the actual plot was written in notes than in the actual story. I don't remember the exact chapters to point out though.
Eg: lilith was behaving weirdly when she met Alex the first time like she is a different person axle uses a spell to control lilith. Vithi was confused. I would rather puzzle myself what happened to her and draw my own conclusions from the next few chapters; whether the result of them being the same as author or not. Rather than you explaining in the notes what happened to her and how(you said it was charm spell and another personality traits from domains but I would have drawn a conclusion like hypnosis spell and not good idea of what changed her personality which i would correct my self form further reading the story).
In conclusion; in my opinion letting the readers be in the dark or having their own thoughts about the plot/events can be healthy may be there will be more discussion in the comment section or forum among readers about the story and their own speculations. Of course not everyone may like to read a story in such a way or you as the author my not be comfortable to write in such a way. This is just my opinion and please you have your own style of writing and you don't need to modify it drastically to please a few. I am having fun reading your work so far. And I expect you to have fun creating this so don't feel stressed
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@Tizon I love the guessing game of reading well thought out prose. For example:
"In the shimmering heat, he could just make out Jesse moving toward the pond."
How many different scenes does this evoke before we even get to know anything more about Jesse or the locale?
It loses the magic if I say instead (or add an author's note), "Jesse is a typical girl wearing a school swim suit at the lake in summer fed by a hot spring."
@Dreslief Fair enough. I have a hard gauging just how much needs to be down there and needs to be in the actual chapters, or can even just be left alone. It's something I do admit I need to work on and is a pretty bad habit.
The early chapters in particular (pre like...22, I think?) are prone to this, partially because of how the writing worked at the time, but they're also being rewritten (extremely slowly), so that's something I intend to fix.
In the beginning it was all just stream of consciousness, write just to write and get it out there, more for myself than for anything. It wasn't even posted anywhere until like 2 years after it was written, and I took some massive breaks in between chapters that radically changed how I was approaching things.
So, a lot of that is just me either forgetting what was in later chapters, scrambling to give a good reason (as reasons for a few things changed), or otherwise trying to patch up the scattered mess that it was. Hopefully this shouldn't be as much of an issue in the future, but I really would love any more examples you can get so I can make more specific notes of what to fix.
Also, please don't take this as me giving a lame excuse. I mean, I am, but I do agree with you on this point, I just wanted to put some of the reasoning out there. This sort of thing is the main reason I'm doing a rewrite in the first place, as opposed to just keeping on going here and pretending the beginning isn't held together by duct tape and glue.
Um, I should probably stop talking, since it's late here and I'm likely not that coherent, so, thanks for your input and for reading, I appreciate it!