*Important! Please Read Until the End!*
Greetings to all my readers!
I’ll cut to the chase: I’ve rebooted (not rewritten) Forsaken Haven after careful consideration! (First chapter is already out!!)
Forsaken Haven was my first attempt at creative writing. I thoroughly enjoyed the process, but the story gradually strayed from what I’d imagined due to my lack of organization, planning, and foresight. This led to poor development in terms of plot and characters. After five months of writing, I realized the deficiencies in my execution, prompting me to reboot it.
The reboot is called “Epoch of the Wisdom King.” (Not quite accurate, but it can be considered an alternate beginning to Forsaken Haven.)
In Forsaken Haven, I mentioned that Ain’s first year in Duskfield City was meant to build his foundation as a spirit tamer. While true, it was wasn’t supposed to take this long (over 100 chapters). I made the mistake of setting the story’s major plot after he’d left Duskfield City and then taking my sweet time getting there.
Epoch of the Wisdom King’s prologue arc is less than 20 chapters and is significant to the major plot. The upcoming events (to my excitement) are heavily influenced by what I’d planned for Ain after he’d left Duskfield City in Forsaken Haven. All the familiar world-elements and characters are still there, but the plot has seen major alterations. There will be an enhanced focus on character development and interactions as I better try to flesh out the characters.
Aside from that, I’d like to request feedback on what you found lacking in Forsaken Haven. Although I’ve already written the prologue arc, these suggestions will be taken into consideration going forward.
The new update schedule is 3 chapters per week on the weekends. Average chapter lengths haven’t changed but I’ll try to increase them gradually once I have a reasonable backlog.
If you have any questions (regarding either story), please comment and I’ll try to answer them to the best of my ability. Since Forsaken Haven is discontinued, I’ll answer any plot questions that aren’t relevant in Epoch of the Wisdom King. (Hugo and Paula weren’t going to survive the conclusion of Duskfield City.)
With that said, I’m grateful for the support I’ve received, and I hope you enjoy Epoch of the Wisdom King.
You can read it here: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/950957/epoch-of-the-wisdom-king/
That's a shame. I rather enjoyed the way things were going and was fully expecting the steady pace to continue and once he finally made some serious progress a few time skips might happen. since up to now it was mostly a nice comprehensive exploration of the world and how it works, as well as characters intro and interaction, plus steady growth for the MC.
I personally don't see any problems with how long it's taken to get to where we are because this story feels to me like it's got a lot of depth to explore and it shouldn't be rushed. The amount of words put into even just this early days makes it to where I feel very immersed and have no major complaints about the pacing overall.
The only trimming that I could see being necessary is the covering of already tread ground. such as him doing the basic training and alchemy / AMD work without any actual progress being made. but those only cover like a few paragraphs when they are mentioned that it was negligible but does add up to be fair.
The idea of essentially having to start over and missing out on all of those details that built up not only the side characters but the MC himself is very disappointing.
I honestly don't see any real need to start over when you could just expedite things at a natural point from where the last chapters have left off. I was imagining he was about to go into advanced rank one and then actually make some progress in his spells. which would then lead to him somehow figure out how to locate the cat's flower. with all of the minutia of making money, slow but steady progress on alchemy / AMD, skipped past because we don't really need all the details of that until they become relevant. and the only thing that we really need more info on is him finally getting his spells capable of being used from reaching advanced.
I mean honestly this felt like a well-written Western version of a cultivation fic and the best ones of those have thousands of chapters that draw you in. Reading it made me think of it as a better version of something like monster pet evolution.
So the idea of so much depth being cut down and cast off really kills the motivation personally.
Thank you for reading Forsaken Haven and providing such length of feedback!
I see the point you've made about the steady progress in his skillset and world-building in Forsaken Haven. I don't plan to skip out on it in Epoch of the Wisdom King, but I'm aware readers who've read Forsaken Haven might find it boring to go over it again. As such, I've definitely altered some details in these regards. Especially now that I'm implementing this progress into the plot more than him just building theses skills for the future. There will be steady progress mixed in concurrently with what greater events are occurring.
Also, just a heads up
Ain's destination after the prologue has already been mentioned in Forsaken Haven.
Thank you once again, and I hope you enjoy Epoch of the Wisdom King.
Honestamente leí la introducción de la historia que estás escribiendo ahora y no le encuentro de mi agrado, está historia que abandonaste es la que realmente aprecio. Me gusta su forma de avanzar lenta pero segura, sin ningún transfondo de venganza o cosas como esas.
Es una pena que abandones está excelente historia y la otra no me atrae.
Personally, I wasn't bothered by the time it's taken. I will admit that I'm ready for things to move forward, but I saw this as the intro arc with a bit of a plot (the whole thing about the book / the Blood Origin cult; the way it tied into the original fight and introduced the local law enforcement and how they treat both mortals and cultivators was good too). This felt like setup/intro but it was at least good setup intro and there are a lot of characters I can identify and that I'm curious about.
With that said, I do understand why you might want to speed it up a bit; not everyone enjoys the slow build-up and some of the chapters were quite slow. Those of us who are still with you are not going to be those people ;-)
There are a number of minor things that aren't perfect, but none of them have really detracted too much from my experience. If I had to pick something, it's that quite a few chapters are 'Ain does A B C and it works and he makes progress.' Yes, sometimes something doesn't work and he has to put it aside, but I never feel it, I simply read it. It's all stuff that needed to happen to get him where he is, but it's usually (there are a few exceptions) a little boring. It's a hard criticism to give, because those chapters often feel necessary to understand what's going on and I'm very unsure how to improve them. I'm hopeful that this may be exactly the same thing that you're already doing where you're building it into the plot instead of into future planning, so it's possible you're already fixing it ;-)
I'm fine with whatever you want to do; if that's rewrite it under another title, I'll happily follow you to the new work and reread / read the new stuff.
I hope you have better luck picking up readers; you really haven't had as many as it feels like this story deserves.
Oh, and I like the new cover!
Thank you for your feedback and encouragement!
I also found his progress uneventful, and I plan to incorporate them into the plot more. This was my next step in the (previously) upcoming chapters of Forsaken Haven as Ain visited the various associations for certifications and getting embroiled in some things. But overall, I found more issues in my writing and developments, prompting me to reboot it.
Thank you again for you time and intent to read Epoch of the Wisdom King. I hope you enjoy it!