Hello, it's me, the author. We've come along way from a scarred girl being along in the world for the first time. We've seen the rise and fall of empires, of gods, and of people. So many people.
I can honestly say that I cried while killing off some of my favorite characters, especially Mest and Thes. But they never really mattered in the end.
I started this story so that I could practice writing a character. So that I could ignore everything except for the character. And it showed in the way I approached this story. No one in this story mattered except for Erica, everyone else's stories can start, progress, and end completely off-screen and the story would not suffer for it, because they aren't what matters. And Diary Of Erica Kron did exactly what I wanted it to, it helped me learn how to write about a character.
It wasn't perfect, there are plot holes and inconsistencies. Some things don't make sense and others I tried to sweep under the rug with mixed success. But none of that matters because the story still did what it was supposed to do.
And now it is over. 3ish years of my life. That is more than 10% of the time I have been alive. And I finished it. I wrote a book. No, at 1400~ pages I wrote a trilogy. And it ended more or less exactly how I expected it too.
What happens next? Well, I want to get it published on Amazon. I'm planning on splitting it up into 3 pieces. To do that I need new cover art, I don't have commercial usage rights on the piece I already have, which I have already commissioned. I also plan on going back through and fixing grammar, spelling, etc issues, but I don't plan on rewriting any of it, that would be more work than I would be willing to put in.
After that I plan on starting up a new project.
I have something to admit, I have no idea how to write good dialog. It takes me a lot of work to do anything with spoken language. And so my next piece is going to focus heavily on dialog. It also will not update nearly as quickly as Diary Of Erica Kron did. Between my dramatically different life situation compared to when I started and the kind of effort I am wanting to put into my next piece updating daily just isn't possible. It wasn't even possible for the end of this story, and I had been writing in this style for years at that point. Of course, it is going to be quite a while before I get that one up and going, as I want to put a bit more effort into planning it out this time around. I did build a basic roadmap for Diary Of Erica Kron, but I didn't really do a good job, and finding anything in this story that I had mentioned before was a nightmare. I don't really want to do that again.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I don't plan on returning to Erica in the future, at least not as a POV character. Her story is over. If you guys want to write fanfiction or whatever about her or anyone else in the world go ahead, there is certainly space to fit all kinds of different stories there.
It's been nearly three years in the making. I poured so much of myself into this story, and now there is nothing left to give. I tried to write more epilogues from other character's perspectives, but I just couldn't do it. It's over, and like a long car ride through the desert, I'm glad it's over. The journey has had its ups and its downs, and there have been times when I did not enjoy writing. But I got it done, and I've written an entire story from beginning to end. I'm proud of that, it's not my ultimate goal in this life, that would be immortality, but it is still an accomplishment that I never thought I would have achieved. I remember thinking to myself multiple times when I was young and reading something like harry potter or Artemis Foul or Warriors or the Inheritance cycle or any of hundreds of other stories that I grew up with and loved that I would never be capable of creating something like this. I would never be capable of crafting a great story with my own hands. Well, young me, you can go fuck yourself because I did it anyway. I can't claim to have created something so grand as the stories I grew up with, but this is only my first real story, and I have created something to be proud of. Something I never even dreamed of being able to do until I started this project.
Anyway, I think it is time to say Good Night to this diary one last time.
Sweet Dreams