Hey guys.

So yeah, it's been a while and while I may want to say "Sorry i've been busy." and leave it at that, you guys deserve better than that.

While it's true that things have been a little more hectic these last few weeks (no excuse), I've had a serious case of writer's block and lack of inspiration (probably still no excuse). I think this stems from going into the following chapters, from around Ch.12 I think it was, without proper planning. I had a vague idea of "Oh, well now they leave and Kira goes to train in the forest. Let's build on that." and hopefully I've managed to make that as satisfying to read as I enjoyed writing it.

The problem came when I asked myself  "what now?" and couldnt find an answer beyond "border city, leave a hook or two before they enter". This led to my, perhaps rash, creation of a rather extreme character that may or may not have had any substance. You guys can decide that for yourselves.

Lately, I've realised that a lack of proper planning was the core issue and spent some time trying to flesh out, more specifically this time, where I wanted to take things. I mean, I had ideas, sure, but a lot them were like random snapshots of events that happen much further than where the story I've presented to you currently is. That said, I managed to bring together some ideas that were relevant in the context of where we are now and they seemed to link together with each other fairly well. I had the chapter all ready to post when I realised something.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The quality of what I had written was nothing compared to before.

Not only that, but the characters were behaving in ways and making choices that didn't harmonise with the type of people I had made them out to be previously and that my motivation for certain actions of theirs seemed almost like a desperate grasping at straws to get the story moving again.

While I don't plan to completely give up on the story I've spent so many joyous hours on, I also can't allow myself to put out anything that doesn't reach a certain standard. This is my first foray into publicly sharing what I've written so I didn't expect the amount of feedback I've had so far, and I'm grateful for it, but I think that it's important that I know my limits at the moment and not try to be too ambitious, i.e. I'm no Tang Jia San Shao. With University (finally) starting again yesterday, I'm going to have substantially less free time than I've had during my extended vacation/holiday and, hence, even less time to write.

I know I'm rambling at the moment and I'm not sure how to round this out but I'd really appreciate your opinions because, as it is, even I'm unsure of how to proceed.

Have a good week. Safe all.