Dear Readers,

I published the first chapter of Meg's journey on May 17th, 2021. I had no plan. No goal. I only had a vague idea in my head. A gamer gives up her usual method of play to be a merchant. I jumped in headfirst and started pounding the keys. I wrote and I wrote and wrote some more. I loved a lot of it. A lot of it also drove me nuts and put me through the wringer for several days. Everytime I posted a chapter I was ready to quit and give up. And then the comments would trickle in and my numbers would go up and I would dive back into the mania of chasing that eternal serpent and boy did I take massive poison damage.

I have written to date (August 3rd, 2021) 291 pages and I have learned a lot about RoyalRoad, myself and this story. I have also been lying to myself and ignoring my instincts because the numbers kept going up and people kept saying I like your story. The truth is I have been severely struggling since chapter seven(The Sandstorm Cometh). And after a week of reflection and not touching the keyboard I finally understand why.

I struggled because I had no plan or road map. I wanted this story to be epic and sprawling like A Song of Ice and Fire thrown into a blender with Dragon Ball Z and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, poured over a plate of bootleg kung fu films and served with a side of help me stepson I'm stuck in the washing machine. But I also wanted it to be a quiet slice of life story about a merchant buying and selling things.

And if I'm honest with myself I failed big time. No story will ever be perfect. I'm not perfect. But this story in it's current shape is like a former child star who just got filmed drunk twerking at their highschool reuinion while crying to Metallica's Nothing Else Matters.

I failed to deliver the slice of life merchant experience. I failed to make it the mystical Chinese inspired fantasy I had dreamt of and instead turned it into a frankenstein's monster of World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Morrowind, and barely funny jokes. It was my first attempt at writing something heavily in the fantasy genre and I barely did any worldbuilding which led to inconsistencies and whole days where I had no idea what to write about. You probably noticed. I sure did.

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I created some pretty cool moments and I have to say I do love Bruce and his shady past and even though I did not flesh them out too well I love Shaynala and Farook, even if I kept forgetting they had a baby. And Growl is a helluva cat.

So what does this all mean? In short I am putting a pause on Meg the Heavenly Merchant. I am going back to square one and rexamining every aspect, both good, bad, and middling, and taking a lot of notes. Once I have completed that phase I will be sitting down and focusing on the core mechanics of the world then outlining the story before I start writing again. This will not be an overnight thing. I will be taking my time to do it right so that I can deliver something worth your time and something I can look at with pride instead of guilt, shame, and anxiety.

But mark my words Heavenly Readers Meg will return. She'll probably be a little different, a little bit less of a hot mess like her author, but she will be coming back and in much better form. I hope you'll keep an eye out for when she does but if you want to move on I understand completely.

I want to thank everyone who read this clunker of a web novel. The casual viewers, the followers and favoriters as well as everyone who left a comment. Every single one of you rocks and I hope that my bizzaro word child gave you even a fraction of a second of joy or distraction from the hardships of life. You are my motivation and inspiration to want to get better at this writing thing and I appreciate all of you.

I will try and post further updates about my progress when I have something significant to report. In the meantime feel free to message me or leave a comment on this or any of the other chapters. Let me know your thoughts, what you hope to see more of or less of, why you started reading Meg, why you kept reading, or why you stopped reading, and if you've ever had any good cheese fries let me know that too.

Sincerely Dr.TimeWizard109

Stay Heavenly.