TLDR, I'll be gone for a few weeks.

So, the end of Shroud is here, and it hasn't been going well. This is the first time I'm actually bringing a story to a close, and it's obviously been pretty rough. Part of that is my focus being absorbed in working on making my next story better than this one, and that's eating up most of my concentration. And the other part is my disappointment with Shroud. I had some very naive and lofty ideas going into this, and I've learned a lot through the process of writing this story. But that also makes it hard to look back on how bad I've done in the past. That's killed my enthusiasm for writing this story because even though I've had some moments and chapters I'm really proud of, it doesn't make up for the messy and scattered storytelling overall. At least for me. I don't think Shroud is a bad story, but I wouldn't say it's good either, and that's a bit of a bummer.

However, that doesn't excuse me for sorta checking out in recent chapters. I've let my disappointment stop me from thinking about this story, which had caused me to procrastinate writing it until right up to when a chapter is supposed to go up, and that has led to some haphazard and messy inconsistency in the pacing and the story overall. At the same time, prepping for my next story has taken way longer than I thought it would, as I keep finding ways that I think it can be improved. I've come to understand very well that I'll almost certainly never feel like it's truly ready. But I wanted to launch my new story at the same time I ended Shroud, so I've been delaying the ending. And the story has really suffered for it.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

So, I'm going on hiatus. I'll write the rest of the ending in its entirety and make sure I'm as comfortable as I'm going to get with the next story, and then all the chapters will come out at once. That way, I can at least make the last several chapters as tight and well done as I possibly can, and I don't have the next story weighing on me and distracting me from finishing this one.

I've put out material that's less than my best, and I'm not happy about it. I hope this little hiatus will let me do better, both for myself as a writer and for those of you who've genuinely enjoyed reading this miniature trainwreck of a tale. Hopefully, the next one will be even better. Thanks for understanding.

Chapters will still go up on Patreon as I make them, then re-edited with any changes I make at the end.