I'm going to be honest here. I could push out a chapter. I've already written over 1k on what I was going to publish tomorrow at 7am.

I'm beat. Exhausted. And I'm feeling somewhat discouraged.

But I am not burnt out. I recently found my way back to loving what I was writing, and writing what I love. Though I now wonder if that lost me followers, it feels better for me.

And I'm still going to crush this Writathon. I'm 42,500 words in. I've actually written a total of over 80k since October 5th, writing every single day. And I have next week off for Thanksgiving.

I never intended to publish chapters everyday before the Writathon. I've got a lot on my plate at this point in my life, without piling that on top. I'm a husband and a father. I was recently forced by some health issues, (vision, not life threatening) to go back to college or to lose the potential success I had planned out. And I'm juggling earning a livable income while making that happen.

I didn't want to add the increased writing demands on top of that hectic schedule.

But, then I realized I had almost already accomplished that pace before the Writathon began, so I figured the motivation to push myself could be a good thing.

And it has been in several ways. I'll dive into those at the end.

But then, like an idiot, I figured that if I was going to be keeping up the Writathon pace, I should at least try to draw in some audience by posting every day. I went from a 2-3 per week schedule to posting every single day. And I have stuck with it. I'm proud of that accomplishment and keeping that personal promise to myself.

But I'm worn out. I've pushed through being sick and exhausted. I've worried myself over followers and favorites far more than I ever intended when I began writing this.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

And posting every single day? At this point I feel like it cost me way, way more than it gained me. I didn't really see any increase in viewers.

And I've been losing followers and favorites lately. While I know my quality has dropped a little with the increased workload, and I've earmarked certain chapters that need some good editing... I'm so tired and busy I can't go back and give the needed edits to the work.

And I don't even know if the reason I'm losing followers is a quality issue or just the type of content I've been releasing since I've gotten back to really writing what I love.

And that sucks, because I really, really love my more recent chapters. There are some places that need smoothing out, but they make me laugh. A lot. They make me smile. My wife, who's pretty damned honest, says their her favorite so far. So, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and write what makes me happy.

As I said, I've got this Writathon in the bag. And I'm going to continue writing at a high pace, if not quite as high.

But it is time I slowed down on posting. It is time I stopped (no offense) giving a fuck about the numbers on Royal Road.

That doesn't mean I don't care about the fans. If you're in the comments, telling me tyftc or just interacting, know that while I am writing for myself, I am here on Royal Road sharing it for YOU. And those comments mean more than you can ever know to me. They've kept me going.

As far as the Writathon is concerned. It has been a great experience in teaching myself how to write at a higher pace, but it has also taught me a lot about myself as a writer. I learned more of what makes me happy to write, and a lot about reminding myself to keep that in focus.

For now, there is no official posting schedule until Writathon is concluded. There will definitely be a chapter posted Friday. And I'll definitely be posting enough to wrap up the final 12500 word count for the Writathon by the end of next week. But no other promises.

After that, I'll return to a 2 chapter per week schedule, Monday and Friday, with the occasional surprise chapter on Wednesdays. But those chapters will be approximately twice as long and of higher quality.

I will also begin actually stocking up a backlog, which I should have done prior to showing The Beast and the Sage to the public.

I wish you all the best and hope you stick around and enjoy my story.

-JDH