First off, I want to apologise, it has been a while since I uploaded a chapter, or even an update, so I'm guessing a lot of people thought I'm abandoning this story, which I'm not.
First of the reason I haven't posted an update in a while is because it felt kind of pathetic to me to post one so soon after my previous update, but I've realised today, that's really too long and people have started to unfollow, so I'm posting it now.
Also, I'll talk about the poll further down, first off to explain where I've been.
Simply put for the first two months of March, I was incredibly busy, I literally had a few hours freetime each day, so I obviously wanted to relax and play video games, I also had mu birthday so had a bunch of new games I wanted to play, including XCOM-2 which I completed the other day, which helped me realise how long it had been since my last update somehow. I won't go in to details what I was busy with, but let's just say there were a few trips to the hosptial, a job interview and some family things.
Then I got a job at McDonalds, which I've just had four shifts in a row for and for somehow as unfit as me, it really takes a lot out of me.
But there's another reason I haven't uploaded a chapter in a while, I just couldn't be bothered to write. I am most certainly writing the second chapter, 4000 words in at the moment, but that's over two weeks, usually I'd knock out at least 2000 words in a day.
It's not because I'm tired of writing the Daily Diary, or that I don't like the world, or even that I had writers block, I was just burnt out from it, I know a lot of authors on RoyalRoadl write twice as much as me, but I certainly wasn't slouching, my time on Steam went from an average of 120 hours in two weeks (Which really is too much to be fair) to about 40 hours, so I dedicated a lot of time to writing this story and will dedicated plenty more in the future.
You have to remember at the moment this is purely a hobby, I'm currently setting up a Patreon at the moment (don't worry I'm expecting to get like £1 a month from it) but it's not a full time job, so I was dedicating a lot of time whilst having other obligations, like actually earning money.
Anyway, back on topic, I will not be abandoning Daily Diary, I won't every abandon it until it's finished, I may even write other stories based in the world after I've finished it, because I love the world, I love my characters, and I'm excited to show you the twists, reveals and new characters that'll appear in the future. But if I do, it wont EVER, EVER BE IN A DAILY DIARY style again. This writing style is oddly exhausting, I thought it would be a good way to ease myself in to writing, but it really isn't it was one of the worst ways to start. Thinking of things to happen every day, the amount of chapters I'm going to have to write, it's exhausting, and I became burnt out from it. Now I've had a month to recover, so the next chapter should be out by the end of the week, I say SHOULD because honestly I'm awful at keeping schedules if you haven't noticed already, so I'm also going to be dropping the every monday thing too, the chapters will be out when they're finished, so it could be three days (if it's a chapter I'm really excited about) or two/three weeks.
Now this is where the poll comes in, as people may know, I write a Star Wars fanfic on the side, I released the second chapter the other day in fact, and it's this that made me realise why I find writing chapters of the Daily Diary so exhausting (Albiet satisfying), as I wrote the chapter for the Star Wars fanfic in two days and enjoyed it. So whilst I may get burnt out on writing the Daily Diary, I can still write other things.
Which is what the poll is about, it's a list of stories that I was going to write after I finished the Daily Diary of a Mushroom, what I'm planning is to write chapters for this second story when I get burnt out from the Daily Diary, so I write a few chapters for it for about 3-4 weeks then return to the Daily Diary, it's a bit different to the Star Wars fanfic, as that's updated purely when I feel like it.
Also, there's another option for no focus on the Daily Diary, since I may get quite in to writing this second story, and go a few more weeks concentrating on that then I can just not write a second story at all, and just leave my updates blank for a month then return.
I'm not expecting to get burnt out often, but it may happen once every 10 chapters or so. I also may just have a lot of spare time and update this second story at random intervals whilst I write the Daily Diary.
Anyway, under here are all the stories I want to write at the moment which a brief description.
Orphan:
First off, Orphan. Orphan is the tale of a mysterious world completely different to our own and many time the size of our own. The world consists of various island and giant land masses just like ours does, the population of the planet is incredibly small, almost every building is a ruin, but thousands of different ruins that don't match culturally are scattered all over.
In the frozen north, on a small island exists a settlement known only as the Orphanage. Inside the Orphanage exists the Orphans, Mothers and Fathers. The Mothers and Fathers scout out for supplies and children, whilst the Orphans are raised in safety from the dangers out the outside world. When the Orphans reach 16 however, they are given a choice, they can stay and become a Mother/Father and work to live, or they can be given a few supplies to explore the outside world on their own. The story follows one Orphan Anat who has always had wonderlust, so chooses to explore. The story followers her exploration of the the mysterious world as she slowly uncovers strange secrets, and beautiful places untouched for thousands of years.
The tale will have very little characters other than Anat, not much action and quite slow paced, that's the plan anyway.
R.O.S.E:
R.O.S.E is set in a dystopian future. Early in the 21st century an early ice age suddenly engulfs the world, the population can't cope and the majority of humans die out. Desperate to fight the cold one scientist invents a machine that creates a sort of shielded air bubble that reaches 100 miles across in all directions, stopping the cold and falling snow from entering. Every country left wants this technology, and as usual war breaks out for possession over it, with no clear victor, but half the world burnt and left a dry husk from the nuclear war the world is torn asunder, half desert, half Ice.
Many years pass with what's left of the world struggling to survive, but out of nowhere a new government appears, a mysterious religion known as the Saviours begin to create towns, civilisation. They have possession of the Bubble technology, they block out bandits and the elements that threaten to wipe out mankind. But their protection comes with a cost, as the Saviours are strict beyond measure, to stop humanity form destroying itself any crime, even the slightest, is a death penalty. And any freedom is a crime, to get a tattoo, is a death sentence, to get piercings is a death sentence, to colour your hair is a death sentence, to change your name is a death sentence and even to just swear is a death sentence.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
After year under this tyranny four friends grow tired of it, they each change their names, Ringo, Ocelot, Shadow and Eightball and leave their city to create R.O.S.E, with stolen guns and vehicles they fight back against the Saviours at any turn, eventually building up their numbers, even creating settlements in the wastelands to look after citizens and children.
The story starts 40 years after the forming of R.O.S.E when it's a well established rebellion, it follows the story of one young girl who under certain circumstances is forced to join R.O.S.E (although not unwillingly) under the name of Tec and how she and her new allies fight back against the Saviours.
Sister:
Similar in theme to Orhpan, Sister is a story about exploration and not much action. It also takes place on another planet, although this one is a lot more like earth. After the race that owned the planet is almost wiped out by an invading race, the survivors are enslaved. With most of the planet now an unpopulated ruin there are many small groups or just general people surviving. Including a pair of unamed sister. The story is from the third person perspective of the Older sister as she tries to protect and look after her young toddler sister in the unforgiving world that they live in.
The Scavenger:
A Sci-Fi story set in another galaxy. It is relatively similar in theme to Orphan and Sister, as it's about exploration (noticing a theme emerging here?) but will have a lot more action in. It follows the life of Kale Kannis an low profile, but skilled scavenger, who often scavenges items of bandits she's killed. It will be her meeting strange people and visiting unexplored planets for a bit of loot to sell.
In this universe scavenger is a loose term for someone who makes a living selling general stuff on the black market that they've procured through whatever means they choose.
The Dreadswarm Chronicles:
This is a story I attempted to write once before, when I was 14, 7 years ago basically. I've had a lot of time to think about this story, and hopefully perfect it. Inspired by my love of LOTR and Dragons Age, it's a swords and sorcery style story.
12,000 years ago a powerful wizard experimenting with magics created a door to a Demon realm, with Demons being just another race, like Angels, Human or Vampires, this was not thought of anything too bad. Until they discovered what subspecies of Demon it was, The Dreadswarm. They're not most powerful Demons or the most intelligent, but they are the most abundant and the most bloodthirsty. So much so that due to their sheer numbers all doors to their realm were locked permanently by the Demon Emperor, the Vampire high King and God himself. With this new found doorway the Dreadswarm having overpopulated their own realm decided to use this new realm to spread themselves across the 1000 realms. With the assistance of God and the Angels, the humans of this realm were able to eventually seal the doorway, but not before sacrificing ten heroes to keep it sealed. Over the next few thousand years the seal wore down the the point that the Dreadswarm were released once again 3000 years later, once again faced with the threat the humans had to sacrifice 12 heroes this time. History repeated itself, the seal wore down every 3000 years with more heroes having to sacrifice themselves each time.
At the start of the story the seal has already broken and the Dreadswarm have started to attack, but the island the door is on consists of two countries, at war with each other they barely realise the threat of the Dreadswarm. With a messenger in form of elven prince Viiren of the gravity of the situation King Aldais instructs his three greatest generals and most trusted friends, Giden, Winter and the dwarf Oshpolt to go on a journey with the prince to find the heroes and this time travel into the realm of the Dreadswarm and kill their King, as once the ruler of a realm dies, the realm dies too. This has never been attempted before due to the sheer number of Dreadswarm, so joining them on this task are the kings children, Prince Tygrus, an incredibly talented warrior and Princess Sky the chief palace Mage, and also Dimm, Gidens trusted squire.
The story will have action, lot's of main characters and quite a few deaths on the way.
It's also part of a larger universe called the Thousand Realms, I have at least 10 stories that take place in the Thousand Realms, but Dreadswarm is technically the first in terms of timeline, so it's the only one on the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So that's the choices, may do some others if none of these appeal to you guys, these are just the ones of my masses of ideas that I want to write now, but if you want some more choices then I can bring in some.
One final comment, if you're wanting to see some of my art then I have put a link to my deviant art page, it includes unfinished artwork which includes a drawing of Ellena I've been working on for months, (it just keeps coming out looking weird) so there's that.
Also my patreon will be ready in the next few weeks, so if you want to help me get closer to my dream of writing for a living you can. I will have rewards like donating a certain amount will let you be able to ask any question about any of my stories including things like the ending, if you spoil it for anyone else you will lose the privilege of asking because that's just a jerk move. I don't know if anyone loves spoilers, but that'll be there if you do. Don't worry though, I won't release exclusive chapters and stuff to patreon supporters or anything, you will all get the same story.
Also like I said I'm really not expecting to get a lot, really I'm not arrogant enough to think I deserve even one penny, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna try, I wasn't expecting to even get 10 followers when I started writing, but here we are.
Anyway that's all from me for now, I hope you understand, I hope you keep reading, and I love ya.