Hello fellow readers,
I wanted to post the obligatory “Announcement” chapter all stories on RR eventually post :)
I also wanted to take the opportunity to say a few things, and give you all an update on some changes. Nothing bad, I promise. Also post some art work I have been holding on to.
First things, first. As I have reached the 20k+ word milestone, the schedule is changing. I am well aware that you are supposed to have a bunch of chapters equaling over 20K words, publish them all at once and then get on raising start, blah, blah ,blah.
That isn’t for me. I don’t care about the rankings or being super famous, or whatever. I just want to write a story I like. So I will continue to post at a set interval, See Below:
Schedule:
Monday – 3pm PST
Wednesday – 3pm PST
Friday – 5pm PST
Saturday – 10 AM PST
My thinking here is pretty simple, I live on the West Coast of the US, and want people to have a story to enjoy when they get off work on the East Coast. Then have a story for everyone else ready as they get off work.
Nothing too complicated, or in-depth.
Next, is where this story was born.
I want to explore characters that are broken, because being OP, or the Heroes of the world means nothing if at the end of the day all the power in the world can’t save you from yourself. In our darkest moments we all need help. Even heroes and Gods.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
I enjoy LitRPG worlds, and settings, but I would always ask myself, “Why is it that the System, the entire reason the world exists in the first place, relegated to being an after thought, or taboo to even explore?”
Which lead me to asking what would happen if some one actively fought against the system. Someone who didn’t care for the politics of it all. Factions are fun to explore, but what if a character didn’t fall down that trap. What if there was a goal so powerful for that character, that the System became the enemy.
What would that goal look like, what form would it take. For me, it would be my family. Not my extended family. We live to far away to be an immediate goal/concern. But my kids and wife. Now that would be an immediate worry. One of such great importance that I would risk everything.
One where I might actually do stupid shit, in an attempt to keep them safe.
In the past I have dealt with PTSD, Depression, and a whole slue of mental issues. What better way to ‘break’ a character, then to make their biggest hurdle something the System was supposed to magically fix during an integration level event. When you are at your darkest, you need to reach out for help. No one is strong enough to win every battle alone. So I took that away from Ethan. I ripped the band-aide off, took the support system away, and forced him to be alone. Something that is a deep rooted fear in many who are struggling with mental illness, but are too afraid to mention.
At the heart of it all, this is a story of a father, or a man, desperate to get his family back, struggling against himself. Trying to regain some control of his life after the System took it all away.
Anyways, I thought it would be an interesting journey to explorer broken characters, who weren’t just murderhobos or psychopaths from the get go. But fundamentally good people, broken by the world they came from. People who were making the effort to heal, and that band-aide was ripped off too soon.
The next thing I wanted to mention is that I will be doing some edits, writing is very much an isolated endeavor. This can cause you to end up in an echo chamber of your own making. You can read, and reread, and reread again something you just wrote and see nothing wrong with it.
I have given myself enough time to grow fresh eyes for previous chapters, and will do a soft edit. I will not rewrite anything, but fix the most egregious errors.
As always, thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this journey. While the ranking doesn’t matter to me, your views, comments and interactions mean the world to me. You humble me by just reading along, as I post.
Thank you.
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Artwork:
Ethan:
image [https://i.imgur.com/MQ3Vsj2.png]
Endless Plains:
image [https://i.imgur.com/7UGOMbd.png]
Safe Zone:
image [https://i.imgur.com/DqUVeAU.png]
Swamp Cervine:
image [https://i.imgur.com/50KgyHn.png]