Hello all!

  First of all, I'd like to express my sincerest gratitude to all those who have followed my journey with Keldon and friends up until this point. The story is just getting started and I promise to do my best going forward. On that note, however, I'd like to share a bit about where this story came from and my thought process(at this moment) going on into the future.

  TL;DR at the bottom

  I started the story based on a simple premise. "What would it look like if someone developed traditional magic in a skill-based magic world." a concept that although not original by any means, I had thought up while reading up on the concepts of hard vs soft magic. Initially, I had planned to make the story an isekai, but after the initial plotting phase, I started to reflect on the purpose of the isekai and I believed that using the isekai tropes would prove to be more of a crutch to the story rather than serve as a benefit. But by that point, I didn't want to waste the hours that I had spent in developing the story so I adapted some of the early chapters into what we now see as the current story of the master of names. With that, however, I'd like to reflect on a few lessons that I've learned in writing the master of names that, for those who are interested, could read as well as let this serve as a reminder to myself for what I need to keep in mind going on into the next chapter. In the end, I'll share a few thoughts on the next few upcoming chapters as well as posting a poll on a possible Patreon page to gauge interest in people signing up for access to early chapter access and would allow me the freedom to work on the master of names without having to worry about whether I could at least pay for my cellphone bills at the end of the month.

Some reflections

  - Before I even started working on the master of names I was working on another (now scrapped) novel called "Toys for the wretched". It was based more on a premise than any actual plot or story structure. In summary, the novel was about two siblings who had become trapped in the little sister's mind, putting a twist on the mentor archetype where typically, the mentor would have much more experience and would run along the lines of some wise old sage. Therefore, because the two siblings were trapped in the younger sister's mind, the older brother would have to learn from his younger sister in a world where even she doesn't fully understand the rules. Think of it as two people being stuck in something like the looney tunes world with magic, where people would randomly run off cliffs and keep going, only to realize that gravity doesn't affect them until this notice that it exists. There was a bit more to it but overall, in planning the plot and story, I'd realized that I had obsessed so much about the details of the story and the lore, that when I sat down to actually write the story, I'd thought about it so much to death that I'd completely lost all interest in writing the story due to overplanning. That's when I thought that I'd try my hand at discovery writing and so, the master of names was born.

   (It's basically a realization that I was more of a pantser writer than a plotter. Link here to read more about it. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/plotters-vs-pantsers-what-kind-of-writer-are-you#how-to-approach-the-writing-process-as-a-plotter)

  However, being a discovery writer came with its own set of problems as well as i figured out too late.

  - First of all, the problem with being a discovery writer on royalroad/scribblehub, etc.. is that once you publish something, you can't change it later on down the line, particularly when it comes to important plot points. In my earlier chapters when I was simply writing what I wanted to without any real direction to the story(compared to where I know I want to go with it now), to be honest, comparatively, things were a little bland.

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  -Keldon was a bit short of a full-fledged protagonist. I had always meant for him to be a kind, hard-working individual overshadowed by a dark past, however, I failed to fully realize him as a character until a few pages well into the book, and by that point, it's far too late to change that due to the nature of web novels. I could go back to edit chapters for clarity and make minor details to reveal a bit more about his personality, but ultimately, I couldn't really change some of the settings or character events without making the readers who had already invested in the story confused.

  - However, structural plot complications aside, one benefit that really excited me about discovery writing was learning about my characters as I imagined them interacting with the world, discovery writing characters really helped me become excited and motivated to write more as the story unfolded in my mind. However, the issue with discovery writing is that a lot of my writing progress was tied to how well-fleshed out my initial idea of the character was articulated in my mind. There were too many times where I would have conflicting character motivations vs plot structure that stopped me from releasing chapters on an exact schedule, but rather than rush out poor chapters, I believed that it would be better for you all if i took the time to really sit with my characters and to examine what's working and what's not working with them before releasing chapters, rather than hastily releasing sloppy writing to fill please the algorithm,

  That being said, however, I do have limited time to write. In between being a full-time student and having a job, I struggle to find enough time to me write the story at a pace that wouldn't disappoint you all, which is why in combination with learning how to discovery write better, I decided not to put out a release schedule. However, I've toyed around with the idea of setting up a Patreon for those who want to read ahead and for those who wish to support me beyond reading the novel (which I'm already eternally grateful for). I had a ko-fi set up at first but eventually scrapped it as I felt bad that if anybody gave me money, I wouldn't be able to offer anything particularly substantial to them at that point. However, if patreon goes well, I'm already looking into being able to cut down my hours to write and if by some miracle of the gods enough people want to support my writing, I'd be able to quit my current part-time job to be able to pursue writing more seriously than just a hobby. Although I recognize that's a bit of a dream right now.

Future plans (As of now)

    I'd like to take some time to reflect on the current master of names story as it is right now as well as begin the process of expanding the lore and working on the plot and characters (both present and future) before continually pushing out more chapters. I'll be pushing out an interlude soon for our soon-to-come heroine (oOooOOoo) as well as to put out another chapter of Keldon's past before continuing on with the main story as i plan for it. School currently has a vicegrip on my balls but luckily, for the next week at least, my work has given me some time off to write as they're currently not super busy right now. This means i'll be able to work on future chapters as well as write the interlude and Keldon's past chapters at the same time.

  TL;DR

  Writing is kinda hard, but i have fun with it anyways. Plotting is complicated because of webnovel constrictions.

  Monkey man is still learning how to write well, so monkey man can't commit to rapid release schedule. Monkey man likes few quality bananas then a pile of rotten stinky ones.

  Monkey man wants to write, but can't write because have no time with school and job. Monkey man set up patreon? Patreon lets monkey man take time off work to write and do what he loves.

  Monkey man needs time to think about plot so he doesn't do stupid lazy writing, but monkey man will put out an interlude of future heroine and more past chapters while monkey man works so new stuff is still coming out.

  Once again, thanks for joining me on this journey.

  With everlasting love,

  Karingano

  P.S: I'm always looking for criticism on my work and would love to hear what you enjoyed/didn't enjoy, what you loved and hated and everything else in between. Leave them in the comments below if you want your opinion to help me shape this story. or don't, I'm just a box of words, not the cops.