Side Stories Poll -- June 2023! (And a huge Author's Note.)

It is I. I have come not to deliver a chapter, but a poll.

Sundays, as I mentioned earlier, are being converted into non-writing work days and if I have time, outlining or just extra rest so I don't burn out in writing. I suspect it'll translate into higher quality writing and...probably just the same amount of writing since my week off just lets me write harder each month.

But! I will give you a poll and update on my life before starting writing tomorrow. I am still minded to aim for shorter chapters even if it's not always a chapter-a-day. Anyways, this next part may be in the Author's Note for public readers...scroll to the bottom for the poll if you don't care! I totally didn't forget polls existed!

Week Off Recap: So. Do you recall me writing about catastrophic computer failure which forced me, once again, to get a new PC? That was five months ago, I think.

...The new, expensive one I bought is also dead. And the one I sent into repair came back and it wouldn't boot up. So I had TWO new desktops, both of which had incredible technical issues. 

Anyways, the first four days of my break were without a working PC and it took me four days of trying to debug, then literally switching computer parts around to luckily diagnose the problem. I have...something wrong with one PC that I'll have to send in for full repair, and the one that was repaired has a dead GPU which I could replace.

I am not a computer person. I know enough to do basic diagnosis and I have built one PC ever, so that was not a fun time. I don't feel as rested mentally as I'd like, but life decided to be difficult for me for a bit and that's that. My life is so hard. Harder than someone in a war...or in a sub about to implode...

I'm always mindful of my job and life being the product of good fortune. I guess the irony is that it is hard to write to the level I want and these things get in the way. However! I have stepped back and stopped trying to write a novel in a month. With that said, the deadline is coming up again, but I will try not to collapse a second time. I am definitely going to need to take off time, and will probably work half this month, then write the rest of Gravesong 2 into August and finish it, no matter how hard it is. I'll post whatever I'm happy with, but if I burn too hard on multiple ends, I burn out.

Writing Thoughts: I've been reflecting on the matter of upcoming arcs and I have to say, the biggest thing on my mind is the Winter Solstice, which as you might guess, is probably the end of Volume 9. What it will be is something only I know, and yet, we've been in beach-mode, short-chapter mode, and that...is a very good thing.

Some people may be impatient for the Solstice. Or have other critiques. I don't often discuss writing in the sense of looking for help. I often tell beta-readers I just want feelings and whether they liked it, more than trying to articulate things or trying to tell me what to write. 'If there's a problem, point in the general direction and I should see it.' It's interesting, because the only people I've met who have given me advice that is consistently reliable in a technical writing sense have been the editors I like. It really is a dedicated skillset.

However, writing is an endless world of analogies. I've done ships. I've done sludge-searching. How about candy?

Have you ever seen someone making a taffy or candy that you can twist or pull at high temperatures? Firstly? Skin burns. Secondly? It's an art. The experience it takes to move that candy, or know instinctively when it's about to break when it's thin as string--that's like writing. That's like the beach chapters.

Sometimes the story needs time to breathe. Sometimes I need time to plan ahead and I have been thinking of the upcoming arcs and storylines and I've come up with some good stuff. If I had rushed into the Winter Solstice, it would have been both premature, too much of Volume 8 still leaking through, and frankly, I would have been exhausted and might have burnt out again in the midst of it. This story...is a process and I have to figure out when things are dragging or going too fast. So the beach chapter I like and we will see how long this should last.

That is the eternal advantage of web serial writing. Other published books like the never-coming-out third book of Name of the Winds by Rothfuss have to be contained stories. GRR Martin has to know how many miles his characters travel and touch countless plotlines in each novel and I suspect that the medium is one of the reasons those two can't put out another book. Then again, it seems like Martin will get to a book before Rothfuss.

Motivation's hard. But writing is more than motivation--I think I mentioned that hydration, exercise, good rest, and many more things all annoyingly make up good writing. Imagine my personal health being necessary to write. Bleh. Anyways, I've felt good about the beach writing. Finishing that novel is still going to be a bloodbath.

Reading Thoughts: Because I was bored and my gaming computer was dead, I consumed stories over my break. And I had consumed parts before, but I don't always talk reading so here's my reading list.

1. Level 999 Villager.

2. I Reincarnated as a Slime.

3. Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)

4. Bard Loen the People's Knight

5. MY S-RANK PARTY FIRED ME FOR BEING A CURSIFICER ~ I CAN ONLY MAKE “CURSED ITEMS”, BUT THEY'RE ARTIFACT CLASS!

...And more. But I really want you to look at that list. Especially 5. I knew what I was getting into. Here are my notes.

They are all. Trash. Stories. Except for Bard Loen. And I know Kimetsu no Yaiba is popular and the art is amazing. The story's bad.

I complain about bad stories. I refused to play the new Star Wars: Fallen Order game. I complain about movies. I complain about games. I know I'm picky, but I don't think I'm wrong when I say Kimetus no Yaiba is generic shounen stuff. The characters struggle, and it has depth...for the first few chapters. But then they pull a new secret move out of their butts or 'try harder' and win. It has one great defeat in it, pyrrhic victories, but ultimately it's a younger story. If it's your first time, it's probably a good story but to me it wasn't great. Still amazing art, but it reminds me of Bleach. I hated Bleach and of Naruto and One Piece, Bleach was the worst of the golden three stories of the era.

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken--I Reincarnated as a Slime--is bad, but it's still better than most isekais. The bar is currently under the ground, so that's not much, but I actually liked reading it because it's one of the more 'classic' isekais. If Sword Art Online was one of the examples of the first wave, along with perhaps...Overlord being wave 1 or wave 2, then 'Slime manga' is probably wave three.

The Wandering Inn, for reference, I might place as a wave 2 web serial story. I define 'waves' as the first stories to come out in a genre or sphere, so Worm by Wildbow is a wave 1, classic web serial that launched the genre.

That earns you some points for being first, but the slime manga is still an example of everything isekais are bad about. Overpowered protagonists, bad events being resolved easily, attractive protagonistss with convenient abilties, harems..

But it's not as bad as the other isekais which take all these attributes and run with them. The slime manga treats its protagonist like the manager of a Japanese company...and it works a bit. It's still a bad story, but I feel the need to explain the fact that I see the effort in construction even if I disagree with the premise and see the lazy shortcuts at times and feel less engaged than I could be. Because otherwise, how would I be able to tell you what trash looks like?

'MY S-RANK PARTY FIRED ME FOR BEING A CURSIFICER'...is better than Level 999 Villager. I actually read all of the chapters available to me, about 20. Level 999 Villager I dropped like a bag of crelers once I got past the intro and saw what it was made of. And even then--it can get worse.

If there is a bottom, these are still one or two ranks below the absolute level of trash isekais can get to. I am not kidding, and if you have picked up the dime-a-dozen stories infesting manga right now, you can find even worse. I won't rant about isekais and all the pitfalls of the genre--or the cultural differences that sometimes appear--just know that reading these two stories was like eating fast food.

Regardless of whether I enjoyed a bit of it, I don't feel good afterwards. Or I feel neutral at best, not satisfied. So, after all these stories, I re-read Bard Loen, a manga a reader of TWI recommended to me.

And it felt good. It felt satisfying. Bard Loen has a lot of traits of manga--it's not an isekai, but it has a powerful protagonist. It's not the most dramatic of stories. It's 'slice-of-life OP Protagonist good things will happen'--and that's a genre in manga. But this one feels good to read because the story is there. It's not perfect, but it feels...satisyfing.

I complain about bad games constantly. Even my family asks me if I enjoy things and the answer is yes. I should mention that more. Bramble, Cassette Beasts, Roguetech, System Shock remastered, are all games I played recently that I liked. If I had the courage to actually play Amnesia: The Bunker, I think it'd also  meet that list.

Bad stories annoy me more than most people, I suspect, so I can't turn off my brain and enjoy the gameplay or visuals if the story is so bad it distracts me. But in the same way, I dislike bad manga. I like Bard Loen. I'm catching up on Marblegate, a web comic and going to re-read The Property of Hate. These are good stories, and if I hate other stories, especially a lot of AAA-games or productions, it's because I think they can do better, especially given their budgets. They're 'safe', and it may sell but I don't respect it.

Anyways, I'll try watching something too, but I like reading more, and I can read a manga series in a day whereas movies and TV shows take more of my time. This has been my indulgence of writing my thoughts out. Now the poll, and I'll see you on Tuesday with a chapter. 

Summary: Break was rough. I'm picky. Things aren't actually that bad. Writing on novel soon. Don't get in a sub.

Oh...and here's one last bit. Given the nature of the work coming to me, I may literally only have time to fulfill the poll before I write Gravesong 2. So depending on what you vote for...it'll be all of what you get. Do you want to finish an arc? Relax? Tell me. Your vote matters. Each vote is for an arc or theme.

--pirateaba