Weekly Roundup - 2

Some days passed and the Rising Stars rush is finally over. We're about to close the Second Arc, and start with the final Act of the first book.

When I first drafted Arcanist In Another World, it was about an OP Mage going about a different world, and doing OP Mage things. There was a slice-of-life feeling to it, a sort of calmness that made the whole thing... a little flat to me.

The reason? The characters. All of them grew too much out of my hands that I couldn't have crammed them in an artificial plot to act like tiny globs of excitement. It should've been their motivations that carried the book, and so the book changed according to their codes.

The Lovecraftian-Diablo-like touch came naturally to me, since I wanted Valens to become more than a Healer, but not just another mage. I wanted to explore more areas where he could use his abilities in interesting ways. Hence the idea of him becoming the 'cure' to the shadows, which I still think is cool as hell.

I knew from prior experience that having too many spells would get old quite soon, and there would be expectation of Valens diving deep into the magical side of things. Chapters upon chapters of spell creations, stat revelations, the min-max scenarios, him contemplating the best possible build just for the sake of it.

Well, I've never been much of a fan of those stories. I do, however, like my magic explored in different ways, and affecting the world in which people actively use strange abilities. In the first two Arcs, I've tried to work the plotlines I've planned into the book in a way that would serve the story. Ultimately, though, I do think a book is about characters, and they should take the driving seat.

On the more personal side, the day I took off (31st of March) was the day I got engaged. Happy stuff. It was a good break from the Patreon and Royalroad rush since there was a point when all I did through the day was to check notifications and read comments.

Honeymoon period over, eh? (Not my real one, ofc, since there's still months for that to truly start.) It's now story time. I'll see you tomorrow as usual. Do comment if you have any feedback for the book, I'll always appreciate those comments! As Garran said, there's bound to be some rotten apples, or in this case, mistakes I've made through the chapters, but I can safely say that I'm happy with how things are moving on.

Cheers for now!

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