Heya, everyone! It's me HopelessHikikomori!
Sorry to disappoint everyone, but this isn't going to be an actual 2nd chapter published in a row.
I know, disappointing.
But, I need to yap a little bit.
The past year...
...has been a bit hard for me. And I am not talking about any personal stuff or anything.
That is a whole other mess.
No, I am talking about how it has been hard for me as an author.
To say the least, as some, or maybe none of you might have noticed, some of the chapters in "Smug" have been highly experimental, to say the least.
My attempt to go out of my comfort zone to improve as a writer.
And while in the last year, I can confidently say that I improved in some aspects, it also feels like I regressed a lot.
Like, not only burnout, that's only part of it, but I felt lost.
Words that used to freely flow out of my mind just get stuck and I don't see a path forward.
Do you get me? Probably not, just general artist struggles, I guess.
And the biggest irony of them all, I tried to improve as an author, while totally unaware of my own strengths.
No shit I struggled as much as I did.
I went too far out of my comfort zone.
Still, I felt a duty that I had to release chapters, not just for all of your sakes, but mine too.
In the end, we got this product, which is arguably a lot better than what I used to write, but also a lot of not what I envisioned.
I...
...am kinda just not happy how some of those chapters turned out. Feels like I could have done better.
But here we are, with a product that's good enough for me to release.
Maybe I am the only one who sees it that way, but that's just how fanfiction writing is.
For your own ego.
Anyways, I am proudest and the most dissatisfied with my last chapter.
Did I do a good job?
Is it really what I wanted to say?
Why did you randomly collab with a random guy who calls themself Something Cringe?
Well, that's a lot of questions I don't have the answers to.
Anyways, to some other news.
Are you still here?
Are you still reading?
Are some people still willing to spend their time on my work?
Well, good (or probably bad) news, but I have a Discord Server now!
Anyone who wants to see me have a mental breakdown working on my chapter can now do so live!
I don't mind you pestering me, but don't expect faster releases just because of it!
Well, the invite link is:
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Anyone who is interested, welcome!
Just...
...don't be unhinged.
Your Author.