Hello all ye quirky internet dolphins,
(Sorry just trying to find a good signature greeting, very 2012 youtuber of me I know)
In honor of writing the 40th chapter I wanted to celebrate many of you awesome folks who have supported me in this fanfic journey so far, be it in silent Powerstones, comments pointing out minor grammatical and spelling errors I had missed, sending supportive comments, or sharing ideas on ways to take the story or ways to improve my writing.
While this is a general shout out to all of you folks reading my fic, I wanted to highlight a few names who have had a significant impact.
First of all thank you to Weltraum Geist, the advice you gave me was greatly appreciated when I was still learning the ropes and highly insecure in my ability to tell a compelling story. I still reference a few of your comments when writing a new chapter like a checklist of sorts.
My second shout out goes to you The_top_at_slime, thank you for always sharing your ideas. There are a few plotlines I was worried about having to write a completely new device or item for but can easily be substituted by some the ideas you have shared with me over the past few months.
FSoul, Faker_27, thank you for the support you have shown towards me and the story so far. It feels nice to know that I haven't bored you guys or scared you away with the massive blocks of text I am prone to writing.
As for the folks like Fullpower, and CasstheEevee, thank you for your feedback. In order to truly grow I need folks who will shoot straight with me and not gloss over the rough patches in my writing. Please, keep calling me out, it gives me a person I can talk about my reasons for taking the story a certain way, and potentially find better methods through conversation. And it feels great to know that there are people invested enough in the story that they expect better of me, and won't let me fall into lazy writing.
There was actually an interesting case I wanted to reference for this. At Marin Academy, a private school in California, they have a project called "Biosphere 2," which was basically a greenhouse that they used as a sandbox to test different agricultural techniques and products without potentially harming the environment. Anywho, they discovered that their trees, while they were growing large in their well regulated greenhouse, were not growing strong enough to support their large sizes and would fall over easier than they should have. After some research, they found that wind plays a vital role in helping trees grow strong. Apparently strong winds causes trees to form something called "stress wood" which is the part of the tree that makes it so sturdy. Their greenhouses were not giving the trees enough strong winds in order for them to grow stress wood and so their trunks didn't develop in the ways they are supposed to.
Cutting to the point, you, you readers, not just Fullpower and CasstheEevee, folks who spot something I could improve, let it out. This story and my path as an author is like a tree, help me build a sturdy foundation, and habits so I can write strong compelling stories.
But don't take this as a ticket to just trash talk folks. I like the community we have so far, while I haven't seen many interactions, I like the respect people have shown to each other and I want to keep things that way. Thank you.
Oh and FSoul, don't worry, like I've said before, I have no plans on dropping this fic. And if I were, I'd make sure to find some way to bring it to a respectful close before doing so. I personally hate it when authors write stories that I gat attached to only to suddenly drop it, most of the time with no notice.
If I am suddenly gone, there are only four options, 1st I am currently overloaded with life, but make no mistake I will be back with a vengeance. 2nd, I am hospitalized and likely in a coma or have lost both my arms and working to learn to type with my nose or feet to post a new chapter. 3rd I am deceased in which case... Well let's not get into that. And 4th I just lost access to my Webnovel account.
I did a bit of snooping, forgive me, and I saw that a few of my readers are also authors. I hope you have had as much of a fun and interesting time as I have had. And some of you I would highly recommend posting an update, I'm sure you have at least one reader who wants to know how the stories you write end. I believe that your stories are worth telling, unless they enable/support things like Nazism (though that isn't an issue with any of you guys from what I can see, just stating that in my personal opinion there is a caveat).
It's been a crazy journey for me so far, I can't believe it's been around 6 months since I timidly posted that first chapter. At times feels like I've only been doing this for a few weeks and other times, years. I look forward to continuing my journey with you guys.