2023 Is Here, and 2022 Is Thankfully Over

So, I started this whole thing in August of 2021, nearly a year and a half ago. One could say it was long overdue or that my middle-life crisis hit me weirder than most people. At least one of these two is definitely, partially correct.

What matters is that it worked.

Partially.

I mean, between the Patreon and the commissions, I’m finally more or less on par with what I used to make in my previous employment, though that is with the caveat that my words per month have multiplied in a way I previously thought impossible. I’m still below minimum wage in my country, but that’s not as much of an issue as it could be if my personal circumstances were any different.

So, what does all that mean?

I am going to shake things up a bit, but mostly due to creative reasons that will, with a bit of luck, result in financial gains. This means focusing more on original projects and leaving the fanfics only for commissions or poll winners (you know, those polls I rig so that only things I’m interested in have a chance to win—and by “rigging,” I mean “the only people who vote are those who already like what I’m doing”). Hopefully, some of the originals will manage to turn in a profit as ebooks (And thank you to anyone who has either bought or rated the currently published ones!), while another original project will bring an audience from non-fanfic-focused sites, as I’ve been meaning to post on Royal Road for a while.

(Any suggestions in this regard are most definitely welcome. I keep telling you all that I’m awful at the business side of things.)

With that being said, let’s go from vagaries to the nitty-gritty, shall we?

Wake-up Call

As much as I shudder to even contemplate it, Wake-up Call is currently running on sheer momentum and inevitability to the point where I originally envisioned it ending. The dominoes are falling, the characters are being themselves, and things are lining up to what I hope will be a fulfilling climax and a good enough epilogue. At my current pace, this will still take months, but… But this story will end in 2023. I just hope you will all be satisfied with it and that it will bring you at least a bit of the joy it has brought me.

I need those karma points, after all.

All Right! Fine! I Will Take You!

Another one bites the dust.

This is a bit less certain than Wake-up Call, as that fic has always been more plot-focused, so it’s easier to see the ending point. I have been talking for months about how the Cakeverse is nearing its ending, but that’s if I stick to the sequence of events that I planned and keep second-guessing myself on.

Mostly? Because I love these characters too much, and I’m terrible at letting go (don’t ask my exes).

So, I think it will take a few months more for me to get over the pressure to give them their best ending, and then… Then I will keep posting small After Stories for a while, because I can see the whole cast having interesting things to say years down the line, and I’m loath to have those things left unsaid.

But this will still end in 2023.

Original Project X 

Once the two weekly fics are done, I’ll start the arduous process of… deciding what comes next. This will be one of the many, manystories that I’ve had half-formed inside my brain for decades. It will be an original, and it will first replace the slot of the first story to be finished, then go up to two weekly updates (possibly three, if my powers keep growing beyond the ken of mortal men). When the time nears, I will open up the discussion on what it shall actually be.

Ginosko

This is… almost over. I think three or four chapters are all that’s left, and…

Well, I’m definitely going to miss this world. I think it has had an actual impact on me, and that second chapter still stands as one of the high points of my writing. So it’s definitely great news that Shaderic was generous enough to let me know he would be perfectly okay with me editing it as an original novel as soon as I’m done.

I both anticipate and dread such a prospect.

Zaimokuza Gaiden

Speaking of things I dread…

I already told you all how much this project meant to me, and I also explained my plans (and doubts) about editing it into an original. I’m afraid I haven’t made much progress on it due to the holidays being… well, the holidays, but I’ll have to allot it some time for proper editing. Maybe I’ll ask for beta readers when I’m nearing the point where I think it’s publishable.

…

And maybe I’ll even send it to an actual editor rather than trust in my meager self-publishing skills. Weirder things have happened.

I guess.

Yuis’ Lily Garden

This one is also nearing its end. I feel that most of what should be told about this little spin-off is already written, and there are only two story beats that I definitely want to write: Haruno and Yukino having a talk, and Yui getting her turn.

Reciprocity, people. It’s a thing.

(I’ll also be sad to see them go, but they will definitely have their own After Story in the main fic.)

Puella Monstrum Madoka Moecha

While I have an ending in mind and some foreshadowing about it has been laid out, this always was more about the character vignettes, so I don’t have a definitive stopping point in mind. That being said, Mister Bad Guy has been very involved in the process of this story from the start, so we’ll see what we think is best.

(It will probably end in 2023 as well. I am seeing a trend in here.)

Wordsworth

Oh, boy.

Look, I love Wordsworth. I adore what it’s allowed me to explore and how deeply I can submerge myself in this Taylor’s head. I wish Wordsworth would keep going forever.

But it won’t.

Because Wordsworth has always been about stories, and stories end. If they are lucky, they end well.

And I know what the last chapter is going to be. I could write it right now as well as I could’ve written it months ago. There’s an inevitability, a cadence, to how Wordsworth’s journey has been chronicled. Now I only need to nail down some of the details of a little detour before the final stretch.

And, yes, this will happen in 2023.

Of Sisters and Shadows

This is quite a different story, and I feel somewhat guilty about it. Xalgeon gave me a very well-defined starting point for the fic, and I figured I could feel it out as I went, much like I did with Wake-up Call. While it has worked so far, and I have in mind a few scenes that I think will be rather cool to experience when we get to them, I definitely should have planned it out better. I guess most of the work with this story will be precisely that: to decide what to do with all the shiny bits and pieces messily lying around my mismanaged brain.

So, no definite date on the ending, mostly because I’m still unclear on what it should be.

Periodical Cicadas

This suffers a bit from the same issues as Of Sisters and Shadows. I started the fic with a very clear point of divergence in mind, a killer, their methods and objectives, and some of the plot beats.

I think it’s clear enough my word count has already outpaced my planning.

Again, this wouldn’t be a problem if the nature of this story was closer to Wake-up Call’s, but it isn’t. It’s a mystery, a thriller, and it should be building up toward a climax, not just trust that my subconscious will save my disjointed ass yet again by pulling something that could be mistaken for brilliance by an uninformed observer.

So, at this point? I need to plot.

To paraphrase Katsuragi Keima: I can’t already see the ending.

The Danger of Komachi Points

I always envisioned this fic ending with the confrontation against Yukino and Komachi gleefully derailing all of Hachiman’s plans. Honestly, that still seems like a good idea, but I’m currently not in a hurry to get there.

I mean, I enjoyed it a lot despite my initial stress at Hachiman cheating, but I currently have my hands full enough with the main timeline of the Cakeverse. Maybe it would make for a nice farewell gift once I start posting after stories, assuming Honorbound is on board with that?

Fitful Nights

I hesitate to mark this story as dead because I still put it up on my Patreon poll, and if it wins, I have a clear idea for what the third chapter should be. Still, it not only looks like a very unlikely winner, but… I had a too-broad scope in mind for this. I imagined scenes of the rippling events that would come from Azula and Zuko’s closeness and how it would utterly derail the plot of Avatar as a whole, because there’s absolutely no way this Zuko would leave this Azula behind to go conspire with the enemies of the state.

At the same time, there’s also no way he would have let his sister be hurt any further after Ty Lee made her move.

So, to properly finish this story, I would need a lotof words, and I don’t think this is the right move at the moment.

On the other hand, it might be. Let me know what you think.

Bad Girl Guidance

Shaderic has expressed interest in commissioning a bit of a continuation with Shego being given a chance to work out her sexual frustrations (and her history with Kimmie). We shall see what comes out of it, but not before I finish Ginosko.

April Seventeenth

I have an ending in mind, but I need a bit more connective tissue so that it doesn’t come across as jarring. It shouldn’t take more than three chapters, and likely only two.

Still, this story only gets updated when it wins the poll, so… It may end in 2023. Or it may not.

Self Insert of the Dead

Okay, I know this is a cliché, but this is… complicated.

Leekz01 has messaged me to tell me he’s willing to pick this project back up. As I already said, I was frustrated at it ending before I could show off some of the ideas I had had for the world-building (not to mention it was a bit of a rush to get such a great excuse to get back into martial arts—I had never studied the spear before, and it was certainly interesting to dip my toes in it for Rei’s character; on a completely unrelated note, my saber has been kinda tetchy for a while).

So, on the one hand, I want to at least write up to the point I had planned for and give this a good ending, even if maybe a bit of an open-ended one.

On the other?

High School of the Dead is great at a lot of things. Plotting and setting are not among them.

I put a lot of work into this commission that, to be perfectly honest, was more or less me warping my ideas in a way that they could conform to the original story. And, after I thought the commission ended, a part of me took off the blinders it had been wearing, grabbed me by the collar, slammed me against the wall, and all but yelled, “This is a fucking original story with waifu portraits tacked on, you fool.”

So, after I decided to maybe take my meds (that I don’t have), I considered that the vivid hallucination may have had a point. And that, maybe, I should just rewrite the damn thing from the start and put it up as one of the options to replace Wake-up Call and All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! on the docket.

Anyway, there’s no rush to make such a decision, because I’m physically unable to write more stories than the ones I’m currently working on. I just feel awful I haven’t been able to give a definite answer regarding this yet.

A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy

Onto brighter subjects!

… I don’t know what I’m doing.

No, seriously, I was so shocked at the popularity of this story that I keep piling pressure on myself to have it reach the (at this point, entirely magnified by my nostalgia glasses) quality of the first chapter. This means that every new installment keeps accruing more and more words, and that I keep hesitating on what moves to make. The funny thing is that I know what the ending will be, but I have absolutely no clue what this chaotic, overwritten mess will go through before it reaches it.

Honestly? I’m halfway tempted to have it become one of the new weekly stories, but that would come at the cost of much smaller chapters, because there’s absolutely no way I can pull off more than one per month of the monstrosities that often come out of Kazuma interacting with his changed circumstances.

Tales from a Lewd Fantasy World

A part of me wants to make this public. It’s a very stupid part of me that just wants to read more discussion about it.

Okay, for those unfamiliar with it, Tales from a Lewd Fantasy World is an original series of short stories that have been a Patreon exclusive up till now and that I am currently posting on Amazon. The series has two kinds of stories: one-shots that delve into world-building (such as a magical college student discovering that the practical applications of her divination classes may or not involve fate itself conspiring to get her to hook up with the hot young teacher of said class) and what may as well be chapters from a slightly disjointed isekai novel with a Hachiman-lite main character who keeps decrying the hentai tropes that he sees everywhere and that, somehow, make sense in context.

I love it. I’m absolutely in love with this series. I want to take it on dates and watch the sunset with it as we grow old together and let the fading last light of the day warm our tired bones.

…

I need to get out more.

Anyway, the plan is for it to remain a Patreon perk, to keep publishing it on Amazon, and to work toward the ending I had in mind when I first allowed Adrian to arch a supercilious eyebrow on the page. It will definitely meander, because that’s the nature of this story, and the chapters take enough work that I doubt very much it will be done in 2023.

Unless it keeps winning the Patreon polls, and I’m forced to consistently (gasp) work on it.

One-Shots and Ebooks

The one-shots that are currently on my Plot Bunnies Poll were originally conceived as a way to let me write out of my comfort zone. To add some variety and spice to my offerings without crowding myself with yet another ongoing series.

A Pure Knight’s Natural Enemy came out of that, so… Mistakes were made.

The thing is, I find it very hard to restrain myself when a story demands of me that I continue it, and… I can’t say I regret it that much, given that Wake-up Call also started as a one-shot that I was prodded into continuing.

Still, finally gathering the courage to post things on Amazon, while far from an economic success at this point (42 books sold so far—the Douglas Adams fan in me is gleeful), has been incredibly satisfying, so it’s likely that I will keep doing it until my author’s page is actually interesting to look at.

(I may or not be planning to have more seasonal stories—one for Valentine’s Day and another for April Fools—so if somebody can think of any other interesting date to add to a future compilation, let me know. My relationship with the calendar has always been somewhat ethereal.)

Commissions

This is the part that makes me feel bad. Some readers have contacted me with their own commissions that I have preliminarily accepted, but given how awfully late I’ve been running with my ongoing projects, well…

I messed up.

As soon as I get some breathing room, I’m going to focus on these neglected stories. Sorry about this, to those of you whose hopes I got up.

And This Is It

No, seriously, that’s… about all I can think about that would interest you. I mean, yes, I am working to lose my pandemic weight, and I’m definitely going to try and get an actual sleep schedule, but… I don’t think you want to read about me, the person, but about what I write.

And so, that’s my actual resolution for 2023:

To write things you all want to read.

Wish me luck. I will, instead, wish you all a Happy New Year. I can only hope I can contribute to making it a tad brighter.