Weekly Update #137 | Three-year Writing Anniversary! Special announcement and teasers inside!

Here we are. Three years later after I officially began writing web serials and posting them for others to read. 5,265 hours total have been spent writing spread out across 3,480,234 words. Hot damn. I've managed to write over a million words per year.

You can check my worksheet where I've logged all daily hours and words here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YUECX8IX_ykSXBHDtYefkk6GgH82PwwQ/view?usp=sharing

It hasn't all been easy, though. Most people don't even know of my very first story. It was a story that only ever got about 40 followers at its peak on Royal Road after around 300k words and 3 months of posting multiple times a day. It also had the most rushed and bullshit ending ever because I ran out of ideas for it and was never really passionate about it in the first place. I tried too hard to appeal to RR's edge-loving demographic since I thought that was what people wanted to read there. I wasn't true to my own wants and writing style.

There were a few other dropped series during that time, too. Ero Dungeon Evolution, Steel Glory, Subverting Tropes in Another World, the unnamed horror "dungeon" core story, Cultivating Mass, and most recently, CORE and The Queen's Hound. I've dropped more series than I've continued, even if half of those were only short little experiments here on Patreon to see if I would stick with them.

But despite my failures, I've managed to succeed. Here I am, still successfully making a living off of my writing thanks to all of you who have continued to support me over the years. I've got several series I'm genuinely in love with and wish could go on forever, but I know I'm going to have to eventually bring an end to them. I've also got to prove that I can actually successfully finish a series to the people who I've, understandably, convinced that I'm not capable of doing that. Gotta prove them haters wrong, ya know?

A lot of stuff has also happened in my personal life. Most of you know by now that I'm basically acting as a live-in caretaker for my grandma whose dementia is worsening by the day. There's also the anxiety I felt when I was suddenly hit by a massive case of imposter syndrome a few months ago back when I was contemplating dropping TQH and CORE, but that's more or less gone away now. You know, it's kind of funny. I'm actually happier now that I'm making less on Patreon than I was when I was making twice this amount every month. Maybe a part of me doesn't believe I ever deserved to make that much. Maybe making that much made me feel more pressured than what I could handle on top of everything else. Regardless, it hasn't been easy, but I'm still hanging on and feeling better about everything lately. It helps that I've learned to look at all my negative reviews--and trust me, there's a lot of them--as sources of humor. Just got a new one on TQH asking what kind of drugs I'm on and wanting me locked up in a mental asylum for writing "bestiality." Seriously, it was hilarious. The poor bastard hated the entire thing but read all the way through it. The man is a true masochist who I could learn a thing or two from.

But for all the negativity I receive, I get far more positivity both from myself and all of you, and that's what truly matters. I still love my writing and my stories, and I know that most of you at least kinda like them, too. Am I the greatest writer around? Pfftt, definitely not nor do I want to aim to be. I'm happy as long as my stories can entertain you at least a little bit every week. If I ever make you laugh or smile, then I've already achieved the highest possible goal I care about. I just want all of us to have fun, after all!

Anyways, enough of me rambling about all that boring stuff. This is the only Patreon post I've made public to all my readers before, including non-patrons, so there are probably a lot of you who just want to get to the teasers and announcement. So, I'll do that and then talk about the few stories that have survived and will continue doing so!

New Series Teasers

First off, teasers about things I've been working on. Or well, I guess they're more like previews.

The one most people probably care about is the TQH rewrite. I already posted the first 8k words of one rewrite last month or so, but I ended up not being happy with it and started over from scratch again. There's not much because I've still been struggling with how I want to do things, but I'm far, far happier with this version of the rewrite than I was with the last one. You can read it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qCb370eMv5X_uIamZp2TFh5KqCsAUg-E/view?usp=sharing

I still don't have a date for when I'll have more of this done. Honestly, even though I'm happier with it now, I'm still struggling to find the motivation to continue it. Just know that I haven't given up on it yet. 

Next is a series that will definitely be coming out soon and already has a cover being worked on. This one is actually a sort of side-sequel to TTE. What I mean by that is... if TTE is 1.0, and a true sequel to it is 2.0, then this is a 1.5. It's a story that technically takes place after TTE ends, but it can be read as a standalone book that doesn't require reading TTE first to enjoy. I plan on doing a series like this for each shipping child. By that, I mean a side-sequel for Ryouta x Serra's kid, one for Ryouta x Cassandra's kid, and so on. I want each child to have their own side-sequel series. This is the first of these, and I think this first chapter might make it obvious who the MC's parents are now that you know they're from Ryouta and his girlfriends. Also, even though these take place after TTE, I don't believe that any of the "spoilers" will take away enjoyment from TTE. Of course... there might be some little teasers here and there in the future for things that haven't happened yet in TTE, but I'll be doing my best to keep them separately enjoyable as much as possible. You'll just have to have some faith in me that I'm not going to spoil anything that actually matters. The things that I do "spoil" will be intentional and, hopefully, make each series even more enjoyable if you're reading both of them.

To give a quick plot synopsis: infamous griefer/troll from other games plays new vrmmorpg game and gets harem while trolling other players and causing chaos. Basically, he's giving Ryouta a run for his money from back when Ryouta ran the Divine Brigade. Gotta surpass the old man, after all.

Anyways, you can read the first chapter of this here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yLuZCbJ2RRg2wSghD-KP-v7tha363xnK/view?usp=sharing

And now here's a weird one. I started writing this a while ago but then stopped, then started again, then stopped, and blah. It's something I'm really interested in and have had a lot of fun writing, but I feel like there are better and more successful projects that I could work on instead. I have no idea how well this would be received. I mean, it's basically Borderlands x Space Dandy x Redline narrated in a style like CORE, but the narrator isn't the main character, and it's full of pretty crazy shit with a heavy focus on sci-fi and action which are two things I'm not that familiar with at all. So, if you read this and enjoy it, try not to get your hopes up for more since it's the idea I'm the least sure about. But, if people read this sample and they really enjoy it, then that might motivate me into thinking it's a good idea to write after all! Because as happy as I am , I do still need to make more money since my Patreon has taken quite the hit, so it's going to be best for me if I focus on stories that I both want to write and that will bring me the most new patrons. This is something I want to write, but I have absolutely no idea if it will bring my patrons.

Also the first waifu, while not introduced, is supposed to be a horny kuudere robot. I'm just saying. Aside from that, uh, it's kinda just a super random, bloody, and comedic space adventure. Think plot absurdity like LDQ but with characters and a setting like Borderlands. Heck, there's even an LDQ reference on the first page for anybody paying attention. It should be pretty obvious.

Check out this idea here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bdC8X366ZycfltU-cnaOOjWpPSP3ca5V/view?usp=sharing

The Big Announcement

Well, I think this is a pretty big announcement, anyways. It's what I've recently sunk a lot of money into and plan on doing my absolute best at. I can imagine that some people might worry it will distract me from my writing, but I promise that won't be the case. My stories are still going to be my #1 priority.

That being said, this is part of why I've invested so much money into building a new computer with the best available parts on the market. It's why I've invested in a better audio setup, why I redid my entire room to make more space and put together a new desk, why I bought streaming equipment, and why I spent more on art than I normally do for covers.

I'm...

Going to be a vtuber.

Before anybody else gets to see it, here's the grand reveal and all that.

That's right. I've been lying to all of you this entire time. I've actually been a dog. All those times I talked about going bald and having a big beard and mustache and glasses - clearly lies. I'm dog. Woof. Why do you think I wanted to write TQH in the first place? Gotta get my bone on if ya know what I'm saying.

But while I might have been deceiving all of you about how I look, since the above is 100% how I genuinely look, I was not deceiving you about my love for sweaters. That is why the jacket can come off.

So yeah. I'm gonna try out this whole vtubing thing. I plan on debuting probably later this month or early next month. Just have to wait on the rigger I hired to animate everything now.

I actually wanted to do this a long time ago. Like, ever since vtubing first became a huge thing a couple of years ago. I loved the idea but always doubted that anybody would be interested in not only an English vtuber, but a male vtuber. Yet, thanks to Hololive EN's success, a bunch of indies have started up and are finding success. Plus I've always wanted to try making videos in the first place. So, that's what I'll be doing.

I plan on doing lots of short, prerecorded videos, too. I'm not going to be just a streamer. Let me tell you, I've already got like 10 different Rimworld "story" series planned that I'd love to do daily uploads of. Maybe 20-30 minutes each day. But other than Rimworld, I'd also like to make videos about writing, play other games (mostly strategies and flight sims), and just do some casual chatting streams if there's ever any interest in that.

So yeah. Vtuber Ace. Woof.

Maybe one of these days I'll write a short little one-shot about me. Like a little autobiography from my time as a 100% legitimate doggo pilot. You know, gotta have lore.

Ongoing Stories

The True Endgame

It shouldn't be any secret by now that TTE is my baby. I always feel a bit bad when I say this because I feel like it might upset readers who like my other stories way more, but it's true. TTE and its expanded universe is my absolute most favorite thing right now. I just... fuck, I love it. I've never felt this passionate about any project before in my entire life. I've just got so many ideas, so much I want to do, so many other series related to it - I can't get enough of TTE.

And with this latest volume, now that we're going into the more "plot" heavy part of the series (it only took 8 volumes), we're dealing with specific themes and getting a bit deeper than just being random slice of life. I'm sure that, to some people, it's going to come off as 'I'm very smart" or "I'm 14 and this is deep," but I'm happy with it and plan on doing more of this. You see, all the weeb shit and harem shenanigans were just bait to lure everybody in to reading about my pseudo philosophy. It's all been part of a long con. Now that you're hooked on cute fluff, it's time for me to try and make you think about things.

But don't worry, there's still going to be tons of cute fluff, too.

Ero Dungeon Online

While this isn't a series I love as much as TTE, it's still one I love. It lets me somewhat sate the side of me who is a horny bastard who just wants to write tons of monster-on-girl sex all the time. And while I might not love the series itself as much as I love TTE, I do love the characters just as much.

That being said, the only thing I can really think of talking about is that--now that the dungeon is properly getting going in the latest chapters--I'm going to focus on resolving all of the current plot lines before giving Damian anything else to add to his ever-expanding list of things to do. No more distractions! No more new drama! It's time to actually get everything done!

And it's also time to fuck more monsters.

Lazy Dragon Queen

And here we are with LDQ. I feel like I have the least to say about this since most of what I can think of is specific to the latest spoilers which I obviously can't talk about since even non-patrons might be reading this, but I do love this series. It's my second favorite series and also the one that is the most relaxing to write. It's also the one that gets the most reviews to stroke my ego, and the one that gets me the most people telling me how happy it makes them. This story isn't just a happiness drug to my readers, but it's a happiness drug to me, too. I'm looking forward to it lasting for years to come with all sorts of waifus and nonsensical things happening!

New Years Resolutions

I've got 7 minutes to finish typing this if I want to actually post it on my anniversary, so time to speedrun.

1. Interact with my community more on RR and SH. I've been interacting with everybody on Patreon and my Discord, but interaction on RR and SH have, admittedly, kinda died down. I want to fix this.

2. Read more. Starting next week, I'm going to do my best to read one whole book a week.

3. Write more. I got lazy and complacent with only having to update 3 stories a week.

4. Publish at least 6 novels this year. Probably 6 different volumes of TTE. I want to publish the first one at the end of the month and then post a new one every other month.

5. Lose more weight. I mean, you can see in the above pictures that I'm totally already in shape, but it wouldn't hurt to go back on keto to lose more. And to be healthier in general.

In Closing

Thank you all once again, for three years in a row now, for your tremendous support. I wouldn't be able to do any of this without you. You are, genuinely, the only reason I'm able to do this. Your support means everything to me and I promise to do my best to continue making it worth it.

Thank you again, and please look forward to next week's chapters!

Also, if you read the above samples of the three potential new series, let me know what you thought in the comments!

And since it's technically still Friday...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TewCPi92ro