Weekly Update #47

I'm going to cover my review of woof's first volume after I talk about the other stories, so be warned that there will be major spoilers in case you're not caught up to the story on the $10 tier.

And this week's meme is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gas4IbAwUJQ&feature=youtu.be

Weekly Worksheet: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10h6QZ4HtkVUXKNGrfXplFWwWu3n9Ttq-

:blobsweat:

That's right. 49 hours and a total of 33,101 words last week! This week will also probably end up being similar to that because I'm awesome.

Now, some of you might be thinking, "but wait, we should only be getting 21k words a week. Where are all the other words? :thonk:"

The answer to your question is: be patient. It will eventually be uploaded to Patreon.

The True Endgame

Not much to say this week. I think the fifth volume is about... halfway done or so? Despite only being on the fourteenth chapter, the chapters are way bigger now. I want each volume to be about 60k-100k words, and we're already halfway there! Wew. Also, I think I already know what I'm going to be doing once TTE is over. Don't panic yet, alright? TTE is still a long ways from being over. Maybe sometime next year, but for now, it's still got several more volumes that I want to write for it. Anyways, when it does end, I want to replace it with a story that would be similar to it. I've talked to some of you in the Discord before about a very "realistic" gaming slice of life story that has characters actually acting like gamers playing real games. So, I've realized that that story would be a perfect sequel of sorts for TTE. But, again, that's a long way's away.

Ero Dungeon Evolution

More like: "Technological Advancement with Sex Toys in Another World" amirite?

Yeah, I have nothing to say other than that. Sorry.

Steel Glory

d r a m a

c o n f l i c t

f i l l y ' s b o y f r i e n d

Is it obvious that, again, I don't really have anything to say?

Lazy Dragon Queen

Going by Discord reactions at least, people really seemed to enjoy this latest chapter which does make me feel happy feelings. This week's chapter will have the next battle!

Also, be careful of the bees. You never know when Oprah will unleash them on you.

Spoiler Time

The Queen's Hound

Alright. First volume self-review time!

So, one of the first things that comes to mind is the puppy-ness of the MC. One of the main things I've always seen people complain about in regard to reincarnated monster/animal stories is that the MCs never actually act like what they were reincarnated as. So, one of my main goals was to make him actually behave like a puppy. His life as a human still affected him and influenced him most of the time, but in general, I think he was pretty puppy-like. It especially came out during times of praise, scratches, and rubs. However, a lot of people actually got annoyed with how much of a puppy he was acting like. Alas, this is not something that I am going to be changing. I'm happy with it, some people aren't, it's staying.

Next! Elanah. One of the main waifus of the series. Unfortunately for her, I think she has been really underwhelming for most readers. I do plan on giving her more chances to shine and develop her personality in the second volume, but I could probably try to make her more likable when I get around to revising the first volume. I like her, but I'm not 100% happy with how she turned out in the first volume. Then again, she was a new type of character for me. I wanted to write a girl who would get obsessed with a puppy, loved taking care of kids, but who also hated men and was always cold around them, ruthless when it mattered but not without feeling guilty, and who had some kind of extreme mood swings. I also really love the reader theory about her being the MC's daughter. Whether this ever gets confirmed or not, who knows, but I just think it's a fun theory in general. Anyways, I like her, most people are neutral about her, she'll become better.

Zurie Wurie Lurie Murie. Now, Zurie instantly won people's attention and has continued to do so with all of her appearances. People especially loved her moments with the creepy butler. Anyways, she is, by far, probably the most complex character I have ever written and we have only scratched the very surface of what makes Zurie who she is. She would be the main character in any other story. I absolutely love her myself and can't wait to drip-feed you all more information about her. I'm even considering doing a spin-off in the future with her that covers her story from the time that she was a child until the time of this story, but that would be far off in the future after all the important stuff has already been told in this story. Anyways, I love her, readers more or less love her, she's going to get way better and more complex and is just perfect and I love her. Though, I am still smoothing out some of the edges when it comes to her current personality and how she talks/behaves around everybody. Other than that, though, I think she's pretty great.

PACING. Oh boy, the pacing. As RR readers would love to point out, the pacing of the first volume is by far its biggest issue. Now, there are a few reasons for this. One, I wanted the first volume to be like one giant grinding prologue. Most LitRPG readers love these... when actual progress is being made. Because I decided to lock Woofen at level 10 within the first like, what, 20 chapters, and then he didn't evolve for another 40 chapters, that means there were 40 chapters without him ever leveling up. All he did was unlock some new skills every now and then and rank them up. So, he was making progress, but not nearly enough to make people wait so long. Then the evolution was teased for a really long time - probably longer than it should have been teased for. Anyways, I'll admit that I screwed up the pacing of the first volume pretty badly. A lot of it is probably going to be condensed when it comes to revising it and self-publishing it, and maybe I'll raise the level cap so that he's actually gaining levels while grinding instead of only gaining skills. So, I think the pacing is meh at best, a bunch of readers think it's bad, it's going to be heavily improved when I revise it and I am going to be doing my best to give the second volume much better pacing.

The system. Out of all of my stories with systems, it probably has what I would consider to be the best one. It is simple while still being detailed, easily understood, there are no super complex calculations, and it gives a lot of room to work with. So, I'm happy with the system, readers have been enjoying it, and it might go through some minor changes but nothing major.

The MC. The MC was supposed to be sort of shitty person as a human. He had very few morals, killed the innocent when he needed to, etc etc. By all means, he was supposed to be a bad person. Not an evil villain or anything, but just a shitty human being. Even if he did kill innocent people, though, I wouldn't call him evil. He was more chaotic neutral if anything. He put himself first and foremost after events in his past that made him give up on everybody but him. That was how I was trying to portray him. Then, throughout the volume, he'd begin opening up more and gaining some of those feelings from before back. Both because he enjoyed Elanah's touch and felt the need to protect her because of the puppy's spirit fused with his own, he was supposed to become more emotional and protective of her throughout the volume while very much being a tsundere about it. Then, after seeing how much the city has changed, he finally realized just how much of a shithead he really was and he realized that maybe he never should have given up on causing a change in the first place. Just seeing how much the city changed was meant to break through the rest of his shell, resulting in some depression, uncertainty, and following the orders of whoever could guide him at a time when he had no idea what to do with his life anymore. I personally think I pulled his growth throughout the first volume off pretty well, but I will admit it felt a bit rushed near the ending there. I will probably expand on it before self-publishing. Overall, though, I've been very happy with him and I am looking forward to seeing how else he grows! Because trust me, he is going to be growing physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Overall, I wouldn't give the first volume any lower than a 7.5 and no higher than an 8.5 so far. I plan on bringing that up to a solid 8.5 - 10 with revising it. For a first draft, I think it worked out pretty damn well. Is it perfect? Nah. Will it ever be? Nope. Is it going to compete with any of the major best-sellers in the LitRPG field? I doubt it. But, am I enjoying it, having fun with it, and most importantly, am I proud of it? Absolutely.

There are many volumes of this series left to be written, so I hope that you stick around to read them all! The story is only going to get better from here imo.

In Closing

Yeah, I typed enough for this update. Thanks for reading, and I hope that you all have a great week!