A Pause - author's note

Good evening/afternoon.

So yeah, this is not going to be an actual chapter of the book. This is me, the author of TSAF. Completely newbie author, if I am even qualified enough to be called an author. I apologize for ghosting, not uploading a single chapter for days.

I'm aware that this book gains very little viewership, and this chapter (that's not actually a chapter) is likely to be left completely unread. But still, I have to be responsible. So to the few who did actually read my work and/or have been expecting updates, I would like to first thank you for sticking around. It's delightful to imagine that there's someone out there who enjoys what I write.

TSAF is my first actual serious project, to be honest. So this work has been a learning process for me. I put a lot of hours into it, including all the brainstorming sessions. It was to the point where I grew fond of not just the story and the world within it, but also Magnus himself as a character, and his family and friends. I can even say that I wasn't able to go a day without writing a single chapter.

Like, I was physically unable to. It has become something that I just naturally did, you know. And that really was something completely new to me. I have experience written short stories before, and attempted to write a novel. But I had never gotten to a level as serious and as consistent as this. I had never been this committed.

However, as the story progressed, I realized this book is majorly flawed. It doesn't sit well with me if I decided to just bulldoze through, despite all the glaring mistakes. It feels kind of irresponsible of me, since I want to do right by the world and characters that I've created. At one point I even thought that this story was hopeless, which in itself is an irresponsible thing to think about.

It's not hopeless. Still, I was becoming more and more reluctant to just keep going while being burdened by these lingering flaws. It haunted me day and night, if I had to exaggerate it.

Well, it's all a learning process for me. I won't actually quit writing TSAF, as I do have a lot of things already designed for future arcs and scenarios. But right now I just need to take a step back and let this story come to a pause. I will come back to it at some point in the future, but for now, I will be focusing on another story I'm currently developing. I have taken some of the things I've learned from writing TSAF, and applied my lessons into this project, and hopefully it will turn out better.

It is titled Catcher of Waves (please do check it out, if you would be so kind). So far, I can already tell the difference between my experiences writing the two books; I'm honestly feeling prouder presenting this one than I was with TSAF back when it started. Like, if someone were to ask me for my portfolio, I'd show them Catcher of Waves first, despite it having been created after TSAF.

As to why? It's because it has its own identity. That is one of the major flaws TSAF is suffering. I borrowed so many elements from other people's works that it has lost its own identity in the process. Which makes me feel less proud of how it came out.

But that is not the case with Catcher of Waves. I developed it in a way that it can stand on its own without having to rely on many crutches. I found myself having to wrack my brain even harder to come up with ideas, from scratch, that can support its story and world-building, instead of simply borrowing many tropes and adopting them into the story.

In a way, this is an even more difficult project for me. But at the same time, I'm proud to call it a work of mine.

So to conclude, I'm sorry to say that Magnus' journey has to be brought to a pause. Not a full stop, mind you. But yeah, he deserves a break.

That's about it from me. I still have a lot to learn, and I'm so far from reaching the high grounds within the dao of writing, much less the peak. But I've taken this chance and I intend to see it through.

-Glasselia