Right, so, negative part first. My current level of inspiration for Journeys of Seraphiel is pretty dried up, as I already hinted at the last chapter. It's been on a downward spiral for a while, but I've been forcing myself to write anyway, with wildly swingy results. Some of the bits that I've written were pretty good in my opinion, but generally the quality has gone down. Most of it is just that I don't know what to do with the story. I have a vague end-state that I'd like to reach eventually in mind, but no inspiration on what happens until then. The story is already getting a bit on the repetitive side and treading water, with chapters with similar content, and I don't want to continue that. I refuse to keep writing bad to mediocre work just to keep things going. As a result, that story is going on a creative hiatus, effective immediately, until I get some of my mojo back.
Now onto the better news. While my inspiration for this story is nil, I have plenty of inspiration in general. I've been writing sporadically for three other stories, though none of those have gotten very long yet. At least on the number of chapters. That's partially because they haven't been written with a weekly schedule pressing down on me, and as a result are often at least twice the length, sometimes much longer. If the chapters for my weekly releases are around 3k words, the longest chapter for these side projects was somewhere around 10k.
What are these side projects? Well, I mentioned some of them before on my Patreon. The one with the most meat on the bones currently is a contemporary corruption story about an investigative journalist. This one has, in my opinion, some of my best writing in it to date. Note, I said best writing, and I mean that in technical terms, so it might not be the best story, but I like my writing in that story personally.
The second one with the most work is a system-based fiction in the Warcract universe. It uses the new system I've been working on with more defined rules and limits, and follows the Cyberpunk 2077's system for the most part, only adapted to fantasy of course. If you've read the story Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI by Seras, which I recommend by the way, then you'll have a pretty good idea of the functioning of the system in a story. Obviously there are differences, but the general gist is similar at least. This story originally started as part of Seraphiel's backstory, so will have some commonalities, but I've been changing it and turning it into a separate story. For instance, the main character isn't a Draenei anymore.
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After those two, I have little side-side projects that I work on when I have a sudden burst of inspiration. For instance, I just wrote three chapters, and counting, for a small fic based on the erotic game Karryn's Prison, which is fantastic by the way. Just because I felt like doing it. I also have a Mass Effect story in the works. That one's still in the planning phase, as I feel more inspired for other stories, and because it has similarities to the Warcraft story, but I believe the time for that one will come as well.
When might you see any of these? I think I'll put at least some of them up on Patreon, available for even free members, when they have more stuff written. I just want to see if they're actually going anywhere before posting them. Besides, they're all still in a phase where I might need to make large changes, which is easier when I haven't actually released anything to the public. The Warcraft story is the most likely to end up on Royal Road as well. I don't know if I can put the contemporary reporter one there, because as a corruption story it by necessity includes quite a bit of sexual content. Or I should say it will include, as so far it has none, but things will start heating up as things are wont to do in stories like that. The Karryn's Prison one definitely will never be on Royal Road for similar reasons. I mean, it's based on an erotic game based on a woman running a prison for males. What do you think will happen?
So I suppose those on Patreon will finally see some benefits, even as a free member. I'll drop the link here in case someone is interested. Apparently, some readers weren't even aware I have a Patreon, which is fine since it's just for appreciation. Just that if I end up putting these stories on the Patreon in the near future, you should be aware where to find them. Of course, if you keep this story on follow, you'll get notified when it comes out of hiatus. Apparently, I can't put the link on a fan fiction, but you know, Patreon+my name should get you there.
