Chương 183: Author's Retrospective - Book 3

Around 4 months from the end of Book 2, we finished Book 3. That's a good pace, I say. We've gained about 750+ followers on Royal Road and 200+ followers on Scribblehub. REND's growth shows no signs of stopping. Thank you for being on this journey with me! Thoughts on Book 3 For those who haven't read the Prior Cycle, one of the criticisms it had was that the middle parts were repetitive slogs, with fight after fight.

Also, the ending of the Arcs/Books feels similar—there's a huge fight, and Erind goes giant werewolf to win. I'm always open to experimenting with my writing, so for Book 3, there were very few fights. As for the ending, Blanchette did appear, but it wasn't a huge battle for the win. A large part of Book 3 is character interactions. There was a lot of planning, plans not getting followed, things getting crazy, and then characters adapting.

Instead of fights, most of the entertainment came from ruined plans and misunderstandings. I've never written this way before—I usually write plenty of fight scenes—so it feels quite refreshing. I hope you've enjoyed the changes as well. I want every Book to feel different. Challenges in writing That said, there were many challenges in writing Book 3. Foremost is the number of lies and misunderstandings. Even I got confused about what each character knew, or thought they knew, and the lies they've told.

No one really has the full picture, not even Erind. I need a corkboard for this. I'm thankful to the patrons who've caught possible inconsistencies and plot holes before the chapters were released to the public. It was also quite difficult handling group conversations, and we had many instances of those in this book. The groups even have sub-factions, and I have to handle that as well. I hoped I wrote the parallel thought-speaking and actual conversations clearly enough.

And let's not forget the plans that keep changing. This was especially difficult for me because I'm a discovery writer; I do have a general outline, but the nitty-gritty stuff I decide on the fly. It feels more real to me that way. But that also means I'm bound by what I've written. I couldn't go back and revise previous chapters to smooth things out with new ideas I've thought of later. Still, I'd say Book 3 is a successful experiment.

The issues, I can smooth them someday, when I'm ready to turn REND into actual books for publishing. Developing the masks As I've mentioned, in the Prior Cycle, Erind's usual go-to mask is Blanchette to solve most of her problems. For Book 3, I set up the scenario so that Pino will have a significant part to play. Our third mask (name still pending) debuted and was used to escape the Corebrings. I don't want Erind to simply spam Blanchette and brute force a solution to any challenge.

Erind's third mask retained its "weakness" (depends on how you consider it) of normal emotions from the Prior Cycle. Back then, it took on a personality of its own, as if it were a separate identity from Erind altogether. That was quite problematic because the old Domino wanted to end "evil" Erind by offing herself. And so, Erind didn't want to use that mask ever again. I think we've fixed the problems now. The third mask is also very powerful, with the help of Glowy Erind, capable of fooling Corebrings.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Building Deen We developed Deen in Book 3, and she progressed in both good ways and bad. Her bad side is definitely cropping up. I wanted to show this now because Deen will have the character growth, not Erind. Erind will be mostly herself, and she doesn't want to change. Deen is full of contradictions that only make sense with her internal logic, making her quite an interesting character.

She's also a huge source of drama and conflict for the story. I can't think of any character tandem in other books quite like the dynamics of Erind and Deen. Also, we wrapped Book 3 nicely with a cathartic ending. Deen needed to be called out, even if she won't change soon. And the hit was satisfying. Building other characters Foremost among the new characters is Erind's mother. Her screentime was short, but we showed a rare side of Erind.

I think having Erind's mom appear, even if she didn't do anything significant, contributed to building Erind's character. It showed a normal side to Erind that contrasted with other parts of her personality. The hero wannabes got more screen time compared to previous books. We managed to build them, though not to the extent of Deen. We also shone some light on the other factions, like the PCM, the Corebrings, and the BID.

The story of Book 3 is simple—finding the PCM base—but we managed to showcase the other characters. Plans for Book 4 Book 4 is past a third of the way on Patreon. We'll have some unforeseen developments, though some readers have predicted them. And we'll also have the road trip arc from the Prior Cycle, perhaps the most favorite arc by Prior Cycle readers. Plus, some beloved (and not) characters from Prior Cycle will make an appearance. More Erind and Deen interactions during the road trip. We'll visit new places.

There will also be lore developments not present in the Prior Cycle. More insane twists, misunderstandings, and lies. Book 4 will span maybe a few days or so. This is actually a weakness of mine, in that I pack so many events into a short duration. For Book 5, let's see if I can change that. Questions for readers When I started writing REND several years ago, it had plenty of pushback and negative ratings. One of the main criticisms was the lack of relatability of Erind—this is to be expected, given her nature.

However, readers now like Erind. Perhaps there's a new openness to other types of main characters that wasn't present during the earlier days of Royalroad. More than liking Erind, many readers connect to Erind despite what she is. More so than the normal main characters in other webnovels. Why is that? What do you think of Deen's crazy development? It might really turn out to be the case that Erind is the sanest person in the setting. I wanted Deen to be crazy herself to balance Erind's personality.

Otherwise, Erind would just bully and manipulate Deen if she were a normal person. Give suggestions on what you want to see for the future of REND. And also drop your theories here. I love reading your theories. They might even be better than my plans, and I'll end up adopting them. S upporting REND Since we've reached the end of a Book, I hope you can spare the time to rate and review REND. It'll help with REND's visibility and will also entice potential readers. Favoriting, following, and commenting also help.

I'll be really grateful if you recommend REND to others. I invite you to join our Discord (https: //discord. gg/zgBkgHB3Q2) and participate in the craziness there. People even make art and stickers for REND. Share your theories, or just hang out. If you want to read ahead, we have advanced chapters available on Patreon—your financial support will greatly help me.

I'm very thankful for the support of the current patrons in these trying times; I've maintained our three chapters per week schedule because of their help. We'll have the first chapter of Book 4 on Wednesday. Onward! Maybe we can eke out another book before the year ends.