《Mother of Learning》Afterword
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Afterword
You have reached the end of the story. What follows is merely some general musings about the story and what comes next. If this doesn’t interest you, feel free to click away.
When I first started posting Mother of Learning on Fictionpress, all the way in 2011, I had no idea it would become as popular as it did. The story, as it was originally conceived, was meant to be a tool for fleshing out the fantasy setting I was building. I had noticed that diving into the setting from the perspective of an actual person living inside it really helped me notice the missing details and various inconsistencies that I would have otherwise missed or glossed over if I was just looked at it from a big picture perspective. Mother of Learning was simply going to be a way for me to visualize the daily life inside the world I was building.
I needed a plan, of course. I knew from my previous writing attempts that I wasn’t one of those people who can write a story while making things up as they go along. Rather than picking something sensible, however, I chose to make it an epic time travel plot spanning multiple continents and involving a small legion of supporting characters. Because if I’m already going to dream, might as well dream big, right?
Right. I wrote a story summary, outlining the entire novel from start to finish. I created a character document containing brief descriptions of all important characters. And then I sat down and started writing.
I wrote about eight chapters before I decided they were not good enough and just plain wrong. So I completely discarded them all and started from scratch.
I then wrote four brand new chapters. I soon discarded them as well. They were no good, either.
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The third time I also wrote four chapters, but this time I actually liked the result. I liked it so much, in fact, that I decided it wouldn’t hurt to share my work with the world. I posted all four chapters on Fictionpress, thinking I would be lucky to get even a hundred regular readers. Nine years later and here we are.
Mother of Learning is finally done. I very much enjoyed writing it, but I’m glad it’s done. It was meant to end here, and being able to bring it to a completion feels good. Some parts of the original concept had to be cut out of the story as it progressed, but I feel the story is ultimately better for it. I was a very inexperienced writer when I first made the original story plan, and its sheer scope was almost unreal. It’s a miracle it served me as well as it had by the end of it.
The story is not perfect by any means. Over the years, I have seen a fair amount of criticism about my work and writing style that feels true. I am pretty sparse in my descriptions, for instance, especially of people. My characters apparently have a tendency to sound very similar to one another. My word choice can be occasionally jarring to perceptive readers, since I often use modern terms without thinking about whether or not they fit the setting. Some of the info dumps and extended explanations probably drag on a little too much. Parts of the story, especially ones towards the end of it, can feel rather hurried and poorly paced, and I’m not sure I really did them justice.
Still. I am happy with how the story turned out in the end, and I am happy to have found so many readers interested in reading this silly story of mine. My audience has been extraordinarily patient and generous to me over the years, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
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I hope that, having read entire story now, you find the journey to have been worth it.
>What do you intend to do now?
Well, in the short term, I intend to sit down and do some editing. I have received many, many typo reports and lists of mistakes from my readers, but I have been focusing solely on writing new chapters for a while now, so they have simply been gathering dust in my editing folder. Now that the story is over, I intend to go over each chapter and correct all the typos people found, so that new readers stumbling on the story have a less frustrating experience.
Also, while the story itself is done, I intent to continue writing more worldbuilding articles for the setting of the story as a whole. Ironically, despite starting the story to help with my worldbuilding, I have kind of been ignoring the worldbuilding side of things. That’s kind of sad, so I hope that will change now that the story is done.
>You should publish the story!
I fully intend to look into publishing options, now that the story is done. I’ve been putting this off until Mother of Learning was finished, since it’s bound to be a time-consuming and frustrating task. Since I am almost entirely ignorant of what this will involve, however, I will not make any promises in regards to this.
>Do you intend to continue writing after this?
Of course. I like writing and I have plenty of ideas for new stories after this. I’m not sure if the ideas are any good, but I certainly have no shortage of them. I’m going to have to make some story plans and write up some test chapters, but I’ll be sure to come back with another story.
>Are you going to write a sequel to Mother of Learning?
Maybe. Definitely not any time soon, but I do have some ideas about a possible sequel eventually. My current idea is that it wouldn’t be nearly as long or grand as the original, and would mostly focus on showing the aftermath of the original and what the characters do in their everyday life. A sort of extended epilogue, more slice-of-life than a grand mystery of the original.
Anyway. This is still in very rough stage, and I can’t even guarantee that it’s going to happen for sure. I guess you’ll just have to wait and see about this one.
>What was your inspiration for the story, anyway?
Various Dungeons & Dragons content, the Avernum series of games, Fullmetal Alchemist manga and anime, and time loop fanfiction.
>Anything else you want to say?
Nope. This is it. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.
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Rome on Middle Earth (ROME)
The legions of rome were about to go back to their camp after recently winning another battle when a flash of light from the sky blinded everyone, next thing they knew there is mist around them and 13 dwarves and an old man with a pointy hat running towards them with a horde of goblins chasing them. Watch the Legions of Rome fight their enemies as once again they make the world tremble as they participate in earth shaking battles, Battle of the six army, Battle of Helms deep, Battle of Minas Tirith, and Battle of the Black Gate. Cover Art Credit: Leo Karpacz I do not own any characters and images in the story.
8 146Drunk Dungeon
Robert was dead. They just died. Nothing happened that was worth talking about it, especially when considering what their new life was about. Reincarnated as a Dungeon Core, a creation of the system to administer challenges and help mortals and Gods alike grow. But while Robert is perfectly content to live their life creating monsters, making treasure, and getting comfortable in their hole. Fate has other plans. Few places are as valuable as a Dungeon, and fewer still have the resources necessary to make them into pits of unending soldiers. Image is not owned by me. Contact me if you are the artist in question. And want me to take it down.
8 203Wild Hunt
Portals to a different world appeared in the world suddenly thirty years ago. Beyond them, a different world exists, one where monsters which drop magical cores exist. Left alone, these Portals eventually collapse, causing the monsters behind them to spill out onto Earth. Those who are Blessed with superhuman abilities to slay these monsters are Hunters. Kim Shiwoon, an everyman in South Korea wishing for a chance to be something more, finds himself thrust into becoming a Hunter. However, he quickly finds that it is not all glitz and glamour in the life of a Hunter... Updates every other day at 5 pm(GMT +8). -Tentative cover is not mine: taken from https://www.clipart.email/download/2425346.html
8 124The Toys of the Fool
Sequel to 'The Unfortunate Fool', 25 years; a century has passed in the world of Royal Road and things have changed quite a bit. The game now even more popular than before having several billions of users online at a time is at it's peak, the continent united as one as the Ahreupen Kingdom under the rule of Emperor Weed. In the mist of this, six new players have joined this game under the request of an old man to find his granddaughter who is hiding in this game with no return. Soon enough they catch the attention of a certain Independent Guild under the leadership of a certain person.
8 541Born With A Quirk(Izuku Midoriya)
Izuku Midoriya, an offspring of Inko and Hisashi Midoriya. Though his mother loved him dearly, his father left to be with another woman he had adored for many years. This left Inko and Izuku to mourn only with eachother.What would Izuku do then?This is an alternate universe of where Izuku Midoriya is actually born with a quirk. But, what if this quirk was too dangerous for a child to handle? Who would be able to save Izuku from his own ability then? And... will he slowly become to be his idol, the greatest hero, All Might? Or will he fall into the depts of his past and slowly become what he despises the most, a villain.
8 156The Order Of Machiavelli
"I swear to you, I won't stop until your legs are shaking, and the neighbors know my name..." Dominikov Machiavelli~~~~~ Meet VIVIENNE FITZMAN, multi billionaire"well, let me introduce myself. I'm the bitch you try as much as possible to never fuck with. I'm going to make you think that you're dying...feel like you're dying...even see that you're dying, meanwhile in real life, you could never have been more fucking alive""YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A FEDERAL JUDGE!" he screamed out"yes I am. but sometimes I act as jury and executioner too"Now, what happens when she makes a mistake? She fucked with the wrong man... Dominikov Machiavelli. the leader of the order of Machiavelli. An organization that made the Illuminati seem like child's play. A man that held the reigning strings over world leaders. This wasn't the mafia. No. this was the man you sent to exterminate the fucking mafia. No one outside the order had ever seen how he looked like and lived to tell about it. A shadow behind an organization that could grant you your innermost three wishes. for a price of course. oh, he wasn't a genie. He was the devil."I want to watch your control slip. watch you reach your breaking point and not be able to do anything about it. And when you eventually scream out all that tension fastly building up within you, knowing you've lost, I'm going to be right here, with my hands on the fucking trigger. My name the only thing on your thoughts before I send you off." Two people who are good at control. Except he's stronger. better. faster. And a lot more richer. A man who never thought he'd meet the girl worthy of him. He got a vixen who's every movement screamed sex on six inch heels!"This is toxic! we're going to be the death of each other. We both have the ability and capacity to burn, and we're going to burn each other to the ground""Good. let's fuck in the ashes then. I swear to you, I won't stop until your legs are shaking and the neighbours know my name "
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