Heyo everyone, Lost here =)

We finished the Lone Macaw! It's something I started to write for a SH-contest last year, and now the edited version found its way to Royal Road. It was an interesting and different experience, so please let me indulge in my fantasies and play real author for a moment.

When I started the Lone Macaw on RR, it went so badly, my chapter count nearly reached my follower count. 18 followers with 14 chapters released. A whopping 6 ratings. Now, 3 weeks later, we broke through 400 followers and over 100 ratings with 15 reviews. We even made it to #11 on the trending list and it's honestly a bit unreal to me :D

I understood from the beginning, that this style of story would be a bit niche inside a giant genre. A really slow story focused on drama and an unlikable MC? Good luck, getting points with that! :D

Even not talking about my writing, it's a "hit or miss" with little in between. When I came back to writing, I thought about my goals and set myself the bar of "I want more people spend time reading it than I invested writing it." With 4 minutes or so for a chapter, that would mean somewhere between 50 and 75 readers. I think, we managed that one.

In short: I just wanted to thank all people who read the story, who commented for motivation or criticism, who gave my story a chance and couldn't get into it, and for all the mind-blowing reviews. Getting feedback is important and RR proved that it had a different focus and provided different takes compared to other sites.

When writing, it's easy to get a bit of a tunnel vision, forgetting to use stuff that is there in one's mind. And feedback often brings new perspectives, new ideas, or just new stimuli. I already could go back and re-write half the volume, but I'll let it be for now and move forward with the story.

The Lone Macaw was the beginning of our MC's evolution from a "depressed and wounded person in his shell" towards someone, who can actually build a kingdom. It's the first step, most novels achieve in a few chapters, maybe even in a few paragraphs. But together with the topics of suicide and loneliness, I wanted to give it more time to breath.

Because while I love to read kingdom building stories with knowledgeable characters and fast pace, I wanted to explore what such a situation would be like for a more normal person. Someone, who actually isn't really fitted to become a king or leader. As I like to put it: "This isn't kingdom building, but a story about people building a kingdom".

A while back I saw a "Train to Busan" review on youtube and one part stuck in my memory. "We all like to think we would be that [heroic guy], but most of us would do the same stuff as [evil guy]." There are a lot of stories about people either growing or falling in highly stressful environments and I wanted to explore it. Why would "a loner" become "a hero"?

Following the events of this volume, Aki turned into someone who takes part in the world around him and actively moves for the sake of others. So now it's time to take the next step as we'll start the second volume The Dancing Fireflies and answer the questions it'll bring.

But talking about the second volume, there is also one bad message to deliver. The daily chapters were the result of the editing process. Save for two, most chapters had already been written and were only lightly edited for a better flow and clearer character progression.

At the end of this week, we'll catch up to my releases and therefore slow down to my writing speed. Which stands at "1+X chapters/week". 1 "guaranteed" chapter and as much as I can deliver without hurting my private life. Volume 3 was mostly written with 3 chapters/week, given the overall situation, I'll mostly be 2-3 chapters for the next weeks.

For those who dislike checking for chapters or dislike reading one chapter every X days, I want to recommend our [discord server], which features a chapter subscription service where you can get a bot message whenever your picked chapters are released. So if you want to stockpile, this way you'll hopefully find your way back once more.

All in all, I'll continue to give my best while writing the story. It still has a lot of rough edges and is lacking details here and there, but I hope you'll continue to support my further writing endeavors.

Thanks for taking your time and reading my story!

Lost