Reflection on Act 4

So, that's it. Act 4 is finally done and with it the worst of the shade!Randel chapters are over. Overall, I'm satisfied with it—though I know it won't be everyone's favorite. The characters were perhaps less interesting to follow this time, the plot took quite a few abrupt turns and it might have even felt rushed at times, and the general tone was darker too. I also believe that some of the scenes could use a few more editing rounds and a bit more polish.

Act 4 was tough to write. I changed plans several times as I was working on it, all the while trying to keep some of the key moments (scenes that I've been planning for a long time) fit the structure. I can't claim that I've done a perfect job, but looking at Synergy as a whole I think this turned out to be a nice midpoint for the story. There were important pivots in Act 4, plot points around which the story can turn around, and I feel excited to continue Randel's journey in this new – but at the same time familiar – direction.

Feedback

So, what are your thoughts on Synergy so far? I'd like to urge you to leave a comment or even a review! I barely received any constructive feedback so far, and to be honest, I'm missing them a lot. Gone are the days when the story reached the Trending page (Rising Stars now) and all of my chapters were bombarded with criticism. Even if a lot of them weren't very constructive, they still gave me something to learn from.

But I know that the major reason for this is my reduced reader base. No surprise there. You are obviously the merry exception here, but the fact remains that I've lost many readers, especially in the wait between story arcs. Which needs to happen again, because I'm out of chapters to publish. Which brings me to my next point...

Motivation

I'll be honest with you, my motivation to write Synergy is far below compared to when I started it. I think it's understandable because it's been... how long since I started writing it? I started publishing Synergy on Royal Road 2 years ago, but I've been busy writing Act 1 and 2 for about a year before that. So you could say three years, but it still wouldn't be the entire truth because Synergy is a rewrite of Shades of the Moon. I shared the first chapter of Shades of my Moon with my friends in April 2017. You could say that I've been working on this story for over five years already.

Obviously, I'm not doing this full-time—mostly I'm just writing an hour or two per day. I took breaks from time to time too. Still, I think we can all agree that maintaining the same level of motivation over the years is impossible. And don't get me wrong; this here isn't me announcing that I'm dropping Synergy. I still have that strong, underlying desire to finish the story that I've dreamt up.

But you can call this burnout, I suppose. I don't particularly feel burned out, and I don't believe that I've ever felt complete burnout in the last five years, but it's still something. I have plans and ideas for how to continue the story in Act 5, but I certainly feel less motivated about putting effort into writing it. The why is a complex issue, with many reasons adding together; some IRL factors, some other story ideas contesting for my attention, and ... also the lack of feedback.

I've always claimed that I'm writing Synergy for myself, and it doesn't matter whether I have 10000 readers or just 10. I wish that it were still true, but I can't really deny that my motivation has also been greatly affected by all the interaction with my readers (or the lack thereof). Funny, because if I have never "made it big" (alright, Synergy has never really been that big, to be honest), I would have cared way less. But now that I've tasted what it's like to receive constant feedback on my work – the very reason why I'm publishing for free on RoyalRoad! – it's hard not to feel disappointed after seeing the difference. Oh, but please don't take this as an accusation; I'm thankful that there's anyone at all who is still keeping up with my story.

Future releases

And so, we arrived at the topic that you're probably the most interested in: when will Synergy continue?

The short (and disturbing) answer is that I don't know. Unlike before previous releases, I don't want to set a deadline here. I do have some plans, however:

I'm going to take a short break to avoid complete burnout with this novel. When I return to publishing again, it's going to be with the complete first draft of Act 5 and Act 6 of Synergy.

From these you can safely assume that there won't be a new chapter anytime soon.

I don't yet know whether "taking a break" will mean completely refraining from writing or just writing something else. I do have lots of story ideas, and I'm confident that a new story would be much better because I learned a lot from my mistakes in Synergy ... but if I decide to write something else, I need to be careful not to be too ambitious in scope. A short story, at most.

As for why I'm waiting until I have both Act 5 and Act 6 finished – that is, the entire story completed – it's because I'm going to lose readers during the hiatus no matter what. Perhaps I'll lose fewer of you if there is no additional hiatus between Act 5 and Act 6. It would also serve the story better, I think, since Acts 5 and 6 are supposed to be read together as Book 3.

To be fair, I don't expect much improvement either way. It's obvious that the publishing method I'm using doesn't work, but it's the best I can do. I'm still not comfortable releasing chapters right after I write them—I need the buffer chapters for revisions. In hindsight, this web novel format is probably not for me; although the chapter-by-chapter feedback is nice, I'm certainly more comfortable writing Synergy like a book. But I started to publish on Royal Road like this, and I'm determined to see it through now.