After being sick last week and spending time trying to get caught back up at work, I have found myself in a rut, both with my story and in my personal life. Without going into detail, I simply do not have the energy or drive to write, and creatively, I keep struggling with how to move the story forward. On top of all of that, I know that I have over-bloated several aspects of the story's game system and I overwrote certain aspects of the story itself.

For the past several weeks, I have been moving forward with the idea of getting the story to the end of what I imagine book 1 to be, then going into a hiatus to do some rewrites. After spending the past week simply reviewing my work so far, I can't see myself continuing to push the story forward, knowing that I need to go back and do some major reworks of what I have already written.

So, in the meantime, I have decided to simply take a break. I need to put the rest of my focus towards finishing out the year at work and spending some extra time during my evening getting my body and mind right. I currently plan on finishing Hazelsong in some compacity, either as a series or rewriting it into a one-off story. When that will be, I am unsure. All I know at this moment is I need to push the story to the side, let it rest, and give me time to think out the story and figure out how exactly I want to tackle reworking it.

What I can promise, is this will not be the end of my writing. Posting what I have completed on Hazelsong has been invaluable to me as a young writer. I plan on coming back with a different LitRGP/Fantasy novel sometime later in the spring/early summer. I have had a second story jumping around in my head for about as long as I have Hazelsong. Between now and summer, I want to treat it like I was originally treating Hazelsong, which is, I want it to be a fun hobby that I work on in my spare time. To do that, I want to get a significant amount of the story completed prior to posting any of it here on RR. Again, I don't expect to get back into writing for a while, possibly not until April or May.

I want to thank everyone who has followed the story so far. Your comments and support have been great. I have really enjoyed sharing my story with you, and I look forward to sharing more of my stories with you when I eventually return. In the meantime, thanks for your support. And if you have any other recommendations for good LitRPG here on RR for me to check out, please send it my way!