《You Promised - Byler》THIRTEEN
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I wish none of this happened. It's the fact that all those emotions i had felt for Mike were all slowly coming back the more i hung out with him. The love i felt was still there even thought it felt like it had been gone for months now.
"Hey Mike!" I said as I walked up to him at school. "Hey what class do you have first?" He asked me, looking around the crowded hallway. "I have art as my first class still." I said, arts always my favorite subject. I have loads of old sketch books piled up in my room. "Oh i have english first now, see ya at lunch!" Then he walked away.
How foolish was I to fall for the same guy twice. I hate this. "Hey Will! Wait up!" I turned around and saw El running up to me. "We're you just talking to Mike?" She asked me, so curiously. "Yeah, I said we could be friends again." Her face turned confused, "Seriously! Will, why?" She was frustrated. "I had to forgive him at some point, right?" I said. "I guess your right, I'll see you at lunch!" She yelled, running down the hallway which had just a few people in it now.
I sat through art class finishing a painting i'd been working on for a few weeks now. Then the bell rang. Rushing through the the cramped hallway, I was pushed into a locker. "Hey fag," some bullies on the football team. Sense Mike broke up with me, the bullying had gotten bad. Used to it, I simply just walked away.
After school, El and Max were coming over and, "You invited THE Mike Wheeler to come hangout at your house with US??" Max screamed, El's face looking shocked, "Yes, yes I did." I tried to calm Max down, "You do remember what he did, right?" El chimed in. "Oh my gosh it's not that big of a deal!" I shouted back. "Fine fine, don't burst a blood vessel." Max said.
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I had actually invited Mike to spend that night. Yeah it's stupid but I have a feeling Mike cares this time, you know.
a/n: second to last chapter!!!
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- In Serial20 Chapters
Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
8 153 - In Serial14 Chapters
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After another long day at work, all Jon Christensen wanted was a cheap burger and some peace and quiet. Pulling into an ordinary McDonald’s, Jon only had the usual cares on his mind. His sister. The bills. A career with seemingly nowhere to go. But when a confusing encounter at the cash register triggers a violent episode in the parking lot, he’s quickly pulled into a world he doesn’t understand. His few careless sentences - and the odd gift of languages he’s kept hidden for years - wind up thrusting him right into the middle of a chaotic magical free-for-all, a battle taking place in the shadows of society. Entangled in an increasingly complex web of violence and lies, he's left with a choice: adapt, or die. Surrounded by strangers, Jon must struggle to survive, searching out friends amidst a sea of foes. If he can get his group of strays and rejects to work together, there’s a chance they might just make it out alive. Should he fail, the consequences will be dire - not only for Jon, but also for those he loves.
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EMBARGO
An unresponsive space station.An elite squad of assassins.Their mission is easy-get rid of the traitors committing mutiny, get out, and leave no traces behind.But things get complicated when no human life is found within the now abandoned station. And when two highly skilled soldiers-Lieutenant Yuuta Aoki and Major Xander Williams-are separated from the group: chaos breaks loose.Left to fight off creatures lurking in the depths of outer space, forced to face an investigation bigger than themselves, Xander and Yuuta must survive and escape death before it catches them first.
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(Suspended) The Helix; The Arc,
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MOONLIGHT SONATA . . . regulus black
MOONLIGHT SONATA ━━━ Regulus Black is the embodiment of bad juju but Hecate Lovegood deserves it. © solntserises cover! @vintagegrace
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Poems
Some of these I had to write for class, others not so much, but I wanted to share them with you. Any criticism is appreciated!! No matter how bad it is.#1 messingaround: May 19, 2019, Sept. 3, 2019-Sept. 17, 2019#29 empty: November 13, 2020#90 confidence: August 1, 2019#1 findingpurpose: May 27, 2020
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