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Slowing Down (Patreon)

Published:
2021-05-14 16:27:58
Imported:
2026-06

Content

As I write these lines, I've just finished writing tomorrow's chapters, both for Kairos and The Perfect Run. They're rushed, unedited, will need to be reworked, and I still haven't written a line of the new Vainqueur webtoon episode script I'm supposed to send by the end of the week. I must send a pronunciation voice-over for the next audiobook adaptations of my works, prepare a trip abroad, and still find time to meet with my family tonight. 

Some of you on Discord already know that, but I've started to suffer from stress-related health issues lately; mostly gastric reflux and similar stomach problems. I'm taking a treatment to lessen the effects, but the root cause remains. Too many things at once. 

Five chapters a week is... hard. It's not just writing them, but grammar checking them, reworking them, publishing them on Patreon and RR, and planning the future. Maybe if it was just that, I could make it work.

But the Vainqueur webtoon is now in full production, with the artists pumping out linearts every week. I've also signed deals for audiobook adaptations, and am in early discussions for a second web comic project, though nothing signed yet on that front. 

It's good. All of that is good. 

But it's too much. It's partly why I took a break last month, to recharge the batteries and try to power through. I thought it would help, but it didn't. I put the Roleplaying Campaign I ran on Discord on hiatus and dropped everything I wasn't contractually bound to do, but with the Vainqueur webtoon production accelerating, I struggle just as much as before. I don't find the time to just rest anymore, let alone finally get around to editing the last Vainqueur volumes for kindle before the webtoon hits the shelves. 

Unfortunately, I had a pretty nasty stomach crisis yesterday as I rushed to finish the next Kairos chapter, and well, it dawned on me that I have to slow down. If it continues, I'm going to burn out. 

I really tried to continue with the five chapters-a-week schedule, but there's a limit to what a human can do, and I've reached mine. I've been rushing chapters for a while to meet the deadlines, and I feel the quality has suffered; as seen with the reaction to Kairos' latest chapters. We're also into the Perfect Run's last third, and I don't want to burn out in the middle of the last arcs. 

So, well... I'm slowing down the update rate. No more chapters on Thursday will be a start, since it frees me the middle of the week to work on the webtoon and other adaptations. 

Hopefully I can manage four chapters a week, two for each story on Patreon. If my health doesn't improve, well... we'll see. 

Sorry, I really tried to make that schedule work, but... I can't. It's either slowing down, or risk burning out. I hope you will understand. 

Best regards,

Voidy.

Comments

Julien Fellegara

100% with you. Lessen to 3 chapter if you need to, but don't put your health on the line. And don't dry your art by over stressing yourself! 😗

focus2x

Feel better! First comes your health! While I enjoy 5 chapters a week, even 3 chapters would be appreciated, if it means we could enjoy your work longer term. Cut back as much as your health needs

Alaine

Hey, take the time you need. I think almost every reader will agree that we rather get a story at a slower pace thats gonna be finishes than a rushed storys that will end becaue of burnout. Your health should always be your top priority!

Matthew Lewis Worthington

We appreciate the effort you are putting into the stories but please do everything necessary in order to reduce the stress and everything happening to you. We love your stories and want to read them all but not at the expense of your health so please do everything you need to do thank you

Erik

Take care of yourself first. Even if we ignore the humanitarian perspective on that, it just makes sense pragmatically. If your health suffers to the point we can't get any chapters at all, that is worse. Also, your schedule sounds inhuman.

Dax

I also think that 3 chapters might be a better fit for a while. I don't know how much of a difference a reduction of only one might make on its own. I hope you find your balance :)

Adrian Engel

Go at whatever pace you can manage. Health is the #1 priority. I always thought your release schedule was crazy. I can't speak for anyone else but I believe in quality over quantity. Thanks for all the work you put in, your works are spectacular!

Young Youghurt

Things are what they are, and whatever will be, will be. (Now give me my internet points) Seriously though, I believe everyone should go by their own tempo and if someone needs to slow down then it is their own choice. Please don't take this as an unsolicited advise even though it kind of probably is. What I mean is if you need you need there is nothing else to do.

Anonymous

Appreciate everything you do and what you produce. Fully supportive of whatever you need to do for yourself and the business/art.

Alexander Dupree

I completely get that. I've seen quite a few of the Patreon authors go through this burnout. Just take the space you need.

Ulbert

You’re a double barreled auto shotgun with a drum mag when it comes to your upload schedule... No one will complain when you slow down. You’re the best author (imo) on RR and damn take your time if you need to. One or two uploads a week would still be more than acceptable for me. And please care for yourself. Without you none of this would be possible. And always remember: Your well being comes first, whatever the case may be. Have a nice day. We won’t go anywhere.

Bon Bon

Holy shit, mate. I was thinking you simply pre written most of the chapters and just releasing them on schedule. Take care of yourself. Wish you well and to your family. Work at the pace that is okay for you and doesn't harm you!

Seadrake

Take the time you need. Those stress issues aren't little things. They are serious life altering symptoms of overworking yourself. Had a friend that had to have emergency exploratory bowel surgery when one of those symptoms just didn't get better after a while. They caught the tear in time, but they are still checking him up 7 uncomfortable ways to Sunday two months later.

Tate Browder

Your health is 100% the priority, and your comfort is too. You can write at any pace that you feel like you are comfortable with, and everyone here will still be coming back for the amazing stories, no matter the schedule.

Ervin Ughy

I second all the others. 3 chapters would be far better, especially now that you are on such a low point, and with all the other responsibilities weighing you down. Take care of yourself first. Do whatever you need to get better, and not just feel well enough to manage the frankly crazy update schedule.

Kyle J Smith

Do what you feel is best and take care of yourself

David Cohen

This is worh more than a like to the above posts...I agree with them all. Cut back your pace to what is manageable. Don't let burn out burn you out. Find a new pace that can sustain you. If it means once a week update to your stories so be it. Thay are great stories. Then if it manageable add to it one item at a time staying in a comfortable groove. If adding something starts pressuring too much back off. Pushing too hard just about culminated this week into throwing my business away and had my wife say she wanted a divorce after more than 20 years .... we're working it out but stress will cause you to stop thinking and caring about what you love and love doing because it burns away at that core. It makes you question why your doing it. Is it worth the stress. What drives a lot of people , you with your creativity and others such as myself with whatever service we provide is a desire to not let those we provide for down. When we aren't feeling like we are providing what WE feel is our best quality it stresses us and then we truly start to drop quality. Sometimes we all need to just take a step back and admit we bit off more than we can chew and remember why we started what we do. Quality over quantity. Pace yourself back out and both will get back to snuff in no time. We are only human with all the limitations that implies no mater how we wish it wasn't so...

MaliMi

Is one chapter less gonna be enough? I would say it is better to slow down a bit more and get over the health issues as soon as possible. You can always increase the pace.

Massgamer

Cut back, find a good manageable amount of work, take the time to relax, cut back on stress and take care of yourself. All things that are important and we want you to do.

Saysca

The work you've been doing is already incredible and appreciated but not necessary. Just bringing us these amazing stories at all is worth so much, giving them to us at a healthy pace is beyond reasonable. Do what you need to do to keep yourself well. You've got 4 stories that are consistently on the top page of RRL, people will wait for your quality!

Alex Lindsay

I have always had a tendency to work too many hours and commit to too many things myself so believe me when I say you need to come up with a workable schedule or you will crash hard. I think you need to cut back until you can build up a backlog of chapters so you have the flexibility to deal with unexpected things that Will come up. Having this flexibility is the difference from a busy schedule and an unmaintainable schedule IMHO.

Oliver Wolfe

Slow it down and find someone to do the admin formatting for you on fiverr, etc! We're already blessed by the content you give us. We can be a little patient.

Konrad2

Slow down as much as you need. I far prefer slower updates over no updates because you ruined your health. That's the rationale. But also beyond that, just, take your breaks. Getting sick is bad and doesn't feel great. :(

Anonymous

Dude, take the time you need. The stories you provide are amazing and your pace has been above and beyond so far. It is far better to slow down and make it sustainable than maintain a pace that will break. Given the high quality of your stories, I'm sure that most will feel the same way

Daniel Everest

It's fine man take all the time you want to improve your health and we're fine to wait until you feel better. Plus the old saying goes:" quality over quantity."

Imran

I see a lot of authors are suffering from burnout after pushing themselves too hard. Take a break if you need it.

Deinos

Np mate take your time. I value quality over quantity

Erriballon

No worry take your time hope you feel better and good luck with everything

NLRUmbra

You make some of my favorite novels and I would hate to see you burn yourself out. Take the breaks that you need. I hope you get better and find a work schedule that's not too stressful in the future.

Bob of Doom

My stance? Finish Perfect Run since it's close to ending and focus on Kairos afterwards. Do one major story on Patreon and Royal Road at a time. I don't want you to burn out or harm yourself. I am fine with the breaks you do take because it gives me something to look forward too. Plus it means that we, as readers, only have to focus on one story at a Time. I will admit I haven't read Kairos because I want to focus on Perfect Run. So slow down, take your time, and do things one at a time. Because we will support you as you are a good author.

skewness7

yes, 5 chapter a week is crazy. you should take care of your health, so you can keep producing majestic works like the perfect the perfect run and the flawless never die twice. please take care.

Robert

Take care of yourself man. I should have noted that when I joined in on the dogpile on the Kairos thing. Sorry about that.

Jam

Go down to one chapter a week for Kairos, if you need to. Quality over quantity is better in writing. You've done an amazing job so far!

Anonymous

I am a fan of your works. Take as much time as you need and focus on the things that matter. No need to sacrifice quality of life for content speed. Keep up the good work at whatever pace works best for you.

Anonymous

You could even go down to 3 chapters a week if you need it. Also you might want to release 1 chapter at a time instead of 2 , giving us more frequent updates but less stressful for you so that people don't start to complain too much.

Dylan

Take care of your health first! I’m the odd man out but I back authors who publish a couple chapters a month. Slow and steady winds the race. Or finish one of your works and focus on one at a time. Also as someone with diagnosed anxiety, I highly suggest making sure you’re getting outside and exercising at least 30 minutes a day. Add some meditation or relaxation exercises. They are a huge help. It doesn’t feel like you have time but if you don’t you’ll have less time. Also it’s likely you have some negative automatic thoughts about your work, needing to get things done, and/or what people expect of you. Look into writing those out with a cognitive behavior therapy book (you can do this yourself). I bet you’re putting more pressure on yourself than you need to.

Dylan

Another thought: plan out your week and block out time if that doesn’t stifle your creativity. If something new comes in it needs to knock something out. You have limits and that’s fine, they can stimulate creativity. Anyway, absolutely love your work so I wish you the best.

mhaj58

You might want to consider taking a month or two after completing the perfect run to relax and refresh yourself. Kairos is great but your pushing yourself in regards to it. Taking a month off from Kairos might keep you from burning out

sri kalyan mulukutla

Quality content takes time. If not no one will be willing to pay money for it. So take your time, do not burn yourself out.

James Peebles

Ah yeah, I've been there, well almost done recovering from stress-related stomach hardening (extreme heartburn / nausea / palputations / breakdown of digestive functioning). Reducing the stress load and more permanently managing it to be at a low level was in hindsight a small task compared to reversing my stomach situation, but I could barely digest food anymore when it was at its worst so I was REALLY far gone. At any rate, I highly recommend a mid-line massage gun. I have an Opove M3 Pro Max. It's waaaaayyy more effective than any deep tissue massage I've ever had, and it's not really painful to use. It can be uncomfortable but it's nothing like someone jamming pressure into a trigger point. Takes one 15 minute use to melt through an amount of fused up tissue and steel-ified tendons greater than the dozen deep tissue massages that I've gone through combined.

Void Herald
>>59826399

Thanks for your understanding. We'll see. Truth be told, I think I can make four chapters work, but that depends if the decreased workload improves my health or not. I'll test four and see how it goes.

Void Herald
>>59826549

Yeah, I would rather burning out especially so close to the Perfect Run's finish line (and the end of Kairos' first volume). I guess you can only push the human body so far. Thanks.

Void Herald
>>59826636

Well, I'll try four and see if I can manage it. I could manage it with NDT and Vainqueur, though I didn't have all the other adaptation works to manage then. We'll see.

Void Herald
>>59827914

Thanks. I don't want to go below a certain update threshold, so it's just a question of finding the right work balance. We'll see ;)

Void Herald
>>59828012

Nah, I mostly write chapters the day before (and the week end for Tuesday) since I can't build a backlog with all the stuff on the other side. Hopefully a four update schedule will be more manageable. Thanks ;)

Void Herald
>>59828060

Yeah, I have nothing that harsh yet, but I'm getting the warning signs. I would rather avoid getting ulcers or something much more threatening. Thanks for your understanding ;)

Void Herald
>>59828595

Well, I managed to make four chapters a week work once with NDT and Vainqueur, though not with the other responsibilities on the side. I'll try to see if I can manage it, or slow down further if my health doesn't improve.

Void Herald
>>59830442

Shit, I'm sorry for what happened to you, and I hope you can make things work out with your wife. Yeah, much like you part of the reason I tried to power through is that I feel a strong obligation to my patrons, and I didn't wish to let anyone down; I'm very relieved by the understanding. Peace, my friend.

Void Herald
>>59830787

Well, I'll try with four and we will see how it goes. It's a question of finding the right balance.

Void Herald
>>59833821

Thanks! Well, frankly I expected more negative reactions, but I'm amazed by the morale support so far. You guys are awesome :)

Void Herald
>>59834242

Yeah, I hope the schedule change will give me more breathing room to move the unmaintainable to busy XD

Void Herald
>>59835032

Uh, I didn't know about fiverr, thanks for the rec. Might be good to hire a freelancer for some of the tasks yeah.

Void Herald
>>59841164

Thanks. Well, I would rather avoid a break (since I tried and it didn't work out) and more like finding the right work schedule ;)

Void Herald
>>59841499

Thing is, I'm also contractually bound to advance on Kairos too, so I can't really drop it for the few months it will take to finish the Perfect Run. Kairos is also near the end of its first volume (which concludes with the Argo arc), so I would like to finish that one too. We'll see if I can make both work.

Void Herald
>>59842438

Well, I agree with some of the criticisms and took steps to address it. I would just need some more time to edit the work in consequence.

Void Herald
>>59844285

Thanks. We'll see, I'll try to make two chapters work, and if it doesn't... I'll do what I must.

Void Herald
>>59848813

Well, we'll see for the schedule, see how to pace it better. The hole in the middle of the week should give me more breathing room at least.

Void Herald
>>59850637

Yeah, I get what you mean. But I need to free some time from my work schedule before I can exercise/take daylight first; I don't really have negative thoughts about my works themselves, it's just the schedule that tires the body/mind out.

Void Herald
>>59850740

Thanks for the advice. I do block hours, but well, too many things at once cause them to spill out. Cutting back some of the work should help on that front.

Void Herald
>>59853135

Thanks. I'm reluctant to drop any story, especially at this point (Perfect Run is in its last arcs, Kairos near the end of the first volume). I would rather decrease the workload until I can complete one or the other, and then we'll see.

Void Herald
>>59865989

Shit, I hope your health improved on your end and that you can fully recover. Thanks for the rec. I haven't gone that far yet and the existing pill + throat medicine does work to reduce symptoms, it's just cutting back before it evolves into something more severe (like a digestive system breakdown).

Grog_Guy

Health should always come first in my opinion. Quality of life is important too! I have no issue with writers slowing down if they need to. Not a very vocal poster, but love all your work, and happy to wait for it!

Selkie

Slowing down is infinitely preferable to burning out. I skated on the edge of burnout writing BTDEM, and felt it creeping up on me. I had to slow down, and it was the best thing. Totally worth it. Stay healthy!

Paradoxez Novel Reader

I've been holding out The perfect run since chapter 95 to just binge read later because it's too good not to read in batch. So yeah, take your time void, I'll happily wait even if it extend beyond 2021 than see the final arc suffer from quality drop.

Void Herald
>>59886728

Well, even with the slower schedule the Perfect Run should end in 2021, but I get what you mean. Thanks for the support ;)

Bobby Jones

You do realize your pace is absolutely batshit insane, right? Especially with the quality you maintain. Anybody who would complain about you slowing down should be muzzled and sent to the moon.