Afterword - Book 5 - Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16: A Wild Anniversary II

You can absolutely see the shattered remnants of my old idea that I mentioned in the last chapter afterword here. I seeded what I could, but the reason Clover was mad at both Ranthia and Sunny was hidden behind contextual clues—hence why I explained it a couple of days ago for you all.

I usually make only minor edits ahead of Royal Road, but there were two places here where I just... failed to convey what I'd attempted to originally. Writing magical wonder takes a certain mindset, and it's one that I sometimes struggle to get into.

Fatigue and awe rarely mesh, unfortunately.

That is one of the weirdest bits of writing—not the fatigue, but the fact that prose is never truly complete. There's always more to clean up. No matter how many eyes are on something and how many times you revise, there's always another mistake or shortcoming.

I absolutely could improve book 1 with yet another rewrite.

But I won't. And in general, I do try not to make substantive changes to the prose before it goes to Royal Road (or before a book release, for that matter). Because, sooner or later, you have to accept that what you've written is good enough. No matter how high my standards for myself are, writing isn't a pursuit of perfection—it's a mechanism for communication. And if my audience understands what I'm trying to tell them, I was good.

This chapter fell a touch short of that, and I'm annoyed by it. But it was really only for three singular ideas—a tiny part of the overall chapter.

But perfection can't exist in reality. I fix what I can, nod, and press forward. I have more story to tell, after all!

...I kinda went off on a tangent here.

Honestly, I probably could have written an entire book out of the anniversary celebration. Ranthia just... having fun, hanging out with her friends, and bonding with Clover. It's nice to see our leading lady just live sometimes, imo.

But she's found her inspiration, just as Clover has. And thus, things move onward!