Update on where I've been + I'm 26 as of today (Patreon)

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well. First of all, I'd like to apologize for disappearing for a few months. I have disappeared a few times before, but I think this is the longest I've been gone. My patreon has been paused the entire time so nobody should have been charged, however I should have said something before going on hiatus, and for that, I am sorry.

On to where I've been... well, it's going to be a bit long, so there's a TLDR at the end, but here goes:

I'm currently in an extremely tumultuous period of my life where I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to live for the foreseeable future. If you already know about my circumstances, I currently live in Malta on a digital nomad visa, and that's expiring this year, however even though I have an Indonesian passport, I don't really have a 'home country' to return to because of a series of very complex personal situations which I won't really get into. And when I came to Malta three years ago, it was to my understanding that I will only be residing here temporarily, after which, I would figure out a permanent country to live in, which is exactly what I am doing right now. However, the process is a bit more complicated than I thought because of me being self-employed while having a terrible passport. For example, there are some places I'd love to live where I have friends and family around, but I can't reasonably permanently reside (besides marrying someone just for the visa), and there are also other places where I can reasonably permanently reside in, but I have no friends or family there and I genuinely do not have any interest in living there, especially with how expensive and costly the process would be for me to get residency.

Now I know that's a lot of yap, but my point is basically it is taking a while for me to figure out a place to settle down, which is mainly what I've been doing for the last few months. But if I'm going to be honest, while it is extremely stressful and time-consuming, that doesn't mean I cannot still be writing maybe two or even three Salvos chapters a week while figuring that out. So why don't I do that? Well, this is where I'll be brutally honest and transparent:

I feel like I don't know where the story is at right now.

Now I'm sure you're asking yourself, "How can you not know where the story is at? You're literally the author!" Yes, that's true. However, as an author, I have a writing process. Some authors are pantsters who goes whereever the story takes them without a second thought, some authors are plotters who rigorously and meticulously outline every detail, and some authors are a mix of both. But while two different authors can have a similar writing process, no two authors have literally the exact same process. And to understand what I mean here, you have to sort of understand my writing process.

After Salvos returns to the Netherworld, quite a number of the chapters I wrote were chapters I wrote while extremely burnt out due to forcing myself to write them despite being overwhelmed by a myriad of personal problems (ranging from family issues to relationship issues to depression), which either made me take the story in directions I didn't originally intend to take the story in, or move events I had planned around because I felt pressure to make something exciting happen quicker because I was outputting chapters less regularly and I felt that you guys would lose interest in what was going on during the slower-paced arcs.

Now, that in itself is not exactly the problem. Stories evolve over time. They don't always stick to the original outline, and sometimes, they are better off for it. For example, me diverging from my outline was what resulted in Salvos and Haec separating in Volume 1 (originally they were supposed to stick together as they explored the Mortal Realm), which I fully believe made the story much better.

I have also moved story events around, like during the Bloodied Gulf arc where Salvos gets her first two Grand Skills. Originally, the arc was going to be like twice as long, but I decided to speed things up because I believed that would make the story better, and I believe I was correct in that decision.

So the changes I made in the direction of the story compared to my outline and plans since Salvos returned to the Netherworld isn't exactly the problem here. The problem here is me.

I haven't sat down and adequately planned how the changes I made will impact the story.

When I made the aforementioned changes of expediting the Bloodied Gulf arc or having Salvos and Haec separate, I would almost always immediately sit down and plan out how this will impact the story's direction the very next day. Maybe, sometimes, I would do that planning a week or two later, but that's usually because the current arc moved on to an unrelated plot so I don't have to immediately plan how the change will impact the main story's direction.

But starting around early 2023, when I had the Salvos comic launch, my attention, which had already been divided between stories, was split even further because producing and managing your own comic all on your own is, in fact, extremely time-consuming. Because of that, I started to neglect planning how the changes I was making to the story as I was writing it would affect the future direction I'd go in. Instead of taking tackling this immediately, I would wait a week or two or even a month. And eventually, I developed the bad habit of occasionally pushing this off indefinitely.

Then when I had problem after problem pop up one after another in my personal life, I started to keep up with this bad habit more and more frequently. Until, eventually, I got to this point where there are so many plot points that are going in directions I hadn't previously planned for, I don't exactly know the direction the main story is heading in now.

If I were a pure pantster, this wouldn't be an issue. But I am someone who does both pantsting and outlining, so I can't just keep writing, because as I said, I feel like I don't know where the story is at right now.

So there's a lot I have to sit down and resolve in my outline, before I can continue writing Salvos. But it's really a lot, which makes it extremely intimidating, especially since I want to make sure I do it well, so I've been waiting for things to get a bit easier in my life before I sit down and brainstorm this until it's all resolved.

And trust me, I'll have to do a lot of brainstorming. It's not something that can even be done in a week or two. It'd probably take me a full month of just brainstorming, once I have less pressure in my life with the whole moving countries and figuring out where I go. After which I am certain I can come back and consistently write Salvos without any issues or hiccups, with the sole exception of something happening in my personal life derailing me again.

Apologies for all the yap, but the point of me explaining all this is that Salvos will continue to be on hiatus until around the middle of this year. I wish I can give you all a more exact timeline, but I can only give a vague one for now, because trying to permanently move countries as a self-employed individual is extremely complicated as I have already explained, and I'd like to take my time to properly resolve these plot points in my outline so I can figure out where the story is at.

But before I wrap up this post, I'd like to be clear on one thing: I am never going to drop Salvos. I know some people think this is a possibility because I have an unfortunate habit of dropping stories.

However, Salvos is different for a variety of reason. For one, as mentioned in the header of the post, I am 26 years old as of today. I have been writing Salvos since I was 20 years old. Not only that, it is the reason I was able to become a full-time author. This story is like my child and writing it has given me reprieve and joy in some of the worst moments of my life, despite some of the stress writing it gives me too.

So I assure you, I will not randomly disappear one day and drop Salvos without finishing it.... with the exception of one caveat.

You see, unfortunately, my one vice I picked up which has helped me cope with my depression and my personal problems is... boxing and MMA. And if you know anything about boxing and MMA, it's a sport that is kind of prone to brain damage. Just last month I had to go to the hospital because of a minor head injury I suffered during sparring.

So if I ever completely disappear without finishing Salvos, that's because I died from brain damage or something idk.

TLDR I'm in the process of moving countries and will be back from my hiatus around the middle of this year after I finish properly outlining the future of Salvos. I'm also 26 and unc now