Final Update Schedule | Dragonlance PRIORITY, LAST CHANCE for TFSFM (Patreon)

Previous Posts as below for context:https://www.patreon.com/Tertius711/posts/story-update-166570348https://www.patreon.com/Tertius711/posts/tfsfm-chapter-7-166767329https://www.patreon.com/Tertius711/posts/what-story-are-166780724Hi everyone, First of all, I just wanted to apologize first. I'm sorry I'm so indecisive and bogged down your weekend with all these confusing posts as above. I just want to make all my readers happy but I suppose I just need to grow up and understand that that isn't always possible. So let's settle the matter.After a very confusing weekend with a huge rollercoaster of various polls, comments, concerned messages and comments both on Discord and here on Patreon, I think it's time that we resolve this once and for all because whichever story has its chapter written next, NOTHING can be written so long as this is left unresolved.I have decided to suspend the update polls, effective immediately. I received feedback in the past that many felt they were useless and causing resentment because Dragonlance always won dramatically so the polls felt rigged and fake even if they were actually genuine (and the Dragonlance readers have proven as much). Instead we will be running with an automatic schedule of 3 Dragonlance Chapters followed by 1 TFSFM Chapter. As the previous two updates were Dragonlance Chapter 6 and Chapter 7, this means that the next update (which will likely be coming out next weekend) will be Dragonlance Chapter 8 and only then TFSFM Chapter 7.

I hope this is a compromise that while it won't please everyone, it will anger the least amount of people. The Dragonlance voters that wanted Dragonlance to be the clear priority get a win and the diehard SW fans get their last chance at salvation.I just wanted to be frank and completely honest here. I've been growing extremely discouraged and disincentivized to write TFSFM the past few months. It's losing every single poll by ridiculous margins and even worse, I get zero audience attention from it. The number of likes and comments from its average chapter COMBINED are less than 20, the number of comments is always less than 5. It felt like I was writing for the abyss, just shouting into the void and nothing and no one could hear me and answer back. Now admittedly things were easier for Chapter 6, I found that chapter more interesting to write and it seems I got slightly more readers to comment and like it so that was nice and a potentially promising turn but things were really bad in Chapters 4 and 5 when I genuinely just wanted to write Dragonlance which was more interesting to me and giving me more returns for my passion and effort. If y'all noticed the difference in length between SW Chapters 1-3 and SW Chapters 4-6, this is why, full disclosure. I was genuinely just writing TFSFM out of obligation at that point, because I said I would, per the automatic schedule that it would get updated after Dragonlance won the update poll twice in a row. My heart wasn't really in it and I just felt so insincere and fake. It felt like I was trying to resuscitate a cooling corpse and it just hurt what was left of the SW passion in me to keep it alive on life support and nothing at all like the honestly amazing and dedicated outline for SW that I spent months of my life and passion crafting. I started thinking that if I wasn't able to commit the passion and my readers the interest to write that as it was in my outline, why even do it?To be frank, when I made that first poll, I was honestly just searching for justification to drop TFSFM all together and focus entirely on Dragonlance. I was not expecting the result. I was expecting Dragonlance to win dramatically as it always did in the update polls with a clear 80-90% of the vote. And while the 'Drop TFSFM, focus on Dragonlance only' option did win in the end, it only did by 65%. MUCH LESS than I was expecting.

I got a lot of messages and comments from concerned SW readers, begging me not to drop the story, saying they'll drop the subscription if I did, etc etc. And when I saw that combining the two options that kept SW alive gave a cumulate percentage of 35%, it made me realize that huh. Maybe the update polls were wrong. Maybe there was an audience for SW after all even if many of them were alright with the status quo of SW being the de facto lesser focus and only getting updates after Dragonlance was voted twice.It rejuvenated a lot of my interest for the story and I started seriously planning TFSFM Chapter 7 to be written (since per the previous status quo, it was to be updated next). When I informed all of you of my decision however, the Dragonlance readers did complain and honestly, fair. Rightfully so. It did win the poll even if not by the margins we might have all expected and the second poll I made to try and clear the air muddied things up even more.

So here's the final compromise (for now) and I genuinely can't change anything about it in the short term or we will never resolve this and get another chapter written. While I hope no one drops because their preferred story isn't as focused on as much as they might like, there's nothing I can do about it if you do. I just hope you continue supporting my writing even if not on the Patreon.

We will suspend the update polls and remove all ambiguity and resentment. Dragonlance is the clear and undeniable priority and it has its allotment increased to the compromise of 3 chapters before SW gets another update. I think that's the fairest approach I can go with right now. And I just wanted to give a final warning, that this is the LAST CHANCE for the SW fic. It's in the ICU at this point. When I calmed down from my momentary SW craze of passion this weekend, I began to look back at all the previous SW chapters and questioned to myself if this passion would actually be reciprocated this time. If it would actually mean something when it never has before. All my memories of writing for the void just returned and I hate that feeling.

I understand there's not as many of you SW fans here, I understand and I know Dragonlance is dramatically more popular with way more readers. I don't expect you to match their quantity but at least make up for it with quality of enthusiasm. Some of you begged not to drop it or even said you'd leave the Patreon if it was dropped but I haven't see you guys backing that up with action when the actual chapters came out in the past. Do or do not, as Yoda always said, there is no try. Going forward, y'all are gonna have to walk the talk. Comment, give likes, give feedback. I NEED to know that the story has an audience, that it's being heard, that people actually enjoy it instead of it being written in the vacuum of space. Its soul-crushing to spending days of my very real, very busy life planning and writing something for nobody. If nobody is reading, what's even the point?Y'all may resent that Dragonlance gets all the attention but the Dragonlance readers actually come out in droves to support their favored story with all the passion, enthusiasm, likes, and comments that motivate me to write more for them and keep my muse up.

Because when the new schedule goes into effect and I release Chapters 7 and maybe even 8 of TFSFM with my renewed passion and interest, if I get crickets again, it's over. I have to be real here. I hate the idea of dropping any of my stories because I've never done that before and I always felt proud of that fact but if people aren't interested in it, that's just how it's gonna have to go. It will go on Hiatus and who knows when, if ever, it comes back.Thank you all for taking the time to read this and I hope you all understand my decisions. I'll do my best to get the promised chapters out in a timely manner. See you all next time and enjoy the rest of your weekend.Kind regards,Tertius711