After nine months, we finally finished Arc 4. In comparison, it took us six months to complete Arc 3. As I've mentioned in the last chapter, the follower count of REND in RoyalRoad doubled, while in Scribblehub it tripled.
This is incredible because the popularity of web novels is often decided at the start; if they're not popular, they're not going to be popular in the future, and vice versa. There are web novels that are "late bloomers", but those are cases really rare. That's why I'm amazed a huge burst of growth happened this late into REND's life.
In this Retrospective, which is going to be very long, I’m going to briefly discuss my previous experience writing web novels. My three older works in hiatus were supposed to be the start of different worlds connected to REND, so you might find that interesting. It also influenced how I crafted REND and Erind. Since I’ll talk about my past work, might as well share some things about myself.
Next, I’m going to talk about the history of REND from the start, the ups and downs, and all that. I feel the need to share this because REND has many new readers (the majority joined in during Arc 4) that don’t know its very challenging past. I’m not even sure if there are surviving readers from way back from Arc 1. I hope that talking about its nearly two-year journey can bring a new sense of appreciation for it, especially for those who came when there are already plenty of chapters.
I’m also going to talk about my learnings from arc 3 that I’ve applied in arc 4, stuff I noticed about negative reactions from readers, perhaps a section about Erind and Deen, Patreon, and the future of REND.
Writing Web Novels Before Rend
Almost seven years ago, I started writing my first web novel in RoyalRoad after being inspired by all the light novel translations I had read. The novel was an epic fantasy following multiple characters, but one of the main characters was overpowered, so it drew in a lot of readers even if it was a multi-pov story which is generally disliked. The story was set five hundred years after the great war against the Adumbrae invasion (they weren’t called Adumbrae there) that destroyed many kingdoms.
That was the start of my “signature” style of having a non-traditional MC (the character was really peculiar for epic fantasy or even the OP MC trope), unconventional fight scenes, and multiple plot lines. I had already toyed with the idea of a world helping other worlds fight against the Adumbrae, although the story was very far from that reveal when I dropped it.
About a year after starting my first story, I began my second, a VR litrpg. It was my first experiment with an MC that wasn’t meant for self-inserts (like Erind) because I made him a narcissistic asshole with a comedic side. The litrpg side of that story was barebones. It was mostly the MC carrying the story through sheer force of personality, so I already had proof of concept that a different kind of MC can work in web novels. Erind has traits from the MC and a female character of the litrpg story, so you can say that she is sort of their child. That story also had weird fight scenes because the game character wasn’t humanoid.
Since players are using virtual reality pods to play the game, I got the idea of the brain being related to the creation of Adumbrae. My litrpg had people dying from being connected with the game, as a hint of possible Adumbrae reaction. But, like with my first story, it hadn’t reached the point to really explore it before I stopped writing.
I then wrote a third story that was supposed to be a collection of short stories, but it ended up having only one chapter because I had quit writing by then. This third story was the precursor of REND. It was set in an alternate history of modern earth where beings from another dimension come to ours through tears in the veil of reality and take over people. The main cast were members of an organization that was sort of a cross between the Corebring Hive (super-powered people) and also sort of a government force with technology (like the BID). Their job was to exterminate monsters and close these reality tears.
Tear…Rend…Hey, that’s where we got the title!
After twenty months (this will come up again later) from the time I published the first chapter of my first story, I had to stop writing because of real-life issues.
Getting Back Into Writing
After about three years since I stopped writing my old stories, my life sort of stabilized, and I had a bit of free time. I wanted to get back into writing. However, I was ashamed of continuing my old stories because I just disappeared without telling my followers what was going on. I know, web novel authors just poof without a trace all the time, but still, that was my feeling.
I had started a Patreon about a month before I stopped writing, which I also regretted. It only had two or three patrons if I recall correctly because I couldn’t spare the time to make advanced chapters, and I got a few dollars from that which I wasn’t able to cash out. (I can’t recall why, Patreon probably had a minimum amount to withdraw back then.) I’m really sorry to those patrons and the money they shelled out.
Bottom line, I was ashamed of going back to my old account so I made a new one. I also wrote REND to be as far away as possible from my old stories to distance myself from the thoughts of it. That’s why REND is very different from mainstream RoyalRoad or Scribblehub stories. I intentionally made it so.
This is also why I haven’t mentioned the titles of my previous works. My goal was to build this account without any help from my old account. REND will probably be popular if I had used my old account to shout it out at the start. However, I think REND has done well solo flying. When I’m ready to rewrite my old stories (starting with the litrpg one because it’s easier), I’ll reveal their titles.
A Bit of Background About Myself
A little segue before discussing the writing part of REND. I debated with myself whether I should do this or not—I want to separate the author from the writing. But then again, it’s not like I want to keep it a secret because followers of my old novels know a few things about me anyway, and I’m going to reveal my old works eventually. It'll also put in context the challenges I've faced writing.
I’m a Filipino living in the Philippines. English is my second language. Not actually second. I’m from a minor ethnic group, so my first language is not even the national language of the Philippines—English is my fourth language. Many Filipinos can speak conversation-level English. I had English subjects in high school, and that was about all the English lessons I’ve had. In college, I didn’t take any English subjects at all and certainly not any creative writing or literature-related subjects.
Being able to converse in English is very different compared to writing a story in English. I got to this point by self-study alone—I’m very proud of this achievement. And I admit that I’m sharing this as a sort of flex. Nevertheless, I hope this might inspire others because I know a lot of authors in RR and SH aren’t native English speakers.
There were a lot of happenings in the Philippines around the time I stopped writing that readers of my old stories (including from sites that pirated and illegally translated them funnily enough) thought I was injured or even killed. Well, something bad happened to me, but I didn’t die. I had no idea why the rumor I died became rampant. I only learned about it when I recently checked on my old stories.
I’m sharing this information to put in context the effort I exert in writing REND, or rather writing in general, and also to explain the delays of Arc 4, like the supertyphoon that destroyed parts of the Philippines (including the city where I live) that severely affected my writing and nearly made me quit again. Actually, another massive storm had just passed, and I'm having intermittent electricity and internet connection now.
Rise and Fall and RISE of REND
Arc 1—May 20, 2020, I finally published the first chapter of REND on RoyalRoad after a long time of trying to push myself to return to writing. I started with I think one backlog chapter, a rudimentary outline that I eventually didn’t follow, and that’s it.
For the benefit of SH readers and new RR users, a couple of years ago, RR had Trending on its front page and no Rising Stars. RS now is kind of like the RR Trending back then.
REND has above average grammar for a web novel and a unique main character, even if the story itself isn't mainstream, so it gained a modest following, a new reader or two whenever I posted a chapter.
About a month and a half later with maybe fifty RR followers, REND hit RR Trending. More readers tried it out. Its initial popularity was mainly due to the premise of a psychopath main character.
In its short stint in Trending, REND breached a thousand followers, although I can’t remember what number it peaked at. Any new story should be happy with that. But instead, it presented a challenge to me because those are mostly readers who had a different notion of what the story was about. I’ve talked about the “psychopath issue” in previous Retrospectives, so let’s move on.
Arc 2—A couple of months after starting, Arc 1 ended and readers realized that it wasn’t the psychopath story they expected. In the following months after REND got kicked out of RR Trending, the reader base slowly dwindled away. Every chapter release, some readers would unfollow (probably remembering they followed the wrong story), while a few new ones came. The turnover was high, and it always ended up negative (more people left than joined).
Then there were the negative comments and reviews/ratings. I am fine with helpful feedback even if they are very harsh or critical; it may sting, but it helps me improve. The problem is that many negative feedbacks aren't helpful at all, for example criticizing Erind for not following the psychotic killer trope and some other more that I'll discuss below.
Writing Arc 2 was a disheartening time. My twice-a-week release rate became one chapter a week because I didn't have the motivation to write. A week sometimes became ten or more days, at times once every two weeks, in between releases. But I still pushed on because of a few vocal supportive readers. I tried to look for other places that may be accepting of a very different story like REND.
I went to Webnovel.com. In the past, uncontracted stories had a chance to be seen there, now, they don’t have any visibility with the site pushing contracted stories. The comments I got at WN were looking for OP MC or psychotic killing sprees. Then someone recommended I try SH because readers there are more open to different things than RR people.
Hoping REND might have a chance at SH, I worked hard to fix parts of the story. I pushed myself to go through it and, taking into account all the feedback I had so far, both negative and positive, make plenty of minor changes to improve it and a few major ones like adding two new chapters to the early part of Arc 1. I didn’t change the plot but mostly explained things more. In the case of 1.12, I actually overexplained (I’ll cut that down when I have time to edit).
Arc 2 ended December 2020, and by Jan. 1, 2021, I was ready to also start uploading in SH as I started Arc 3.
Arc 3— New year, new hope...and things didn't go well. True, SH is more open to other stories, but they are open to a different kind of different. REND had frequent updates at SH at the start since I was transferring Arc 1 and 2, but only a few SH readers came because it barely had anything that’d grab SH readers just based on its synopsis and tags. Ten readers to twenty to thirty took a very long time. When a new reader comes, it's actually a surprise.
Over at RR, the completion of Arc 2 brought in a resurgence of readers. However, Arc 3, as you know having read it and its Author's Retrospective, had a mixed reception to put it mildly. It had plenty of side chapters that many didn’t like, Erind showed more of her disturbing side (had about 20+ followers leave that chapter where Erind killed Julie’s dad), and the plot of the building survival thing was also weird. In short, REND at RR during Arc 3 was bleeding out followers while it barely got any at SH.
I didn’t get discouraged that time around because it was my own choice to experiment, I know my shortcomings with such an experiment that I can improve upon, and I know that some people will like it when I eventually finish the Arc. So, I just hunkered down and continued writing.
Past the halfway point of Arc 3, people understood what I was going for and gave reviews representative of REND. This enticed more people to try. The hardcore followers also stuck with REND through thick and thin, further encouraging me. REND climbed to around 1.5k readers probably towards the end of Arc 3.
Arc 4—This is the beginning of the second RISE of Rend. I capitalized all the letters because it is a huge rise. The end of Arc 3 brought a new wave of readers. Over at SH, I think REND hit the front page Trending for the first time and brought in more readers. Applying my learnings from Arc 3, I strived to make Arc 4 better. And it showed as the steady trickle of readers came, reaching about 2.3k-2.4k by December 2021.
Then disaster struck. As I mentioned, a supertyphoon passed by the area in the Philippines where I live and destroyed a lot of infrastructures. REND has some Filipino readers both in RR and SH, so they know what I’m talking about. You can also search the news because it was a very powerful supertyphoon that took hundreds of lives.
It took a couple of weeks to restore electricity and water in my city and a couple more weeks to make it stable. Furthermore, my dog got terribly sick and needed an operation. I was ready to pay for it because I really love my dog, but because there’s no electricity and water, there’s no available veterinary clinic open. Some clinics were even damaged. And my dog died.
For those already reading REND around December 2021, this was the reason the chapters were delayed. I had to be creative about where to find places to charge my laptop and to find internet connection. Plus, I was struggling with motivation since my dog died. This was twenty months after I had started REND—just like when I first started writing and I had to drop my old stories after twenty months because of real-life problems. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but the timings are so eerie. The delays in January were because I had Covid.
But enough of that. I was resolved I wouldn’t drop my story again and I pushed on. Around January 2022, Thundamoo, writer of Vigor Mortis, gave REND a shoutout out of the blue. I thanked her for this huge help. It brought about a couple hundred more readers and then pushed REND to Trending where it gained more readers. At SH, REND also got to Trending front page again. REND was in an upward trajectory after the challenges in December and January.
I can’t recall how exactly many RR and SH followers REND had right after Arc 3, but I’m sure RR followers have doubled during Arc 4 to three thousand. As for SH, REND followers tripled during the same period to a thousand—yes, tripled.
And I’m hopeful that REND will keep growing as we continue on to Arc 5.
Learning From Arc 3 Applied to Arc 4
Rend is a psychological story—The way the Arcs are structured is that the first half is mostly character/world-building, while the latter half is where the action happens. There are criticisms that this is slow-paced, especially compared to how other web novels are structured, and that is correct. However, the main goal of REND is to affect readers on a mental and emotional level, so I'm fine with taking it slow for some parts. Other parts, however, are mistakes when it comes to being slow-paced, like parts of the condominium-survival arc.
Anyway, when I used to read a lot of web/light novels, I binged through them and then forget them afterward. The memories that stuck with me are the impactful psychological scenes. For example, I’ve read hundreds of chapters of Coiling Dragon several years ago and forgot about it. The only part I remembered was when his heart was broken and he sculpted his masterpiece. There’s also Pact by Wildbow (author of Worm) that’s probably the most emotionally draining story I’ve read. I haven’t forgotten it even if I had forgotten much of Worm.
This may sound cheesy, but my intention is that REND will stay with you. And this is what REND is geared towards.
Building side characters—Self-assessment of the first time I tried using a lot of characters (which was in Arc 3) is that it didn't really turn out well. I admit that Arc 3 had many problems when it came to side characters. As for Arc 1 and 2, I wasn’t really trying to build side characters at that time.
Arc 4 also has plenty of side characters, probably more than Arc 3. This time, I’m confident that I’ve improved in writing them. I may be tooting my own horn, but I feel that in Arc 4, the side characters and the side pov chapters are better written this time around. A great example of this is Deen, who had grown to be a fan favorite from just some generic side character in Arc 1. I just let her character grow in this Arc and it led to this development.
You might’ve noticed by now that I reuse side characters a lot (both good and bad guys), barely killing off any of them. And that’s because of Deen. If I had killed off Deen early (and it’s pretty easy to do that for dramatic effect, like have her die in the Sanders parking area) then we wouldn’t have her development now. I’m interested how the side characters will grow if they’re developed in the future given that Deen is such a success.
Handling side character chapters—Arc 3 side chapters sometimes have poor reception. I learned that was mostly because they’re not that connected to Erind. Arc 4 side chapters are at least tangentially related to Erind to make them interesting to read. And because of improved characterization, readers are even looking forward to POVs of some side characters, like Deen for example.
A good example of my improvement in writing side chapters is Johann’s chapter, which turned out pretty great. It’s just some low-stakes plot about faking documents and he's is a pretty minor side character, but I think many of you will agree that chapter was pretty stressful.
Some More Inspirations and Ideas
Static main character – Usually, characters have development arcs. However, there are characters that do not change, and intentionally so.
The old Superman has a pretty static character. Superman is Superman no matter what happens. And most old versions of comic book heroes are like that. It was only in recent years that superheroes have arcs. Villains also usually don’t have arcs—if they’re evil, they’re evil. It was also recent that it became popular to have greyish villains, or villains that change over time. When it comes to anime/manga, there are the shounen protagonists that really don’t change. Naruto, Goku, Luffy, the usual, they don’t change no matter what, while side characters change.
Erind is intentionally a static character. Her psychopathic traits can’t change or disappear because that’s just how her brain is. Erind has gone through a lot this past four Arcs, but she’s still the same Erind, while the side characters changed a lot, Deen being the primary example.
Gory action scenes—Now, you may think that I was inspired by Invincible (both the comics and the series), and you’d be right. The Boys (the comics; I haven’t seen the series) as well. Both stories have gory fights between super-powered beings, and Invincible especially has super regeneration as well. But those aren’t my main inspirations for REND’s gory fights.
Animorphs is the story that influenced me the most for the fight scenes. I’m not expecting a lot to know about Animorphs because those books were published back in the 1990s, around the same time as Goosebumps books. Even though it was marketed as a children’s book, it had really gory fights (censors didn’t check it). And the main characters there could fully regenerate if they return to their human form after each fight. So, the fight scenes could really get away with chopped limbs or ripped bodies, and have the main characters in one piece for the next book, assuming they survived. Animorphs is said to be the Gantz for kids. Gantz, Berserk, and other gory manga had also inspired me.
World slowly going insane—A peaceful city that slowly goes insane with each passing incident is inspired mostly by Monster, a psychological manga. It’s kind of hard to explain Monster, so much better if you experience it by reading it or watching its anime. Essentially, La Esperanza’s fabric of society is breaking down with each passing Adumbrae attack, with the people doing more and more illogical things.
Each Arc feels different—Obviously, each Arc is different, but I also want them to feel different, trying and exploring different ideas each time. And I got this idea mainly from Hunter x Hunter—this is pretty famous so I assume most know about it. Each arc of HxH is different from the last, and if you change the character faces and names, each arc could be a different manga/anime altogether.
Stories usually maintain their story structure and themes throughout, as they should because that’s what they sell. However, you know me, I don’t want to do that, and thus I was inspired to do whatever comes into my head instead of just redoing each arc but with new and stronger enemies.
Use all the coolest ideas as soon as possible—I got this one from a Brandon Sanderson lecture on Youtube. I’m just super paraphrasing this, he said something like don’t hold back your cool ideas for later in the story if you can use them earlier. Essentially, the point was to implement cool ideas early to hook the readers, otherwise, they may not even reach the latter parts of the story.
My original plan was for Arc 4 to end with the police station fight. Arc 5 was supposed to focus on the hospital, with the ending being protesters attacking and then followed by the monster parasites. The Adumbrae Titan was supposed to be in some other far away Arc. However, taking Brandon Sanderson’s advice—not sure if that’s how it was supposed to be done—I mashed all those ideas together for Arc 4, and I think it turned out pretty well.
Observations on Some Problematic Reader Reactions
In the past two Retrospectives, I’ve focused on the problems with writing a psychopath main character, mostly the reaction of readers when their expectations of mainstream psychopath characters aren’t met. There are other lesser issues that became more apparent during Arc 4 with the massive wave of new readers that I decided to talk about them now.
Readers that don’t read tags/warnings/disclaimers—I suppose this is more of an amusing observation. Some of us are guilty of doing this, let's be honest guys. This isn’t usually a problem since web novel reading is genre-based. If you’re going for litrpg for example, you know what you’re getting into without the tags or synopsis.
I didn't have warnings or disclaimers for REND in the past, and I had complaints with readers' differing expectations, so I put up some after learning my lesson. However, issues regarding this still crop up. We already know the primary example—the expectations of what a psychopath MC should be, as Erind is very different from psychopath MCs in web novels or in popular media in general.
I've received also complaints back then and now (with the new wave of readers) about Erind being unlikeable, or that she's hard to empathize with—and that's true. I can't tell them they're wrong with that. Doesn't that prove I'm doing a great job then because that's her point?
Another thing is the gore element. There are those that ignore the gore tag and then complain about things getting disgusting later on. You might be interested in knowing that when it comes to gore, the chapter with the most complaints is the one where Rofirio ate brains. So, people with issues about gore drop it at around that part, and they don't reach the more gorey stuff later on.
Non-mainstream stories are held to a higher standard – I have mentioned I wrote mainstream stories before (although they have twists). Five years in hiatus later, they still get comments and reviews every now and then. And those feedback are generally positive. With the five year gap between those two and REND, I can say the writing quality is vastly different. I admit it's frustrating for me to see the huge difference in reception between my stories, with REND really having a rocky treatment to say the least.
I noticed comparing my works, and also asking the experience of other authors who have both mainstream and non-mainstream stories, that readers are usually more forgiving when they’re reading the preferred type of stories on a site, be it RR or SH, and more critical with others. And that's normal, I suppose. Unfortunately, as collateral damage, stories like REND have a harder time competing with the mainstream because they are judged on a higher standard.
Difficulties of building mysteries in web novels—For litrpgs, the game system has to be explained; for rebirth/isekai, the new world; for xianxia, the cultivation system; if the world has magic and the like, that has to be explained as well. Generally, mainstream web novels explain to readers what is going on as that's what the story structure requires. That’s not the case with REND.
There are many who dropped REND because they don’t have the information they want after barely reading a few chapters in. I've seen a number leave REND since they don’t immediately get an answer to what Myra is doing. I'm really thankful for those who continue reading REND despite it just presenting more questions and mysteries. I know you're probably not used to this approach.
To illustrate the challenge in making mystery elements in a web novel, I’ll discuss a couple of examples here:
1) The sun rising in the wrong direction in Chapter 1.1. That is actually a nod to the book “1984” using weird occurrences to signal that something is wrong with the world. In that famous book, it began with: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Clocks have twelve numbers, so this is obviously not possible. I had the same intention with making the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean—notice that several paragraphs are devoted to it plus there’s the unnatural Black Spite in the mix—and I went even further, with SpookyErind hinting in the ending of Arc 3 that something was wrong.
Many think I made a mistake with the direction of the sunrise that I now placed an explanation in the Author's Notes of 1.1. I thank those readers who politely point it out with the good intention of wanting to help. However, there are also readers who think I’m an idiot author for supposedly making a “mistake” and then rating REND negatively.
2) The first meeting of Erind and SpookyErind. Recall that Erind ingested the Suppressor that Myra gave her, so how was she able to meet SpookyErind and then transform to Blanchette? Myra was affected by it too that she had to take a Diluter. The answer is Erind’s injury. She lost so much blood, flushing the Suppressor out of her system, allowing SpookyErind to save her in the nick of time.
We know that SpookyErind loves funny coincidences like that. With that in mind, if you revisit the starting chapters of REND, like meeting Professor Deslys and Myra, you'll probably view them with a different perspective. This is something a reader won’t be able see in the early chapters.
Furthermore, Arc 1-3 are just supposed to be the introduction to REND. I think most, if not all negative reviewers haven’t made it past Arc 3. But for you who made it to Arc 4 know how REND really is.
Web novel writing is not a good medium for a mystery story—This is more on the problem with medium itself rather than reader reactions. Web novels are released chapter by chapter on a schedule. This means clues are spread over weeks or even months of releases, so readers, through no fault of their own, will forget certain parts of the story, especially if they’re also reading plenty of other stories.
Plans For Arc 5
The Epilogue has set up quite a lot of story points. My original plan was for Arc 5 to be about finding the Red Island and then Arc 6 will be about the Red Island itself. However, that was with just the 2Ms as the final boss. Now, the story had progressed differently and there are so many different things we have to resolve. The 2Ms are just a small part of something way bigger, so I decided to push away the Red Island plot further away, make it a huge organization and the big bad boss someday.
Arc 5 will set up a lot of things, with the latter half being the start of a huge storyline that’s going to be fun. At least it sounds fun in my head, and usually, my plans work out. There’ll be the return of old characters and old plot threads. The entwined plot is going to be intriguing, that much I can say.
I think we’ll have some use of the new mask, and perhaps also bring Pino back, but their heavy usage will be in Arc 6 since, as I’ve said, Arc 5 is to set up a huge storyline that will reveal the deal with Dario and a bunch of other questions which I’m sure you’re interested in getting answered.
By the way, a huge thank you for the suggestions for the new mask. We have some pretty cool ideas.
Don’t hesitate to give suggestions in the message below or you can message me. Can be about anything. I’m also open to suggestions for new Rules, both minor like the food Rule, and major like Rule #4. Just keep in mind that it shouldn’t clash with any of Erind’s earlier thoughts or actions.
Erind and Deen – The ending of this Arc provides a nice set-up for building a relationship that will be full of drama and manipulation between the two of them. I know many readers are shipping them, but know that whatever relationship they’ll develop, it won’t be a vanilla romantic one because both of them aren’t capable of that. I intend to keep the characters consistent.
We all know Erind. She hasn’t shown any capacity to love other people so far. And she’s straight as far as we can see in the story. However, we also know she’ll fake anything, even a romantic relationship if it suits her. Take Ramon and Ramello. Erind knew they like her, and she’s quick to manipulate them even in just small things that don’t really even give her benefit, but mostly to mess around with them.
As for Deen, she’s clearly obsessed with Erind—and it isn’t love. Deen is focused on the idea of something, the idea of being a straight-laced student, the idea of being a hero, the idea of protecting Erind, and so on. And she’ll do everything to protect that idea, not necessarily the person who’s the object of the idea. For example, she’s very interested in being a hero, and not necessarily saving people—she’s actually a caricature of shounen protagonists who have long speeches about being a hero, even though it’s the acts that define a hero and not the other way around. Erind is sort of a “project” in Deen’s eyes.
Initially, I was hesitant bringing Erind and Deen closer because there’ll be plenty of emotional manipulation that’ll probably border on abuse, and it might disturb some readers. However, readers who had come this far are probably not going to be bothered by that. And Deen could actually “fight back” Erind, so the relationship is sort of “equal”. This is a psychological story first and foremost, as I always say, so we’ll go with this route.
Ongoing Edits and Improvements
For each chapter since the start of REND, I usually have Author’s Notes. However, I have a habit of deleting it after a couple of weeks or so. My thinking was for readers to have a cleaner reading experience. However, it seemed like a dumb idea when I thought more about it. Explanations enhance the reader’s experience, which is why I’m rereading REND and adding Author’s Notes here and there.
I’m also doing minor edits, mostly cosmetic and proofreading. I also changed things like Erind referring to “my kind”, because that’s really not something she would think. Those spiels were mostly there to give more explanation as some readers were rating low because they couldn’t understand or wanted more info dump. REND is big enough now to shrug those off, and I think it’s a better reading experience if I smoothened those out.
It'll be good to reread REND when I’m finished with all of those corrections, but it’ll take time because I’m prioritizing Arc 5 and the advanced chapters for Patreon. For new readers, this is why Arc 1 and parts of Arc 2 and 3 have A/Ns while other parts still don’t.
Patreon
As I talked about somewhere up there, I had a Patreon before when I wrote stories years ago. It barely earned anything, and I wasn’t able to cash it out anyway before I had to stop writing. I still do feel really guilty about that, which is why I wanted to make sure to myself that this time, when I start Patreon, I’m not going to drop REND. Nearing two years in, I think I have already proven to myself and to you as well that I’m not going to poof away, so I’m more confident in starting Patreon, which I'll do by the next Arc.
Another reason why I waited this late was that I didn’t want to be influenced by readers in plotting the story. It isn’t unheard of for readers to pressure the author to change the direction of the story, and the pressure might be greater if there is money involved. I wanted to avoid that. However, by now, I think readers are on board wherever REND will go.
Lastly, I’m a very slow writer. All of my free time is spent on just keeping up with release (and it is very stressful). But I’ll push myself now to write advanced chapters in hopes that Patreon can support me enough, even as a part-time thing, that all my free time won’t get eaten up writing REND to avoid stress and burnout, and also to ensure I’ll be able to continue writing it for the long time.
REND is plot-heavy so it’ll be difficult to have a lot of advanced chapters. Furthermore, as you know, I change my mind a lot regarding the plot of the story. So I'll probably settle for five advanced chapters, then add in bonus Erind/Deen content that many people ask for (it'll be sort of fanfiction.)
Supporting REND
It'll really help REND if you (for those who haven’t done it yet) could rate or review (if you have time to write), or those who already have reviewed can update theirs. Another way to support REND is by recommending it. This'll be a really great help because I personally suck at marketing. If you can, do share and recommend REND wherever you think there can be readers, like in reddit or discord servers. I really have no idea how to market REND.
Once again, a huge thank you to those who spread REND after I asked for help in the last chapter.
And that brings me to the end of this very long Author’s Retrospective. I hope you didn’t get tired of reading all of this. REND is really lucky to have supporters like you, otherwise, it would’ve gone the way of stories that aren’t mainstream, just buried and dropped. For example, I never imagined REND will have a fan like Crimson Blade who commissioned an acrylic glass print of the REND wallpaper. I’m going to put it below because I don’t think many have seen it.
I hope you continue supporting REND in the future, and thanks for everything once again! Let’s see how much growth REND will have in Arc 5. Many thanks in advance to those who’ll help REND going forward.
After nine months, we finally finished Arc 4. In comparison, it took us six months to complete Arc 3. As I've mentioned in the last chapter, the follower count of REND in RoyalRoad doubled, while in Scribblehub it tripled.
This is incredible because the popularity of web novels is often decided at the start; if they're not popular, they're not going to be popular in the future, and vice versa. There are web novels that are "late bloomers", but those are cases really rare. That's why I'm amazed a huge burst of growth happened this late into REND's life.
In this Retrospective, which is going to be very long, I’m going to briefly discuss my previous experience writing web novels. My three older works in hiatus were supposed to be the start of different worlds connected to REND, so you might find that interesting. It also influenced how I crafted REND and Erind. Since I’ll talk about my past work, might as well share some things about myself.
Next, I’m going to talk about the history of REND from the start, the ups and downs, and all that. I feel the need to share this because REND has many new readers (the majority joined in during Arc 4) that don’t know its very challenging past. I’m not even sure if there are surviving readers from way back from Arc 1. I hope that talking about its nearly two-year journey can bring a new sense of appreciation for it, especially for those who came when there are already plenty of chapters.
I’m also going to talk about my learnings from arc 3 that I’ve applied in arc 4, stuff I noticed about negative reactions from readers, perhaps a section about Erind and Deen, Patreon, and the future of REND.
Writing Web Novels Before Rend
Almost seven years ago, I started writing my first web novel in RoyalRoad after being inspired by all the light novel translations I had read. The novel was an epic fantasy following multiple characters, but one of the main characters was overpowered, so it drew in a lot of readers even if it was a multi-pov story which is generally disliked. The story was set five hundred years after the great war against the Adumbrae invasion (they weren’t called Adumbrae there) that destroyed many kingdoms.
That was the start of my “signature” style of having a non-traditional MC (the character was really peculiar for epic fantasy or even the OP MC trope), unconventional fight scenes, and multiple plot lines. I had already toyed with the idea of a world helping other worlds fight against the Adumbrae, although the story was very far from that reveal when I dropped it.
About a year after starting my first story, I began my second, a VR litrpg. It was my first experiment with an MC that wasn’t meant for self-inserts (like Erind) because I made him a narcissistic asshole with a comedic side. The litrpg side of that story was barebones. It was mostly the MC carrying the story through sheer force of personality, so I already had proof of concept that a different kind of MC can work in web novels. Erind has traits from the MC and a female character of the litrpg story, so you can say that she is sort of their child. That story also had weird fight scenes because the game character wasn’t humanoid.
Since players are using virtual reality pods to play the game, I got the idea of the brain being related to the creation of Adumbrae. My litrpg had people dying from being connected with the game, as a hint of possible Adumbrae reaction. But, like with my first story, it hadn’t reached the point to really explore it before I stopped writing.
I then wrote a third story that was supposed to be a collection of short stories, but it ended up having only one chapter because I had quit writing by then. This third story was the precursor of REND. It was set in an alternate history of modern earth where beings from another dimension come to ours through tears in the veil of reality and take over people. The main cast were members of an organization that was sort of a cross between the Corebring Hive (super-powered people) and also sort of a government force with technology (like the BID). Their job was to exterminate monsters and close these reality tears.
Tear…Rend…Hey, that’s where we got the title!
After twenty months (this will come up again later) from the time I published the first chapter of my first story, I had to stop writing because of real-life issues.
Getting Back Into Writing
After about three years since I stopped writing my old stories, my life sort of stabilized, and I had a bit of free time. I wanted to get back into writing. However, I was ashamed of continuing my old stories because I just disappeared without telling my followers what was going on. I know, web novel authors just poof without a trace all the time, but still, that was my feeling.
I had started a Patreon about a month before I stopped writing, which I also regretted. It only had two or three patrons if I recall correctly because I couldn’t spare the time to make advanced chapters, and I got a few dollars from that which I wasn’t able to cash out. (I can’t recall why, Patreon probably had a minimum amount to withdraw back then.) I’m really sorry to those patrons and the money they shelled out.
Bottom line, I was ashamed of going back to my old account so I made a new one. I also wrote REND to be as far away as possible from my old stories to distance myself from the thoughts of it. That’s why REND is very different from mainstream RoyalRoad or Scribblehub stories. I intentionally made it so.
This is also why I haven’t mentioned the titles of my previous works. My goal was to build this account without any help from my old account. REND will probably be popular if I had used my old account to shout it out at the start. However, I think REND has done well solo flying. When I’m ready to rewrite my old stories (starting with the litrpg one because it’s easier), I’ll reveal their titles.
A Bit of Background About Myself
A little segue before discussing the writing part of REND. I debated with myself whether I should do this or not—I want to separate the author from the writing. But then again, it’s not like I want to keep it a secret because followers of my old novels know a few things about me anyway, and I’m going to reveal my old works eventually. It'll also put in context the challenges I've faced writing.
I’m a Filipino living in the Philippines. English is my second language. Not actually second. I’m from a minor ethnic group, so my first language is not even the national language of the Philippines—English is my fourth language. Many Filipinos can speak conversation-level English. I had English subjects in high school, and that was about all the English lessons I’ve had. In college, I didn’t take any English subjects at all and certainly not any creative writing or literature-related subjects.
Being able to converse in English is very different compared to writing a story in English. I got to this point by self-study alone—I’m very proud of this achievement. And I admit that I’m sharing this as a sort of flex. Nevertheless, I hope this might inspire others because I know a lot of authors in RR and SH aren’t native English speakers.
There were a lot of happenings in the Philippines around the time I stopped writing that readers of my old stories (including from sites that pirated and illegally translated them funnily enough) thought I was injured or even killed. Well, something bad happened to me, but I didn’t die. I had no idea why the rumor I died became rampant. I only learned about it when I recently checked on my old stories.
I’m sharing this information to put in context the effort I exert in writing REND, or rather writing in general, and also to explain the delays of Arc 4, like the supertyphoon that destroyed parts of the Philippines (including the city where I live) that severely affected my writing and nearly made me quit again. Actually, another massive storm had just passed, and I'm having intermittent electricity and internet connection now.
Rise and Fall and RISE of REND
Arc 1—May 20, 2020, I finally published the first chapter of REND on RoyalRoad after a long time of trying to push myself to return to writing. I started with I think one backlog chapter, a rudimentary outline that I eventually didn’t follow, and that’s it.
For the benefit of SH readers and new RR users, a couple of years ago, RR had Trending on its front page and no Rising Stars. RS now is kind of like the RR Trending back then.
REND has above average grammar for a web novel and a unique main character, even if the story itself isn't mainstream, so it gained a modest following, a new reader or two whenever I posted a chapter.
About a month and a half later with maybe fifty RR followers, REND hit RR Trending. More readers tried it out. Its initial popularity was mainly due to the premise of a psychopath main character.
In its short stint in Trending, REND breached a thousand followers, although I can’t remember what number it peaked at. Any new story should be happy with that. But instead, it presented a challenge to me because those are mostly readers who had a different notion of what the story was about. I’ve talked about the “psychopath issue” in previous Retrospectives, so let’s move on.
Arc 2—A couple of months after starting, Arc 1 ended and readers realized that it wasn’t the psychopath story they expected. In the following months after REND got kicked out of RR Trending, the reader base slowly dwindled away. Every chapter release, some readers would unfollow (probably remembering they followed the wrong story), while a few new ones came. The turnover was high, and it always ended up negative (more people left than joined).
Then there were the negative comments and reviews/ratings. I am fine with helpful feedback even if they are very harsh or critical; it may sting, but it helps me improve. The problem is that many negative feedbacks aren't helpful at all, for example criticizing Erind for not following the psychotic killer trope and some other more that I'll discuss below.
Writing Arc 2 was a disheartening time. My twice-a-week release rate became one chapter a week because I didn't have the motivation to write. A week sometimes became ten or more days, at times once every two weeks, in between releases. But I still pushed on because of a few vocal supportive readers. I tried to look for other places that may be accepting of a very different story like REND.
I went to Webnovel.com. In the past, uncontracted stories had a chance to be seen there, now, they don’t have any visibility with the site pushing contracted stories. The comments I got at WN were looking for OP MC or psychotic killing sprees. Then someone recommended I try SH because readers there are more open to different things than RR people.
Hoping REND might have a chance at SH, I worked hard to fix parts of the story. I pushed myself to go through it and, taking into account all the feedback I had so far, both negative and positive, make plenty of minor changes to improve it and a few major ones like adding two new chapters to the early part of Arc 1. I didn’t change the plot but mostly explained things more. In the case of 1.12, I actually overexplained (I’ll cut that down when I have time to edit).
Arc 2 ended December 2020, and by Jan. 1, 2021, I was ready to also start uploading in SH as I started Arc 3.
Arc 3— New year, new hope...and things didn't go well. True, SH is more open to other stories, but they are open to a different kind of different. REND had frequent updates at SH at the start since I was transferring Arc 1 and 2, but only a few SH readers came because it barely had anything that’d grab SH readers just based on its synopsis and tags. Ten readers to twenty to thirty took a very long time. When a new reader comes, it's actually a surprise.
Over at RR, the completion of Arc 2 brought in a resurgence of readers. However, Arc 3, as you know having read it and its Author's Retrospective, had a mixed reception to put it mildly. It had plenty of side chapters that many didn’t like, Erind showed more of her disturbing side (had about 20+ followers leave that chapter where Erind killed Julie’s dad), and the plot of the building survival thing was also weird. In short, REND at RR during Arc 3 was bleeding out followers while it barely got any at SH.
I didn’t get discouraged that time around because it was my own choice to experiment, I know my shortcomings with such an experiment that I can improve upon, and I know that some people will like it when I eventually finish the Arc. So, I just hunkered down and continued writing.
Past the halfway point of Arc 3, people understood what I was going for and gave reviews representative of REND. This enticed more people to try. The hardcore followers also stuck with REND through thick and thin, further encouraging me. REND climbed to around 1.5k readers probably towards the end of Arc 3.
Arc 4—This is the beginning of the second RISE of Rend. I capitalized all the letters because it is a huge rise. The end of Arc 3 brought a new wave of readers. Over at SH, I think REND hit the front page Trending for the first time and brought in more readers. Applying my learnings from Arc 3, I strived to make Arc 4 better. And it showed as the steady trickle of readers came, reaching about 2.3k-2.4k by December 2021.
Then disaster struck. As I mentioned, a supertyphoon passed by the area in the Philippines where I live and destroyed a lot of infrastructures. REND has some Filipino readers both in RR and SH, so they know what I’m talking about. You can also search the news because it was a very powerful supertyphoon that took hundreds of lives.
It took a couple of weeks to restore electricity and water in my city and a couple more weeks to make it stable. Furthermore, my dog got terribly sick and needed an operation. I was ready to pay for it because I really love my dog, but because there’s no electricity and water, there’s no available veterinary clinic open. Some clinics were even damaged. And my dog died.
For those already reading REND around December 2021, this was the reason the chapters were delayed. I had to be creative about where to find places to charge my laptop and to find internet connection. Plus, I was struggling with motivation since my dog died. This was twenty months after I had started REND—just like when I first started writing and I had to drop my old stories after twenty months because of real-life problems. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but the timings are so eerie. The delays in January were because I had Covid.
But enough of that. I was resolved I wouldn’t drop my story again and I pushed on. Around January 2022, Thundamoo, writer of Vigor Mortis, gave REND a shoutout out of the blue. I thanked her for this huge help. It brought about a couple hundred more readers and then pushed REND to Trending where it gained more readers. At SH, REND also got to Trending front page again. REND was in an upward trajectory after the challenges in December and January.
I can’t recall how exactly many RR and SH followers REND had right after Arc 3, but I’m sure RR followers have doubled during Arc 4 to three thousand. As for SH, REND followers tripled during the same period to a thousand—yes, tripled.
And I’m hopeful that REND will keep growing as we continue on to Arc 5.
Learning From Arc 3 Applied to Arc 4
Rend is a psychological story—The way the Arcs are structured is that the first half is mostly character/world-building, while the latter half is where the action happens. There are criticisms that this is slow-paced, especially compared to how other web novels are structured, and that is correct. However, the main goal of REND is to affect readers on a mental and emotional level, so I'm fine with taking it slow for some parts. Other parts, however, are mistakes when it comes to being slow-paced, like parts of the condominium-survival arc.
Anyway, when I used to read a lot of web/light novels, I binged through them and then forget them afterward. The memories that stuck with me are the impactful psychological scenes. For example, I’ve read hundreds of chapters of Coiling Dragon several years ago and forgot about it. The only part I remembered was when his heart was broken and he sculpted his masterpiece. There’s also Pact by Wildbow (author of Worm) that’s probably the most emotionally draining story I’ve read. I haven’t forgotten it even if I had forgotten much of Worm.
This may sound cheesy, but my intention is that REND will stay with you. And this is what REND is geared towards.
Building side characters—Self-assessment of the first time I tried using a lot of characters (which was in Arc 3) is that it didn't really turn out well. I admit that Arc 3 had many problems when it came to side characters. As for Arc 1 and 2, I wasn’t really trying to build side characters at that time.
Arc 4 also has plenty of side characters, probably more than Arc 3. This time, I’m confident that I’ve improved in writing them. I may be tooting my own horn, but I feel that in Arc 4, the side characters and the side pov chapters are better written this time around. A great example of this is Deen, who had grown to be a fan favorite from just some generic side character in Arc 1. I just let her character grow in this Arc and it led to this development.
You might’ve noticed by now that I reuse side characters a lot (both good and bad guys), barely killing off any of them. And that’s because of Deen. If I had killed off Deen early (and it’s pretty easy to do that for dramatic effect, like have her die in the Sanders parking area) then we wouldn’t have her development now. I’m interested how the side characters will grow if they’re developed in the future given that Deen is such a success.
Handling side character chapters—Arc 3 side chapters sometimes have poor reception. I learned that was mostly because they’re not that connected to Erind. Arc 4 side chapters are at least tangentially related to Erind to make them interesting to read. And because of improved characterization, readers are even looking forward to POVs of some side characters, like Deen for example.
A good example of my improvement in writing side chapters is Johann’s chapter, which turned out pretty great. It’s just some low-stakes plot about faking documents and he's is a pretty minor side character, but I think many of you will agree that chapter was pretty stressful.
Some More Inspirations and Ideas
Static main character – Usually, characters have development arcs. However, there are characters that do not change, and intentionally so.
The old Superman has a pretty static character. Superman is Superman no matter what happens. And most old versions of comic book heroes are like that. It was only in recent years that superheroes have arcs. Villains also usually don’t have arcs—if they’re evil, they’re evil. It was also recent that it became popular to have greyish villains, or villains that change over time. When it comes to anime/manga, there are the shounen protagonists that really don’t change. Naruto, Goku, Luffy, the usual, they don’t change no matter what, while side characters change.
Erind is intentionally a static character. Her psychopathic traits can’t change or disappear because that’s just how her brain is. Erind has gone through a lot this past four Arcs, but she’s still the same Erind, while the side characters changed a lot, Deen being the primary example.
Gory action scenes—Now, you may think that I was inspired by Invincible (both the comics and the series), and you’d be right. The Boys (the comics; I haven’t seen the series) as well. Both stories have gory fights between super-powered beings, and Invincible especially has super regeneration as well. But those aren’t my main inspirations for REND’s gory fights.
Animorphs is the story that influenced me the most for the fight scenes. I’m not expecting a lot to know about Animorphs because those books were published back in the 1990s, around the same time as Goosebumps books. Even though it was marketed as a children’s book, it had really gory fights (censors didn’t check it). And the main characters there could fully regenerate if they return to their human form after each fight. So, the fight scenes could really get away with chopped limbs or ripped bodies, and have the main characters in one piece for the next book, assuming they survived. Animorphs is said to be the Gantz for kids. Gantz, Berserk, and other gory manga had also inspired me.
World slowly going insane—A peaceful city that slowly goes insane with each passing incident is inspired mostly by Monster, a psychological manga. It’s kind of hard to explain Monster, so much better if you experience it by reading it or watching its anime. Essentially, La Esperanza’s fabric of society is breaking down with each passing Adumbrae attack, with the people doing more and more illogical things.
Each Arc feels different—Obviously, each Arc is different, but I also want them to feel different, trying and exploring different ideas each time. And I got this idea mainly from Hunter x Hunter—this is pretty famous so I assume most know about it. Each arc of HxH is different from the last, and if you change the character faces and names, each arc could be a different manga/anime altogether.
Stories usually maintain their story structure and themes throughout, as they should because that’s what they sell. However, you know me, I don’t want to do that, and thus I was inspired to do whatever comes into my head instead of just redoing each arc but with new and stronger enemies.
Use all the coolest ideas as soon as possible—I got this one from a Brandon Sanderson lecture on Youtube. I’m just super paraphrasing this, he said something like don’t hold back your cool ideas for later in the story if you can use them earlier. Essentially, the point was to implement cool ideas early to hook the readers, otherwise, they may not even reach the latter parts of the story.
My original plan was for Arc 4 to end with the police station fight. Arc 5 was supposed to focus on the hospital, with the ending being protesters attacking and then followed by the monster parasites. The Adumbrae Titan was supposed to be in some other far away Arc. However, taking Brandon Sanderson’s advice—not sure if that’s how it was supposed to be done—I mashed all those ideas together for Arc 4, and I think it turned out pretty well.
Observations on Some Problematic Reader Reactions
In the past two Retrospectives, I’ve focused on the problems with writing a psychopath main character, mostly the reaction of readers when their expectations of mainstream psychopath characters aren’t met. There are other lesser issues that became more apparent during Arc 4 with the massive wave of new readers that I decided to talk about them now.
Readers that don’t read tags/warnings/disclaimers—I suppose this is more of an amusing observation. Some of us are guilty of doing this, let's be honest guys. This isn’t usually a problem since web novel reading is genre-based. If you’re going for litrpg for example, you know what you’re getting into without the tags or synopsis.
I didn't have warnings or disclaimers for REND in the past, and I had complaints with readers' differing expectations, so I put up some after learning my lesson. However, issues regarding this still crop up. We already know the primary example—the expectations of what a psychopath MC should be, as Erind is very different from psychopath MCs in web novels or in popular media in general.
I've received also complaints back then and now (with the new wave of readers) about Erind being unlikeable, or that she's hard to empathize with—and that's true. I can't tell them they're wrong with that. Doesn't that prove I'm doing a great job then because that's her point?
Another thing is the gore element. There are those that ignore the gore tag and then complain about things getting disgusting later on. You might be interested in knowing that when it comes to gore, the chapter with the most complaints is the one where Rofirio ate brains. So, people with issues about gore drop it at around that part, and they don't reach the more gorey stuff later on.
Non-mainstream stories are held to a higher standard – I have mentioned I wrote mainstream stories before (although they have twists). Five years in hiatus later, they still get comments and reviews every now and then. And those feedback are generally positive. With the five year gap between those two and REND, I can say the writing quality is vastly different. I admit it's frustrating for me to see the huge difference in reception between my stories, with REND really having a rocky treatment to say the least.
I noticed comparing my works, and also asking the experience of other authors who have both mainstream and non-mainstream stories, that readers are usually more forgiving when they’re reading the preferred type of stories on a site, be it RR or SH, and more critical with others. And that's normal, I suppose. Unfortunately, as collateral damage, stories like REND have a harder time competing with the mainstream because they are judged on a higher standard.
Difficulties of building mysteries in web novels—For litrpgs, the game system has to be explained; for rebirth/isekai, the new world; for xianxia, the cultivation system; if the world has magic and the like, that has to be explained as well. Generally, mainstream web novels explain to readers what is going on as that's what the story structure requires. That’s not the case with REND.
There are many who dropped REND because they don’t have the information they want after barely reading a few chapters in. I've seen a number leave REND since they don’t immediately get an answer to what Myra is doing. I'm really thankful for those who continue reading REND despite it just presenting more questions and mysteries. I know you're probably not used to this approach.
To illustrate the challenge in making mystery elements in a web novel, I’ll discuss a couple of examples here:
1) The sun rising in the wrong direction in Chapter 1.1. That is actually a nod to the book “1984” using weird occurrences to signal that something is wrong with the world. In that famous book, it began with: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Clocks have twelve numbers, so this is obviously not possible. I had the same intention with making the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean—notice that several paragraphs are devoted to it plus there’s the unnatural Black Spite in the mix—and I went even further, with SpookyErind hinting in the ending of Arc 3 that something was wrong.
Many think I made a mistake with the direction of the sunrise that I now placed an explanation in the Author's Notes of 1.1. I thank those readers who politely point it out with the good intention of wanting to help. However, there are also readers who think I’m an idiot author for supposedly making a “mistake” and then rating REND negatively.
2) The first meeting of Erind and SpookyErind. Recall that Erind ingested the Suppressor that Myra gave her, so how was she able to meet SpookyErind and then transform to Blanchette? Myra was affected by it too that she had to take a Diluter. The answer is Erind’s injury. She lost so much blood, flushing the Suppressor out of her system, allowing SpookyErind to save her in the nick of time.
We know that SpookyErind loves funny coincidences like that. With that in mind, if you revisit the starting chapters of REND, like meeting Professor Deslys and Myra, you'll probably view them with a different perspective. This is something a reader won’t be able see in the early chapters.
Furthermore, Arc 1-3 are just supposed to be the introduction to REND. I think most, if not all negative reviewers haven’t made it past Arc 3. But for you who made it to Arc 4 know how REND really is.
Web novel writing is not a good medium for a mystery story—This is more on the problem with medium itself rather than reader reactions. Web novels are released chapter by chapter on a schedule. This means clues are spread over weeks or even months of releases, so readers, through no fault of their own, will forget certain parts of the story, especially if they’re also reading plenty of other stories.
Plans For Arc 5
The Epilogue has set up quite a lot of story points. My original plan was for Arc 5 to be about finding the Red Island and then Arc 6 will be about the Red Island itself. However, that was with just the 2Ms as the final boss. Now, the story had progressed differently and there are so many different things we have to resolve. The 2Ms are just a small part of something way bigger, so I decided to push away the Red Island plot further away, make it a huge organization and the big bad boss someday.
Arc 5 will set up a lot of things, with the latter half being the start of a huge storyline that’s going to be fun. At least it sounds fun in my head, and usually, my plans work out. There’ll be the return of old characters and old plot threads. The entwined plot is going to be intriguing, that much I can say.
I think we’ll have some use of the new mask, and perhaps also bring Pino back, but their heavy usage will be in Arc 6 since, as I’ve said, Arc 5 is to set up a huge storyline that will reveal the deal with Dario and a bunch of other questions which I’m sure you’re interested in getting answered.
By the way, a huge thank you for the suggestions for the new mask. We have some pretty cool ideas.
Don’t hesitate to give suggestions in the message below or you can message me. Can be about anything. I’m also open to suggestions for new Rules, both minor like the food Rule, and major like Rule #4. Just keep in mind that it shouldn’t clash with any of Erind’s earlier thoughts or actions.
Erind and Deen – The ending of this Arc provides a nice set-up for building a relationship that will be full of drama and manipulation between the two of them. I know many readers are shipping them, but know that whatever relationship they’ll develop, it won’t be a vanilla romantic one because both of them aren’t capable of that. I intend to keep the characters consistent.
We all know Erind. She hasn’t shown any capacity to love other people so far. And she’s straight as far as we can see in the story. However, we also know she’ll fake anything, even a romantic relationship if it suits her. Take Ramon and Ramello. Erind knew they like her, and she’s quick to manipulate them even in just small things that don’t really even give her benefit, but mostly to mess around with them.
As for Deen, she’s clearly obsessed with Erind—and it isn’t love. Deen is focused on the idea of something, the idea of being a straight-laced student, the idea of being a hero, the idea of protecting Erind, and so on. And she’ll do everything to protect that idea, not necessarily the person who’s the object of the idea. For example, she’s very interested in being a hero, and not necessarily saving people—she’s actually a caricature of shounen protagonists who have long speeches about being a hero, even though it’s the acts that define a hero and not the other way around. Erind is sort of a “project” in Deen’s eyes.
Initially, I was hesitant bringing Erind and Deen closer because there’ll be plenty of emotional manipulation that’ll probably border on abuse, and it might disturb some readers. However, readers who had come this far are probably not going to be bothered by that. And Deen could actually “fight back” Erind, so the relationship is sort of “equal”. This is a psychological story first and foremost, as I always say, so we’ll go with this route.
Ongoing Edits and Improvements
For each chapter since the start of REND, I usually have Author’s Notes. However, I have a habit of deleting it after a couple of weeks or so. My thinking was for readers to have a cleaner reading experience. However, it seemed like a dumb idea when I thought more about it. Explanations enhance the reader’s experience, which is why I’m rereading REND and adding Author’s Notes here and there.
I’m also doing minor edits, mostly cosmetic and proofreading. I also changed things like Erind referring to “my kind”, because that’s really not something she would think. Those spiels were mostly there to give more explanation as some readers were rating low because they couldn’t understand or wanted more info dump. REND is big enough now to shrug those off, and I think it’s a better reading experience if I smoothened those out.
It'll be good to reread REND when I’m finished with all of those corrections, but it’ll take time because I’m prioritizing Arc 5 and the advanced chapters for Patreon. For new readers, this is why Arc 1 and parts of Arc 2 and 3 have A/Ns while other parts still don’t.
Patreon
As I talked about somewhere up there, I had a Patreon before when I wrote stories years ago. It barely earned anything, and I wasn’t able to cash it out anyway before I had to stop writing. I still do feel really guilty about that, which is why I wanted to make sure to myself that this time, when I start Patreon, I’m not going to drop REND. Nearing two years in, I think I have already proven to myself and to you as well that I’m not going to poof away, so I’m more confident in starting Patreon, which I'll do by the next Arc.
Another reason why I waited this late was that I didn’t want to be influenced by readers in plotting the story. It isn’t unheard of for readers to pressure the author to change the direction of the story, and the pressure might be greater if there is money involved. I wanted to avoid that. However, by now, I think readers are on board wherever REND will go.
Lastly, I’m a very slow writer. All of my free time is spent on just keeping up with release (and it is very stressful). But I’ll push myself now to write advanced chapters in hopes that Patreon can support me enough, even as a part-time thing, that all my free time won’t get eaten up writing REND to avoid stress and burnout, and also to ensure I’ll be able to continue writing it for the long time.
REND is plot-heavy so it’ll be difficult to have a lot of advanced chapters. Furthermore, as you know, I change my mind a lot regarding the plot of the story. So I'll probably settle for five advanced chapters, then add in bonus Erind/Deen content that many people ask for (it'll be sort of fanfiction.)
Supporting REND
It'll really help REND if you (for those who haven’t done it yet) could rate or review (if you have time to write), or those who already have reviewed can update theirs. Another way to support REND is by recommending it. This'll be a really great help because I personally suck at marketing. If you can, do share and recommend REND wherever you think there can be readers, like in reddit or discord servers. I really have no idea how to market REND.
Once again, a huge thank you to those who spread REND after I asked for help in the last chapter.
And that brings me to the end of this very long Author’s Retrospective. I hope you didn’t get tired of reading all of this. REND is really lucky to have supporters like you, otherwise, it would’ve gone the way of stories that aren’t mainstream, just buried and dropped. For example, I never imagined REND will have a fan like Crimson Blade who commissioned an acrylic glass print of the REND wallpaper. I’m going to put it below because I don’t think many have seen it.
I hope you continue supporting REND in the future, and thanks for everything once again! Let’s see how much growth REND will have in Arc 5. Many thanks in advance to those who’ll help REND going forward.
