Chương 131: Author's Retrospective - Book 2

After around nine and a half months, the new version of REND is at 5. 5k followers on RoyalRoad and 1. 1k followers on Scribblehub. In comparison, the Prior Cycle took 5 years to reach 4. 9k followers on RR and 2. 5k followers on SH. Thank you for all the support! Anyway, why is REND popular? I'm very thankful for this, of course. But I'm also not sure of the answer. The rewrite on RR is doing insane numbers. The rewrite on SH is growing fast, too.

I never expected how well this went, given that most rewrites actually do worse than the original. I only know of a few rewritten stories that have beaten the numbers of their prior versions. Moreover, present RR/SH is a more difficult place for REND to be, with the majority of the readers being litrpg/cultivation/progression fantasy fans. REND isn't litrpg. It's already stretching to call it a progression fantasy. Yes, Erind grows stronger, but that isn't the point of the story.

Bottomline is that REND isn't in a popular genre and doesn't have the trending tropes that readers want. It isn't even traditional fantasy, which sometimes boom on RR and SH. My take on why REND has many readers is mainly because of Erind's distinct and interesting narration. This isn't even dark comedy. Erind is just being her crazy self. Such a style is rather rare on RR and SH. However, being different doesn't necessarily mean that people will try it out.

In fact, it's the opposite for webnovel readers because most just read the genres they prefer instead of exploring other types of stories. Many 'off-meta' stories on RR and SH get buried by the popular genres. So… I don't think my theory necessarily answers the question of why REND is popular. Actually, it shouldn't be popular, given Erind as the protagonist. Many reviews/comments say this story isn't for everyone. And that's true. Perhaps Erind's 'differentness' attracts interest?

It's kind of like reading an alien MC or an MC from a very different culture. Or it could be like how many people watch true crime shows. Some morbid curiosity, perhaps? It provides a different sort of entertainment. There's also this thing that I gave Erind—a sense of realness. It's really difficult to explain this, but you might've noticed that Erind is relatable even if she's different from a normal person. She doesn't actually feel alien. I'd even say that she's more 'real' than the average person in the story.

This is by design, and it seems to have worked because many readers consider Erind as relatable. The fun of misunderstandings is another thing that draw readers, I'd say. It's one of the reasons that Overlord is famous. The mystery of the world could be another factor for REND's growth. But then again, many stories also have mysteries and fun plots, but they don't pop off because they don't have the trendy genres/tropes. An interesting thing is happening with the Prior Cycle in RR.

It's losing followers because readers are transferring to the new version—that's expected—but it's also gaining followers because readers of the new version are trying it out. I think there are even new readers of the completed Prior Cycle who are yet to read the new version. I'd like to hear why you're reading REND and why you think it's popular on sites populated with litrpg/cultivation/progression fantasy. Please comment below so we can discuss it. Maybe you can shed some light on this mystery.

Decisions and directions of Book 2 Let's discuss a few major events in Book 2 and why I decided to go this way. The first is finding Kelsey. As I've mentioned in a couple of Author's Notes, for those who haven't read the Prior Cycle, Kelsey was never found there. Kelsey started the Prior Cycle with the mystery of her disappearance, and she was… just forgotten. By me. The story moved along and left her behind, along with pieces of the plot with her. I wanted to remedy that with Kelsey's return in Book 2.

Kelsey brought with her plenty of elements, from Keke, the PCM, the formation of the 4Bs, as well as a possible cure for Adumbrae. Keke is a huge deal because she's the only other Adumbrae we have met right now, and she's very different from Spooky Erind. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. The second major event is the PCM trying to find a cure for seeding. The PCM in the Prior Cycle was just one of the groups controlled by the 2Ms.

This time around, the PCM pretended to work with the 2Ms to fulfill their goal of saving humanity. I didn't want Book 2 to just be a continuation of fighting the 2Ms. Also, I wanted an enemy with different motivations. Very different compared to the 2Ms' goals. The PCM's methods might not be… okay. But they have a good-guy goal. Technically. It is a question of the means justifying the ends. The last major change was Erind revealing her secret to Deen this early.

Things happened very differently in the Prior Cycle—the summary is that Deen discovered Erind's secret first. And it happened late back then. There are pros and cons to this decision. The biggest con is that we sacrifice the enjoyable part of Erind hiding her secret from Deen, and Deen slowly discovering it. That was a very fun thing. Perhaps we could've stretched this out before the reveal, but I decided to hasten it in favor of the pros.

Erind and Deen will have a new dynamic, and Deen will start to get fleshed out more as her crazier side starts to come out. Instead of the 'secrets phase' of their interaction, Deen now doubts if Erind has full control of her body or the Adumbrae is in charge—this wasn't present in the Prior Cycle. We have merged some plotlines with the appearance of Kelsey and the reveal of Erind's secret. But that doesn't mean things get less complicated. Rather, it opens the story to a lot more paths.

And I'm very excited to explore this with you. Writing Style I've talked about this in the Prior Cycle's Retrospectives, but I want to discuss this again because there have been some changes. I'm mostly a pantser, a writer with no outline. For example, Stephen King is a panster while Brandon Sanderson is a plotter. Most webnovel writers are pantsers since it's most suited to the requirements of a continuous release schedule. For the rewrite of REND, I tried plotting the story.

What ended up happening was that I didn't stick to the outline because I eventually thought of better ideas. Essentially, I rewrote the outline of the rewrite. Sometimes, I'd even change my mind as I was writing the chapter for the day. And so, I now outline a book, but do not follow it. New ideas come as I write the planned chapters. Furthermore, input from readers also gives me new ideas. It may be weird to plan to not follow that plan, but we learn from Erind's way of doing things.

I feel like my writing style contributes to the craziness of REND. It also gives it a 'living' story sort of vibe. Plans for Book 3 Around 1/3 rd of Book 3 is already up on Patreon. I'll just give a general idea of things to come because I'll keep changing my mind when it comes to the specifics. No spoilers, of course. We have Erind's mom coming. That's going to be fun. We have the 4Bs now (Erind, Deen, Myra, and Kelsey) with their plans. We'll bring back the rest of the hero wannabes and develop them.

We'll also deal with the aftermath of the PCM matter. Perhaps we'll have the BID and Tower Cop, too. I think some hint of the Corebrings. There'll be lore developments not present in the Prior Cycle. Do share your suggestions on what'll be fun developments for the story. Or just hang out at our Discord to chat with other readers. Helping REND With the end of another Book, I'm now kindly asking for ratings and reviews. Let's boost REND up so that more people will see it.

To those who have already reviewed/rated/favorited/followed, thank you very much. It'd also be very helpful if you could recommend REND to others. Good luck explaining what it is about, though. I myself find it difficult to market REND because I can't really explain it. A huge thank you to our dear Patrons. Their financial assistance keeps this story going. I spend long hours writing the chapters, times that could be spent on overtime or a second job.

I know that things are tough now, and that's why I'm extra grateful to the Patrons. We currently have 22 advanced chapters, which I hope to bump up to 25 and more eventually. Plans for ExD I know that some of you follow the Erind x Deen spinoff. For those who don't know, Deen started as a random side character in the Prior Cycle. She was actually supposed to die in the first few chapters, but I changed my mind.

Somewhere in arc/book 4 of the Prior Cycle, it was revealed that Deen had evidence of Erind being an Adumbrae—Erind's bloody clothes from a fight. But Erind regenerated, so she didn't have any wounds (Erind didn't get the Core in the Prior Cycle). Since Erind's clothes were dirty with dried blood, they stank. Deen just commented on the smell. It wasn't supposed to be anything, but the readers started shipping Deen with Erind because she was smelling her clothes.

As the story went on, Erind and Deen developed a chemistry. Since Erind really can't love someone in the usual way, I decided to write a spinoff of REND where Erind and Deen became a thing. At present, ExD tracks the Prior Cycle. But I'll shift it to the new version in a few months, perhaps when REND reaches the end of Book 3. Fair warning to those who want to try reading ExD. It has adult themes, and it can get pretty weird there. It's also funny to read. Thank you very much for being on this journey with me.

Onward to Book 3! Chapter 1 will be released on Monday next week. I'll have a short rest this week. Don't hesitate to discuss things below.