Some Stuff on My Mind (Patreon)

I was talking with a Patron in the comments of the outline for the last bit of vol 1 and by the time that was done I thought I had worked out some doubts I had but they’ve been festering since then and now I need to express them. Volume 1 is 44 chapters in and 140k words already and the last bit is probably going to get it pretty close to 200k. I had thought about maybe cutting the material into a second book and expanding it to release them on the same day because I didn’t want a cliffhanger on my new series’ first book (44 introduces the first major roadblock) but now I’m flip-flopping all over the place and for some reason now the idea of making it a webnovel is back in my head again.

Most of this is just doubt from past experiences but I really, really like working on Love Addict’s RPG and am afraid of it ending up like Coye and WWYK. That and I think the pacing just might suit a webnovel better. Haremlit releases tend to be like 80-100k long and LARPG is a very slow burn with lots of character moments and buildup. Oliver will have only completed two of Mia’s five heart events by the end of vol 1 and he won’t even be having actual sex with her for a while still, either, and she’s only the first of 5 (planned) heroines. As of ch. 44, there’s only been a single sex act and it was dry humping that happened in 42. That’s how slow burn we’re talking, here.

On the topic of speed, Haremlit relies on it. I don’t know how fast vol 2 would come out at this rate but I’m not optimistic about it. Despite having good word per day counts, it’s more that it would take a while to reach another good cut off point whereas if it were a webnovel I would see a lot quicker turn around.

Haremlit also likes small, self-contained stories, especially trilogies, whereas I am seemingly incapable of thinking about anything that isn’t a sprawling epic of sorts like an old fashioned pulp serial or a long- running manga. If I did it this way I’d eventually get to release a lot of volumes back to back one day if I wanted while also ensuring a lot of my preexisting fanbase would get it on kindle when available making sure I have a good chance of ranking high on release.

While there are successful long-running harem series, they’re almost all written by the big name book farm guys who publish a book a week. Their follow up to Dungeon Isekai Fuck Man 42 would only come out in a month whereas I might need 3 to get me to vol 2 since I’m already not the type of author who compromises their vision, and adding to that is the litRPG format is not very flexible for me to write in even though I like it a lot.

All the art I get of my series would be put to better use if the entry point was free, too, which did really well for me back in the RotGM days seeing as how my friends always help me get a lot of art on top of everything else they already do to support me.

I don’t know. I just want to write a big, long story and take the path that suits that better. I haven’t officially made up my mind or anything, I’m writing this because I needed to get it out of my system. If I absolutely wanted to, I have the material to make the series live with say the first twenty chapters and already have a large chunk of advance chapters in reserve for Patreon within a week or so barring another few graphics I need made.

I wouldn’t be so concerned with any of this if I didn’t think LARPG might be my best work yet with the potential to really, really catch on. I’m scared of how I’d feel If after all the work I’ve done so far for it and after all the work Urban has done on the litRPG graphics and templates he’s made for me the series was dead on arrival. My mind is just in a weird place because my previous failures still hurt and yet I feel like I have this diamond on my hands so I want to avoid any potential way to fuck it up even if it means taking the slow route. Hope that doesn’t sound egotistical, I just feel really proud of this so far.

I wish there was a definitive answer here but there’s too many factors at play. I’m gonna just post this and go take a break for a few hours and see if anyone has said anything by then. I know this might’ve sounded like I’m already leaning in the webnovel direction, but that’s not the case and I really just needed to write all of this out so it would get out of my head. I set the first volume’s release to the end of March in case I needed extra time or there was an emergency, so I have plenty of time to figure this out.

Also as a last note please don’t feel like you caused this huge crisis of faith Maelstrom lmao I was already thinking about this shit before I talked with you.