THIS IS JUST THE AUTHOR'S BEGINNING THOUGHTS, FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS CHAPTER IF YOU'RE JUST IN THIS FOR THE STORY I JUST HAVE SOMETHING I NEED TO MAKE CLEAR
...With that out of the way, hello everyone, some of you might remember me, although I highly doubt it.
Years ago at this point... and I mean like nearly ten years ago, I got my start writing on this website with a little fanfic series of mine known as Enter The Multiverse (ETM). ETM was my own original story written with my own original characters plus a ton of extras from basically any media I was interested in at the time... needless to say, the story got messy real fast and the fact that I started writing it when I was a child certainly didn't help much.
After years of on and off work on that story, I eventually stopped working on it altogether to focus on writing my fully original stories, one book I actually got published was even mildly based on ETM, using the same abbreviation and everything; ETM: His Life.
I'll be frank, His Life isn't that good, it was written when I was like sixteen and published some time afterwards but I used that hatred I had for how that book turned out years later to start writing once again, making the sequel that I intended to not only continue the story of His Life but to actively replace it too. The WIP title it currently has is ETM: Second Life (predictable, I know) but I'll be honest, I have not worked on that in a while and at this point, it might be better to just rewrite everything that I've got so far.
I've worked on a few other stories since then that are still in the works; Terra Ultima (WIP title), Grim Moth (WIP title) and Tales of Desnatus (Based on a story and world I had made for a DnD game).
And then I came back to this website... and I saw that fanfic that hasn't been updated in so long, I read back through the chapters and could barely force myself to read it all... and with that, I had decided to completely rewrite it, thus started ETM: Reflect. I tried to rewrite the story with my new standards and... it still has some flaws but the parts I wrote for it I actually really enjoyed rereading today.
But then, I started slipping out of writing it almost immediately, I found many different distractions and almost completely forgot about it... but I refused to let Reflect end as a WIP so I did one last chapter to finish it off, hinting at the villains the entire series would've had if I actually had the work ethic to finish it... yes, I had an entire series planned out, I have had this story in my mind for a decade and it's only been growing over the years.
Anyways, this all leads us to today; my imagination has all but burnt up, my will to create hiding from me more often than not and motivation at an all time low... but these amazing people in my life come to me and tell me that they can't wait for my next book, my next big idea or even a potential collaboration between our worlds. Those people helped ignite that spark in me once more and whilst most did want to see my completely original stories before anything else, I had the feeling that I couldn't return to those WIPs before I worked off a bit of rust and revisited this story that started it all and finally finished it... with a few changes;
1. This story will no longer contain characters other than my own, some characters may be inspired by the characters they were originally planned to be but they will be changed enough to be considered my own, this is why I no longer consider this a fanfic anymore
2. Some parts of the story are genuinely just not needed so I'll be cutting those parts
3. Some parts of the story would be so interesting to expand upon and give more hints to the future and so I'll be doing just that, especially since I have a definitive ending to the series now so I know for sure what it's all leading up to
I will still be leaving the other versions of this story up as my fanfictions since I feel like it's good to be able to look back on those moments, even if they're not written terribly well... and I'm still incredibly thankful to those of you who may have read through those... although, I am also incredibly sorry for you enduring all of that. I hope that this story is what you're looking for from me.
Although, I must make this apparent; there is no guarantee I will finish this story, much less the entire series as much as I would love to. This is merely a test; a test to see if this can reignite that beautiful, blossoming fire inside of me that threatened to consume all of my thoughts before. A searing desire to write without end for all of these stories I have a desperate need to tell, that is what I seek... and that is what this experiment is.
Well, with that all being said, I'd say it's about time to begin what will probably be the final attempt at writing this story. It's either going to inspire me to finish what I've started... or it's going to be the death of all of my dearly beloved characters... or maybe it'll be both.
Maybe next time I look into the mirror, it'll be with a smile on my face.