I hope everyone will forgive my writing two blog posts in a single day. I was going to include this in the previous post but it didn't seem appropriate.
'Runesward' is doing well - better, honestly, than I expected. I'm more than humbled, honestly. When I came up with it, I honestly never thought it was good enough to upload. I mean, there are some really, really great SFF stories - my favorite genre - on SOL, stories such as 'The Black Rabbit' (a shameless plug, since I'm helping to edit it - you'd think editing someone else's story would make me better at editing my own but, obviously, that isn't the case), 'A Love For The Ages', 'Law of the Blood', 'The Rise of Azkoval', 'Always on Guard', just about everything from 'AStrangeGeek' and 'TechnicDragon' and so many others I'm missing. How could I compete with those?
However, I had - and am having - genuine fun writing the story. Plus, I was able to do something I've not accomplished in a long time - I was able to maintain concentration on this story and these characters for over a month. Usually, I might get a week in before I become bored - or, in some cases, overwhelmed - and move on to another story. I've been writing 'Runesward' now since early December 2018 - and I'm still having fun. I'm not certain what has changed.
So, since I was having fun writing it, I decided to share it. I'm glad I did. It has, so far, gotten positive attention from a very fun, very vocal group. There have been some negative comments - a few - but I've never minded people being critical of my writing. Even the e-mails that say "This is shit!"; my words, my made-up story, was able to evoke a response from someone even if they hated it. By far, most of the comments have been positive. I love it either way.
I think, honestly, by far the best feedback I've received is from the speculation of what is coming. It means I've done something right because people are invested in the characters and story enough to speculate on who they are, where they're coming from, and what they're going to do next. I feel proud of that - and I only hope I can continue to meet or exceed everyone's expectations.
Finally, I have to thank EVERYONE who has written to me with typos, errors in verb tense, sentence structure and all the myriad little details that I screwed up and others caught. This story would not be half as good without your contributions.