Chapter 277: Summary and Future Plans

Summary and Future Plans

The overall writing of Volume Three did not meet the goals outlined in the summary of Volume Two; the entire volume feels chaotic, with many plot threads introduced but poorly resolved or left dangling, and little effort was made to follow up on earlier setups—in short, the problems remain significant.

I ultimately designed the protagonist’s absence because I portrayed the Basilisk too monstrously at the end of Volume Two, and I felt the power level of the characters appearing at the end of Volume Three was lower than the Basilisk’s; if the protagonist had been present, it would have been a straightforward overpowering, which I felt would be dull.

I feel my recent writing state has deteriorated, and I haven’t been able to recover from it, so I’ve made a decision—to finish this book quickly.

Making this decision was difficult for me, because many friends follow this book daily; making such a choice feels irresponsible, so I don’t ask for your forgiveness, only that you read the reasons behind this decision and my future plans.

1. The book’s performance is too poor.

I admit this is one of the main reasons: when Volume Three began, the average subscription was 330; after one month into Volume Three, it had only risen to 340. The book has been monetized for three months, and my full-time bonus has already been exhausted; since the average subscription hasn’t reached 500, there will be no further bonus. Losing this income doesn’t greatly affect my livelihood, but it has severely impacted my mindset, pushing me toward this decision.

2. I’m tired of writing this book.

The physical fatigue is minimal; the real burden is mental—I feel I can no longer write compelling plots.

I occasionally get good ideas, but when I write them out, they feel unsatisfying, especially in Volume Three; I want to create something different, yet my mind is empty. Many chapters I wrote I wasn’t happy with, yet I still published them under pressure to update.

And a story isn’t enough with just ideas—it needs rich, fleshed-out plotlines to serve as its substance.

In summary, I simply lack sufficient accumulation; although I’ve read web novels for over a decade, I mostly forget them after reading and never analyze why others write well—in this regard, my accumulation is limited.

Moreover, web novels change rapidly, and true professionals must maintain at least two hours of daily web novel reading, but my work is busy; after accounting for writing time, I simply can’t spare time to read. During the four to five months of writing this book, I lost all interest in web novels and read almost nothing.

This has left me increasingly feeling mentally blank.

3. I can’t continue writing this book.

Technically, I could still write this book—there’s still plenty I could explore, like Pokémon potions, Pokémon remakes, Pokémon fused with Patronuses to become new magical creatures, etc.—but ideas alone aren’t enough.

When I say I can’t continue, I mean I feel the book will increasingly require theoretical chapters as it progresses.

The root cause is that this book was fundamentally underdeveloped from the start.

This is my first web novel; to reduce writing difficulty, I chose a fanfiction, and writing fanfiction initially felt more passionate.

I thought about this book for only a week before starting, with only a few scattered scenes and no outline—I wrote purely on enthusiasm. At first, I believed the book’s biggest selling point was explaining HP magic through programming concepts, so I devoted extensive space to a programming-based explanation of magical principles. But readers quickly woke me up—I discovered what they were most interested in was actually the minor concept of random transfiguration! So I hastily pivoted toward random transfiguration.

Nothing was planned; whenever I got a good idea, I realized I’d left a plot hole and had to write several chapters just to fill it.

Moreover, I gradually realized the magical principles I’d established earlier became the greatest constraint on future creativity.

Looking back, I see some plotlines were utterly pointless—for example, the magic scrolls section: to adhere to earlier rules, I had to strain to write endless theoretical content. These theoretical chapters have very low subscriptions; readers dislike them, yet I felt compelled to write them to maintain logical consistency, because avoiding major logical flaws is my greatest principle as a programmer.

So if I continue this book, I’ll have to write even more theoretical chapters to uphold prior logic—chapters I find exhausting to write, readers don’t enjoy, and that make the book look worse.

Because readers want stories, not theory.

Future plans:

I know many readers love the setting of this book, and I feel I didn’t fully realize its potential—I still feel deeply unsatisfied, so my next book will likely reuse this setting to rewrite a new story.

Of course, I won’t copy this book’s setting exactly; I’ll keep only the core concepts, discard the useless ones, and add new elements.

I’ll also pour all the unfinished ideas and inspirations from this book into the next one.

The new book will have a completely new story and a new protagonist; I’ll strive to make the new protagonist far more compelling—this book’s protagonist has zero standout qualities.

Of course, the new book won’t come out quickly; my preliminary plan is to spend one month thoroughly planning every aspect of the new book, unlike this one, which I started on a whim.

During this month, I’ll read extensively—both related books and web novels—to learn how other excellent authors tell stories and develop characters; in short, this month will be a period of intensive self-study.

I want my new book to be loved by more people—that’s every author’s greatest hope.

Of course, this is still just an idea; it must be confirmed after I discuss it with my editor. This book might get a few more chapters and a simple ending, but it won’t be released during the May Day holiday.

In short, my goal is to write a better book with better results.

Finally, thank you once again for your long-term support, and please look forward to me and my new book after my retreat!