(This is a few days early, but I can’t sleep right now. So, here you go.)

On October 27, 2018 I began posting my story, Phantonics, online. With weekly chapters (sometimes two a week), a few hiatuses, a renewed version that began this January, it’s been a bumpy ride. I’ve learned quite a lot from this experience.

I started writing this story in 2010, where I took a shot every few years or so at working at a brand new version. With a plot that’s been developing for over a decade and characters that I’ve had since I was little, I’ve really grown attached to this story. At one point, I added and removed so many details to the story that I legitimately thought “This is confusing. Maybe that’s the point?” Since then, I centered around the idea that the story was meant to take place in a unpredictable, chaotic world, and it was up to the cast to unravel all of the secrets it held. Although I still stick by this, it has led to a few issues, and mixing in other outside elements has caused chaos for me.

I love my characters. I love them to the point where I allow them to tell the story themselves. Although this is a lot of fun, and it leads to good dialogue, it can derail the story quite easily. Add this to the already confusing world, and you have a lot of situations unfold that are either tangents or completely unnecessary.

I’m pretty sure I discussed briefly in the last rant about the new plot surrounding Brandon and his “alter ego.” It was an idea I’ve had for a long time, and it leads into a lot of good things later on in the story, but I honestly believe working around that in this version messed me up. In the last version, I felt that him awakening to his Concept (Ability back then) was rather lackluster, and wanted to build it up this time. I think I dropped the ball with having all of this alter ego stuff be the thing that leads into it. The last version’s first glimpse of it was at the conclusion of the fight with him and Muraco versus Ivan, where he temporarily awakened it and one-shot the guy. Again, that was also lackluster in my eyes. Brandon is legitimately the oldest character I conceived along with Paul and Charlie, so I want to make sure I write him correctly. He also shows my own growth as a person and writer, as he was rather simple and kind of scummy back in the day. I don’t know, I think I need to take a step back and look at his character some more.

I’ve discussed before my conflict of wanting to continue the story as a web novel. This (along with other issues) has been a leading cause in the several hiatuses that have occurred. As I’m reviewing the last two years, I’m starting to see how the series works overall, and how the concept of a “schedule” for each chapter goes. I think releasing the story less frequently and in bigger “chunks” could be the best route. It gives me more time to plan out what I’m actually writing and allows for more flexibility in my schedule, especially since I’m considering streaming more seriously again.

I’m going to try and get this next chapter done for Tuesday (maybe the Patreon chapter as well), and then I may take another breather in November to decide on how I want to proceed. HOWEVER:

I’ll still be writing. This year, I plan on participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time with a brand new story. It’ll be a breath of fresh air, as I’ve only focused on Phantonics-related content at this point, and it may give me more of an idea on what I want to do with my writing overall when it comes to online content. I want to have the story be a huge prologue, which could lead into it becoming a web novel of its own; it all depends on how it goes. I’ll be posting more as we get into November, so stay tuned.

All I can say is don’t feel bad if you’re someone who can’t decide on what they want to do with their life. I’m twenty-six and am still trying to figure things out. Well, I’m decently confident in believing that writing/streaming is what I want to do, it’s just going about those that’s the conflict. I need time to plan everything more carefully.

Anyway, happy two years to Phantonics. Despite how hellish it is to write you, I still love ya. At this point, it’s guaranteed that the series will continue in some kind of form, so if you—the reader—enjoy the series, don’t worry. I’ll figure out a way to control the chaos. There’s a reason why Chaos Energy is one of the three great World Powers of the universe. What the hell does that mean? That was an out-of-context spoiler, so I hope you enjoyed that. (Hmm… World Powers… World Mirror… Hmm…)

Thanks for reading, as always.

-Kyle