NOVEL NEXT Story is going on Hiatus
Warning: An extremely long rant ahead. TLDR in the next line. And in the title.
So some of you probably already saw this coming, but here's the announcement anyway: 'To Devour The Crawling Gods' is going on indefinite Hiatus.
In truth, I was going to end it last week, but I decided that to end it midway through the 'arena' arc on RR would be a bad move, so I just uploaded the rest of the chapters in one go to at least give some form of conclusion.
As if now, Patrean sits at Chapter 143, halfway through the 'wedding' arc. I'm all out of backlog chapters. I'm not sure if I can bring myself to finish the story anytime soon, given that my will to keep writing this has run dry. However, given how far this story has already come, I've resolved myself to at least conclude it, even if it may take a while.
Now, on some thoughts of this story:
The pacing was atrocious. The Interludes and worldbuilding snippets were a terrible idea. And half the side characters and the side/history plots should have burned in a fire.
For some context, when I posted 'To Devour the Crawling Gods' first chapter on RR, I had already written over 90 chapters in advance.
In other words, the arena arc you just finished reading was already written before I even posted my first chapter on this site.
The idea was to do daily chapters constantly until the end of the whole series, but I think even with daily uploads, it wouldn't solve the pacing and plot issues. More importantly, it gave me no room to address the feedback on the pacing given by readers in the early chapters, because I couldn't fix the pacing of the story if the damnable story were already written 80+ chapters in advance, with fifty of which already uploaded on Patreon.
This was my first original story. I had been planning this for so long that I had so many ideas, characters, and story arcs I wanted to write. And in my blunder, I just sort of… wrote them all. And scattered them all over this story, creating the incoherent, Interlude-bloated, and badly-paced mess you see.
The MC's progression ended up severely gutted for the sake of side content. I hadn't intended for this to happen when I first started, but it unfortunately just kept happening as I kept getting new ideas/ characters that I wanted to add in.
Dai, Shao, Jin, Elder Jun, and Yunjin should not exist. By adding them and their stories/backgrounds, I sacrificed the main character's development.
The Fox, Monkey, Painter, Sword Bride (Xingyu/Elder Sister) and Drunk Alchemist (Lixuan/ Father) were also redundant, since they do not add to the current main plot or the MC's development. (They got their own interludes on Patreon in future chapters, because apparently, I cannot stop writing them. Or rather, I already wrote them, and couldn't bear to throw them aside.)
The whole sci-fi outer world stuff should have gone straight to the trash. (Those on Patreon, you know what I'm talking about. I tried reading CthulhuTech for inspiration, went overboard with ideas, and… yeah. Ended up with Alien Mechs vs Alien Xianxia Gods.)
As for Lianshi… She was originally meant to die.
The original idea was to have her die early on during the wedding to provide Feng with the motivation to go against Mount Tai, spurred on by his wraith. However, I changed the idea halfway through because of her popularity on another site where I first posted before RR, and ended up giving her more development and backstory than she should. There was another multi-chapter interlude on her backstory on Patreon to justify this change — which, while I enjoyed writing, probably drove readers to rage at yet another lengthy flashback sequence.
She ended up getting her wedding with Feng, too. And writing her happiness brought some satisfaction, in a strange sort of way. Due to her loving persistence, she had somehow averted the grim fate I had first planned for her.
As for Feng/Zhong… He's complicated.
Feng was originally supposed to be like a reincarnation of Wukong, using the golden staff and going against Heaven, but then I decided to make Wukong a separate character instead as a Trickster God. After that, I thought I could make him Satan, with the whole 'Satan vs God' theme, except in Xianxia land, with God as Mount Tai (e.g Lucifer isekai'd into Xianxia world and continuing his rebellion there, or something).
But what I did was ended up with 'Zhong Kui' instead, the Chinese mythological commander of 80000 Demons, with demons being regarded in the story as foreign monsters. (No one ever got the 80000 reference I made in Chapter 62, which made me wonder why I even tried with any of it at all.)
Then there was Su Daji, and then the Great General, the Painter, and dozen, dozen more Chinese mythology references I made everywhere, thinking it could be a fun concept, but it turned out utterly pointless anyway, because most of them ended up unnoticed by everyone. (I blame the Fromsoft Games for this kind of worldbuilding. They were the ones who inspired the worldbuilding snippets, too, by the way.)
The Lovecraftian gods didn't get as much development as I wanted because I kept adding more useless side content. We didn't even get to the Inverted Monks until a hundred chapters in, and it was arguably the most interesting Sect of the four.
And the cannibalism, the gore… all gratuitous pointlessness that ended up doing more harm than anything. Why I added it in, I don't know. Maybe I thought it would make the story more interesting. Maybe I wanted to explore the whole 'strong eats weak' xianxia concept under a more literal eye. Maybe I liked the romantic undertones it added between Feng/Zhong and his 'harem'. Maybe Tokyo Ghoul and Attack on Titan messed up my brain as a kid and made me think cannibalism and cannibalistic gore were somehow cool and acceptable literary concepts to be publicly posted.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
In reality, it likely just turned away potential readers and made the story even less appealing/marketable than it already was.
Feng wasn't even supposed to have a harem. He was supposed to have a single love interest, and that's it. Then I decided to write pornography on a whim and posted it, and I will never forgive myself for that because why did I do that?! What was even the point of the scene with him and Jin?!
Never writing NSFW again. I probably lost Patreons because of that…
(Of course, I say that, but then ended up writing a threesome scene between Lianshi, Feng, and the wraith to end off Act 2 anyway. I ended up cutting it in half when it went too far, so there's about 5k+ words of hardcore pornography left in the archive that shall never see the light of day. Writing NSFW is like a drug sometimes, but then the writing high goes away, and you are left horrified at what you've created. Kind of like this whole story, really.)
The fight scenes were fun, few as they may be. I really liked writing them, especially with all the Chinese mythology powers/themes added in. Not much more to say on that, except that I will miss writing them.
Looking back, I think I really regretted ever posting this story, 'To Devour The Crawling Gods'. But I don't hate writing it. It was my first original project, and it was unbelievably fun to write. Worldbuilding, creating the characters, giving them backstories, coming up with crazier and crazier concepts with obscure references to Chinese mythology…
But in the end, it's not really a story fit for public consumption, I think. I wrote this for myself first and foremost, and it's why I ended up writing almost a hundred chapters before I started posting on RR. Of all the stories I've written, this one is undoubtedly the one I wrote with the most passion.
And even then, I'm choosing to end it. Because as much as I love it all, if I want to even have a shot at making writing a career (or at least something that helps pay the rent), I can't just write whatever I want. This story is never, ever going to take off without a serious rewrite aimed towards broader appeal.
Regarding its remaining chapters, once I finish up the story's conclusion and upload it on Patreon, I'll probably upload the rest of the story here on RR too, all fifty chapters of it in one go. No idea how long that will take, but I will get the story done. There are only a few chapters left, and leaving the story inconcluded on Patreon or RR feels wrong, so I might as well finish it with a bang.
For what it's worth, I will try to continue writing other stories, but I don't think I will be posting them on this RR/Patreon account for some time. I want a fresh start, away from this mess of a writing account and the interlude-mess/ cannibalism associated with it. I may come back one day. Or maybe I'll just give up.
That's all I have. If you have somehow read the story up to this point, and you have read this entire rant through, thank you. Thanks for sticking around. Thanks for reading my story. Thanks for listening to my rant.
If I ever rewrite this story one day, I hope you will be there to read it.
~~~
Some extra stuff, because the story is at its end, so spoilers don't matter anymore:
The 'tongue-eating' scene in chapter 5 was inspired by 'Princess Mononoke'. The chapter scene originally wasn't there at all, but then I re-watched the movie two years ago, saw the part where the princess fed the unconscious hero with chewed meat mouth-to-mouth, and I just got inspired to… write that, but with cannibalism and tongue. The scene in chapter 5 more or less sealed the story's fate to be centred around cannibalism. Before that, only the Split-headed Carnivores were meant to be cannibals, as a twist on the whole 'Jade-Beauty Maneaters' trope.
Elder Jun was going to die in Act 3. Jun, Dai, and Shao had this 'trio' thing going on. Dai went looking for Feng's sister at some point in the past and reunited with Jun, who was in exile at the time. Shao joined in because she was stalking Dai. And then the three had this adventure thing where they killed a lot of spirit beasts and grew really strong in their journey. So the three of them are close friends in truth, despite their bitterness at each other, with Sister Jin also being part of it at some point, somehow. (Sister Jin was also supposed to die in Act 3, to motivate Feng.)
Feng/Zhong was supposed to become crippled in Act 3 after the wedding. As in, he can no longer cultivate. Lianshi is either dead or kidnapped by another Young Master at this point. It's a classic Xianxia trope. Of course, Feng would then get his miraculous training arc, with the wraith guiding him to recovery. The original idea was that he would somehow get to the peak of Mount Tai through a portal or something, where he would find his original body (Zhong's real body that died in the war), and the guide/wraith would transfer his soul over to that original Immortal body.
The Primate/Monkey and the Great General would have been there to aid his recovery, too. (Primate because he wants to fight Zhong again, Great General because she's the mysterious Mentor character who is a secret, cruel, evil monster.)
The Four Sect ended up mirroring the 4 Chaos Gods of Warhammer somehow. People pointed this out, and I want to say it really was just coincidental how it happened that way. I guess 'Wrath, Lust, Stinkiness, and… Madness?' are just common themes in quartets of evil.
Also on Warhammer, a lot of the Botulvorn Swamp was inspired by reading 40k's Dark Imperium, especially all the Nurgle stuff. For the fight scenes, a lot of it was inspired by 40k/fantasy fight scenes, too. For example, the Sword Bride's appearance was inspired by Saint Celestine, the 'Corpse Bride'. I wonder how many got the reference, with the wings, flaming sword, and all that.
A lot of the sci-fi-inspired stuff came from 'CthulhuTech', which is a tabletop game with awesome and very dark content. The alien mechs and pilot scenes in Chapters 131-133 are very reminiscent of that.
For those few people who saw the Ad for this story, Lianshi was the one in the Ad picture. I think the picture suits her appearance well, but I regret using her face as the 'bait-post' for the Ad. The Ad probably didn't help, anyway. Sorry Lianshi.
The name 'Feng' was in reference to the Chinese myth 'Feng (封)', which is a sentient lump of meat said to impart great recovery upon being consumed. The original idea was that this meat was the richest piece of placenta stolen from the womb of Mount Tai. The Twin Disciples took Zhong's battered soul and placed it in there after his death, and then gestalt it for a thousand years until the wraith could fish the rest of his soul out of Samsara.
Regarding the wraith… She is a guide who lives in Feng's head, with one eye, and red hair. This is the one character I won't discuss, because out of every character in this story, she is the one that matters the most. More than Feng, Zhong, Lianshi, or anyone else.
There's a bunch more stuff/easter eggs things, but I think this post is long enough. If you have questions on the story's characters, lore, or whatnot, I think I can answer them. I lately avoided interacting with the comments, but this is probably the last opportunity I will have to discuss this story, so I'm happy to talk about it.
And that's really the end. What a wretched thing it is.