Magical Girl Vanguard [Abandoned]

It's been a little while.

I've got two children now and a graduate degree in the time since I've last posted. Days are flowing by like water in a stream and most evenings I just lay down staring at the ceiling, glad that I can catch a few moments of peace as my children finally sleep.

I've felt so bad about this story, and for more than just not finishing it. It's a genuinely bad story at its core.

What is it? A litrpg? Slice of life? Horror? Action? It doesn't know. It had a direction that eventually trailed off into a rambling incoherent stream of scenes strung together without much substance to speak of. Furthermore, it is such a rip off. Like come on, a Magical Girl who has a point system with a snarky helper floating around? If it's not plagiarism of Magical Girl Gunslinger, then it is very borderline. At it's core, Magical Girl Vanguard is pure, unimaginative schlock without any originality of its own other than an edgy veneer of supposed depth.

Yet it really does haunt me that I never finished this story. My imagination can conjure scenes, but to put them down as words is a much harder exercise.

What were all these things I was dangling?

Let me try to remember the plot points, please, if you read this, there will be major spoilers for a story that will never have an ending, but if you want to know, then keep reading:

*Why do they waste Imperial lives so easily? What was the truth that Haylock found out?*

"That's because the Imperials, the Lich Kingdom, and the Magical Girls had a war. With cooperation from the Lich Lords, the Magical Girls opened up a portal to Hell and were able to beat the Imperials into submission. They then proceeded to betray the Lich Lords in a spectacular fashion and usurp the throne that controlled the opening to Hell. Well, keeping that portal closed required a constant flow of mana, so in a wicked ritualistic sacrifice, the Magical Girl leadership has been expending the lives of millions of Imperial Soldiers (who had been frozen in giant surplus vaults for the war effort). This way they can 1) keep the Hell portal mostly closed, 2)kill leftover Yabanchi created by the Lich Lords, and 3) get rid of leftover imperials. The commissars are the brainwashed descendents of Imperial children captured by the Magical Girls, they think they are atoning for their people's sin, but Commissar Schultz discovered a left over war mind and ever since then has been planning revenge for his people

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

*Was that Lich with the pointy crown *****?*

"Yup, it was Haylock. He put on 'The Crown of Corruption' and let an ancient lich take over his body. Revenge is a heck of a drug."

*How was the story going to end?*

"Essentially there was going to be an "Empire Strikes Back" moment where the combined forces of Schultz and the Lich Lords backstab the Magical Girls, attack the capital, and fully open the portal to Hell. From there, almost every single dead human in the universe would get up (powered by their pissed off hell souls) and start killing every living thing. That's not what the Imperials wanted, but of course they would get betrayed by the Lich Lords, like come on, why didn't they see that coming. Well, from there, Liara and Tanlon would have finally met and they would go searching for the Exiled Imperial Emperor so he could sit on the throne and close the portal, something something 'you don't need royal blood to be royalty' something something 'it takes two to work together despite differences' something something 'pure love closes the portal' Sorry lol"

Lessons I've learned:

1) Make your own story and don't be a copy cat hack (like me)

2) Make your system before you start writing if its going to be a litrpg

3) Finish your story before posting (not a hard/fast rule for everyone, just me)

4) Stop comparing yourself to others (seriously, it gets you down)

5) Don't blow so much cash on a cover before you find out if your story is mid (this one hurts the most!)

I'm just going to write for fun now. Maybe it'll be something, but most likely it'll be another nothing. I have to figure out how to write it in rough draft mode, so no one else sees it. If there is a story posted, I wouldn't bother trying to read it if there is only one chapter, as I said, I won't seriously release anything until its finished (if ever), just so I don't DNF again. That's on me. I added to the reputation of authors never finishing on this site and I apologize for it.

Thank you everyone. To the people who rated, reviewed, commented or even just read the story on free afternoon. I'm going to mark this as "abandoned", but let me finish with this...one final time skip: