Heather the Necromancer

A message from the Author

I thought I should post this as I am getting PMs about how unhappy people are with the story. I think I should explain my logic a little and present some cold hard facts.

Fact one. I dont like writing Heather. The story I write from my heart is the Dragon Knight Prophecy. That story is my very soul, and every character in it has deep emotional meaning to me. I love the dragon knight prophecy and will continue writing it until I die, or finish the story. But Heather is a chore to write that I dont look forward to. I find myself looking for excuses to avoid doing it, and I have lost all my passion for it.

Fact two. Heather was a cheap ploy to drive people to patreon by making a mass appeal character and story. I have to be honest, people dont care for the Dragon knight and thus they dont donate for it. So I thought I could write a more appealing story for the magical wider audience and make some money that way. Because of this I took reader feedback to heart and avoided topics and story lines I really wanted to write. This has rendered the story boring for me, and its patreon success is best described as a failure. It never achieved anything of note on patreon and I now have to reconsider things.

Why am I writing a story I dont enjoy, and failed its one goal? What is my motivation to keep this story alive and pushing ahead with chapters?

I was thinking this months ago when I started a new story called Jaina the sex slave. It is a story about a man and a woman who come to New Eden intentionally to have sexual adventures. I had to post it on scribblehub because it would never pass Royalroads guidelines. It is full of heavily described sex scenes of every imaginable type.

As I wrote this story I discovered something. I love the heather necromancer world and the mystery behind the visitors. I have done more fleshing out the world and its lore in thirty chapters of Jaina than I have done in all of Heather. I have fleshed out systems better, developed the character sheet, and really embraced the wacky nature of the world. As a result Jaina is far more popular than my other stories and its patreon is growing.

I realized that I love writing Jaina as much as the dragon knight. I dont care about the patreon, I just want to write the story and see where their adventures take them. I had to sit back and ask myself why do I love these two stories, yet I dont like Heather?

I hit on two reasons. One, because I wrote Heather for mass appeal I limited my options and took feedback to heart. This resulted in a character that is dry, unappealing, and boring to write. Heather is a bore and I am sick of her stagnation. Two, I love writing about loving harems. This is the lifeblood of my dragon knight and Jaina stories and its why I dream about writing them when I am away from my desk.

I tried over a year ago to put Frank and Heather into a relationship because I so badly wanted to write some love into the story. But reader feedback caused me to step away from that and acknowledge they were sort of dating, but never touch on it in any significant way. This would have given the story new life and purpose for me, but once again I steered away. I didnt want to damage my mass appeal and I listened to feedback.

A few weeks ago I actually sat down to write the final chapter of Heather, planning to abandon the story. It was a sureal sort of moment because I have such long ranging plans. I know the story isnt over and I have so many things to write about, but I cant do it with the characters in the state they are now. As I agonized over how to explain why I was abandoning it, I decided to just write something for fun. On a whim I wrote Jaina into Heathers story, creating a sort of crossover. Before I knew what I was doing I had three chapters written and I realized I was having fun. For the first time since book 2 of Heather I was enjoying the story and felt excited for what I could do with the characters. I had to sit back and really think about what this meant and where I could go with this. The truth is, Heather isnt worth it to write for the patreon, and if shes a chore, I see no reason to keep doing it. But if the story were just as fun and exciting to write as the other two, then I would want to keep going.

So I did. I embraced the crossover whim and decided to just have fun writing the story the way I wanted to. You may not realize this but I am having so much fun with this that I pushed the patreon chapters from 6 to 9. I cant stop writing it now that I have a reason to go on. I love that Heather and Frank are finally together and I wish I hadnt listened to readers and done it three books ago. I also love that the other two could be drawn into a harem scenario, because I love writing about harems. I dare say I will never write a non harem story again. I have found the format that I enjoy most, and I see no reason to continue any other way.

I enjoy writing about love, especially between three or more people. Its the love that makes the dragon knight so special to me, and its the love that makes Jaina exciting to write. Heathers story was loveless and empty so I started to die as it went on and on. I am sorry for those of you who enjoy the story as is, but I cant keep this up. It has to change or it has to end, but it cant go on as it always has.