Hi! It's me, the author!
I'm not dead!
Sorry to ping you with just an update instead of a whole new chapter, but I've been leaving you guys on radio-silence for waaaayyyy too long and I realised I should probably say something at the very least.
So, to get this out of the way: I am still writing this fanfic! I have not abandoned it, even if it may seem that way after not uploading any chapters for over a year.
I know I said I might try to upload chapters as I wrote them, but I realised after the first few months of my break that that simply would not be feasible. I had to take a REAL break, and that meant NO writing, for real.
Once my months-long break ended and I got back to writing (Yes, I have some chapters finished. No, I'm not going to release them until I'm certain that I can keep posting them.) I realised that I was still struggling to write. This time, I wasn't sure of the source.
I'd figured out already what I wanted to happen next, so surely all I had to do was start writing again, right?
Yeah... turns out not making proper notes for a year's worth of writing meant that I was quite overwealmed by keeping track of my work, re-reading my own stuff, etc, etc.
I needed a palette-cleanser to help me develop a better note-taking style, but I still had the urge to write something... So!
I've been writing other stuff! I know, I know, it feels a little like I'm cheating on this fic like a deadbeat husband by daring to write anything else, but you know what? I think it's been good for me. And if it's good for me, it'll be good for this fic... eventually!
In total, I've written over 100k words across two other stories I've been writing, and my note-taking skills have improved massively. Neither of those stories will see the light of day for a long time, but I've been greatly enjoying working on them in my free time.
Soon, I plan to comb through this fic again and re-write all of my crappy notes that I'd had before. Once that's done, I'll finally, FINALLY, have built the spring-board from which I can get this train back on its tracks for real!
I'm not going to make any bold claims as to when you'll see the next real chapter. Evidently, my writing style can be quite volatile and unpredictable at the best of times.
But I can leave you with just one ultimate promise, even if it takes a decade to fulfil:
This fanfic still lives.
Have a nice day.