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REND - Author's Retrospective (Arc 6) and Rewrite Announcement
🕑 Added 2025-04-08 23:53:45 +0000 UTCAnd thus, we (abruptly) end REND and prepare for its universe to restart.
I can’t believe it’s been almost five years since I started writing REND on Royal Road on May 20, 2020. Even more surprising that I’m still around writing it, or that I kept going in the first place. I’ve talked about in past Retrospectives how REND struggled to find an audience. It only had around fifty followers for its first month and a half. Look at it now, with 4.8k+ followers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take care of and cultivate our niche community. A lot of real-life issues pulled me from writing, with some months having only one or even zero chapters. I don’t want this Retrospective to be a downer so I won’t discuss more of that.
What’s important is I’m still here. And you’re here too. I couldn’t have kept going without your support, and I thank you very much for it. Money is seldom talked about by authors, but I’m going to say outright that your financial support has helped eased some worries such that I can write REND.
Now is the time to try again for REND and me as a writer.
Rewriting REND
Why do I want to rewrite REND? Two reasons: I want to finish it, and I want to spread REND to a mainstream audience, especially Erind’s character.
Finishing REND
Most web novel writers are pantsers—we don’t have an outline. We write on the seats of our pants. This isn’t usually a problem because most web novels are linear and progression-based. Get stronger, meet the next challenge, overcome it, get stronger again, and so on. But if there are several plot lines and lots of mysteries, this writing style won’t work in the long term.
I have general plans for REND, of course, but I only partly followed them because I winged things. Since I don’t have much free time to brainstorm/plan for REND, I just write and write until an idea pops up. The result is a mess of plot threads that make it harder and harder for me to continue the story.
There is an aspect of “realness” in REND because I didn’t plan for certain plot points until it was about to happen. For example, Erind meeting Vanessa was a spontaneous idea. Arc 2 was supposed to end with the BID nuking Eve’s underground arena, but the continuation turned out great in the end. It wasn’t like that often. Many times, I’ve started plotlines that led to nowhere, like the police investigation part. There are also good ideas that come to me quite late into the story and I haven’t set it up enough to use it.
Think of stacking blocks. I didn’t stack them properly, so the higher I go, the more precarious the tower becomes. Eventually, it’ll reach a tipping point and come crashing down. As applied to REND, we’re on a very shaky foundation story-wise and I feel it’s so much better to start over and stack the blocks properly.
Another reason is I have a lot of changes I want to implement. Better ideas, like making Erind shorter. Erm, I mean, like reworking Pino and Domino. We can develop the faces and benefit from the interesting scenes that could happen compared to Erind spamming Blanchette. I also want to remove scenes that didn’t work out, like how the first meeting with Myra went, or ideas that poke holes in the plot, like the Suppressor.
I also want to improve the writing itself. It might not matter to some readers, and they’ll say we can focus on the present chapters. That works too, as many long-running web novels start with shaky writing and eventually improve but don’t rewrite. However, there’s a personal aspect to this. I want to read REND someday. (Probably counts as rereading.) I know that I’ve learned and improved on many things as a writer. I also know that I wasn’t able to put in the time planning REND and polishing its prose. I know I can do better, and so I will.
With a better foundation, we’ll restart REND, stack the blocks properly, and finish what we’re building.
Spreading REND to a mainstream audience
REND is a niche story on Royal Road and even Scribblehub. It doesn’t fit with other psychopath stories or superhero stories. It’s also not really a villainous story either, but that’s probably the closest classification. It’s very hard to describe REND in terms of other stories. Maybe REND is a category unto itself? That makes it hard to find an audience, as shown by its difficult start. Even a couple of years later, it still had very slow growth. But the fact that it reached 4.8k followers at present despite my abysmal upload schedule means that there’s something here.
Perhaps Erind is starting the ‘endearing psychopath’ trope, similar to the lovable asshole. I’m just making stuff up. But seriously though, I haven’t seen any other story where the main character’s random ramblings is one of the highlights. And Erind really is endearing despite the repulsive things she has done.
Wouldn’t it be fun if more people found Erind endearing too? That’s an aspect of a psychopath, isn’t it? People find them charming. It’s like a whole meta thing if Erind, a psychopath character, has lots of fans. Given that REND worked (to some extent) in the web novel sphere, despite not being meta, means that it’ll probably work outside of Royal Road and Scribblehub.
Also, there are many readers who’ve said they wished to own a physical copy of REND. If we do get a REND book someday, I want it to be a good one so you can recommend it to your friends with no misgivings. And why stop at just print to order a book? Let’s get REND on a bookstore shelf.
Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself. Hey, it’s free to dream. Back on the topic, I truly believe that Erind can become an iconic character.
What to expect in the rewrite?
The rewrite is not only for cosmetic purposes, improving the writing here and there, and fixing some minor scenes. More than that, it’s going to have huge changes while keeping the core story beats present. Think of it like the different Spiderman or Batman origin movies. They kept the general gist of the story while having their own takes on it. For example, the whole Eve and underground arena thing will happen but in a different way. How Erind gained her powers would also be different with some familiar scenes mixed in.
We will also have faster pacing because I’ll cut out a lot of unnecessary things, especially the fights of random fodder that take too long. I’ll probably squish Arc 1 and 2 together, with many scenes removed and added. We’ll keep Erind’s ramblings, of course.
I also aim to improve our release rate, targeting to write three chapters per week. That’s a vast improvement from the few chapters a month I used to do.
Of course, it’ll be very hard for me to accomplish. I ask for patience and understanding while I adjust and train myself to write a lot. I do hope to someday become a full-time writer and write a few thousand words a day like those big web novel authors. With your support, I’ll reach this goal.
Consistent updates, better pacing, and reduced bloat will quickly progress REND. I expect to gradually increase our release rate too. If we’re financially successful in the rewrite, not only will I have more time to write, but I can hire an editor as well. I aim to finish REND within three years at the most. By finish, I mean it will have a satisfying ending with the story threads neatly tied up.
Rewrite launch
I’ll soon start writing new REND, or simply REND since the current version will be labeled on RR and SH as REND (old version). By this weekend, the higher-tier patrons will be able to read the first chapter of the new REND.
As for RR/SH, I will publish the REND rewrite on May 20, 2025, exactly five years after the first chapter of this original REND was published. On that day, I’ll upload around 20k words to RR/SH, which is about 8 chapters. I will upload the same number of chapters on Patreon to maintain the advanced chapters. Then I’ll (hopefully) upload a chapter every other day as we aim to get on Rising Stars on Royal Road and Trending on Scribblehub. Accomplishing these goals will get lots of eyes on the rewrite.
I’m already preparing shoutout swaps on RoyalRoad, trying to contact any author who’ll help me. Free readers on RR/SH are informed about the rewrite. I hope they’ll be there when it launches on those sites to get the ball rolling. By May, I’ll also come up with ads to run on RR.
Lastly, I have my new story, Sealed in Steel, with a couple thousand followers on RR to help out. Among the reasons I started writing SIS was to push the REND rewrite up when the time came and to have another story to work on so I wouldn’t burn out on REND.
In short, I’m taking the rewrite very seriously. Not just the writing part but also its marketing. We’ll do this right and continue until the finish line.
The main concern is combatting negative ratings/reviews from new readers trying REND for the first time. It’s the same old issue of readers thinking psychopath = murderhobo. Disclaimers won’t work because readers don’t know how to read those (just kidding). I’ll appreciate it if you’ll come over to RR/SH and show support for the launch too.
Patreon
This Patreon will solely be for REND (and ExD). I’ll be shelving ADGIT for now to try again someday after REND is completed. As for GH, I’ll be ending it soon too, and transferring my focus to SIS for my LitRPG writing.
The goal this April is to have one week’s worth of advanced chapters for the lower tier, while the higher tier will have two weeks. May will be busy as I’ll prepare the 20k word launch day dump. By June, the goal is to double the advanced chapters for both tiers. July onwards, we’ll increase the advanced chapter further for the higher tier. If we’re successful and I can write full-time, I’m sure I could do it quickly.
As for ExD, I’ll write a few chapters in my free time to keep it going. I know that many want it to continue. ExD will mirror the old REND in its timeline.
I also aim to fix up Discord next week. I’ve mentioned that I hope to hire an editor someday to raise the writing quality. Those are the plans for now. I promise to give value to your financial support. Thank you once again. See you in the next dimension that SpookyErind visits.
Comments
Temple (REND)
I kind of like the vibes of Worm, just small scale stuff at the start with super heroes and super villains.
Karp Paul
I think scaling down is almost always a good idea. It can help focus on specific characters and their dynamics. Which will make the store less about "superheroes saving/destroying the world" and about the adorable best-girl-american-psycho Erind.
Temple (REND)
Kind of like Prometheus giving fire to the humans. Hmmm. But it'll be interesting if the Corebrings have different ideologies. Wouldn't be surprising actually since Thirteen even fought them before.
Temple (REND)
- True, using a rogue scientist wouldn't explain the scale. But it might be better to scale back. Can isolate the plot first to just 2Ms, maybe Vegas too. No need for intricate web of criminal organizations and superhero teams. That way, we can escalate it later to new enemies/friends. This will also push back the reach of the Corebrings. Pando is too powerful lol. - Cool suggestion that the serum only activates powers. - On that note, your rogue Corebring can be the solution to this.
Temple (REND)
I think we'll use the original cover of REND for now, the one with SpookyErind sitting on a throne. It is an artwork and not an AI. When REND rewrite becomes successful (hopefully), I'll commission artwork. Prices of artists have now risen, so need a bit of money to commission them. Like x3 what I original paid for the SE art.
Alex
Please, commission a high-quality cover for your story. It can be all that makes a difference between a popular and niche story.
Karp Paul
I think, rogue faction has the same problem. Why would they simply allow those test subjects to exist freely? Unless this faction inside the Hive is quite official, like, the Hive can have several parallel factions that work on different things, and wannabe heroes are the test subjects for one of them, 2Ms are connected to another, Pando is the third one, etc. This way, it would be interesting to learn about internal Hive politics and turmoils because from the outside the Hive seems monolithic, but in practice it is divided. This would also explain why Hive did not eliminate 2Ms long ago, and sometimes cannot deal with Adumbrae threat - important Corebrings are too self-centred, and they interpret the orders from MotherCore differently (this again can allude to Erinds law education and even play its role later when Erind meets Corebrings).
OmniHumanist
Maybe instead of a rogue scientist or the entire Hive, it's a small faction within the Corebrings? And they're ideologically opposed to the Hive keeping all of the Cores to themselves, so they've decided to try and grow their own faction with all of these different cells to try and fight the Adumbrae. Compared to the rogue scientist, a separate faction could get a lot farther and more plausibly hide things from Pando. And compared to the whole hive, it would be kind of weird for Pando to be for making all of these Cocoons and whatnot. Not sure if the Hive would even have a need for the Supplier and all the fake Adumbrae stuff since Pando is basically the Hive's greatest weapon. I think in the current version of REND it was explained the US government somehow got their hands on an Origin Core. Maybe this faction could have given it to them. And instead of being wholly separate from the BID like the hive, this rogue Corebring faction finds a lot of utility in working with them. For the suppressor, maybe it only works on artificial Corebrings? So it doesn't work against normal Corebrings or Adumbrae, but it does allow artificial Corebrings to blend in easier to society, allows them to easily get tested, and also allows them to hide from the Mother Core easier. And then the diluter works to undo the suppressor. Now, the secret faction can't use it as a weapon against Corebring / Adumbrae, but it is a useful tool to prevent them from being caught.
Karp Paul
Actually, making it Corebrings operation point to how Corebrings dont care about legality or moraliry. To them such groups are just test subjects, expandibles that can be ignored, forgotten or written off. There can be many paralell experiments: art cores, contained/sleeping Adumbrae in Vegas, Pando's bodies. Even 2Ms can be connected and spondored by Corebrings, and Red Island is simply their old facility... so many ideas lol.
Karp Paul
As for Deen and others being normal in a serum-idea, they are not really normal, they still have cores, the serum just helps activating them. They can be strong and tough, but active powers require serum. Also, different groups might have different versions of serum, as it is a test. Still though does not address the problem of Corebrings not knowing, but making such groups less powerful can help keep them under radars.
Karp Paul
I think rogue scientist makes sense, but it does not explain the scale, or the fact that there are many different teams. Rogue Corebring might be an interesting idea. Or, this is a secret Corebrings operation, they are trying to create more initiates, this is how the multiply.
Temple (REND)
Yes, that's a problem. Having a serum would help a lot, we'll just need to change certain things. Like that means Deen and the others would be quite normal. Hmmm. This really needs some thought on how much the Corebrings know about this and the security measures. In some way, it might be better to just have a rogue scientist help them out instead of having an intricate plot.
Temple (REND)
That's a good point on Erind not being a leader. I was thinking that she'll lead very different lives for each of her face. Like Pino would be the leader. Blanchette would be the loner. Domino would be in another group, and so on. Quite a crazy plan back then lol. I'll think about this more. It's still far away so we have time. It was fun following the spider MC pov. I suppose that yeah, they have a lot of similarities. I didn't see it at first because spider is a different genre. Good point on the heroes Pov in I'm a spider. That should be how I'll handle Dario's group. The main challenge really is making their pov interesting in the first reading because people will want Erind pov instead. That's why I'm thinking of making Erind join them as Pino lol.
Temple (REND)
I think we have a good chance of making the community grow. RR has a lot more readers now. And if readers see that REND, even if not using the popular tropes/genre, already has a fanbase, they might be more inclined to try it.
Temple (REND)
Kind of a character profile? Light novels do that. Manga too. We'll do that eventually :D
Temple (REND)
Yeah, she should be 4'11 to justify the jokes about being short lol.
Karp Paul
One point of criticism I would like to add. The fact that Corebrings, besides Pando, did not know about Dario's group (and other groups) is quite strange: they knew about 2Ms operations and other criminal groups but were unaware of those wannabe heroes who possessed superhuman abilities. You can say that the government was really good at hiding them, but if that was such a serious experiment on the government side, why didn't they recruit trustworthy people for this? Any of the Dario's group could leak the secret, on purpose or not. And that is supposed to be a huge secret. Yet, Pando knew about that and did not share it with the rest of the Corebrings? Just to warn them that those guys might become obstacles and give instructions on what to do upon encounter. I think the Corebrings organisation needs to be carefully considered to avoid plotholes. You can also make the artificial corebrings take the serum to activate their powers, but they are inactive normally. Will this address the Suppressor plot hole?
Karp Paul
The thing about the "heroes" in "I'm a spider" is that when you read it for the first time, these chapters are annoying, diverting your attention from "interesting stuff". But if you read it for the second time, the "hero chapters" are very fun, because you realize that there are a lot of things going somewhere in the background/hidden. Reading about the "wannabe heroes" in REND gives me similar vibes. In Spider, these characters have a specific role - to show how delusional and pathetic the whole heroics is, how it is detached from reality, and only stands a chance if given some undeserved bullshit OP powers (unlike Kumoko/Shiro, who trained and fought a lot to get her powers).
OmniHumanist
We need official heights for all of Erind’s faces. And Deen too. And then a visual comparison of how tall they are to Erind lol.
Karp Paul
There are many similarities with the Spider: - MC is somewhat detached from the world and its troubles, and just wants to chill - MC is forced by circumstances to deal with important issues/saving the world - MC has OP powers which were gained through struggles and fighting stronger opponents - MC is quite cynical and non-empathetic, and very practical - MC uses other people to do her job - MC is rambling a lot - MC's inner self t is quite different from what others see - MC is a foodie :)
Karp Paul
Erind as a leader does not sound right to me.. she is quite a loner and prefers to go with the flow than to lead. This is actually an interesting point to discuss in relation to Pino powers - Pino can lead, but it is somewhat against Erind's nature, or, at least, it is not common for her.
Karp Paul
I always imagined Erind being 4'11 lol
Temple (REND)
I now have a plan on how to proceed while aiming for the original plan. I might've said it in pat Retro a few times, but Erind was supposed to be the head of a criminal group and fight Corebrings and Adumbrae. Which... didn't exactly happen lol. We've gone on a lot of tangents. The early parts of "I am a spider" was mostly solo, right? Not the heroes part. I haven't read quite far to reach the part where she has a half-humanoid form already.
Ahmad Kiam
I am Looking forward ro the rewrite and the future of the series. Hopefully new readers will join the community when you start publishing on RR.
Temple (REND)
Yep, that's a really big problem, and you're right that it's connected to Blanchette. That's what I was thinking of in the latest fight. We'll also lessen the fodder and have her fight real threats. We'll also use the other faces more to break up the monotony of just spamming Blanchette. We'll make something better with the eating mechanic. Like she can store power of what she had eaten for Pino to grant on her puppets. That way, they're synergizing. And Erind has an incentive to switch to Pino.
Temple (REND)
KU has an exclusivity requirement, so authors need to take down their stories elsewhere. That said, KU is the biggest earner, and so many authors go there. I don't know what the future of publishing will be, but I'll have REND finished first before thinking about publishing outside of RR/SH/Patreon.
Temple (REND)
Thanks for recommending REND! If I post it on KU, then I can't post it elsewhere. If I do post it there, probably when we're done and I'm on publishing to books mode and stuff. We can establish REND as a quality villain MC story before moving on to publishing it outside of RR. Original REND will still be there on RR/SH. The rewrite will take some parts of the original REND, but I don't see the need to take it down.
Temple (REND)
Going to be soon! :D
Temple (REND)
Yep, I want to develop Pino and Domino. At least those two first. And we'll continue ExD. It's fun to write. But I'll focus on the launch of the rewrite first, especially on RR/SH.
Temple (REND)
- Sometimes being different can be good. Let's see how REND will fare the second time around upon launch. - Let's push Erind down to 5 feet flat, lol. - Domino and Pino have to be stronger so Erind won't just Blanchette spam. Also, if there are more interesting circumstances, Domino and Pino might have more use. - The government can go all in developing the Suppressor and use that to fight both Adumbrae and Corebrings - Getting ready for the launch is stressful. So much to learn about marketing lol. Thanks for reading the retrospective!
OmniHumanist
But seriously though, I haven’t seen any other story where the main character’s random ramblings is one of the highlights. And Erind really is endearing despite the repulsive things she has done. -> Yeah I think this makes Erind seems way more interesting as a protagonist. It was also fun seeing Penemue reading her mind and wondering why she was thinking about random things. Better ideas, like making Erind shorter. -> Erind is already short! Also it'd be fun comparing her to her Mom. Maybe Erind hates drinking milk? We can develop the faces and benefit from the interesting scenes that could happen compared to Erind spamming Blanchette. -> Yeah, I think that's a good idea since Blanchette can only really fight and growl. The others can communicate and manipulate a lot easier, allowing for more thrilling scenarios. I also want to remove scenes that didn’t work out, like how the first meeting with Myra went, or ideas that poke holes in the plot, like the Suppressor. -> Hmm? How did the Supressor poke holes in the plot? I’ll appreciate it if you’ll come over to RR/SH and show support for the launch too. -> Sure thing! Thanks for the retrospective!
Acedia_of_sloth
I can't wait to see more of the other masks, even if they end up different in the rewrite. glad you're planning on continuing ExD regardless of whether the updates are consistent.
Krzychu0304
I don't know about others, but I have a grudge against KU (it led to the removal of a large number of free stories from the easily accessible part of the internet) + my region is geoblocked and I couldn't buy it, even if I wanted to.
Daesolus
One thing I didn't really like in the story and I hope it will be better is how much some of the fight has been very repetitive. Problem is Erin blanchette power that required to eat in order to growth strong enought to handle the current antagonist. It means many scene where Erin need to kill fodder like the parasitic monster before the true fight started. In her last Blancette transformation, it looks like she only growth in power because she took damage and then heal which was not the case previously. I believe this to be a far better idea. It prevent unnecessary and repetitive fighting. But eating people is also an interesting idea. Why not changed it so when she is eating people, she is slowly gaining more permanent power. Can't wait for the rewrite !
Karp Paul
So, does it mean that you have a developed plan for REND? As for the niche genre, I think REND is quite similar to "I am a spider, so what?", and I suggest looking at it to get better ideas on how to position REND.
Ahmad Kiam
I recommend REND at every opportunity possible and I always wondered why don't you post about it or upload it to KU. I see a lot of people asking for villain MCs but rarely authors are able to write it like you and most of them have some kind of redemption arc. Come to think of it, REND and Hell Difficulty Tutorial are the only few that I can think of. Will the original version still be available?
silly
Can't wait! 😻
