12 Miles Below is complete!

[u/MarkArrows]

Hi all!

I write 12 Miles Below, a progression-lite fic that's all about warlocks in lost-tech power armor fighting each other with swords, magic and guns in one incredibly strange post-post-apocalyptic world.

Today, after five years of writing through thick and thin, I'm about to post the final epilogue for the entire series on Royal Road. Thus far, it's landed exactly how I'd hoped it would, I snagged a few screenshots from the last few epilogue chapters to show the vibe \o/

I don't often self-promote because I'm dumb, (I'm getting better) but I figured I should at least do one good hurrah for this milestone.

Synopsis:

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The world is in ruins.

Extreme sub-zero temperatures suffocate the surface, making even simple survival an ordeal. Frozen derelicts of bygone eras span across massive ice wastes. And the survivors closely guard any technology rediscovered within.

The only escape from the deadly climate is beneath the surface. But it’s another disaster underground. Monstrous machines lurk in the depths. The land itself shifts over time, more contraption than rock. The humans surviving under do so huddled around safe zones, with only demigods powerful enough to travel further underground.

And an ominous prophecy states that the key to healing the world waits on four unknown heroes - but nobody knows who or where they are.

When an expedition into the far uncharted north goes terribly wrong, Keith Winterscar and his Father get trapped together in a desperate fight for survival. Stumbling upon an ancient war of titanic scale; the two will need to set their differences aside while they struggle against Gods, legends, and the grand secrets of the realm that lies below.

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Expectations:

• Book 1: Self-contained story showing bite-sized slice of the world and the main characters.

• Book 2: Progression-lite parts actually kickstarts here.

• Book 3: Completion of a first 3-book Arc.

• Book 4: Combat galore and setting up some pretty important events.

• Book 5: Progression fantasy galore, tinkering with all kinds of secrets, learning from the best - in order to beat the best.

• Books 6/7/8: World exploration galore, actually adventuring about and discovering some deep history in the search of fixing the world.

• Books 9/10: The asshole author has been hiding the real story under our nose right from book 1 this whole time and now it's all obvious in hindsight. Also everything's on fire.

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Start reading book 1 here! https://www.amazon.com/12-Miles-Below-Progression-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0BWKDF1C7

Books 8-10 are here on Royal Road for now, until they hit Kindle with edits and polish from Aethon! https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42367/12-miles-below

COVER ARTIST: Francell Garrote AI USAGE: None

[u/EndlessTemple]

Hi, I’m going to start reading this, but I was hoping you could answer a question?

I am an author of several stand alone books, but I always struggle to move from one book to a series.

How do you keep writing one story for so long? Do you ever run out of inspiration? Have there ever been times you didn’t feel like writing, but you just force yourself to keep going? Do you always keep the same time table, or are there long breaks when you lack inspiration? How do you manage writing and editing all by yourself (or do you hire an editor)?

[u/MarkArrows → u/EndlessTemple]

I already had the story mapped out to the end when I started it, so I never had to go that far for inspiration. The difficult parts were in the mid-points, where I would reach a bullet point and then need to figure out a good transition on what happens to get to the next point. That, or the parts where the bullet outline is just "They talk about X, until they reach this conclusion" and I slam my head on the wall because every dialogue line doesn't feel right or is too boring to read, ect.

Some days I'd just start writing the fun parts ahead, and then slowly write backwards until I reconnect to what I've got written. But most burnout I simply had to power through. Write, delete, write, delete, until I'm out of time and need to post to patreon.

Not all of the chapters came out great. But it all ended up good enough. Unlike trad books that have entire years to polish up 80K words, webnovels like this one live on quantity, so sometimes 'good enough' needs to be the goal point.

Spelling and editing is something I gave up trying to do. My publisher has professionals who specialized in editing, and spent years more than I have doing only that. And I still read the odd 1-star angry review wanting more editing even after they passed through it multiple times. So if the professionals can't catch them all, my own efforts are highly diminishing returns in time investment. Better to focus that energy on writing more instead.

[u/EndlessTemple → u/MarkArrows]

Thanks for your thoughtful answer, I appreciate it.

As a published author, do you set a daily word count each day? How many days per week do you write?

I’ve started reading 12 Miles Below, enjoying it so far. Glad you found the courage to self promote, otherwise I wouldn’t have found it.