[Note] from aggressiveviking
Posted: 20-12-2023
I want to express my thanks to everyone who was been following this story. Our experience building this world and the characters we loved so much, wouldn't have been as fun without your comments and support. I never imagined that anyone would be interested in original characters and an original world and different concept for werewolves. I was scared to post or even write it at first as the themes in it are dark and controversial but HughinMunin convinced me to explore these ideas further. Contrary to what I was afraid of this was the most freeing and fun experience I've ever had writing anything and I will foverer cherish it.
Thank you all for being a part of it and for your heartfelt words after announcing the sad news about my friend's passing. I'm sorry I didn't have the strenght to reply to all of you, but know that I have read all of your messages and comments and I appreciate them greatly.
I have already posted the final chapters we had as drafts. I weren't able to even read through them before but I felt like i had to have them up along with the rest of the chapters so I can have everything in one place. I've been really sad editing everything but happy to be able to read them as part of the story now. I often reread this story or parts of it when I don't have anything to do, cause I really love it.
Both of the last chapters were key chapters for a change in the story, a permanent shift in the dynamic of the characters. One is a chapter where the main characters finally accept each other and that they actually like each other (especially on Spike's end). And the other chapter was the introduction to a new character that we had only been mentioning before by name and that was going to open a whole new arc in the plot to introduce more characters.
This was supposed to be the turning point of the story to go in a happier direction... so every time i thought about them i would just idk cry cause we both were looking forward to it so much. and we didn't get to write it...
However, leaving it off on this, being clear things are heading in a good direction, is a nice open ending to the story. Leave the character off with knowing they have good things ahead.
-:-
After going through the story multiple times I have come to the realization that I wish I wrote Spike more accepting of Hunter as the story progressed, especially since they kept sharing important bonding moments. This is something that would have been possible to edit and fix if HughinMunin was still here - we had done huge edits like this in the past, editing whole story arcs and adding/moving chapters.
After spending a lot of time rereading things so I can piece together our drafts I had the opportunity to read our whole work in its entirety and I’m not happy with how Spike seems to revert completely to his denial time after time. In some chapters Spike seems warmer and more accepting while in others he is completely back into his original denial as if he has not processed anything or had any bonding moments with Hunter. This sadly is the result of (as i mentioned) previous big edits where chapters were edited or moved around, had big revisions and others were added in between.
I’m struggling with the decision if I should try to add these changes by myself. I believe it will add a much needed depth to Spike and give Hunter and Spike a proper progression into the building of their relationship. It will ultimately make the story have a better flow and character development on Spike’s end… but I’m still struggling with the idea of changing things from what they last were when me and HughinMunin wrote it together.
There is a lot that we had planned ahead, including new chapters, new characters and development in other story arcs for the other characters. I had wanted to write a small summary of all our ideas and post it as a last chapter but a whole year already passed and I didn't find the strength to go through all of our notes and organise them. I feel like I’ve perhaps already forgotten half of them.
It’s hard for me to make the decision if I should keep working on this story alone. It was fundamentally our combined labour of love and I'm not sure if I would be able to give it the justice it deserves. I feel torn because this is a story and characters I really love and would keep loving, and while I adore the work we put into it, it doesn't feel finished. I know that I’m not capable of writing the characters HughinMunin wrote but I will be forced to if I attempt any edits or continuations on my own.
I hope I can reach a satisfactory decision about this soon.
Thanks for reading ❤
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Update: 28-12-2023
I've spend the last year feeling so guilty about wanting to edit this story, yet I can't help but feel like I should have written my parts better. I just wish Spike treated Hunter better... It sound so silly but its been eating me up every time I reread the story. I know HughinMunin wanted the relationship between the char to warm up and I kept pushing it off to do a really slow burn, because I thought we had all the time in the world to write it up...
I spoke with a few people who gave me different advices on how I could proceed... but all of them said the same thing that I shouldn't feel guilty over wanting to keep writing these characters and I think maybe it's time to listen.
I've come to the decision that I will mark this work as a finished [first draft] and leave it as it is to preserve the original version that me and my friend made together.
I will try to slowly work on a second draft, where i would use all that was written here and work on improving Spike and Hunter's relationship development. I can't promise when or if i will post it, but if i do I will add it to this series.
I want to thank all the readers for your support and just being in this journey with me and my friend. And I want to thank wodenRose for your kind words and the wonderful story you have written inspired by this work. It means the world to me and it makes me so so happy that this story was able to be a little piece of comfort in a difficult time for you 💖as it has been for me too