The Resigned Dilettante

Chapter 92: An Enquiry Concerning Humane Understanding.

Chapter 88: No major changes.

Chapter 91:

Chapter 90: I added 'and Supreme Hierarch of the Imperial sect' to Johnathan Rakenhal's introduction.

Chapter 90: Talk of gods

Chapter 85: No major changes.

You know, I really don't thank you people enough for the support. Like I'll say thanks for people who leave ratings and whatnot on the main site and mentally include you in that, but I suddenly realized that you wouldn't see that. So thanks, I probably would have gone on hiatus by now if I didn't have at least one person who liked the work enough to pay.

In a similar vein I promise to update the list of character names before the next chapter is due. ...

Chapter 89: Exclusion

Chapter 84: No major changes.

Chapter 88: Trust?

Sorry this got out even later than I expected. It seems traveling wore me out more than I thought and I ended up sleeping half the day. Still, I think I have some pretty good moments worth the wait.

Chapter 83: Gang 4 is now the Cranes and gang 5 is now the Inexorables.

Chapter 87: Day's end

Just to let you know I'll be traveling the next 4 days and I don't know how much writing I will get done during that. I almost had enough written a few weeks ago that this wouldn't be a problem but then I reached a point where I had to think again and let myself get distracted. So there is a chance that I'll be skipping next period. I will let you know the night before on this post whether I think I'll be finishing on time, but thought I should let you know of the possibility now.

Chapter 86: Business time

Chapter 85: Discerning vices

Chapter 80: I've changed Timothy's name to Tim to be more in keeping with commoner naming schemes.

Chapter 84: Yet another hunt

So apparently I already made up the name "Syranthuse" from last chapter just 4 chapters prior, but for a plant rather than a kingdom. How embarrassing. Apparently my ability to come up with fantasy sounding names is less random than I thought. Well, the plant is more likely to be mentioned later so I'll keep that name. I'll change the kingdom later and will tell you if it ever comes up again.

Chapter 83: Persuasions of Corporeal Peril

So there are five different gangs mentioned in this chapters, and I only bothered to name the three most important ones. Rather than admitting to laziness though, I figured I'd make it a patreon benefit and see if you guys might have ideas for their names. If not, you'll at least get to learn a little about my thought process for naming the others. (read the rest of this after the chapter)

Gangs name themselves differently in my setting than modern IRL ones do. Rather than trying to den...

Chapter 82: A new tempter

Chapter 77: no major changes

Chapter 81: Home for the weekend

Chapter 76: No major changes.

My psychology is weird. I found the 5 day schedule way less stressful/ draining than the once a week one.

Chapter 80: Extortion?

Chapter 75: No major changes.

Also, reminder that next chapter will be saturday then multiples of five.

Chapter 79: Hidden Substrates

Chapter 78: Societal collapse? Yes please!

So I've met middling success in my goal of picking up the pace, in part due to losing a day from a medical thing that I get sometimes. As such, my new plan is to post another chapter this week sometime between wed and fri, and then do what the super supportive writer is doing and move to a once every five days schedule starting next monday. Which I think is probably the best schedule for me in general both from a output perspective, and marketing wise and I probably would have done it a lot s...

Chapter 77: The obvious consequence

First thing, I've changed the name of the imperial family to Hallenhal because it sounds better while keeping my obvious faux etymology.

Second thing, I think I have a good idea of where I want the story headed in the medium term now (I've had long term plans for a while) and so will hopefully be picking the pace back up soon. In fact, the plan is to move back to twice a week next week. Though I'll let you know if that has fallen through on Monday.

Chapter 76: A slight misunderstanding

Sorry this got out a bit late again. I've been sick this past week, which put a damper on my hope to move back to a twice a week schedule. Hopefully next week I can manage it, though this one is unlikely.

Chapter 75

Sorry I got this to you later than I hoped. It's kinda frustrating that this is like the third time where I thought I might be able to pick the pace back up, only to immediately get sick.

Chapter 74: Class selection

Rejoice, I might finally be moving back to twice weekly. Though no promises. This chapter was easier to write than most since the first half is just Malz analyzing options, which I know some people don't like, but I always get a vicarious thrill of watching young people thinking seriously about their future. This off course says only bad things about my psychology and is why I should never advise them as a living.

Chapter 68: I've changed the name of the Imperial family from Halmal to H...

Chapter 73: Study Group

Chapter 68: No major changes

Chapter 72: The teacher hates me

Chapter 67: I said Ad Hoc when I meant a priori. Not a major change, but an embarrassing one.

Chapter 71.5: Walk and Talk (bonus chapter)

So this scene is too short to be a chapter and too long to be tacked onto what comes next, so I thought I'd have a bonus chapter. Really it works out since it acts like an epilogue for the last four chapters. Anyways, I should be posting a regular chapter on Monday as per usual, or Tuesday at the latest.

Chapter 71: Prey

Chapter 66: No major changes.

Chapter 70: A royal pair

On my writing 1: Cliffhangers

So writing about my thoughts on writing has been something I've been thinking about doing for a while, and finally decided this would be the best place for it. Hopefully you find it interesting. If not, well it was helpful to organize my thoughts.

So, cliffhangers. As I see it, there are three functions of cliffhangers. The first is the one we all think of, being to entice the audience to come back for more. I would say that a cliffhanger of this type is bad unless it also fulfills one ...

Chapter 69: Tension

First thing first

Chapter 64: Slight change. I added a paragraph when he revisited the magic shop where he added a customization to the smoke catcher so it now has two chambers, one for regular smoke and one for smoke with useful properties.

Second thing. Tomorrow I'll be making a post here at the free level that I plan to be the first of many about some of my thoughts on writing which I thought might be interesting. I'm telling you about it now because I won't be sending notifica...

Chapter 68: Awkward moments

Chapter 63: No major changes.

Chapter 67: Standing out sitting down

Chapter 66: An incidental encounter, promising and threatening more.

Chapter 61: No major changes

Slowing down

So last chapter was a bit of a transition point (a literal liminal rite). As such I need to slow down a bit to flesh out my plans for what happens next. Really, it took way to long to get to this point, but school has officially started! even if classes don't start for another week. Hopefully things will speed back up once I get this part going, but we'll see. For now I'll be posting here on Mondays, and RR on Thursdays. I'll try to get an extra chapter here sometime just so I can always be a...