Hey folks, first and foremost I want to thank everyone who has been reading Bladedancer since I started last feb/jan.

  To be honest, when I first started to write this story I was satisfied with just the fact that I'm writing. I was using this semi generic isekai litrpg format to get back into a hobby that I've always dreamed of turning into a career. I've truly enjoyed writing this story, and honestly just writing something that wasn't a super crunchy poem for the first time in a long time. However, at the moment I'm not really satisfied with the state of the story. I think that becomes somewhat clear in recent chapters considering I've been pretty pushy about getting feedback lately.

  Some of you have been providing a ton of feedback recently. A lot of this feedback correlates to my own thoughts regarding the story. thank you for all of it. Even if the feedback is, at it's core, negative or a gripe that I disagree with I appreciate it. The only way I know if what I'm writing is decent, or enjoyable, is when you share your thoughts or point out my plot holes.

  onto the main point. I think it is important for me right now to take a step back and take some time to align the story with what I want it to be. I want this story to be so much better than it currently is. Currently, a lot of it feels rushed. I'm pretty dissatisfied with the character development and just characters in general in book 2, for instance. I think that the time Lios spends with them before they start to trust each other is far too short, and I want there to be so much more to their relationship than there currently is.

  Additionally, I don't want to have an OP MC who faces no real challenges, but that's what I have been writing up till now. I think he needed to face more challenges in childhood to really establish his "Nonchalant but hardworking" attitude.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  What changes do I want to make?

  A lot.

  I want to add detail in a lot of places I feel are lacking.

  I want to add more struggle and challenge to our MC's life

  I want to add more to his childhood, the struggles of being a grown ass man in a kids body.

  I really want to work on his relationships with other characters, and to further develop them.

  I don't think currently my story has even a slight chance to pass a Bechtel test, so we gotta fix that lol.

  I think the timeline that I've provided so far doesn't really make sense. So I want to work on that

  I have a list of minor changes too that I want to work on.

  Basically, its a lot of stuff.

  these are just some examples of changes I want to make. If there's anything that you feel needs even a little bit of work feel free to drop a comment on this announcement.

  I don't know how long this will take me to do. I wanted to wait until book two was completely written, but I don't have any further motivation to write anything new right now while these thoughts are bugging me. I realized recently that if I force myself to continue to write the story, my dissatisfaction with it will continue to bleed through and all you'll get is a subpar story. I don't want that.

  What does this mean for you, my readers?

  1) I am going to be taking a hiatus

  2) the chapters I have already written(5) will be published according to the schedule, but after them I won't be writing anything new until the story is where I want it to be.

  3) there will be a number of new chapters, a ton of edits, and probably some character changes

  4) the story itself/ general plot, will remain the same.

  5) undecided on this one, but once I'm done with the edits I may be posting the story as a new story, depending how much changes.

  Some major edits I've been thinking about are

  1) switching to third person,

  2) removing the "system" as an entity (I don't feel like this story gains anything from being LITRPG at this time.)

  3)if not removing the system entirely, fully embracing the system in a way that makes sense/overhauling it.