So, this is going to stay up till the next chapter, maybe after
Genuine question. Should I/Would it be better if I rewrote the story? I'll admit to letting some of the comments get to me, especially the ones that are genuinely meant as goodwill, saying I should fix the dialogue, and the ones that affect me the most are the "this feels like AI," comments, and honestly the nice ones make it worse, becuase its someone who genuinly feels like its Ai, and it isnt just sayting its AI slop. Because they can't read more than two lines.
On that note, I'm going to say this: the only AI I use is Grammarly, that's it. I'm not going to dwell on this bit, because it's not the main point.
Back to the main point. I know I've taken the story slow, really slow, I've had essentially repeats of conversations and stuff of the like, along with some stuff not making sense to some, and I'll admit I leaned into the 40k Aspect more than I originally wanted, I blame both myself, and my addiction to the games themselves.
I took the story slowly, because if you didn't read it, or missed it, when I first posted this book, I had literally just started. And as someone who read so much, I was getting in trouble in school. I always hated stories that said, "this person figured this out somehow, or was told in the span of 5 minutes by someone who couldn't have done it". I didn't want to do that; So I gave times, places, and reasons why they knew what they did, because Aelius told them. But I also included each of those conversations, and the same concept is why I took it day by day; I was never a fan of weekly time skips that were summed up in a sentence or two.
As for Aelius himself, a very common thing in writing is to give your characters a piece of yourself. Something I have followed almost religiously, for Aelius, he is my sadness, and loneliness. And because of that, I wrote a few of those scenes, especially the early chapters where he has outbursts in front of the guild, and based them on me and things I've done. But I kept doing that, along with his general annoyance and anger of those around him, and kept repeating it, which is a real thing for depression to be stuck in the same cycle, but it makes for a bad reading experience, so I apologise for that.
My reasoning for wanting to rewrite the story is to make it better for everyone and faster. This will be chapter 60, and we aren't even at the timeskip yet, and I think I could definitely make it better. Instead of mostly conversation, I want to lean into bits I, or Aelius, said that would be explained and never got to them, like when Aelius summoned the thing fighting Nehzhar. So even if the rewrite is as long as the current book, it will feel like more, more action, lore, and anything else that's not the same conversations I've been using for Aelius's depression.
And lastly, I still do this subconsciously now. I focus too much on trying to make it exactly like the anime, just with Aelius in it, continually using scenes and just inputting him in, or making sure the same stuff happens or is talked about that already happens in the anime. I could do so much better. This is supposed to be its own story, not just the show with a new character or two.
So All this aside, even for people who are lurkers like me and never comment, please, please give me an answer. I'm leaning towards the rewrite myself, but since this is for you readers, please, Feedback, even if it's on what I could do better, would be appreciated.