Announcement
Added 2025-03-04 10:15:15 +0000 UTCSo I feel like I need to share some information and would like some feedback.
I have not made it a secret that this story is coming to an end. I understand that many of you do not like it and even I don't like it, but I want to explain why am I ending it then. The simple answer is that I feel the story is reaching its end because what would follow would be rinse and repeat with little variation. Also, I have had an end in mind for this story from basically the beginning. That being said we still have like 50+ chapters to go.
In all honesty, this is a very hard thing to do. I see many of you wanting me to continue and of course, there is the monetary side. I can so easily understand writers stretching out their stories so it would not come to an end, I don't want do to that. I also don't want this story to turn into something else from what it was. It's a slow death I have experienced many times as a reader and I don't want to go through it as a writer.
This is also the reason why I am trying to start a new story because if I don't I won't be making enough money to keep writing. While Dungeon Core is a success, it's not on a level of me being able to take a month off let alone multiple to write new stories in the hope they were as successful as Dungeon Core and honestly I am hoping the next story is a lot more successful because my health is so so at best. I would like to write until I am really old and I feel like I have plenty of stories to tell but could I keep up this pace I don't know. that's why I would like to reach a point where I would not have to worry about income that much. Unfortunately, the way of fire does not look like it will be the success I am looking for.
While I make good money thanks to your support and Amazon, it is not anything that would allow me to save up so I could risk losing the income from here. I always hear that you should never talk about money but I am the honest sort and want to explain some of my decisions.
On a good month when I publish an Amazon book, I make more than the average pay for a month in my country. A month later if I took both Amazon and Patreon income it's a bit more than the the average. Another month later it will be below. Why am I saying all of this? Well if this story comes to an end and I don't have a new one going it might be over for me. I believe many are in the same situation as me. So I could understand why keep stretching stories out.
A while back I asked about making an audiobook. I looked into it and it would take about 4-6k to make an audiobook of good quality and I would have to sell about 1000 audiobooks to make my money back as I would only get about 20% of the sale and that's not taking into account the taxes I would have to pay on top of that.
The put that into perspective I have only sold about 1.3k ebooks of the first Dungeon Core book on Amazon in about a year and and a half. To be fair if I account for Kindle unlimited reads that number would be closer to 5000. Still, I do not feel comfortable with that investment. At least not at the current point. Perhaps I am missing something, but I am going at this solo so I might miss stuff.
So to sum it up. I am fucking scared of this story ending as currently, I don't have something to replace it with, but I also don't feel good if I start stretching dungeon core just so I could keep writing chapters.
Comments
I mean it has kinda already been that 😅
Apinsig
2025-03-07 21:20:28 +0000 UTCAlso just remembered after rereading some of the more recent chapters to make sure I didn't miss anything. You mentioned tiers in an earlier chapter. For instance the dragons are "tier 1" patterns or something along those lines with each of the other races having some advancement towards that tier. Again as far as I am concerned you have a very good angle to keep the story going as a type of "xianxia" or cultivation novel.
fanfan8000
2025-03-07 21:01:00 +0000 UTCIf you really wanted to you could probably drag ETG out. You already pointed out in one of the recent chapters that each planet has a core but they only know their own planet has dungeons. This is not to mean that other planets do not have dungeons. Chapter 305 even points out higher levels of planet cores than diamond. You could take the story a bit towards "xianxia" stories or cultivation stories with how after a certain threshold of power they usually open up a wider world. Who is to say that the very laws of the world that make it so dungeons turn into world cores and then advance the world isn't a type of cultivation for the world to hit a proper strength before it opens up to a wider world with planets like itself that have beings travel between them. The end result is totally up to you however and this is just a suggestion. I just feel that you already have a decent base to being able to springboard into something like this especially with how the recent chapters are talking about the wider world. Edit: After reading chapter 306 it seems like you are already somewhat moving towards this much like how I mentioned you already had a base for it. If you do take it in the direction of a wider world opening up after he gets to a certain strength I look forward to seeing the story. Even if you decide to end it around were you have it right now however I do not believe that would be a mistake for you already have made a good story and it does have an ending point.
fanfan8000
2025-03-07 17:50:05 +0000 UTCThanks for pointing that out
Apinsig
2025-03-04 18:44:20 +0000 UTCI loved Homesteading and ETG but both books had the same problem the way of Fire has. You have an excellent way of writing local conflicts Rich v the Goblins/dungeons or ETG discovering the ants and watching the develop a civilization. The problem with Way of Fire at least for me is the way you write distant conflicts is off-putting I don't know how to describe it. Rich fighting the zealots comes to mind or the queens guard, ETG preparing for war it seems almost dismissive like the outcome has already been decided lol. There are no stakes or consequences just these people are behaving like assholes and are inconveniencing the MC. What's this got to do with the Way of Fire is it's been placed front and centre. no explanation of why he is hiding his power until ch5. No rumours of people going missing or even if it's possible to steal people power or if it is a guaranteed drop. No world building to make the world darker. all this was tolerable in ETG and Homesteading but only because it was in the last quarter of the books. I still remember people calling for Times skips while rich was setting up his business to prepare for war with the card people. TLDR Apisig is really good at writing small local conflicts but it feels yucky when he writes impending doom in the future with large scale wars and sinister plots. Ps He also shoves too much responsibility on his MC's too quickly for my liking
Chimera
2025-03-04 18:38:02 +0000 UTCWrite a story that you enjoy writing. I'm not sure the money aspect would/should change that. Putting in the time and energy to write a good story, and continueing to write it, comes far more easily if you truly like the story. Finishing the story at a proper moment and starting a new one is part of that.
Theo
2025-03-04 17:59:09 +0000 UTCOne more for now: A young Hexagon person trying to navigate a peaceful life during a religious war between the people of the Realm of Shapes.
Emma Baker
2025-03-04 17:12:07 +0000 UTCThe journey of a slightly portly man named Milton Cumference joining the Royal Guard in hopes of becoming a knight and gaining the name Sir Cumference.
Emma Baker
2025-03-04 17:09:45 +0000 UTCThe story of how a rave/dance party saved the world.
Emma Baker
2025-03-04 17:04:56 +0000 UTCthanks for the feedback. I do have some stories I will try and even upload today. One problem I don't have is running out of ideas so I will post some and see if they work.
Apinsig
2025-03-04 17:04:44 +0000 UTCAn over-enthusiastic 7 year old and their flying squirrel friend try to stop the System Apocalypse.
Emma Baker
2025-03-04 17:04:04 +0000 UTCFirst, let me tell you that I enjoy your stories even Way of Fire, so I really want you to keep writing. While I understand your concerns about money, I think ending the story with how you, the author, want is important. Since you have asked for suggests, here are my thoughts. I remember ETG mentioning trying to be an author where he writes about the civilizations and happenings in his rooms. I think it was limited to 200 years of history at most or something. I think an anthology series would be good for the patreon, making sure you have a story format that can be continuous even after the ending of ETG. A positive would be giving you the ability to test possibly weird writing decisions. Maybe you could even get lucky with another smashing idea that you would want to expand into a full story. Eventually when you have enough stories accumulated, you could publish. Funny thought, you could even publish as ETG (pen name) or with ETG. Next, you’re right that you need something now or at least in the next 50ish chapters of ETG if you aren’t planning to switch to the Way of Fire more permanently. I think the easily way to come up with something is to look at why ETG worked. Now, I’m in no way a professional critic, so I’ll just give my opinion. Initially, I liked that ETG seemed (and turned out to be) just a prodigy among his kind instead of a reincarnation or something. For some reason that felt refreshing for a dungeon core story. I think it gave ETG a way to grow without previous baggage. I really enjoyed moments like when he discovers the ants, when the anteater attack, when the first ant civilizations formed, when he learned that adventures aren’t just a burden but actually a wonderful part of his existence. I think what all these moments have in common are how others impact and affect ETG and his growth. This has been consistent throughout the story even up until the previous war arc (Vix, war hero). I’m not sure how to translate this to a new story idea other than start with something unique, different, or a twist on a genre and remember that, in my opinion, character growth drives a story. I’ll try to come up with unique, different, or twist ideas in the attached comment thread. Sorry in advanced if some are just really dumb or make no sense; they’re just ideas.
Emma Baker
2025-03-04 16:50:10 +0000 UTCWhat about a few different side stories? More about the bug guy or some chapters about the different ages and their wishes
Simo Violinpiano
2025-03-04 16:30:07 +0000 UTCTnx for the insight
Apinsig
2025-03-04 14:46:01 +0000 UTCI have really enjoyed the story but if you feel like it's reaching it's end then take a few months after writing the end and see how you feel before publishing it. If you still feel good with it then it's better to move on. I know thats going to suck from an income perspective but wasting time and energy on something that you don't have passion in would be a waste.
Michael Younger
2025-03-04 14:35:15 +0000 UTCI think the big difference is that the previous stories were isekai/reborn as a dungeon core stories, where the MC starts alone with little to no previous knowledge. This automatically pushes the story to the "show" side of "show, don't tell", where you discover the world, system, etc along with the MC. Way of fire is different, more of a classic story. Rereading the first chapter, the MC already knows what a heart crystal is and how it evolves, what a skill slot is and how they work, etc. Throughout the whole chapter I had a strong feeling the MC knows a lot more then I do, which pushes the story a whole lot more in the "telling" style and limits how I imagine the story might continue (one of the big reasons I like webnovels so much). I hope this helps.
Enthernal
2025-03-04 14:26:09 +0000 UTCWith the academy advancing technology making things like artifacts and with ETG making use of enchanting to make magic seige guns to defend himself, i could see a magic tech future, the united powers could send dungeon shards on sleeper ships to get other planets to rank them up for colonization
Zac Jel
2025-03-04 13:59:17 +0000 UTCMinimum 10 chapter does not work for webnovels most don't read past first chapter.
Apinsig
2025-03-04 13:38:25 +0000 UTCThank for sharing and than you for your story, hur durr IRL like alway, do what you think is the best for you and to not have regret Personally on one side I would like a bit that the story goes a bit longuer (one of my past comment give some idea and possibility how the universe can expand and etc and I will like it very much as its writting a overall Dimension/worldbuilding/cosmology where other story can be written into it) on the other side, I can totally agree with your view to end it soon too, if you have a end in mind for the beginning go for it if you feel best doing it like that Maybe other story written in the worldbuilding of ETC universe can be good (maybe in the future when he himself become a whole cosmos/universe/dimension What a thing interesting is that this ETG story can be a foundation for a setting/worldbuilding of a Universe/multiverse, the beginning of it, where whole other story can be into it in the future and we can get 'easter egg' or something linking it to ETG I agree potentially the Way of Fire can be linked to it :) Too bad it seem it didn't draw people much (I would say that im a bit the same, will I appreciate it, it doesn't give me the same excitement and draw that what ETG has and I can't pin points to tell you as for what it is like that for way of fire, maybe like someone say having minimum 10 chapter in one go was better to become more involved with it)
Zarik0
2025-03-04 13:21:54 +0000 UTCThanks for telling me I have gotten more people telling me that way of fire didn't draw them in. Is there anything specific you could think off. Perhaps that kind of story just does not fit web novel format.
Apinsig
2025-03-04 12:30:40 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing this with us. It's good to know you're planning to properly end the story, stretching is never the right option as much as it might be tempting to do so. I have to admit way of fire didn't draw me in as much as the previous stories. If I may give you one peace of advise, I find being able to read the first 10 or so chapters in one go helps a lot building the story in my minds eye and get me drawn in. It also quickly makes it clear if I'll continue the story or not.
Enthernal
2025-03-04 12:26:45 +0000 UTCPossible but I think the way of fire coul also be but inside of ETG. But so what you are thinking is a more traditional fantasy book with no need to read dungeon core but would be awesome if you did. This kind feels more like a fanfiction 😄.
Apinsig
2025-03-04 12:24:21 +0000 UTCThat feels more like a sci-fi story. Would that not be too different 🤔
Apinsig
2025-03-04 12:21:05 +0000 UTCI would suggest a spin-off same world from an adventurer’s perspective maybe a century or five after the end of dungeon core
Nav
2025-03-04 12:10:42 +0000 UTCMassive time skip (10000 plus) to reset the setting to the point ETG has explored most of the planets in the galaxy and gets to the edge and finds something eating planets from outside the galaxy or some other danger? Semi star trek finding new life and civilizations then run into the borg
Zac Jel
2025-03-04 10:58:58 +0000 UTCThat is a possibility for sure but I am not sure how popular that would be.
Apinsig
2025-03-04 10:43:57 +0000 UTCA few anthologys will work, we get a some povs from individually characters, a fleshed out story for a lot of them would be a good read and would allow more depth of different events though out the dungeon cores life
Zac Jel
2025-03-04 10:30:44 +0000 UTC
