That's A Wrap! Shachal Is Complete (Author's Note to Readers)

Hey, everyone. I wanted to create a thread officially signifying the end of my Destiny fan fiction, Shachal. To be honest, I don't really know how to start this author's note. There's so much racing around in my head right now. "I can't believe it's over. I've been writing this story for two years. Did I deliver? Were expectations met? When should I start writing the sequel? Will I actually write it? I hope my vacation doesn't get excessive. During that period of unspecified time, am I going to be able to sit still in my writing activities or am I going to be putting work into some of my other projects?" It might be cheap, overdone, and predictable, but I believe this is the best way to open: It's truly been an honor, both personally and socially, writing and sharing Shachal with all of my readers on bungie.net. It's been a really long, but fruitful journey. It's also been filled with its fair share of dark days, but I promised you I would finish it, didn't I? At the very least, I take a little bit of pride in that. This experience hasn't been easy, but it was definitely worth it. I learned that my imagination could come to life in words. In fact, as someone who used to absolutely despise writing anything, that came as a surprise to me, but it was most welcome. Even during those days when I lacked the motivation to write any of my original story concepts, I never thought I would be where I am today. Finishing this story has revived my interest in venturing into original settings, plots, and characters from the old days when all I had was the imagination and didn't have the tools to make something out of the concepts. So this experience writing Shachal these last two years has opened up a ton of doors for me that I never expected to encounter. I hope I can make the best of it. But I don't want to stray off topic too much. Shachal is finished, in great part at least, with the main installment and pre-sequel short story, Shachal: Origins, complete in their respective entirety. With that being said, there is one more part left in this series. For those of you who are genuinely interested in the plot, and have read the story through its last chapter, I can imagine there are a lot of questions about what comes next. At one point in time, I was so determined to see it come to life as much as its preceding installment, there was no doubt that I would put the pen to paper or fingertip to key. As of now though, doubt has risen. I hate the thought of leaving the story truly incomplete altogether, so chances are I will return with the sequel. The biggest problem is I don't know when I'll start. As many of you who follow Shachal know, these last few months were probably some of the roughest during its creation. I don't want to make any promises (sounds familiar haha) and disappoint you, so I wanted to take a rest after writing a 160-170,000 word story for the last two years and return invigorated. I felt it was necessary to close this experience somehow. It's been a special one that I think I'll always remember, but I don't want to get too crazy with this thread. Conclusively, thank you, all of you, who have read Shachal. Some of you were with it from the very beginning. Others came in halfway through while the rest came in late. And I know there are some that just couldn't keep reading it (Note, I don't hold anything against you, as I understand how life is and fan fictions are far from a necessity in the many important things thrown at you every day). And I'm including those unvoiced ones out there in this acknowledgement too. Nevertheless, you all read the same thing and that doesn't diminish the qualitative feedback and support each of you offered me all of this time. I have been greatly appreciative of all of it from the first word to the last, including the many gracious compliments I felt were often overstated. Looking back on the night I posted Chapter 1: Reinstated, I remember wondering what it would be like when I finished. Now I know, and I can't really put the sensation into a short word, but what I can say is I thoroughly enjoyed the road here. I met a lot of cool people along the way. I hope my Destiny story entertained and satisfied you. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask me anything. I'll answer all of them accordingly and as best as I can. Thank you again. And if you haven't read Shachal and are interested in giving it a look, you can find all relevant content here in [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Forum/1047016/0/1/0]Fireteam Shachal[/url].