Author's Retrospective - Book 1

It has been almost three months since I published the first chapter of Sealed in Steel on Royal Road. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for accompanying me until we reached the end of Book 1. It’s my habit to write an Author’s Retrospective at the end of an arc/book/volume of my stories. Not only to assess what I’ve done so far, but I also want to share with you my thought process, my inspirations, ideas I want to explore, and plans.

How Sealed in Steel came to be is sort of amusing, as I planned to write a different story. I prepared for two months by stockpiling chapters. Then came the time to release it. The reception was lukewarm, and I understood what was wrong with it. Not even a week into its release, I scrapped that story and started from scratch to write Zero Attack Armor Stacker—this was the original title of Sealed in Steel.

In a week, I wrote eight chapters and started uploading them, completely abandoning the previous story that I had prepared. I think that was the right decision because I enjoyed how Sealed in Steel Book 1 went, and I hope that you did too.

HOW SEALED IN STEEL CAME TO BE

I mostly played as a tank in games, whether it be RPGs, MOBAs, or even FPS. And so, when it came to writing, I also wanted to write about a tank. I have written another story with a tank main character before. Another thing that I wanted was to have big battles instead of the usual main character soloing everything. I realized that a tank would be the best if I wanted huge battles because the MC wouldn’t steal the show by wiping out opposing armies. The tank would be in the thick of it, too.

Since I have written a LitRPG before, I know that I hate too many calculations and stats. I really suck at math and keeping track of things. My solution was simple—zero out all the other stats except Armor. I also zeroed magic defense for added stakes and challenge.

I’m also entertained thinking of various strategies to make tank builds. To implement that in the story, the main character couldn’t be a newbie to the fantasy world. That was why I chose it to be a redo story.

I’m far from a genius, but I think coming up with how the Tribulation is used in the story was truly smart. Not just for Elian to do damage, but the entire religion and culture surrounding it. Yeah, I know I’m praising myself. It all started with finding a way for Elian to do damage while being a tank is still the core concept. I didn’t want reflect, return damage, thorns, those kinds of things, because that requires the enemies to hit him. Having read a lot of cultivation stories, it was easy to yank the Tribulation aspect from them and apply it to Sealed in Steel. What came out of it was something I didn’t expect beforehand.

READERS HELP WITH THE PLOT

As I’ve said, I wrote Sealed in Steel in a week and then published it online. That means I barely have any plans for its plot beyond general ideas, be it long-term or just Book 1. But I’m quite specialized in winging it. Readers have been especially helpful in giving me ideas.

For example, someone asked what would happen if someone hid in a cave for a year to train for the Tribulation? I hadn’t thought of it before that question. A whole bunch of ideas came to me until it became the Cursed Tribulation became the main conflict of Book 1. Another reader said that they suspected Thalman to be a bad guy early on. He was supposed to be a tragic side character, and the real bad guy was someone else, but after thinking about it, I decided it was better for the story if he was the bad guy.

Readers really have helped a lot in molding the story, even the overarching plot of the whole series. It was a bunch of comments with differing theories that led me to come up with the ‘truth’ of the Magistrate’s identity. I hope you continue to help me make this story better as we go to Book 2.

PLANS FOR BOOK 2

In contrast to Book 1, where Elian mostly stayed in one area, Book 2 will be more of traveling, with each place having its own mini-arc. We got the Sabyn Mountains, Ohmenstrat, maybe somewhere else before we enter Sarnival Port for the tournament. Given there are many places to visit and much to do, Book 2 will have a faster pace than Book 1.

I aim to have more character development. Since this’ll be a huge war story someday, we should have great characters that readers care about. I also want to have different kinds of fights that show off Elian’s tankiness. This will need a great deal of brainstorming.

IMPROVING SEALED IN STEEL

Release Rate

I apologize that I have not been consistent with the release rate of Sealed in Steel. I’m still adjusting to having a writing career. I ask for your patience and understanding. My goal for Book 2 is to increase my writing speed so that our release rate will be maintained even if there are real-life matters that eat at my schedule. And I’m also thinking of having a set date/time for the releases, so you’ll know when to expect it. With your continued support, Sealed in Steel will improve.

Patreon

I have filled the promised advanced chapters. Our next goal is the continue increasing benefits to make your support worth it. Given my less-than-stellar writing speed (I’m far behind the speed of the veteran authors), I can’t push out a lot of chapters. But I will keep to my promise of gradually increasing the benefits.

Sealed in Steel is still in its beginning stages, and so am I as a writer. Again, I express my gratitude for your financial aid in this journey. As I improve as a writer, so will Sealed in Steel. Each month, we’ll have noticeable improvements.

We'll start with Book 2 tomorrow.