Stray Cat Strut

Forward by the AuthorNôv(el)B\\jnn

Ohh, I love writing 'Forward by the Author' it sounds so posh! Anywhozzle~ it's time for Stray Cat Strut's eight volume! That's... a large number! We're slowly sneaking our way over to the double digits!

I want to try something with this one. My writer-senses tell me that it's a good idea. It's a way to progress and elevate the narrative, to expand the world, to make the known characters deeper and more interesting and more alive.

My author-senses tell me that it's a terrible idea. That it will put a strain on my readership, that it'll slow down an already relatively slow pace, and that it'll be a lot of work to write something that'll only satisfy the people willing to put in the effort to push through their initial apprehension.

Basically, I'm kind of divided on what to do with this volume, and so... I'll try to be smart about it.

SCS is a web-serial. It's got a unique and powerful advantage in that it is a shared story written for a living and reacting audience.

I want to take advantage of that in as big a way as possible.

I'm going to listen to my writer-senses.

That may end up being a mistake. But I'll also be listening to you, the reader. The person invested enough in SCS to make it past the first seven volumes and eight-hundred thousand words.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Annnd now I'm going to be less vague and obtuse about things and peel back the curtain, because the analogies and such above are very wordy and yet say very little. SCS currently has a narrative issue where the big threat set up is gone. The arc is closed and completed, and that's... genuinely a good thing?

We have some more issues in the story to tackle. Cat does, that is. But I think a lot of these are kinda... boring, on the surface?

So I want to introduce new things and a few new issues that'll eventually lead into another long arc like the Phobos one! I want to do this by introducing two things that readers hate. A timeskip (of like, 5 in-story days, so nothing bad. We're not pulling a Worm, or a One Piece here) and then I want to split the story's focus in three directions. The first and main line remains with Cat. She'll be the primary focus and narrator of her own story. The second line focuses on Lucy, showing her interacting with Cat, but also with outside people and forces.

So... yeah, a few odd Lucy chapters every so often. Hopefully not too many to distract from the main story. I might also sprinkle in a few other POVs in this one since the goal of this volume is to set up a bunch of new arcs.

If I do it well, it'll be awesome. If I mess it up... uh, I think I can still pull it back, as long as people let me know. I'll write this with several escape clauses built-in.

Anyway... yeah, please enjoy this next volume! If I do my job right, it might well be the best one yet!

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