My Hero Automata - Chapters 83-85

So...obviously I lost a bit of ground again on getting this out. Mostly, that's still just follow-on effects from earlier this month. However, there is a slight additional problem. As such, I have an announcement to make. Before I do, let me be 100%, absolutely clear on an important detail.

Don't Panic - My Hero Automata isn't going anywhere.

Also, there is a TLDR version of the following information later in the post, if you don't care about the details.

Now that I got that bit out up front, I'll explain why I said it. Part of the reason for the delays with My Hero Automata (that have cascaded on the other fics), is that I've passed the point of my original planning for the story. Before I ever published the first words of it, I had a solid outline of My Hero Automata all the way up through the extra-dimensional invasion. Indeed, the invasion of the monsters via the Rifts/Gates was, from the very first, the event that the being in the Void warned 2B about in the opening paragraphs of Chapter 1. That was 200,000+ words of pre-planned content. Which I like to think is probably a fair bit better than most Fanfic authors manage ;-).

Unfortunately, while I do still have some vague outlines for additional content, they aren't nearly as detailed. Things like seeding the bits and pieces of changes and foreshadowing to/for the LoV and MLA throughout the story were obviously planned or those bits of foreshadowing wouldn't be there at all. I'm nowhere near the end of my ideas for the story. However, while that is true...I'm also no longer working from a fairly detailed plan/outline like I was originally. This is forcing me to do a lot more planning on the fly as I write more content. In example? Virtually every event involving the invasion has been planned as I go. I knew a bullet point like 'the good guys need a plan to curtail X aspect of the invasion.' But that's about it. Things like the Distortion Bomb were created as answers to pre-planning as vague as 'they need a way to force the conflict to slow down a bit.'

This is causing the writing for My Hero Automata to slow down to a bit of a slog. Which is, in turn, effecting the other stories that don't have that problem. Yet, at least. The same slowdown is likely to happen to Halfway Broken roughly around the time they hit the Sabaody Archipelago, as that's how far I originally planned in advance for that story. Likewise, Displaced Hero will likely bog down a bit around the start of the Clone Wars, as that's roughly where my detailed plans hit the same 'I have a rough idea, but no details' stage.

As the first story to run into this issue, I've been forced into trying to solve what to do about it with My Hero Automata first. After mulling it over all month, what I've decided to do is skip the first monthly release of it for September. Note, I'm specifically saying that the first monthly release of the story is going to be skipped. The second, mid-month release, is still going to happen. I'll be using the early-month time to do some additional mapping for the story going forward, so that I can hopefully resume writing the traditional amount of content for it in October.

That doesn't mean there won't be something updated in My Hero Automata's place! I haven't yet decided which story to update, but I'll be making a small 3-6k update of either Mass Effect: Eridium Dreams or the new A Very Confused Pokemon Adventure concept in place of My Hero Automata's first monthly update. Hopefully, in October, the schedule will go entirely back to normal.

----------------TLDR Version--------------

Due to the need for me to sit down and do some additional planning for My Hero Automata, the early-month update of the story will be skipped for September. In its place, either Mass Effect: Eridium Dreams or the new A Very Confused Pokemon Adventure concept will get a small update. My Hero Automata will resume regular posting with its mid-month update.

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After all of that long winded explanation...the actual story update is also here ;-). This 8,800+ word release brings us within a couple hundred words of the usual 15,000 word monthly goal for the story when combined with the first update of the month. Better yet, despite the delay, I'm actually quite happy with the result. It pulls back a bit more from the action to push forward Jirou's inclusion in the relationship, while also giving a solid strategic view of how the invasion is going, as well as showing off the initial shape of their plans to get things farther under control! I think it's a good mix, helping to get the story moving past the initial scramble and bog-down in story progression caused by the invasion itself. A little of that was acceptable, but I didn't want us to get stuck there!

As always, the story is attached here in DocX, PDF, and Epub formats. And I will be updating the Pinned Post with the new Master Files shortly!