I can’t even tell you how many WIPs lately have me googling words just because my first thought is “no way is that a word.”
I swear the authors are collectively pulling out their thesauruses. I love it.
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I hope you don’t give up, writer! I really enjoyed your story and it falls into my most favorite stories! If only I could post a review on Steam… but I can’t because I bought the game here through the site.
I know people can be frustrating. Those who like it comment or review little and those who don’t like something comment more. Criticism is hard to take, especially when they’re criticizing something they just don’t get your vision and are just following their own idea of “how they think things should be”
I’m an aspiring writer who posts on various platforms for novels, so I can sympathize with you quite a bit.
Wanting to quit is a natural reaction to such criticism. But one can get over it. Eventually you get used to it, and while it’s still not enjoyable, it’s part of the job. You can’t please everyone.
For me. Your work is really satisfying to read and play. The characters are vivid and interesting, and your story has depth. I really got into it and I really like how you wrote how circumstances and society drove a basically perfectly normal kid down a path of revenge. I like that. I really do. I hope you continue the story. 
You’re doing a good job!
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Hello Sam,
Just read your story. Thought it was quite good. I for one really appreciated the nascent portion of the tale. I generally think necromancy is gross, and the infernal nature of the deal is even more off putting. However! You successfully created the one situation where I could ever feasibly do it and it felt natural and well written. Spending most of the time in the story before making the climactic devil’s deal was an excellent writing choice in my opinion.
I hope you do continue, whether in sequel form or update form. I’d gladly pay for a sequel, I’ll say, since you were concerned about the negative reviews affecting your sales.
Thank you for all your hard work and look forward to reading more of your writing.
PS
Some feedback:
I thought the revulsion felt towards the demon the MC can have is very good. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend and all that. I hope you continue that, as being a reluctant necromancer who never uses the powers without life itself being threatened is the only way I’d play
Kendra is super cute and I enjoyed the little romance you can have with her. I enjoy maybe 1/10 ROs on this app, so that’s high praise from me.
I personally would prefer the option not to zombify Yosif, in the potential following, even if it made the game far harder. I believe in the afterlife, so I would never do it to a loved one, even if it meant dying myself. On the other hand, ripping Thad back from the dead to serve me in a life-or-death combat, something like that I could do.
I think the back-to-back-to-back little scenes that the MC with each companion where you have a relationship or skill check slowed down the pacing a little bit too much. It also felt a bit like cheating because I got everyone to befriend me. I personally would prefer having (a few) group scenes where you have to pick between companions’ plans, conflicts arise, and you still get to express your skills and personality. Then hopefully that would be less effort expended on the companions so you’d have more energy and time for impactful plot scenes like the goblin interrogation, fights, etc.
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I really appreciate this. I wanted to portray how committing crimes for power isn’t usually something someone does just for the sake of it, but is a series of choices they gradually make after they are continously pressured by dangerous outside forces like oppression or daily survival.
However, I don’t plan on writing any updates or sequels to Necromancer anymore. I originally planned on Necromancer being the first installment of a trilogy. The initial wave of angry reviews made me decide to scrap the trilogy and write an update to complete the story as a standalone. Then it came out on Steam and was met with more aggressive reviews calling me a hack and saying the description and title are misleading or lies (they aren’t), and I decided to axe the update entirely.
When half of the reviews and half of the internet discourse on Necromancer are aggressively punishing it for not having enough magic, or it being an origin story, it tells me that there was no correct title and no correct description that would have avoided this, and that half the people who read it simply don’t want to hear the story I made it clear I wanted to tell.
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Hmm, what about the other half? The way I see it, all the idiots who didn’t understand the first book won’t buy the sequel, so only the people who read and understood the first story will read it.
Then you’d get the positive recognition and it would refresh how people view book one. Two good examples, Sabres of Infinity and Evertree Inn aren’t great as solo books, but they became great in view of the sequels.
To me, it seems like you’ve done all the hard parts and are denying yourself the payoff. You laid all the groundwork, set up the characters. Now you have all the big fights, set pieces, and major moral choices to explore with an already self-selected fan audience in a potential sequel.
An analogy, you’ve patiently and carefully planted an arbor of apple trees. You cleared the land, prepared the soil, planted, and so on. Then a bunch of morons came by and made fun of you that they didn’t grow and bear fruit in one season, while real gardeners saw that you had wonderful saplings. Care for the trees a little more (and easier than the planting was) and even the morons won’t be able to deny the fruit.
If you’re quitting writing IFs in total, I can understand that. Tough job to be sure. But if you’re still writing, I’d reconsider on the sequel.
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I will probably always write IF, I just don’t want to write this story anymore, and don’t want to give the people who tanked my series what they’re asking for
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Interesting. I am not an author of fiction/stories, so I’d like to ask you a question with regards to your philosophy of writing, per se
When Tolkien wrote The Fellowship of the Ring, a fair portion of the early reviews were negative and they called the story too juvenile, mocked it, etc. Of course, he then published The Two Towers and Return of the King which were less juvenile, not because of the critics, but simply because that was the mythology and story that Tolkien wanted to create from the beginning.
So with that in mind, my question is this: Why do the desires of the unintelligent critics, particularly on magic, matter to you? Clearly you wanted to write the follow-on story with more magic, as the first book ends with the potential zombification of Yosif and the MC gets daily mana going forward. Why not do what you wanted to in the first place?
I am curious because to me, in my actual work, the desires and opinions of negative critics are irrelevant. They do not buy my services, and there are enough people who see value in what I do that there is always enough work. If the critics end up buying or using one of my reports, I don’t care either way. I have clients, I do analysis for them, and everyone else is functionally irrelevant to me, work-wise.
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This was what I was trying to do when I decided to still finish Necromancer even though I was too frustrated with the reviews to want to write the trilogy. But lately I don’t even have the motivation for that.
I’m afraid that if people can’t understand the word “nascent” or read the description, they probably won’t understand the rest of the story that is about suicidal ideation, nihilism, speciesism, police brutality, and taboo love. I don’t want to write another 100k words that will be torched by people who want…something that is definitely not The Nascent Necromancer
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I ain’t able to express myself as well as Vernon, but fuck em those people, if they ain’t able to get it that’s on em, not on you to educate the less bright of the bulbs; ya got people behind ya that will support ya
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Blockquote
I’m afraid that if people can’t understand the word “nascent” or read the description, they probably won’t understand the rest of the story that is about suicidal ideation, nihilism, speciesism, police brutality, and taboo love. I don’t want to write another 100k words that will be torched by people who want…something that is definitely not The Nascent Necromancer
This is what I was referring to above. Aren’t those people weeded out by now? You probably won’t be torched by them because they won’t read it because they didn’t understand the first one.
It’s like you’re opening a Chinese restaurant in a small town. Initially the first wave of people come in because they’re curious, and half of them hate it because they don’t like Chinese food. The chef has to deal with a bunch of idiots critiquing his chicken because they wanted something deep fried, but only for a week or two. Those people don’t come back, so the subsequent cooking is appreciated by the people who do like more refined cuisine than McDonalds.
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I fully agree. Would also love to read the final chapter of this story!
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Honestly, I’d like to see a sequel too, but I also respect the author’s decision and I don’t think we should pressure him like that, folks.
It’s fine to express your desire for a sequel, but this is up to the author and if they say no, I wouldn’t push hard.
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Bought the game not expecting much and then its completely blow my mind!! The story was so well-written, i can feel the soul of every characters, its brought me to tears! I definetly 100% want a sequel, but i also want respect the author choice!
When i heard the story came out on Steam, well, i did not see how much idiots are on there, they cant even read the title! People talk trash about Google when Yahoo! is still around, look who still standing now? Lesson learned : “Dont listen to idiots!” This is a fabulous piece of novel, keep going your way friend.
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So, I’ve done some soul searching and I’ve ultimately decided that it’s a bit stupid to let some people whose tastes didn’t match The Nascent Necromancer, as well as the hive of incels from that one IF site still stoking fires, discourage me from finishing this story.
Ultimately, I’m grateful for the thousands of supportive fans and I don’t want to disappoint you, or leave this story that’s extremely important to me incomplete. My plan is to continue TNN’s 100k word update in 2025, after I submit my current HG WIP, Meteoric, for publishing
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Yes! Fuck them assholes! Cant wait for the final chapter!
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I’m so happy you you are going to continue your wonderful story and I’m looking forward to reading it 
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Hell yeah! Best news I’ve heard all month! 
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You know I don’t wanna let you down 
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Great news! Your world building was fantastic and I was hooked from the demo, so I’m so glad you are giving the finger to those who could not appreciate what you were offering. We all need to get it early on Steam to ensure those negatives get overrun and don’t manage to be the first reviews read.
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awesome news to wake up to tbh! this book is in my top 5 comfort fics 
i can’t wait!
i should really check the forums more often
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