Hey guys, thanks for reaching the end of arc one. Honestly I know I'm a crappy writer as I've stated before, but thank you for suffering through it if you made it this far.
So I wanna talk about why I started writing this in the first place, it really all began when I was nine. (I'm twenty one)
I went to Bethany Christian academy, it was a small private Christian school ran by a pastor and a few of the members of his congregation, back then I had an extremely over active imagination, not only that but I had undiagnosed ADHD and Asperger's, so I'd sorta live in my own head, but it was getting in the way of my education and also I was annoying the crap out of a fellow classmate. (You know who you are if your reading this, sorry.)
But anyway, one day another classmate of mine who was a bit older named Shawn wrote a short story and shared it with the class, I kinda looked up to him so I asked him a lot about it, my teacher miss palmer noticed my interest in it and saw an opportunity to help me with my overactive (frankly chaotic) imagination.
So she told me to write a short story myself...
The vary first thing I wrote was an epic mickey fanfiction that was an anthology.
(Keep in mind I didn't know what that was)
I was really proud of it, but I wrote it in a notepad, next thing you know my little brother Naylor ripped it up.
Yeah...
But it ignited something into me, later on I would watch Narnia and the tim burtan Alice in wonderland, and I decided I wanted to write a story like that...
When I was twelve I created Jack Turner, his original name was Jeff Jackson, and he basically was a stand in for me, he and his best friend Sally Jenkins were transported into the world of levamoth to fight the evil Lord draco...
Eventually I become an otaku, I was always a fan of anime but I really became a true fan of anime when I watched one punch man and sword art online. (Don't judge me, sao is still one of my favorites)
I eventually changed a lot of the stuff, renaming Jeff Jackson Jack Turner.
But he still was a bit too much like me, I also wanted this to be a webcomic, but Im a crappy artist too...
Then one day...
Well...
I become severely depressed and lonely, other then Shawn and my cousin Willy, I had no friends, no one really liked me, they kinda just... Ignored me.
And no girls liked me either, so I became extremely depressed, at that time (14/15) I delve into watching deeper anime, like Eva and cowboy bebop, I couldn't help but relate to shinji, though I wish I didn't...
But as time went on...
My depression turned into hatred, I hated the world, I hated myself, I hated even God.
Because I thought "God if you love me then why do I feel this way?"
So I become agnostic, though I didn't tell anyone in my family. I wasn't sure if there was a God, and if there was one I didn't think it was the God of the Bible.
I bagan to practice meditation and I looked into a lot of eastern religions.
I was trying to find peace, but... I couldn't...
I treated my family like crap, especially my dad, though he didn't understand my pain, he was trying his best, he didn't deserve it.
My sixteenth birthday rolled around, we were in Florida, i remember hating life...
Hating just even breathing, so I went to the top floor...
I was gonna jump off the roof.
But...
I didn't.
Instead I told God "I'm gonna give you one more week to give me a good reason to live."
Fast forward and my family went to a revival on Sunday, I stood at the alter, I was planning on killing myself that night if nothing happened when suddenly I felt God's presence surround me and I heard wind and God's spirit covering me.
And I finally felt something that I hadn't in a long time, my family loved me, but I was so filled with hate I couldn't see it.
But I felt God's love for me, it was so powerful and real I can't explain it, and I know I sound crazy but I felt him speak to me. "You are mine."
That's what God told me. I gave my life to Christ that day, and though I still struggle with mental health, God is with me in my suffering...
I think that's why Im writing this, i wanted to write a story about suffering, about love, about God and his sovereignty and his plan for all of us, and though we may suffer indeed, he is with us through it all.
I eventually watched fate stay night and the index series and I combined that with everything that I had experienced as a teen, and after changing the setting to our world I planned everything out.
Jack Turner is no longer my self insert, yes he definitely has some of my personality traits like self loathing. But I want him to be with someone you can look up too, while also acknowledging his flawed.
And as for lisa...
She's basically my dream girl,
She's based on rin tohsaka and invader Lum, but I must admit she has a lot more personality then Jack. However that's intentional because I don't want her to be another generic Waifu, I want her to be badass and cute at the same time, I guess she's supposed to be a lot like buffy the vampire slayer.
But unfortunately I must admit again, I kinda made Jack steal her thunder a few times because of how he pretty much saved her butt a lot.
But I plan on doing her better justice in future arcs.
I also think I rushed the romance, but I feel it's justified because Lisa and Jack knew each other for years and had been secretly obsessed with each other but they both had there reasons for not getting close.
If it wasn't apparent in the webnovel I will make this clear, Lisa thought that Jack didn't see her that way, and even thought that Jack didn't like her at all and only tolerated her.
Jack thought himself unworthy to be in her presence.
Jack only excepted Lisa's love because he didn't want to hurt her by saying no, he does love her but he believes himself unworthy of love or friendship at all.
He only let himself have one friend (Logan)
Because he didn't want to make him upset...
I also didn't want Jack to be too overpowered unless it felt earned, that's why Jack tends to suffer and nearly die before doing something incredible.
I like overpowered hero's, but also love suffering ones too, I mean Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of an overpowered hero who suffers for others.
So yeah.
Now as for where we're heading, the next arc will deal with something... Classic in horror and in urban fantasy.
That's all I'll say.
But I'm gonna take a looong break to have some me time and plan out the next arc.
I know I take long breaks anyway but that's because I'm in seminary and I have a business to run with my father at the same time, so sue me.
But what my plans our is to write the first five arcs, then rewrite them and publish them as oelns (original English light novels) with full illustrations and better dialogue, this is my first real outing as an author so this is my "training."
They say once you've wrote your first three books you can write at a professional level, so I should be more then equipped by then.
Also it took me a year to write the first arc, it might take me the same amount of time for them too.
So expect a slow release schedule.
Anyway, I wanna thank you guys again for reading this...
God bless, sincerely J_ Stanley.
(Jeff.)