Sorry to get your hopes up with the notification, but I'm in a bad mood and apparently this is a conversation we need to have.
This will come out as aggressive and hostile no matter what, so I am sorry to the vast majority of you who are exemplar readers and have always brought me nothing but joy with your comments and support.
As for those few of you who this message is directed to - you know who you are. And this is what I have to say:
I am not beholden to any of you. You aren't my employers, you aren't my bosses.
Writing fanfics is my HOBBY. I write because I enjoy it, always have. But it's not my profession. It's not my job.
I don't have a patreon like so many other fanfic authors, because I always knew writing fics would never be anything more than a pastime and a way to de-stress, no matter how much beyond my initial expectations this has grown.
I have a life. I am a school teacher. My alarm clock is set to 5:40 AM every week day, because my first class starts 7 AM, and I clock out at 5:30 PM.
I have family. I have friends. I have a whole fucking life in the real world. I'm working on my masters degree.
And writing has always been what I did when everything got too much. I have done so since long before discovering fanfics.
I don't want to stop writing. But if writing becomes stressful, then I will. That's not a threat, it's just how things are. If a hobby stops being fun, than you stop doing that hobby. It's the same for everyone.
So, please, stop asking for chapters. Stop acting like I owe you anything, because I don't. I really, really don't, no matter how entitled some of you may be.
I've tried to explain and put this into perspective before, but apparently it didn't work. That's fine. Let's try again:
Do you have any idea how much work goes into writing? My chapters are 2.2k to 2.4k words long usually. That's about 12 pages of a normal book. Shattered is 600k words already. That's the equivalent of a 2.2 thousand pages book that I have written over the last 3-4 years. Not to mention the other, smaller stories in between.
I challenge you all who are constantly complaining to go write your own chapter. Not even a whole fic. Just a chapter. Choose the topic you love the most in the world, doesn't even need to be a fanfic. Anything. Maybe then you will have an inkling of how much harder than you think writing is.
Of course, you can't use AI. Not even to give you a jump-start or anything. I don't, and it's me you guys keep badgering, so it's only fair.
I'll end this here. Chapter 250 will come when it comes. It's the end of the semester here at the (2) schools where I work, also known as the busiest time of the year. I haven't had a good night's sleep in about 10 days, so I'm cranky and not feeling very inspired to write, if this rant wasn't clue enough.