De Terra: An Adastrian Fanfiction

Author's Note

Hello, everyone.

It's Asher/Pine, the author. I have some news regarding the story.

As of today, De Terra has been shelved. To avoid any hurt feelings, I'll try and predict your questions and preemptively answer them.

Q: Why did you stop writing De Terra in December?
A: In the sake of full transparency, I simply couldn't continue writing at the time. Debate and theater began taking more and more out of me, both in terms of time and energy. I found myself stretched in multiple directions, and in order to stay afloat, I had to abandon De Terra. I've also been struggling with recurrent depressive episodes, which added to my plate. Essentially, I forgot about writing it because of everything going on.

Q: Why has De Terra been shelved? Why won't you continue writing it?
A: A multitude of reasons. First, I've lost interest in the story, at least for the time being. I know that's not a great reason, but I don't want to cook up some half-baked Chapter 4 and leave you all with a bad taste in your mouths. You deserve better than that, and I intend to give it to you. As my schedule has loosened, yet my interests have shifted, I'm excited to announce that I'm starting a brand-new writing project. More details later.

Q: Will you ever return to/continue writing De Terra? If so, when?
A: Only time will tell. I don't see myself returning to the project in the near future, so don't hold your breath. I know that a lot of you enjoy this story, and I don't intend to disappoint you. I don't think that I can bring myself to abandon De Terra, but I don't have any drive to continue it at the moment. De Terra will be indefinitely shelved until I feel I've done a satisfactory job with my new project. If I had to put an estimate for when you can expect Chapter 4, I would say anywhere from September 2023 to never. I don't mean to be harsh, but there is a possibility that this project will be abandoned. Again, only time will tell.

And now for the exciting questions. ;)

Q: What's this new project you're talking about??
A: Ohhhh, I'm so glad you asked, totally-not-Asher! Hehe. My new project is still VERY much a WIP, but I do have a working title, Lone Wolf. It will be very different than De Terra in terms of the way it's formatted, written, and just overall created. De Terra was a random idea that I had because I fangirl way too hard over Adastra, where as Lone Wolf is a random idea that I had because I fangirl way too hard over Ask The Werewolves. 

Q: ASK THE WEREWOLVES FANFICTION?!
A: Correct. For those of you who haven't read it, Ask The Werewolves is a webcomic/former Tumblr blog by @cupsofjade (18+ account) on Twitter. It gained notoriety in the later 2010s and is a MAJOR reason for me joining the furry fandom. As such, Blackbird and Duran will be the deuteragonists (secondary characters) of Lone Wolf. The protagonist will be the same as De Terra: an alternate version of me. I'll save the rest for the synopsis, but I'd highly recommend checking out the source material to get a preview (and also because they're awesome as fuck).

All of the ATW posts can be found here: https://askthewerewolves.com/index.html
(adult content warning)

Q: Wait, will Lone Wolf be an 18+ project?
A: Tough question to answer. Like Adastra, Ask The Werewolves is intended for an adult audience. In all fairness, I myself shouldn't have interacted with either of them until I turned 18, which was this February. And if you're under 18, you shouldn't either. I'm serious, the rush isn't worth the long-term consequences. However, Lone Wolf will not be an adult-only project. De Terra was sort of an all-ages fic (which is a mistake in retrospect, given the source material), but Lone Wolf will be geared toward more mature audiences, as I'll select the 18-25 option in the Audience tab. However, as it won't be explicit in any manner, minors could technically read it. So like...16+? 17+? I'm not sure yet. This might change depending on what I do with the story. Moving on...

Q: Okay...but how are they different?
A: That's easy. De Terra was just something that I kind of worked on when I wanted to. I based the dialogue off of RPs with friends and the source material (Adastra), and it was pretty much just a casual writing project, something I enjoyed, but didn't take too seriously. There was no clearly defined plot, I didn't have any idea how to progress after the press conference. I had to somehow incorporate a Big Bad (the Other) that we learn VERY little about in the visual novel, so I had no clue what kind of conflict would occur at the climax. All I knew was that in the end, Asher and Amicus would be reunited and get married. But that's not a story, that's a photograph. You can't write a novel with a single moment.

And what a perfect segway into the biggest difference of all! That being: I want Lone Wolf to be a novel, not just a story. De Terra had no guidelines, no minimums. It was awkward and loose, and as such, I wasn't sure how to pace things or where to go. But one of the final classes I'm taking in high school is Creative Writing, and it's reopened my eyes to the importance of structure. Obviously, you need to have balance. If you incorporate too much structure into your writing, you'll have some obscenely boring story that no one will read. But if you let it be completely free, it can come off as ditzy and unreliable.

What I'm trying to get across is that Lone Wolf will be LONG. VERY LONG. BOOK-LENGTH LONG. And by that, I mean that it'll be at LEAST 80,000 words, potentially exceeding 100,000. Chapters will have anywhere from 1,500 to 8,000 words, and Chapter 1 will be 18 to 20 pages long. That means that the first chapter of Lone Wolf will be almost as long as the current entirety of De Terra. To quote Bandit Heeler: "Yeah, [it's] pretty huge."

The other main difference is that the threat in Lone Wolf will be largely internal. There will be moments where the characters' lives are in danger, including the climax, but it'll mostly be a story about trauma, self-discovery, change, and healing. It'll also be a form of therapy for me, a way to get my feelings down on paper and work through a lot of the things I've experienced. Both me and my counterpart in Lone Wolf are starting a new phase of their lives - mine is that I'll be starting college. Even though my dorm will only be 5 minutes away from where I currently live, it's a big change. I'll be on my own, and that comes with benefits and downfalls. Lone Wolf is a way of exploring my past, present, and future through fiction.

phew. last question.

Q: Can you give us a synopsis of Lone Wolf?
A: Yep. Here you go.

When Asher ran away to Midnight, California, he knew that his life would change forever. What he didn't know is that the change would be drastically different than he envisioned. Bitten within his first hour in the city, Asher is unwillingly thrust into a hidden world by a mysterious stranger. Saved from bleeding out, Asher is taken in by fellow werewolves Blackbird and Duran, who guide him as he learns to cope with the permanent effects of lycanthropy. But can he manage his new life while also learning to heal from the traumas of the past? Can he protect himself and his new-found friends from a force that threatens to topple order in Midnight? And perhaps most importantly: can Asher learn what it truly means to be human?



That's all you get for now! I hope you're as excited for Lone Wolf as I am! You can expect Chapter 1 to be released sometime between May and June. Spread the news, tell your friends, and get ready to get wolfish! See you all soon!

- Asher