Reborn (Apollo x OC)

I'm here?

This isn't an update, not for the story at least; this is a response and waving of a flag. What flag? I don't know. I started writing this story MORE than 4 years ago, my latest updates were brief and in response to people wanting an update.

I have been on wattpad since I was twelve years old. I've written stories, deleted stories, deleted accounts, made accounts, and now I'm here. Never in my young teenage and adulthood would I assume a story like this would accumulate so much attention or reads.

When I first approached this app it was strictly One Direction and creepy pasta fan fiction. I had started writing this piece not out of inspiration or seeking attention but out of boredom in high school. I am now (06/10/24) twenty three years old. I never in my young life or activity on wattpad expected ANY of my stories to reach 200,000 reads. After a LOOONG hiatus: I peeked at my wattpad 2 years ago for nostalgia...then I saw the notifications and how much attention a story I wrote for pure pleasure and consuming time had gotten. I am in pure shock. 15 year old me would be exploding. But as a young woman I feel guilt and exhaustion. My last chapter wasn't written in response to many reads, I peeked back at my wattpad years later and was startled by how many reads a story I wrote years ago accumulated. I wrote new chapters and updates off a mere 20 reads... 200,000...

Compared to the bored teenager that started writing this, and maybe the people pleasing young woman that updated lightly in 2021: I am a 23 year old woman, I see your comments and they make me shed tears. But I also see my writing, I see the work of someone lacking experience and someone who expressed their angst in their storytelling. As an adult, years later; I cannot update this story with true intent or expression.

My writing skills and interests have changed drastically.

So I present options out of compassion and warmth to the people that pop up in my feed, who make me smile when I seek the nostalgia of wattpad, and those readers who resembled the girl I was 5 years ago: should I rewrite this entire story, new premise and all; or should I let it rest where it was; a time capsule of my youth and end to a story that lacks author inspiration.