A Young Wizard's Journey - Rising Phoenix

Introduction

Hello, hello and one final hello!

It's nice to have you all back, it's nice to be back and I'm sorry for the delay on getting this out! I'll explain a little bit on why that was in just a moment but first let me get the usual stuff out the way.

This is book 7, no it is not called Deathly Hallows, yes, it is based off of that book. This is the same reason why Lost Tomb was not called Half-Blood prince. If you don't know why that is, go read it. And whilst you're at it, read all the others, nothing will make sense if you start here.

Wonderful! Right, now onto my bit.

So, as most of you know, when book 6 came to an end I gave myself a soft deadline of 3 weeks. We're now... almost 3 months on from there so yeah, I missed that a bit. And honestly that was because of my own difficulties.

I ran into the same issue when writing book 3, I came off book 1 & 2 very happy with what I'd done. Then I struggled with book 3 because I felt like I had to top myself and I had to level my expectations before eventually becoming happy with the end product.

Books 4 & 5 I was also quite proud of, and book 6 whilst rocky had some highlights in it, but I knew before I even started that would be my least favourite. My own inclusions however helped save it at least as far as I'm concerned.

And this book is where it got difficult. I came off the back of one that I thought was okay and tried to dive in head-first, for a while, that worked. Except for one small issue. Consistency.

A few of you noticed, towards the end of Lost Tomb that I contradicted myself sometimes, or repeated bits. When I used to write these chapters, there was maybe a week or two between them, and even then, it was normally a couple of thousand words every few days, so it was never gone from my mind.

For the end of Lost Tomb and start of this one however, there has been several gaps nearing months in some cases between chapters just because I haven't had the time. So, I'll sometimes repeat a point that I wanted embedded in the chapter. Or forget I'd established something for myself a few chapters ago, as a lot of times I'll introduce a conversation or plot hook to make my future writing easier, but with such large gaps, I forget those hooks exist.

This led to the start of this book feeling very rocky for me, and then the middle is almost entirely my own work. I had to argue with conversations, correct feelings, overusing words, descriptors or terms. Ensuring I stick true to my own and world lore. I got bogged down in so many formalities I started feeling like I needed to do research to even finish my own work.

I have pages upon pages of notes for this story, to ensure I stay consistent, and even then, I slipped, and I won't lie. It got to me, one of the things I'm most proud of in this tale is how consistent I have been. Hooks from 2-3 books earlier coming full circle.

And obviously there is the pressure of this being our finale as well.

As of right now, I could absolutely be happier with what I've done for this book, but I'm hoping that releasing it to you all will give me the encouragement to finish it, which will then in turn let me take the time I need to stop being so self-deprecating with it and allow me to come back and look at it with a fresh pair of eyes to fix all the inconsistencies.

Who knows, maybe there aren't as many as I think. Maybe there aren't any at all, but I get that cringe feeling reading my own writing, you know like when you hear your own voice? It's not it.

But yeah, as it stands, between the long gaps, feeling like I need to top previous books and just knowing this is the ending, I really struggled to put anything on paper, just because I'd convince myself before I even began that it wouldn't be good enough.

However, those feelings aside, let me sum up some of the rest of this book.

As stated, the middle section is mostly my own work, why will become apparent as you read, I ask you all to come into this with an open mind.

Also, some scenes you like or want to see may have been removed completely, I will explain why this happens in the retrospective once the stories are released but for now simply understand it is for a reason.

In contrast to that point however, some scenes or moments you didn't like may have been changed. I shall say no more on this. However, I should hope the implication is clear.

As I say I struggled with this, if you don't like it. I get it, believe me, I hate it too. But for those who are here and have been here since the very beginning thank you. There are so many of you where I live to see your username pop up in my notifications, knowing I can have a back and forth with you, explain bits or just hear your opinions on what I've done. It makes all this worth it.

I hope you enjoy the finale. Your finale. And I'm sure I'll speak to you all soon.

As always, I do not own Harry Potter, and all characters displayed in this fiction are the property of JKR. The only characters that I own are my own OC's

Thank you for reading

ArcanicScrolls