Random Stories In a book

Ms Forest's Notes

Sup, there has been a problem.

Before anyone panics, I'm okay. However, life decided to throw several plot twists at me at once, so I wanted to make an announcement.

For anyone wondering where I've been or why I haven't been updating much, the answer is honestly a combination of things. Writer's block showed up, motivation decided to disappear for a while, and then some issues with my devices made writing and posting harder than it should have been. None of these things is particularly exciting, but together they were enough to slow me down quite a bit.

I figured it would be better to explain where I've been rather than randomly return and pretend nothing happened.

Something that a lot of people probably don't know is that I actually created this Wattpad account on May 22, 2023. At the time, I was completely new to Wattpad. I started on mobile, which probably explains a lot. I barely knew how to navigate the app, let alone understand how stories, tags, rankings, reading lists, and all the other features worked.

For a while, I mostly explored. I looked around, read things, learned how the platform functioned, and slowly figured out where everything was. Looking back now, it's kind of funny because I genuinely had no idea what I was doing.

Even after making the account, I didn't immediately start publishing stories. My first publication didn't happen until May 31, 2024. So there was nearly a year between creating the account and actually posting something. Part of that was nervousness, part of it was learning, and part of it was simply trying to figure out what kind of stories I wanted to share.

My most recent update was on Mon, Jul 8, 2024, which means it's been quite a while since I've been consistently active here. Time has a strange way of getting away from you when life gets busy.

When I recently returned and checked on things, I honestly didn't expect much. I wasn't expecting readers, rankings, or anything particularly exciting. I've never really approached Wattpad with big goals or expectations. Most of the stories in this book are exactly what they look like: random ideas, experiments, short stories, fandom-inspired adventures, and whatever else happened to wander into my brain at the time.

A lot of them involve cats. Some involve dragons. A few involve dogs. Sometimes there's a kingdom. Sometimes there's an adventure. Sometimes I simply think, "What if this happened?" and then write a story about it.

That's kind of how this collection has always worked.

To be honest, I don't really think of myself as an author. The title feels a little too big for me. When I hear the word "author," I think of people with finished novels lined up on bookshelves.

I'm just a writer.

A small writer, maybe.

Someone who enjoys creating stories when inspiration decides to visit.

Whether one person reads them or a hundred people read them doesn't really change why I write. I write because I enjoy it. The stories are fun to make, and sharing them is fun too.

That's why I've never been too worried about numbers. If nobody reads a chapter, that's okay. If somebody finds a story months later and enjoys it, that's cool too. This little corner of Wattpad has always been more of a creative space than anything else.

That said, I was surprised when I returned and noticed that I had somehow reached the Top 3 ranking in the Wings of Fire fandom tag at one point. I genuinely wasn't expecting that. It caught me completely off guard, especially considering how casually I've approached posting.

As for the future, I'm trying a different approach.

Instead of writing and posting immediately, I'm hoping to pre-write a few stories and chapters first. That way, I can build up a small backlog before publishing. Hopefully, that will help me stay more consistent and avoid disappearing whenever motivation decides to go on vacation.

No promises, of course. Life is still life, and writer's block still exists.

But I'm trying.

This isn't a dramatic comeback announcement, and it isn't a promise that I'll suddenly start posting every day. It's simply a check-in to say that I'm still here, I'm still writing, and I'm still thinking about stories.

Thank you to anyone who has read a chapter, left a vote, added a story to a reading list, bookmarked something, or clicked on one of my stories out of curiosity. Every bit of support is appreciated, even if I don't always say it.

Anyway, that's enough rambling from me.

Now, I'll get back to typing.

— Ms. Forest