Three years ago, I've looked at Zodiac posts and laughed, smiled and giggled at the scenarios in my head. I created characters for each Zodiac sign and used them for those Zodiac posts. They seem so alive and they seem like a really fun group of friends to be with. It was until then I remembered I used to be an author for a book called 'Valerie's Interest' that was deleted. It's when I decided to write about the Zodiacs. It is heavily inspired by the fact that Ophiuchus is the so-called thirteenth Zodiac, the fact that I'm going to Secondary school, for me to escape reality & dream on and finally my massive love for Astrology. I can name a few stars and constellations in my head, which are the side characters of Zodiac High.
So, I've wrote the first chapter a year later. I knew that no one will read a book I wrote because it's trash, there are much better authors out there. Due to my thinking, parents and just school in general, I published one chapter every month before I completely stopped around last spring. Last summer, I realised that there are actually people reading this book, loving it and waiting for more chapters. And the fact I feel so empty not writing a book or just thinking about Zodiac High in general. And so I picked up my phone and started typing. That's when I've decided to publish a chapter every six days.
To those of you who are waiting patiently for me to publish 'Aquarius' Bitter Sweet Memory Pt. 2' , I'm sorry that you have waited so long. I hope you can all forgive me. I knew some people stopped reading my book because of slow updates and I get it. I am a bad author. I hope you're satisfied with my schedule for publishing Zodiac High! ^^;
I thought my writing is just something for me to escape reality and the cruel world we live in. To run away from expectations and hollow words. Run away from my unluckiness and the corruption. I thought that writing is just for me to run away from the real world and to make my readers go on a trilling emotion rollercoaster with my characters. I was wrong. Really wrong.
I made friends, read Zodiac books that are hidden gems and I see the world so much differently, always looking for an inspiration for my stories and looking forward to learning about different devices in English class to improve my writing. Because, as my English teacher says, 'Language can sometimes be more powerful than weapons'.
As both an artist and a writer (though I don't think I really am one tbh), I can see so much things that the simple naked eye can't see... A simple hangout with friends can inspire my mind and write a chapter about the Zodiacs, together, laughing and singing while making their way down town, walking fast, faces past and that may or may not be a reference to a future book, seeing different colours and adjectives for events and expressions, being able to design and finally create something of my own.
An amusing class can inspire me to let a character pull stunts and makes everyone smile and laugh. A valuable event or lesson will make me feel a thousand emotions at once, and I want the reader to feel those emotions too through my words. An incident will make my mind freeze and trying to comprehend the shock... and I'll use that to make readers feel numb and confused or lost. My unluckiness that I've got since birth will make me think less realistically but at the same time, realistically. Due to everything I've been through, I'm an optimist, pessimist and a realist. With the help and guidance of Zodiac posts, you can say... I can handle quite a lot of situations. I guess this is one of the traits I've gotten from writing about twelve different kinds of people.
I never regret writing this book. As much as I hate admitting it, I didn't regret stop writing. It just shows me how much writing means to me and how much it can change and affect my life. I've meet amazing authors and get to read such amazing and interesting Zodiac stories/oneshots such as AviaVega12 , _zodiaddict_ , X1geminiX and a lot more! Seriously, those stories and oneshots (also Zodiaddict's aesthetics are so amazing oml) are so good I'm dying help why didn't I found those earlier?! I'm ashamed of myself for not finding those!
And then, an author I've admired for a while read my story and voted for it. She is 20lait1 . When I first saw that notification, I froze, lied down on my bed, wondering if I'm dreaming before picking up my phone and wrote a little paragraph telling her how much I love her book and how happy I was to see her voting my story. It all started with a simple Wattpad text; and I've made a precious friend that means a lot to me even today.
Wattpad has changed my life and I'm grateful. But I'm going to give all of my thanks to the person who introduced me to Wattpad that is a really close friend of mine; FarAwayLands . Literally thank you so much for introducing me to Wattpad. That simple suggestion of yours changed my life... Thank you so much. Remind me to hug you the next time we meet okay? Or I can draw you something too!
Zodiac High is finished... This two years long journey has taught me a lot of things... I finished this story with 5.83k reads and I'm still really surprised that people are actually reading my story ^^;
Heck, if I got like 20k reads or something I should do a face reveal, make a discord server or something since communicating with the readers, in my opinion, is the most important thing an author can do to strengthen the bond between the reader and the book writer. I live in Ireland and I guess I can only meet a few readers if I did a face reveal??? Hmmm, the discord server isn't a bad idea, people do stuff there such as theorising (since there are a lot of hidden details in this book), role playing, drawing, doing Q&As or just chat in general I guess if it makes you feel more at ease and try and understand this book more?
This is book one of the Zodiac High series done. I was thinking of editing it but I've decided to leave it; as if just shows me how much I've improved throughout the years. I was thinking of doing a complete 6 book series but gave up on it. I'll merge the five books into one (the chapters are pretty short). Please look forward to book 2! I'll start it maybe around a month or two; because I need to go and try and finish Valerie's Interest too! If you don't want to read it, it's fine! Because it's about the past lives of each characters and how they wanted to overcome their past fears. No one will read something like that, will they? I guess it's just for me to understand my own characters more!
Oof what should I do I don't know how to end this long(?) A/N... Welp let me get the message straight here:
Thank you so much for your support and sticking with me until the end. I love you all
~ Destiny Akabane; Rena Sun
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