Afterword
Hello. This is Green Pudding, the author.
Setting aside the parody novel I started as a practice piece, Descent Every Once in a While was my first real work — and I have now brought it to a close.
In so many ways, it was a deficient novel.
My update schedule completely fell apart. Right when the story reached a turning point that should have drawn readers in, I took the plot somewhere strange, and people left. On top of that, I uploaded a chapter without deleting the last annotation from the ChatGPT I had been using to proofread, and ended up getting accused of writing with AI.
There is no way you, the readers, failed to notice the countless problems and shortcomings that even I, the author, can see so clearly.
I have nothing to say for myself.
Nothing except that I am truly, genuinely sorry.
...That said, an afterword that just sinks into the floor like this doesn't really suit the occasion, does it?
So let me share a few simple behind-the-scenes notes and bits of trivia.
Cha Woojin was never originally supposed to occupy the role he ended up in.
As things stand now, he feels like a reliable online ally — that sort of presence. But Cha Woojin was supposed to be a villain. I created him for a storyline where he would dig up Rhea's personal information, expose it, and eventually get thoroughly schooled by her.
It turns out that serializing live without even mapping out the rough spine of the plot is genuinely, punishingly hard.
I think I felt the limits of my own ability in a painfully real way. I had believed I was capable of that extraordinary feat — spinning the story out on the fly, with no outline at all. I was not.
Call it the price of failing to keep the most basic principle of all: whatever else you do, prepare more thoroughly. Prepare more.
The numbers went into freefall, and all I have left is an endless apology for the readers who kept showing up anyway.
Even the ending felt like it just... fizzled out, and that leaves me with nothing but regret.
I'm sorry.
I keep saying I'm sorry, which somehow makes me even sorrier.
At any rate — Green Pudding's novel serialization is going to continue.
I intend to start the next one only after I have built a sturdier world, a sturdier storyline, mapped out every beat of the plot, and stockpiled multiple backup drafts, so that the update schedule never shatters the way it did this time.
That will take a very long time.
In the meantime, you may well forget I exist.
But if you happen to see my name again, I would be happy if you just thought, Oh, it's that author I used to read, and gave me a moment of your attention.
Once more: I am sorry. And thank you for reading my work.
I am truly grateful. And I am sorry.
See ya!
