I was a gamer before I became a writer.
In 2024, I was playing the Pokemon TCG 2 for Gameboy Color using a hacked 3DS with an English patch applied. Great fun. It was my second play-through. The first time I beat it, it was bittersweet. The epilogue music (
here) was a sharp contrast to the upbeat happy credit music of the credits of the original
here. I think everyone knew it would be the last game of it's kind never to be made again. By the time I played it, it was already far into the future. If there was any hope for a 3rd installment made by Nintendo, that hope had long-since died. It was a relic of the past, something preserved in the halcyon of yore...
The original game was one of my favorite games. Something about card games is just very fun. I've also dabbled in Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic the Gathering. Anyway, the second game improved the first in almost every way.
So, after I was done with my play-through, I wanted to see what kinds of decks other people made, so I did some searching and found one site with a fair amount of content: gamefaqs. On there, someone had recently posted some powerful interesting decks! I decided to try some out and had fun with them. I even built some of my own starting on 07/26/2024!
Eventually I ran out of ideas for other good decks when I had an idea on 09/12/2024! Why not see what the meta would be like using only uncommon and common cards? Over 350 posts later(and would later reach 496) of various decks and strategies, and it was clear my non-rare format was a massive success. Granted, there were only a handful of people posting, but for such an old game on a relatively old and obscure website, that was impressive!
Once I got done there, I had one more idea. Could an all-common deck prevail against the opponents in the 2nd game? There was only one way to find out. I crafted the deck used in my fic and began a written lets play on 02/13/2025. And why not throw in some ridiculous banter while I pretended to be a gentleman trainer at the same time? One thing led to another and before I knew it, the ridiculous lets-play started to get less ridiculous. I grew more involved with the story until I was more focused on the story than I was the duels! And thus, the foundation of my fanfic was laid.
Flashforward a mere
10 days to 02/23/2025 and my original fic of I believe at least 50k was complete. It began as a lets-play and morphed into fanfic as it went. The audience of one other person (bulgarian_kid) reading it, was enough to fuel my motivation. It wasn't long until I decided I wanted to try something I had never tired before: seek a fanfiction website to post my story and get feedback on it! After some research, I discovered and selected TR.
My original writing made one thing clear: the story
and characters in these games could have been
so much more than what we were given. If a new game would never be made, perhaps my story would fill the void? On 03/05/2025, I posted my first three chapters to TR. I was finished posting my intial run the very next day. Originally it was rated K. I thought Pokemon fans preferred K rated material, but I soon realized that T was the sweet spot so I eventually switched the rating.
Anyway, from the lurking I did, I realized getting attention would
not be easy. Especially with all the skilled authors already on TR. But I would not be deterred. I reached out to several other authors to start review exchanges. One of my earliest interactions was with K_S. Little did I know, K_S would be the second person to read through my original fic and would become the most influential person in my growth as a writer. Shini_Gojira was also instrumental in helping me improve early on and would become the only other person to review all of my original fic. I also received some early reviews from Negrek. I couldn't believe it! The
owner of the site stopped by to review
my fic? I was overjoyed and motivated! I craved more praise for my story, but I knew I'd need to improve it if I really wanted to make that dream a reality.
Flasforward to 05/04/2025. I received serveral reviews and completed many edits to my fic at this point. I implemented pixel art from the game and had a complete soundtrack included too! What once was 50k grew to 90k! I was feeling great, and began writing material for a sequel to my fic! Over the next 20 days I completed material for the start of my sequel, but I did not yet post it (and still have not yet) because I wasn't done getting reviews and improving my original fic. Also, I was embarassed about my prologue. It was 10k and read like a summary of a story rather than an actual story. A lot of duels happened in it too! Sure, I had the tutoring session with Billy already in there, but the rest of it?
Not something to be proud of...
So, on 06/01/2025, I made a decision to revamp my prologue! Using the original prologue as a guide, I would construct a slew of new chapters to replace it! It need a story. A REAL story. And it needed to be done to the best of my ability. After all, the revamped prologue would become the new entry point for my fic! I also decided that the revamped prologue would become it's own seaparate book in what would become an entire series! Chapter 1 was written and beta reading by K_S commenced.
A couple weeks later on 06/16/2025, the time finally arrived where I received a review from the author I had been yearning to get one from: Spiteful Murkrow! It was just for catnip, but the review was so long and nuanced! Regretably, I had made the unfortunate choice to receive reviews of my chapter one instead of my prologue... So, Spiteful-freaking-Murkrow gets dropped into my first chapter in a weird fic without much context to go on. In retrospect, I was all but
begging for the highly critical review that ensued... But Spiteful Murkrow wasn't the problem. It was how I went about that particular catnip and it was about my current writing level and fic. It
was greatly improved since the original posting, but I realized both my fic and my writing skills still had a long way to go.
Thankfully, I had already decided to address the elephant in the room: my prologue. But as I wrote it, it became more and more apparent that the quality of my original fic was below my newfound writing skills! Spiteful's review, highlighted it all the more. So I made the decision I would repost my original fic as Book Two. That way, I could likely improve things up to the standards needed to get stuff other than concrit from Spiteful Murkrow. After all, concrit isn't my end goal. I accept it because I need it to get to the reviews full of genuine praise that I crave.
Another 6 weeks went by to 08/01/2025 and I made my first post of my new Book One! But that wasn't all I planned to do. I saw how other authors had art in their fic and I was envious so I set up commissions with yemdm and Sonia Fiore! The first art was right around my birthday on 09/25/2025.
For the next two months, I continued my mad dash to complete my Book One and I succeeded in completing it at 110k just prior to the blitz on 11/25/2025!
And blitz? I landed 3rd place for points.
Almost in 2nd. And for wordcount for my reviews? Only Spiteful Murkrow himself topped me. 60 chapters reviewed. Combined with the chapters I reviewed throughout the rest of the year, it meant I had reviewed about 127 chapters of fanfiction since 03/05/2025! Also, it likely means the total wordcount of my reviews is likely over 140,000!
But how about some more numbers?
Original fic:
Wordcount: 90k
Views: 14k (currently page FOUR of 52 pages of fanfic on TR!!!)
Replies: 106 (currently page TWO of 52 pages of fanfic on TR!!)
Book One:
Wordcount: 110k (If combined with the wordcount of the original as a single thread, this would put my fic on page 2 of 52!)
Views: 14k (and rising!)
Replies: 195 (
It is ranked 8th of all fanfics on TR!!!)
Wait... for replies if you add them from both the original and Book One, it's 301. That means it would
actually be in
4th place with only Fledglings, Hands of Creation, and Path of Valor ahead of it!
My plans for the total word count of my series? If I am correct, 600k would put it in 7th place of all fics on TR!
I also currently have
ongoing review exchanges with the following authors:
K_S
Flyg0n
Nekodatta
Goolix
Umbramatic
ShiniGojira
FanFictioner144
Venia Silente
Joshthewriter
Kiba Makuro
Sinderella
Spiteful Murkrow
I am currently working on more edits for my Book One and then I will return to fulfil some review exchange obligations. Once that is done, I will begin the rewrite of my original fic into Book Two!
But I have more plans beyond that. Here is a glimpse ahead:
- Book Two: (Will re-post with enhancements early 2026): 95,000+ words estimated
- Book Three: (Partly written. Expected release late 2026): 45,000+ words estimated
- Book Four: (Not yet written. Probable release in 2027): 60,000+ words estimated
- Book Five: (Not yet written. Potential release in 2027): 60,000+ words estimated
I plan to keep getting more art too!
This all happened in
less than a year!
These results just about make me cry. I really
did all that! The first real creative act of my life! I plan to see it through to the very end and hoping to make some more great memories along the way. A wonderful community of authors. The experiences here have made me feel alive in ways I didn't think I ever would.
2025 was amazing for writing, but behind the scenes has actually been the worst year of my entire life. Definintely at a time I needed something like this. Sometimes it felt like the only thing I could look forward to. Thank you so much everyone!
