…and then failed to hit my next goal

Well, I'm extremely ashamed to say there's no chapter to publish on today's anniversary. The chapter progess page is back in action, and it does look a bit dire, but it doesn't really tell the full story, because the next chapter isn't going to be one of the very long ones, and I don't think the following two are either. The most immediate one doesn't actually feel that far from being done and I have a very clear plan for the following one, and parts of the rest of the volume. Some dots remain to connect because I have arcs planned out and then when I reach them I find I need to figure out more things than I thought.

There are some other things that I do hope I'll be posting about rather soon, hopefully before the end of the month. I am also going to very much try to get the chapter published or at the absolute very least in proofreading before next month too. I don't even know how it didn't get finished. Well—partly I guess I do know. I can be easily distracted sometimes. And as I've mentioned before, the main crux is that Pure Corruption is a hobby project I make no money on, and so has to compete for my free time with other hobbies that also don't make me any money.

Ugh, I shouldn't be making excuses. I am in no way going to give up on Pure Corruption. I just need to get my priorities straight sometimes.

Plus I guess at least I'm making sure I don't stress out the chapters. That wouldn't work well.

So here's to another year.

/Kenny

Hit my goal!

So I never actually said it to anyone other than my proofreader/editor, but I had the ambition to get all of Volume 06 published before March was over. And guess what? I succeeded, because now Chapter 060: Debriefing, the final chapter of the volume, has been published. Woop!

Of course, I'm already working on the next volume too, and now there's gonna be a planned break for about six weeks—my intention is to start publishing the next volume on May 14th, the anniversary of Pure Corruption. So I hope to have multiple chapters done or close to done by then!

Hope you enjoy, and I'll see you in May!

/Kenny

Jubilations! Celebrations! And things like that.

It's almost worth throwing a Chapter 059: Parade over, even!

Ahem. Yes. Not only is the penultimate chapter of Volume 06 up, but the final chapter of the volume has entered the proofreading/editing process, so that one should not be far off either. So yeah Pure Corruption is already having a better year than the last one.

Woop.

/Kenny

This chapter comes with a realization

The important part is that Chapter 058: Kickoff is published.

I struggled with this chapter for a long time. My summer job drained me (but I'm still going to apply for that summer job this year, because cash cash money), and then I just ended up in one of those situations where I had stared at the same chapter for so long that I drove myself mad over it. Eventually it all came together... and then some last-minute editing discussions delayed it further. I had hoped to get it published before 2023, but anyway. I'm noting that I only published two chapters in all of 2022 and I am incredibly embarrased over that.

If there's one thing I've really figured out now it is that I need to just stop obsessing over details. That's the one New Year's resolution I'm making for myself in 2023: When it comes to writing Pure Corruption, I'm going to stop trying to get every single little detail absolutely perfect. It's more important that I get the chapters done, obviously I won't just half-ass them, but I'm not going to let perfect be the enemy of good. The worst case scenario is that I in retrospect realize something needs to be fixed, and then I cna just... fix it. It's my story. My page. I'm never gonna do any big retcons, but I am open to fixing smaller details in post. Like we journalists do.

Looking over things, I also realized there's only two more chapters in this volume (barring having to split one for length), so the progress page has been fixed accordingly. The progress bar for 059 is honestly not really telling the full story, as the chapter is already almost done, and is just one important paragraph, some connective tissue, and one final coat of polish away from going to proofreading. So expect that soon. Ish.

/Kenny

What’s good for me is bad for Pure Corruption

I've worked more than usual over the last few months. Gotten more hours at my regular hourly thing. Working more days than I've done before. Not only that, I've gotten another job, which is starting as a summer temp job for 6-7 weeks, but I've spent two days there this week to prepare, and was told there are opportunities for me to come in some more days before I start the summer work period.

For me, this is great. My income hasn't been quite comfortable enough previously that I've had no money worries, but now it's absolutely getting to the point where it is.

But on the other foot, this does mean less free time. At my hourly employment, I often work Saturdays. I worked today, even. And the summer thing, and any extra days, is full-time—for me meaning a work day is from 08:30 to 17:15, not counting the commute.

This... has the unavoidable consequence of making Pure Corruption suffer. I've talked before about how since it's something I don't make any money from, it's a hobby, and has to compete for me free time with other things I also really want to do that I don't make any money from. Yes, I fully acknowledge this means that I might not have the full level of dedication to Pure Corruption that I wish I had. It's something I've tried working on, too.

But today's the birthday of both me and Pure Corruption. And while I failed you last year, this time, I've got a double for you. Both Chapter 056: Fire Water Burn and Chapter 057: Nooks and crannies have been published. Those two were originally one chapter, but it ran too long so I split it up.

Thanks to everyone who's still sticking with me, and I'm still adamant about seeing this project through.

Until next time!

/Kenny

In under the wire!

With less than five hours left of 2021 in my time zone, I decided to give you one last classic Friday update of the year. I have now published Chapter 055: Archer girl. The next two chapters are also in proofreading (it used to be one chapter, but had to be split, soooo), so they should come soon enough.

2021 has been a fairly good year for Pure Corruption. I don't actually know how many chapters I ended up publishing, but we finally got actual art of Rink, and the audiobooks started as well. The future is bright, I'd say!

And with that, there's not much left for me to do other than wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR, and hope that you'll want to stick with Pure Corruption for yet another year!

/Kenny

Announcing the Pure Corruption audiobooks!

Exciting news today, as another person joins the Pure Corruption team and brings a whole new aspect of it to the table!

I am proud to announce the official launch of the One Piece: Pure Corruption audiobooks, a project headed by The Fanfic Guy! So just sit back and relax and let his soothing voice bring you the story, with no need for you to strain your eyes by staring at a bright screen. Right now, you can hear the Prologue and Chapter 001: Avasine, city on the waves as read by him, and I will be sure to post when more chapters get added.

I hope you will enjoy this addition to the project, and another text chapter should also be coming in the quite near future. Until then!

/Kenny

Despite other stuff, there’s actually a chapter!

So hey here's an update in the form of Chapter 054: Four Knights and five pirates.

The fact that there's an update today even though I've got Metroid Dread to play is basically because the next chapter was originally planned to have two sections, but I decided to make the first section its own chapter after being done with it. So that one's in proofreading, this one was ready to publish, so, here we are!

Please enjoy!

/Kenny

Back where they started

I will freely admit that, going by what I say on the progress page, I should have published last week. I won't make any excuses but I can absolutely say that not doing that did not in any way extend the time it's going to take until I publish the next chapter.

But now we're here with Chapter 053: Avasine, city under siege. Returning to the city where the journey started for real, but things are different now! Please enjoy and I'll see you again here hopefully soon.

/Kenny

A picture AND four thousand words

A little while ago, I started doing something I should have started doing much longer ago. That something has resulted in a whole lot of progress. Enough progress for the publishing of a new chapter.

Chapter 052: Protocol, which might not be the most exciting of chapters after this long a break, but the next one is just about ready to go up itself, and the one after that is already at worst halfway done. Probably more, as I currently believe it's going to be a comparatively short chapter (but then again, that's what I thought about 52 too, and that one nearly hit my 4k word limit).

But there's also one more thing that's happened since... thanks to my proofreader/editor/at this point kinda co-author David Cablk, there now finally exists an actual picture of Rink! You can see it on the cast page and her profile page, but those are just in black and white to go with the other cast pictured, while the original of this Rink picture was in colour. So, I made a "cover" with the picture to show it off, in the same style as the one I did with Muse's picture once upon a time. I've got some more picture-related plans coming, but for now, please enjoy Rink Kazai. Click it for a not-mildly-downsized version. I don't know why it does that.

I love it.

(also, no, I did not forget to add it to her wanted poster. I'm not using this image for her current poster, for reasons that might become apparent when you read this and the next chapter. But a picture for the poster is under construction.)

/Kenny