Afterword

　　You have reached the end of the story. What follows is merely some general musings about the story and what comes next. If this doesn`t interest you, feel free to click away.

　　When I first started posting Mother of Learning on Fictionpress, all the way in 2011, I had no idea it would become as popular as it did. The story, as it was originally conceived, was meant to be a tool for fleshing out the fantasy setting I was building. I had noticed that diving into the setting from the perspective of an actual person living inside it really helped me notice the missing details and various inconsistencies that I would have otherwise missed or glossed over if I was just looked at it from a big picture perspective. Mother of Learning was simply going to be a way for me to visualize the daily life inside the world I was building.

　　I needed a plan, of course. I knew from my previous writing attempts that I wasn`t one of those people who can write a story while making things up as they go along. Rather than picking something sensible, however, I chose to make it an epic time travel plot spanning multiple continents and involving a small legion of supporting characters. Because if I`m already going to dream, might as well dream big, right?

　　Right. I wrote a story summary, outlining the entire novel from start to finish. I created a character document containing brief descriptions of all important characters. And then I sat down and started writing.

　　I wrote about eight chapters before I decided they were not good enough and just plain wrong. So I completely discarded them all and started from scratch.

　　I then wrote four brand new chapters. I soon discarded them as well. They were no good, either.

　　The third time I also wrote four chapters, but this time I actually liked the result. I liked it so much, in fact, that I decided it wouldn`t hurt to share my work with the world. I posted all four chapters on Fictionpress, thinking I would be lucky to get even a hundred regular readers. Nine years later and here we are.

　　Mother of Learning is finally done. I very much enjoyed writing it, but I`m glad it`s done. It was meant to end here, and being able to bring it to a completion feels good. Some parts of the original concept had to be cut out of the story as it progressed, but I feel the story is ultimately better for it. I was a very inexperienced writer when I first made the original story plan, and its sheer scope was almost unreal. It`s a miracle it served me as well as it had by the end of it.

　　The story is not perfect by any means. Over the years, I have seen a fair amount of criticism about my work and writing style that feels true. I am pretty sparse in my descriptions, for instance, especially of people. My characters apparently have a tendency to sound very similar to one another. My word choice can be occasionally jarring to perceptive readers, since I often use modern terms without thinking about whether or not they fit the setting. Some of the info dumps and extended explanations probably drag on a little too much. Parts of the story, especially ones towards the end of it, can feel rather hurried and poorly paced, and I`m not sure I really did them justice.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

　　Still. I am happy with how the story turned out in the end, and I am happy to have found so many readers interested in reading this silly story of mine. My audience has been extraordinarily patient and generous to me over the years, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

　　I hope that, having read entire story now, you find the journey to have been worth it.

　　>What do you intend to do now?

　　Well, in the short term, I intend to sit down and do some editing. I have received many, many typo reports and lists of mistakes from my readers, but I have been focusing solely on writing new chapters for a while now, so they have simply been gathering dust in my editing folder. Now that the story is over, I intend to go over each chapter and correct all the typos people found, so that new readers stumbling on the story have a less frustrating experience.

　　Also, while the story itself is done, I intent to continue writing more worldbuilding articles for the setting of the story as a whole. Ironically, despite starting the story to help with my worldbuilding, I have kind of been ignoring the worldbuilding side of things. That`s kind of sad, so I hope that will change now that the story is done.

　　>You should publish the story!

　　I fully intend to look into publishing options, now that the story is done. I`ve been putting this off until Mother of Learning was finished, since it`s bound to be a time-consuming and frustrating task. Since I am almost entirely ignorant of what this will involve, however, I will not make any promises in regards to this.

　　>Do you intend to continue writing after this?

　　Of course. I like writing and I have plenty of ideas for new stories after this. I`m not sure if the ideas are any good, but I certainly have no shortage of them. I`m going to have to make some story plans and write up some test chapters, but I`ll be sure to come back with another story.

　　>Are you going to write a sequel to Mother of Learning?

　　Maybe. Definitely not any time soon, but I do have some ideas about a possible sequel eventually. My current idea is that it wouldn`t be nearly as long or grand as the original, and would mostly focus on showing the aftermath of the original and what the characters do in their everyday life. A sort of extended epilogue, more slice-of-life than a grand mystery of the original.

　　Anyway. This is still in very rough stage, and I can`t even guarantee that it`s going to happen for sure. I guess you`ll just have to wait and see about this one.

　　>What was your inspiration for the story, anyway?

　　Various Dungeons & Dragons content, the Avernum series of games, Fullmetal Alchemist manga and anime, and time loop fanfiction.

　　>Anything else you want to say?

　　Nope. This is it. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.