‘SPROUT!’ updates with a new chapter every Saturday!
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When I was a kid I loved Anime and Manga.
Well, that's kind of a lie because I still do. One Piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, HunterXHunter are just a few of the series that grabbed my attention as a child and I still follow to this day. As I grew I told myself that one day I'd create my own series just like the ones that inspired me. Life marched on and that dream seemed farther and farther away especially because I never put in the effort to improve my skills in art. But I loved to write. Stories, World Building, Short Plays, I even spent over half a decade of my life writing and performing in Rap Battles. Anything that involved expressing myself creatively through writing was something I gravitated to.
2020 was a transformative year for a lot of people, myself included. I had finally decided to attempt the NaNoWriMo Challenge (Writing the first draft of a 50k+ Novel in a Month) and when I completed it I knew it was time to dust off this old dream of mine.
While art still wasn't my forte (Please check the Thank You section for all the amazing artists who helped bring my story to life) I knew there had to be a way to tell this 'Anime' style story with just words on the page. That's when I discovered Light Novels, a Japanese style of books that are normally released in smaller volume format similar to a Manga series. Before the chapters are collected in Light Novel volumes they were normally released in a serialized format like you'd see with most Anime & Manga. Now that I could put a name to my goal I spent the next two and half years story building, writing, and learning before I decided it was time to put my work out there.
I'm still an amateur by all accounts but everything will be edited and readable to the best of my abilities. Every creative wants to make the next big thing and while that will always be a lofty dream my goal is to tell a story that childhood me would have buried myself into if I found it at a Book Store. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it too.
So enough of me rambling. Thank you for joining me on this journey and without further adieu, enjoy the first chapter of my Web Novel 'SPROUT!'
-E.B. Yates (5/20/2023)