Faking it

Hello Wattpad my old friend (NOT AN UPDATE but has important Faking It news)

Hi. Remember me? I used to be MishaHicks but I've decided to treat myself to the ridiculous pseudonym I've always wanted. Anyway, remember when I used to do reeeaaally long author's notes and people got annoyed? Well get ready for an update that's NOTHING BUT NOTE – yeah, that's right, I'm finally doing it.

It's been a really long time. You probably thought I was gone forever, huh? So did I. But I'm back now, and things are gonna change around here. If you're not interested in the long explanation, you can skip down right now to the handily titled "LONG STORY SHORT" section at the bottom, which should tell you everything you need to know.

So I started writing Faking It when I was in my teens, and for a while everything went swimmingly and I had some of the best and most supportive readers on the internet (whaddup to all my OG hounds – and holy shit there are like THOUSANDS of you now). But then life just sort of got in the way, until I found myself unable and, eventually, unwilling to continue with this story. The older I got, the worse my old writing seemed to me. It had come to the point where I had basically resigned myself to abandoning my Wattpad profile and hoping the guilt would go away on its own.

Fast forward to January 2017: I get an email from Radish inviting me to write on their site (I'm going to assume you're all familiar with Radish by now?). At first I'm unsure because I know everything I've put on Wattpad would require some SERIOUS editing before I'd be willing to let people pay for it. But then I start thinking about how I'm an unemployed student and textbooks are expensive. And after a lot of thinking and schedule-considering, I decide to give it a go. So yeah, Faking It's moving to Radish, guys!

I know, I know, but before the cries of "j'accuse!" start up, hear me out. Here's what's gonna happen: At the end of this month I'm going to take Faking It, along with all my other writing, down from Wattpad for the time being. After that I will start uploading a HEAVILY edited* version of Faking It to Radish. I figured it would be kinda cruel to give y'all half a story and suddenly ask you to pay for the rest, so the format I'm going to release it in will be one where chapters are made available for free on a staggered release schedule. This means that you can pay for everything, or wait and get one new chapter a week for free. If you can afford to, please pay. If you can't, no worries – you've already waited three years for an update, what's a few more months? Eventually, after it's all been on Radish for a while, the shiny new edited version of Faking It will be re-uploaded to Wattpad.

Fair warning: I will not be re-uploading anything else. Lightning Girl never drummed up enough interest and the poetry's sort of whatever, so if you have a soft spot for any of those, or for the current version of Faking It, you have the rest of the month to read to your heart's content. After that it's curtains, so be prepared.

In addition to the new version of Faking It, I will also be uploading a brand new so-far-untitled story. It's a bit different from everything I've done so far. It's gonna be gay AF, there will be smut (if I don't chicken out in a major way), and, aside from a small sample here on Wattpad, you will have to pay to read this one in its entirety. When you see it pop up, please check it out! Even if it's not your thing, you'll be doing your part to boost the story's numbers and trick people into thinking it's super fucking brilliant.

Quick note on the name change: I've never used my real name on here, but the older one was close enough that if someone who knew me saw it, they could probably figure out who I was. Yes, the new one's ludicrous. Yes, that's why I like it.

LONG STORY SHORT:

- Everything I've published on here is going to be taken down at the end of this month (April)

- Most of it will stay down forever, so read while you can!

- Faking It is moving to Radish

- It will be heavily edited*

- There will be a period of time where you can pay for it, but after that it will be free

- I'll be writing a new gay romance especially for Radish

Thanks for all the support guys, and sorry for the long absence!

- Xanadu Jones

* If you're interested in what the Faking It edit is gonna look like, here are some details:

Aside from the general writing quality and the fact that the plot was unfolding like some sort of millennial Days of our Lives (complete with cliffhangers and stretched-out drama), Faking It needs a serious trim in terms of length. You guys, it's already SO long and it's nowhere near done, so be prepared to lose some side-plots. Plus times have really changed quickly and LGBT issues are viewed radically differently now – which is totally fabulous and hooray for progress, but it really dates this story. I don't think all of the social obstacles would manifest in the same way anymore, particularly given the sort of neighbourhood my characters live in. So I'm probably going to make Faking It a sort of period piece, set around about 2008-2010. Although I am going to make some major changes, I want everyone to know that I'm going to try really hard to stay true to the original spirit of Faking It. I want to hold on to all the reasons people like the story in the first place. I think I have a pretty good idea of what to keep and what's expendable, but if you have any particular thing/scene/character you wouldn't want to part with, please let me know. If there's a lot of support for something I was gonna chuck, I'll try and fit it in somewhere.