The book was finished... time for a recap.
First, the biggest problem was the same as in my previous book: the protagonist's abilities grew too quickly and covered too much ground.
That had to do with my own habits. I kept thinking about where the protagonist's weaknesses lay, then unconsciously filling them in.
Although I was already aware of this problem, I still fell into the same trap without realizing it.
Next was the protagonist's personality, which was a little vague. That was another problem I only noticed later.
My outline followed a path of revenge, fighting Thanos, and fighting the tireless workhorse of a villain, but because of the first problem, the late-stage bosses posed practically no threat, so naturally there wasn't much I could write about them.
After the original outline ended, the subsequent parallel-timeline storyline exposed the problem with the protagonist's personality. His defining traits weren't clear enough-or rather, weren't extreme enough-to do much to drive the plot.
Later on, writing Arale actually came much more easily, and that was when I noticed the problem. Compared with a protagonist whose personality was complicated and vague, a straightforward, extreme character like Arale was much easier to write.
There were also some things I tried: multiple characters, large-scale scenes, combat descriptions, and so on...
Sure enough, those were all weak points.
I also came to understand why protagonist teams usually consisted of three people and rarely exceeded five. That really was the easiest range to write...
I'd originally planned to try writing some romance in this book, too. At first, I intended to turn Angela into a female version of Vision. Later, I also considered getting Skye romantically involved with the protagonist, but I abandoned both ideas.
I'll try that in the next book instead.
The next book will