I have full Aphantasia

Oh, crazy. I'm probably closer to the exact opposite. I have vivid images in my head, so much so that if I read a novel and then see an adaptation, I'll often be like "who the heck is this person?" because their rendition is different than my mental image I created.

I remember Evan as a classic black company MC who’s a burnt out programmer with dead eyes and slouches get dropped from the sky into a grassland.

You know, that wasn't my original intention, but it fits extremely well.

This novel you’ve shared is like a new fancy donut of a flavour I’d enjoy. I got to have one bite and the donut disappeared.

That's... actually a pretty awesome compliment. Thanks!

You kinda fell off Lemmy 7 months ago so I never sent you my other feedback for v1. I started with general advice and tips before going deep into my review. Not everyone responds well to constructive criticism.

Yeah, sorry about that. I did stop writing for a bit after some of the criticism I received, not because I was dejected but because I wanted to redo what I had written. Honestly, the harshest criticism I got was some of the most useful, and it made me realize I needed to adjust the writing. So the initial feedback I got was "beginning sucks, later chapters are pretty good" so I tried to bring that energy and what I'd learned up to that point to the first few chapters and I like it a lot more.

Related side note, one of my friends had been reading my early drafts and his first feedback was "Eh... maybe I just don't get isekai..." because he wasn't liking it but was trying to be nice about it. But he also couldn't tell me exactly what was wrong. Someone else going "this generic BS right here? That sucks. But this crazy catgirl? Fantastic." So I rewrote a bunch of stuff and then that same friend was like "hey, do you have more chapters?! I'm all caught up!" so I knew I was making good progress.

I also really like the addition of Steve. Very ‘cast away’.

Steve was an addition when I just let my imagination run wild. I was like "lets be a little silly" and I wrote it in and it worked. And yes, it's definitely a bit Cast Away, especially when Evan gives Steve emotions.

Do you prefer Lemmy for feedback or would you be open to Discord for a more banter friendly platform?

Hmm... I'm open to both. My Discord is @mercuri. Just be sure to say you're Landless from Lemmy because I get a billion random friend requests from people trying to sell me AI art and other BS so I tend to ignore them all.

On a random side note, the epub version actually has the latest WIP chapter. I've rewritten it 3 times already because I know where I want the story to go, but I'm not entirely sure how to get there. But trial and error is one way this stuff works.