I always wonder about that myself. The story progresses and changes as I write and what I thought was 99 chapter story, now is a story that I can’t tell how long it’d be.

Your timing for the question is awesome by the way. Just yesterday at dinner, I was asking for the opinions of my mother and sister on splitting the story to two  big parts, even under two titles. Like “Grey is…” would end at certain point with closure and all, then another story under a related name like “Dear Grey;” or whatever starts continuing the story but presented in a way that a person can start from there without the need to read the first part. It’s just an idea that died on the same day it was born.

I’m not fond of ideas like that honestly, but the main reason I thought of this was the following.

I’ve been drawing this story for the past 5 years and it took me these years to develop my own style in visual storytelling, in a way. So volume 4 onwards is what have a consistent storytelling, visual and literal wise, that is true to who I am as an artist.

I often like to offer my work to people that are into the industry whose opinion matter to me, or maybe submit it in a contest or something and volume 1, even 2 and mid-3, doesn’t really show my voice clearly, so I always think that some people might not give the story a chance because of the flaws that are in the first books. And this is along project, and the at the end of the day I’d like it to be more known and appealing to people who are into this genre.

In the end I came to the conclusion that maybe combining vol1+2 to be one big book might present more of the story in one book, but I’m not sure I can do that anytime soon.

These are just ideas going through my head recently. It  happens when you reach a milestone in a project and feel that it didn’t meet your expectations.

Sorry maybe I’m giving a longer answer than you wanted, but I sure want to present the other side of the story and the journey towards it. 20 pages left for me to finish volume 5, and I believe it gives much more about the characters’ backstories and answers a few major questions that people have been wanting to know the answer of.

Short answer is that I often wonder too when I’ll put the pencil/stylus down for this story. I look forward and kinda fear that day, honestly.
One thing I’m sure of, is that I won’t drag the story for my own pleasure, or the readers’. The story has its beginning, middle and end, and main arcs that I already know from the start.

Whatever is added or changed along the way is the same as anything that I’ve took off the story so far, which is to serve the main purpose of it.

sorry for the very long answer, and thanks for your message!