It wasn’t until I finished writing "Gun of Embers" that I suddenly felt enlightened.
Damn, I seem to have truly become a writer.
How should I put it? There’s a sense of not forgetting my original aspiration, which feels both strange and gratifying, because sticking to one’s roots is quite challenging.
Then there are some things about the settings. I like to recycle unused material; some undeveloped settings I want to expand in detail in subsequent works.
If any reader has gone through all my works, they shouldn’t be unfamiliar with some of the setting terms in this book. For example, the King’s Secret Sword was an organization from my very first book "Ashen Wings." My writing was immature at the time; the stuff I wrote was hardly a sight for sore eyes. But it was my debut work, and besides some embarrassment, I have no other feelings about it.
The Order Bureau is from "Distorter," as is the Purification Mechanism, but since "Gun of Embers" used them, they won’t be reused anymore.
The Secret Energy System is directly lifted from "Distorter’s" Authority System, and some character templates are dragged, revised, and adapted from previous stories. This allowed some characters I really liked but haven’t adequately described in the stories to transform from supporting roles to the main team.
Like the lucky Red Falcon.
This was during my writing of "Gun of Embers." At the time, I was researching how to make a depressing story a little more interesting, and a friend said, why not add a comedic character?
That way, it avoids the main character frequently being funny and breaking immersion, yet adds interest to the story. So I chose the role of Red Falcon.
Many books have the author’s "personal touch." For me, my personal touch is probably some comedy. I really enjoy dark humor — sawing a demon with a chainsaw while cracking a joke, wondering what to eat tonight, and then the opponent looks at all the blood on the ground and says, this color isn’t bad, let’s have stew tonight.
Thus I integrated many of my ideas into characters, and since comedic characters are invincible, Red Falcon survived till the end in the last book’s story.
To be honest, many times I prefer some supporting roles over the protagonist. Perhaps it’s because these characters don’t bear the pressure of the protagonist’s "main spotlight" so I can wield my creativity freely.
What if I mess it up, you ask?
Have you ever heard of "getting the boot"?
The protagonist team has now turned into this — when you think about it, it’s just like the Mindless and the Unhappy.
While I’ve talked so much about settings, readers needn’t worry about any reading barriers. All my books have independent stories without interconnections, at least for now.
Currently, I’ve envisioned five plots of varying sizes; some are just segments, some are whole volumes. I won’t say much here; continue writing and everyone will eventually see it.
After release, I plan to maintain two updates a day, at least one. Because I want to treat this book more seriously, I need a good stockpile to ensure I have time to ponder and revise.
So I always ensure I have about 60,000 words of buffer stockpile as a cushion.
Like with the part everyone is currently seeing on release, I initially wrote several versions, probably revised them seven times. I showed the final version to the Operations Officer, who gave me feedback, then I made choices and modifications. Before publishing, I’d look through it again for revision.
To be honest, it’s been fine-tuned quite a few times; still, how come I can’t spot the typos?
Hmm, that’s about it. The rest will be saved for the end notes of the volume.
You might have noticed that I have a strong desire to share things, which is why my Chapter notes are unexpectedly long. If you’re interested in the things mentioned above, feel free to look into them; they’re quite nice.
(These weren’t written in one go; it took about a month of sporadic writing. When I write end notes, I essentially jot down whatever comes to mind, and then when it’s time to publish, I find myself with a heap of thoughts and release them all at once.)
Today is truly a good day; "Elder Ring" is also released, I’m off to play some games first.
No brothers, no illegal ring; I saved up 150,000 as stockpile, able to consume 60,000, I should be able to manage until I finish the game.
The explosion of updates upon release today has been scheduled, and they’ll all be posted.
The release is today at 12 o’clock, in just an hour, thank you all for subscribing.