The Ascension of Contracted Spirits

Chapter 70: 【Going live tomorrow】+ A light chat about recent status_1

[Announcement]

After 34 days, "Rising of the Fond Spirits" finally hits the shelves.

The book will be available at noon tomorrow (July 14, Friday), and four Chapters will be released all at once, totaling 12,000 words.

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[Thoughts]

Well, I’d say it’s mostly a mix of complex emotions.

I’ve poured a lot of energy into this book, much more than the first one.

For the first book, my goal was to "train my pen", to write without considering any other factors.

For the second book, I had additional considerations, such as "profits".

Unfortunately, while I’ve tried to avoid repeating the mistakes I made in the previous book, I’ve inadvertently made others.

For example, the slow rhythm at the beginning, which has been widely criticized.

I’ve thought about it, and indeed, it’s my fault.

The world background I imagined was just too vast, with different authorities matching different spirits to form different systems.

Sure, this setup has its advantages.

In fact, most of the readers who came across my book gave it a "interesting setting" evaluation.

Even for myself, if I didn’t particularly like this setting, and it could break through the conventional impression of beast mastery, I wouldn’t have chosen this structure.

While conceptualizing, I have thought about the challenging aspects of this setup.

For instance, because the choice of spirits is led by authority, I would have to invest time and ink to introduce different authorities, thereby highlighting the richness of the world.

Yet for a beast mastery novel, the importance of pets should be the focus.

Writing about the authorities diverts some of the spotlight, which to some extent means deviating from the main theme.

This is a downside.

A big pitfall.

Even though I’ve thought about ways to improve it, by tying the authorities and spirits together as much as possible.

But in this genre, this still remains a downside. Without care, it’s easy to lose the priority.

I needed to maintain balance.

But I guess I didn’t do well; I wasn’t able to suppress this downside as I planned, even allowing it to surface at the crucial new-book stage.

This led to an increase in redundancy, a slow unfolding of the plot, and some readers interested in the setting ended up distancing themselves from the book because of this.

To put it in a more common expression, perhaps it’s a good setting, enchanting to the eye.

But as the author, I didn’t have the capability to steer it successfully.

I’ve been pondering over this issue and later felt that a considerable portion of the reason could be attributed to the "wrong choice".

Maybe if I had given the protagonist a different initial identity, like someone with less information, exploring the world step by step, gradually understanding and growing, maybe the plot would have flowed better and found more acceptance.

However, I specifically chose "Son of the Big Clan", and felt that this fire wasn’t fierce enough, so I added "The Path of a Mentor".

As a result, there were more mysteries, many plots waiting to be written, and the future looked promising.

However, this increased the difficulty of writing on top of an already challenging base, doubling it and then doubling it again.

Hell Mode, truly.

And it’s the eighteenth layer of hell.

It seems - I’m pretty good at digging holes for myself.

I thought that after sincerely completing a ’Master of Pets’, with 3 million words from start to middle to end, I would have an easier time with the second book.

But ironically, I feel like a fish struggling in the shallows now, looking towards the direction of the sea, flipping its tail over and over again.

I must admit that I have some mindset issues.

As of the book’s release, I have almost 14,000 favorites, considerably lower than my expectations.

I can predict that the initial subscription numbers might be a bit higher than the previous book’s, but not by much.

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[Emphasis]

I’m mentioning these things to be candid about my poor state of mind, not implying any intent to give up.

Readers who got to know me from this book, please don’t hastily jump to the conclusion that I’m unreliable.

At the very least, the existing impact is far from enough.

During my previous novel, from signing the contract as a rookie to the completion of three million characters, from the initial subscription of 400 to a steady average of 1,860, at least I constantly updated for 717 days. I worked on it nonstop through two years of wind and rain.

Bai Wushang, born in the Great Qian Dynasty, started from being a nobody to becoming well-known across the mountains and the sea, well-known in Great Qian.

The first one of the ’Top Ten Talents’ — a gourmet!

Zulong Court — the order of the Holy Son!

Holy Court — the Great Pope!

In the end, witnessed by the various tribes’ god kings and the twelve guardians, he was the White Emperor, the White Emperor who ruled the world! The White Emperor who suppressed the evil head!

Yinhe, Zhou, Ci, Sen Po, Cang Jiang, Long Ye, Xing, Garuda, Shu Tong, Wan Sui...

When these names appear in front of your eyes, do they not feel so fresh, so alive?

In the same way, for Huazhu and GuaGua, it’s just the beginning.

It’s just about grinding bit by bit.

Those nights spent in deep contemplation, I was always accompanied by the moon.

And then, expectations get dashed, and you adjust your mentality again.

This process can also be called Nirvana, or rebirth, right?

Whatever.

I don’t need any encouragement or consolation.

My initial intention is not to gain sympathy.

(Isn’t this a post-publication speech? How can it be rebellious?)

There are some readers who have met me through "Master of Pets" and who have come to accept and like me.

Whether openly or secretly, they are still supporting me. I am well aware of this.

So, adjusting my mindset is just for the journey ahead.

What I aim for in my ideal world is the completion of a work from a macroscopic perspective. This includes the benefits, positive and negative reviews, the difficulties and obstacles encountered on this journey, and a series of reflections... These are all part of my harvest, part of my life.

"Rising of the Fond Spirits" has just hit 210,000 characters.

The story of Ye Hanjun has just begun.

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PS: Unfortunately, I have to add that before starting the book, I had about 40 Chapters of manuscript, but a month later, it’s almost depleted.

Especially after the four additional Chapters after the launch, I was left with two or three Chapters in the drafts, and will soon return to writing up-to-date Chapters.

Calculated in this way, I lose one Chapter on average every day and have never been able to complete a 6,000-word workload in a single day.

In fact, when writing this book, I can barely manage 1,000 characters per hour at the moment. I still need to spend a lot of time daily to supplement the outline and refine the details.

The readers may just see a profession or a fond spirit, but behind the scenes, I have to consider whether such a match is reasonable, whether there are any obvious loopholes, how much foreshadowing to lay and so on...In addition, as I have said, I dig my own pit. This protagonist has a profession and contractual beasts, and he walks the path of teaching and accepts disciples. The disciples also need a share of the story... Everything is more difficult than I imagined, and the writing is very slow.

Sometimes, for the sake of maintaining a stable mindset, I have to socialize every once in a while, otherwise the pressure that has built up will affect my writing state - this will also take up some time.

Updating 6,000 words daily, I am teeth-grittingly trying my best to persist.

But if at some point in time or plot, I find that writing quickly will cause problems and I have to slow down to think more deeply...

Or if due to investing too much thought into the work, I become too stressed, which once again affects my mental state...

Considering these reasons, to ensure stable creation for a longer period, I will adjust the number of words in my updates.

The lower limit is 4,000 characters, generally fluctuating between 4,000, 5,000, and 6,000 characters.

Without getting sick or any special accidents, I won’t take leave because I don’t want to interrupt updates.

The end.

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Once again, thank you to all my supportive readers who like me.

If you can afford it, I sincerely ask for your subscription starting from tomorrow.

To those who cannot afford it, I hope for your initial subscription. I was once a fan of free reading when I was a student, so I understand.

In the end.

I bow.

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PS: I have updated the "Reference Settings" in the first Chapter before the main text, for those interested to have a look.