First, I want to thank Duster for their immense support in securing so many recommendations for me. This book has pretty much gotten every recommendation available to a new novel.
It’s going premium tomorrow at 7 PM—the usual time.
How am I feeling right now?
I’m not really nervous. I’m not feeling the same anxiety I’ve seen other great authors write about before their books go premium. Maybe it’s because my expectations aren’t that high, and I haven’t set any specific goals for myself.
A thousand subscribers, three thousand, ten thousand... I haven’t set any goals like that.
Anyway, I’m very relaxed.
I still remember why I started writing this book. It was around the end of September, when the great author Wen Chao’s *Mysterious Tribulation* had ended, and he’d gone off to get married and have his honeymoon...
I was in a total reading slump and bored to tears. Plus, with the pandemic, I couldn’t even go out and happily grab some skewers. I decided to write something to kill time, and slowly, very slowly, an outline came together... Because I’m a web novel reader myself, I’ve seen a lot of overly dramatic, illogical stuff. When I write, I subconsciously try to avoid all that. If you’ve been paying close attention, you’ve probably noticed...
So, I really am just a newbie. It’s true that I’ve written a few things before, both for print and online... but I am absolutely not the alt account of some big-shot author.
Let’s talk about the update schedule after going premium.
Duster told me that to make the most of the recommendation features, it would be best to release two Chapters a day, at three thousand words each... I’m someone who doesn’t like to disappoint people, so back then, I started consciously trying to build up a stockpile of Chapters.
’It’s just an extra hour or two of writing after my day job, right?’ I thought. ’I’m not even thirty yet. I’m young, I can hustle...’
And then, over the next couple of days, I discovered: I had no energy at work during the day, and my productivity was abysmal... Later, I even caught a small cold. My head was all foggy, and I was worried it might be something serious. Thankfully, my nucleic acid test came back negative...
In short, not only did I fail to build a stockpile, I actually ended up two Chapters in the hole...
After that incident, I came to a realization. It’s better to just be honest with myself, keep my normal work schedule, my normal daily routine, and my normal writing pace.
So, I’m probably not destined to become a great author. Besides things like writing style and plot pacing, I also lack the willpower for writing—that ruthless drive to grit your teeth and force out a Chapter explosion.
Quit my job?
I’ve never considered it. I’m actually quite satisfied with my current job... Although I do tend to slack off a bit and check my phone after my work is done for the day, it doesn’t mean I don’t love this job... (Okay, saying I ’love’ it is a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s true that I’m satisfied with the salary, benefits, and vacation days.)
My job is my main priority; it’s what puts food on the table. Writing is a part-time gig, a hobby, or you could call it an indulgence, a dream. The latter cannot be allowed to affect the former. That is my bottom line, and it’s non-negotiable.
So, after the book goes premium, aside from tomorrow, there probably won’t be any mass releases in the future.
Tomorrow at 7 PM, I’ll post three Chapters, 12,000 characters in total. (I originally wanted to split them into 4 or 6 Chapters to make it seem like more, but it was hard to do so without breaking the flow of the story.)
In the future, Monday to Friday will be 4,000 characters per day. On Saturdays and Sundays, I’ll see how it goes. If I have the time, I’ll do my best to release two Chapters for a total of 6,000 characters... (Emphasis on: *’see how it goes,’ ’if I have the time,’* and *’do my best.’* I can’t guarantee 6,000 characters every weekend. After all, I need to rest too, catch up on shows, grab skewers, read novels, watch movies...)
As for bonus Chapters, I’ll set a nearly impossible goal: for every 1,000 average subscribers over the 3,000-subscriber mark, I’ll add one bonus 4,000-character Chapter. (Other authors all have something like this, and Duster also suggested I set one up, but I honestly don’t have the time, so I’ll just set the bar really high, haha.)
Compared to the other authors on Qidian, my update schedule probably isn’t very impressive. To all the readers who were expecting more, I’ve let you down. I apologize to you all. *bows*...
On this point, I don’t want to mislead anyone, so I’m being clear about it in advance. I don’t dare make wild promises about things I can’t deliver on.
For me personally, when it comes to writing, if it’s slow, it’s slow. The important thing is to ensure quality and move forward at my own pace... I want to write something that I can be proud of. At least for now, my desire to create something worthwhile far outweighs my desire to make money...
My personality is rather mild-mannered. I don’t have that ruthless drive, but I do have persistence... For this book, I’m thinking, if I can’t finish it in a year, I’ll take two, or three... Even at just 4,000 characters a day, that’s 1.44 million characters a year, and 4.32 million characters in three years...
And as it happens, this book’s outline was designed to be around three to four million characters long.
As for the update time, barring any unforeseen circumstances, it will probably always be at 7 PM.
I personally tend to read and catch up on novels while I’m eating dinner, so I set the update time for 7 PM. There’s no other reason for it, really. I just hope that it can bring you all a little bit of entertainment during your dinner time, after a long, busy day at work...
At this point, I think I’ve said pretty much everything I wanted to say. I just wrote whatever came to mind, so it might be a bit disorganized. Please bear with me...
Finally, my best regards to all of you once again. I’m off to write.
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