Hello everyone, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Aresanzui, and I’m the author of this book. If you already know me from the web novel series, then I would like to thank you for your consistent support.
This volume is the revised and edited version of the web novel. I’ve changed a handful of miscellaneous things and even completely rewrote some bits. The story itself is now more consistent, and I would go so far as to say that it’s a step up from the web version of the story. And most importantly, it now has wonderful illustrations to enhance some scenes. So even if you didn’t enjoy the story itself, you’re still getting your money’s worth in that regard.
I’m usually active—well, if you can call it being active—on the site Shousetsuka ni Narou (Let's Become a Novelist), where I can write whatever I want. I’ve always been a damn contrarian, and I tend to stubbornly drag my stories in whatever direction I see fit if I’m left to my own devices. However, I paid a lot of attention to readers’ suggestions as I wrote this book, and I feel like I was able to actually see the bigger picture and calmly assess what I wanted to do.
I figured I’d make the story about two people chatting on and on, but the story kept naturally developing the more I wrote it until it became what it is today. It was meant to be a stress-free and sweet love story on the surface, but, well, it took some unexpected turns along the way. Par for the course for me. Fortunately, I received an offer to novelize the series eventually, and it was accepted for publication before I even knew what was going on.
To tell you the truth, all the novels I’ve ever read were historical ones, and I never so much as touched an actual light novel during my middle/high school years. I did have a vague aspiration to become a novelist one day, but I’d always thought it was an impossible dream for me, so I hadn’t particularly done much to pursue it.
One time, I actually held a light novel in my own two hands and naively believed that I could write one myself. So I did. I submitted a dumpster fire even by rookie standards, and of course, I had the door slammed shut right in my face.
I genuinely thought that I wasn’t cut out for it when that happened and promptly gave up on the whole thing. Despite everything, I found the act of writing itself to be extremely fun for me, and so I kept at it. I stumbled around for a while until I found my way to a website that wasn’t all that well-known at the time (probably): Shousetsuka ni Narou.
This is by no means a dig at the site or anything like that, but my first thoughts as I was registering for it were: “Let's Become a Novelist? Are you sure that’s a good name?”
So I began posting my writing there without having any expectations that anything I wrote had the slightest chance of being novelized. I treated it kind of like a game where I looked at the analytics and tried to figure out how I could get readers to click on what I write, how to make them leave good ratings and bookmark my work so that I could accumulate more points on the site. Before long, I suppose I did actually become a novelist, so the site did live up to its name.
There are truly multiple ways to become a novelist. Though having said that, I would still be hesitant to actively call myself one.
I don’t really have much to add about the contents of this book, but I would say I wouldn’t want the readers to empathize with the protagonist of the story as much as to take a step back and fondly watch over him, no matter how goofy he is sometimes. Then again, everyone has their own opinions, and I’d be happy if my work left an impression on you, whether it was because of a character, or due to a joke.
Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude for all the readers who have read my web novel and bookmarked, rated, and commented on my work, as well as for the publishing company; starting with my editor-in-chief, my supervisor, my editor, and for Sabamizore, who worked on the illustrations for the book. And last but not least, for everyone who bought this book.
Thank you all so much.