First of all, happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone. I wish you harmony, happiness, and a joyful reunion with your loved ones on this traditional holiday.
The first part of this book happened to come to an end on this holiday.
"I Am a Dividing Line" is how I mark the divisions between volumes. I use this method entirely because, when I first started, I agonized over volume titles and had no idea what to call them. Leaving them untitled made dividing the story into volumes feel pointless, but giving them titles... haha. I've gotten somewhat better at naming things now, but the character and Mystical Item names I came up with a few years ago were truly dreadful.
So I started dividing volumes this way.
In this part, writing the scenes involving Sophia, the "Demoness," made me nervous at times. Readers who have read my previous two works probably know that romantic scenes aren't my strong suit.
Whenever I get to those scenes, I become restless.
Readers didn't call this attempt a deal-breaker, and that helped me realize something: when it comes to romance, I need to work within my abilities.
I'd known for a while that I couldn't write romance well. I practiced quite a bit privately and made plenty of attempts in my books, too, but the more I wrote, the less confident I became. Then I started reading romance novels, only to end up writing something increasingly neither here nor there.
The scenes this time helped me understand that, with my low emotional intelligence, I shouldn't imitate romance novels and try things that require emotional intelligence. I just can't pull them off.
I'm better off writing whatever feels satisfying to me. By "satisfying," I mean plot developments that I find enjoyable without feeling forced.
Of course, understanding something