I started writing at midnight, and now it's past 4 a.m. After deleting it three times, I finally stumbled my way through the first VIP chapter. Now I'm here to write my note on going premium.
First, let's talk about this book. A niche category within the already quiet suspense genre... rules-based horror stories, um... how should I put it? Basically, I maxed out my debuffs the moment I started the book, but I'd already thought of that while planning it.
Although I've written several million Chinese characters of fantasy and cultivation fiction, I've never really taken off. Every time I designed a satisfying moment, I felt like the plot was pushing me along instead of me driving the plot. That puzzled me for a long time.
I thought about why, and it basically came down to how I couldn't stop thinking about this thing called "logical consistency" that people would laugh at me for mentioning. Of course, it's also possible that I was simply terrible at writing fantasy and cultivation fiction.
By chance, I learned about horror tales. Then, while listening to Fox Tail's livestream class, I learned a little about the "Cthulhu-style" approach, so I specifically went and read the great Lovecraft's "The Call of CthXlhu" (I don't know whether I'm allowed to type the title out, so I left out one character).
Honestly, only after reading the original could I vaguely appreciate what that kind of "Cthulhu-style" horror was like. Then I searched online for some horror-tale novels, and what I found was... ahem, insert Principal Wang's enigmatic smile while commenting on Mou Han's acting.jpg.
My first reaction was: Bro, seriously, what the hell are you writing? Are you just dressing it up as a horror tale, turning on invincibility cheats, ignoring the rules, and writing a power fantasy?
It's suspense! It's rules-based horror! Could you put a little care into it and write something interesting?
It was precisely because I had nothing to read that I got to work myself.
Before I started, Mo Fangju happened to be traveling and came to Suzhou specifically to hang out with me, so I brought up the idea. During the early stages of drafting the Student Rules, Mo Fangju gave me lots of suggestions, so let me thank Mo Fangju first. I said I'd write some to test the waters, and if it went reasonably well, I'd trick (cross that out, invite) Mo Fangju into the rules-based horror rabbit hole too.
My initial idea was very simple: regardless of the market, I would write purely out of love, creating the sort of rules-based horror story I imagined, with a touch of Cthulhu-style horror.
After drafting the initial rules, I wrote an opening and sent it to my editor, Editor Late-Night Snack. After reading it, Editor Late-Night Snack said, "You can write this, but the hype has already passed."
All I saw was "you can," and I automatically ignored "the hype has passed," because all I needed to know was that I could write it.
I told Editor Late-Night Snack that for this book, I would write just one complete horror tale. Once it was done, if the response wasn't good, I would end the book there, and it would still be a complete story.
If I wrote it well, naturally there would be more to follow.
As for what would follow-that is, beyond S City University-I'd actually thought up a few other locations. But because I wasn't sure whether everyone would like it, I didn't plan out the details of those later horror tales. I only worked through the chain of logic for the "S City University" portion until it formed a closed loop.
Then I started the book. Oh, a quick aside here: since I came up with the entire logic of the Rules bit by bit from scratch, the whole process was genuinely very difficult. There was no one I could use as a reference (at least, none that I knew of, haha. I've read Zoo Horror Rules, but honestly, it was extremely, extremely limited in how much it helped with my chain of logic). In the end, it took me a little over a month to cobble together the initial chain of logic. Then, through ongoing discussions with Mo Fangju, it ultimately took more than two months to complete version 1.0.
I remember it was August then. After that, I filled in the whole chain of logic bit by bit, and I didn't start writing the actual story until around September. There were more revisions along the way, and I only published the book in October.
Actually, I was busy in October, busy with all sorts of things. But I'd originally told Editor Late-Night Snack I would launch the book on September 1. Hahahahaha... I dragged it out until October, and seeing that the October holiday was already over, I steeled myself and decided to put a little pressure on myself.
People really won't crawl forward unless they give themselves a push.
After publishing the book, I was actually very nervous, thinking, Am I going to go from "writing purely out of love" to "genuinely writing purely out of love"?
Hahahahaha... that thought only crossed my mind once before I dismissed it, because I was confident. With a closed-loop logical structure, simply throwing all the rules online would generate a bunch of analysis posts, let alone how fun (terrifying) it would be if I turned it into a story. At worst, if no one read it after I finished, I could see whether I could turn it into short videos or something...
And then I published the book!
After publishing it, I didn't expect quite so many people to like it. Everyone's comments were often a hundred or two hundred Chinese characters long, and reading them really kept a doting grin on my face. I was also full of motivation to write every day.
During this process, I created a group and watched its membership grow from one to more than sixty now. Though there weren't many people, everyone was a truly dedicated fan, discussing the plot and rules every day. It gave me a real sense of accomplishment.
Let me thank all you wonderful readers for your support. Thump, thump, thump-bowing my head to you all! Orz!!!!
Finally, about the numbers.
Right now, the book has 5,000 bookmarks and over 300 readers keeping up with new chapters. I don't know what the numbers will look like once it goes premium. Though these figures are tiny compared with other categories, for some reason, I feel like it should be able to do well as long as I don't botch the writing... so, I'll work hard.
(A whisper: although I'm going premium with only 300-plus readers keeping up, I'm so greedy. I still want to aim for the Quality tier, T-T, which means an average of 3,000 subscriptions per chapter. Hahaha, it does seem a little unrealistic, because 300 readers keeping up pretty much means an average of 300 subscriptions...)
Never mind all that. Anyway, I'll just write, write, and write some more... tell the story properly to the end, and leave the rest to you wonderful readers.
Damn, I almost forgot...
Thanks to the two big shots who recommended me in their chapters-White Crow, The Whitest Crow. Crow is on such a high level that I don't even have the nerve to recommend Crow's book... all I can say is that I'll repay this small kindness many times over someday. On my knees in thanks to the great Crow.
There's also the great Rabbit, Medieval Rabbit, who's likewise way above my level... all I can do here is offer another kneeling thank-you, +2...
And Empress Vera, who helped me out. Kneeling thank-you, +3...
Finally, let's talk about updates.
Qidian's baseline is 4,000 Chinese characters a day, but since I want to reach the Quality tier, I certainly can't settle for slacking off like that. So I'll try to post a little more each day. Although I want to write 10,000 a day, I've never tried it, so I don't dare guarantee how much of an increase there'll be. All I can say is that I'll gradually increase the amount I post. Just wait and see.
Also, if anyone becomes an Alliance Leader, I won't bother with empty promises about how many extra chapters I'll post. Let's go straight to character counts, okay? For every Alliance Leader, I'll post an extra 10,000 Chinese characters, and I'll try to get them out within a week (sob, sob, I'm talking about you, "Miao'er"! That sudden Alliance Leader donation left me both surprised and delighted)!
All right... let's go!!!
I hope you all enjoy this story. We'll... meet again in the afterword when it's finished!