TLDR: I will be taking a break for around a week due to my school assignments/examinations coming up and will remain posting on 30th July 2018. For my new Webnovel viewers, I wouldn't mind you not voting for me using your power stones next week since I won't be posting for that week!
Hi! For my QI readers, I realised that you didn't get to read how I started writing Spirit Immortal. So below is a short description of myself!
Background about myself and inspirations for writing Spirit Immortal
Currently, I am a university undergraduate, and I have been reading fiction for years. I first got into reading fiction because of anime. Initially, I was a pure anime/manga fan. But I then found out about the existence of light novels. Light novels were far ahead from the existing anime, so I started to binge read translated volumes on Baka-Tsuki. It became somewhat of a drug to me. I kept reading and eventually, fictions had become part of my daily life. However, everything changed when the Yen Press attacked… Suddenly, many of my favourite novels disappeared, and less and less light novel translations surfaced.
Finding myself in a severe deficit of fictions to read, I found something called Novelupdates. Every few minutes, there was a new novel chapter being released. I was overjoyed. Finally, I was able to satisfy my daily fiction needs. That was how I got into wuxia/xianxia novels. Being ethnically Chinese and fluent in both English and Chinese, there was a great allure for me in these stories. When I was younger, I would frequently watch The Legend of the Condor Heroes and many what we call "wuxia xiaoshuo." So seeing that the traditional stories blend with modern themes was somewhat shocking to me. To think that such a part of the internet existed!
So I started reading a lot of wuxia/xianxia stories. I remember the early days of Coiling Dragon and Stellar Transformations. The friendly competition between Gravitytales and Wuxiaworld. But one day, I encountered Doulou Dalu. For those who have not noticed, Spirit Immortal's cultivation system is inspired by this very novel. The reason being, it was the only cultivation system that I could actually follow. It's a very simplistic system, rank 1-100. The other Wuxia novels cultivation systems confused the heck out of me. However, worry not, Spirit Immortal is not a fanfiction of Doulou Dalu. In fact, other than the cultivation levels, they are nothing alike.
For a while, Doulou Dalu was my favourite novel. To a certain extent, it still is my favourite translated wuxia/xianxia novel. But I started feeling bored. Every single book that I read followed the same format. And after many disappointing stories, I thought to myself… Hey, I could just write something I like!
Thus, the idea of Spirit Immortal started germinating in my mind. It took me over five months to finish plotting the major arcs, characters and finally the ending before I started typing my first word. Majority of the reason why it took so long for me to start writing this story is because of my procrastination and school. Additionally, I didn't know if the story was going to be well received. But eventually, I steeled my mind and said: "Whatever, as long as I am satisfied with the story, who cares?"
So yeah, currently the number one fan of Spirit Immortal is myself, and I can't wait to put the entire story I have in my head into words for all of you to read. It will take time though, so do stick around!
Issues I have had when writing Book Two
I have realised that many of you were unsatisfied with the pace of the story, saying that it is too slow and whatnot. And guess what, I agree! I have been putting the character and world development at the forefront of my story thus slowing down the story progression, However, fret not, now that the first two books are completed, the story progression would begin to expedite as I believe that I have sufficiently developed my characters!
I'm trying to be more descriptive in my writing but that is still a work in progress. Perhaps it would be the greatest hurdle for me but rest assured, I will try my best!
Another major issue I had was time management. I started writing Spirit Immortal during my semester break where I had plenty of time. I even managed to complete Book 1 during that break itself! However, once school started, I had to figure out a way to balance work, personal life and writing Spirit Immortal. There were some days where I only had three hours to efficiently write, proofread and edit my chapter before I deemed it ready to be published. Hence, there might be times where my writing quality dropped slightly but I'm trying my best to ensure that I retain and even improve on my writing quality, so please be patient with me on that one.
Future of Spirit Immortal
Once my semester break hits once more, I will be sitting myself down in order to write as many chapters as I can. Perhaps, eventually, I will take the road of creating a Patreon account to allow you guys to read advance chapters and at the same time, give myself some funding to weather through the school days.
So yeah, I can't thank you guys enough for continuing to stick with me as I continue to write Spirit Immortal. I hope that I will be able to deliver the satisfying fiction that I have conjured up and brought you as much enjoyment as I had in writing this story!