TLDR: As with every end of a book, I will be taking a break and will resume posting on 12th November 2018. I know, it's a longer break than usual, but since it is the end of Act One, I think it should be justified... Oh and since this author thoughts is really long, it really is a too long didn't read, lol.
Hi there guys! Linodo here! WE FINALLY MADE IT!!! We finally made it to the end of ACT ONE!!! *Confetti pops!* Haha, that's right, these first four books are actually part of one act. I know, I know, if it took me about five to six months to complete one act, how long would it actually take for me to finish the entire story?! Three years? Five years? Or should I go full Oda and write it for twenty plus years?
Well, joking aside, I didn't plan for my writing to take this long. If you followed me from the start, you would have known that I wrote Book One in just one month during my semester break. Naturally, the chapter length and quality of writing have been steadily improving (at least in my opinion), so there's that, but the real issue that I have is time management. As a final year university student, school is my full-time job. The most important thing that I must focus on is my school, even if it means decreasing the release rate of Spirit Immortal. And let me tell you, it sure was a challenge. University courses were tough enough, now I have even less time to study and do assignments? There were even times where I just wanted to write an apology letter to you guys and drop the entire novel altogether. However, there was no way that I could do that. Why?
Because I love writing.
I don't know why, no matter how stressed I am, when the clock ticks ever closer to 11 pm, I look forward to when my chapter to go live so that I can see how you guys liked it. You guys don't know it, but there were many days where I would refresh my latest chapters just so that I could see your thoughts about the chapter. In fact, I might be refreshing this chapter right now! Hahaha! So don't be shy to leave a comment or a review about the novel. Let me tell you now, the fear of an author isn't a negative comment or a negative review, the true fear is that no one reads your work.
Before I go in depth about the things you guys really want to know, let me tell you a little bit of my background. As many of you already know, I am an avid anime fan and got into reading web novels because I wanted to read light novels (the source material of a significant portion of anime). To tell you the truth, I didn't like reading books growing up. That's why my English is somewhat lacking as compared to most authors. I did, however, love watching shows/movies/cartoons. I watched many Chinese/Hong Kong dramas, American movies when the K-Wave first started I'd even watched Korean dramas. But, my one true love was still anime. I grew up watching Inuyasha, Shaman King, Naruto, One Piece, Katekyo Hitman Reborn… The list goes on…
The peak of my anime obsession came when I was about 13-15. Those three years, I probably watched like two-three hundred anime titles, and that's when my life really changed. I watched timeless pieces like Code Geass, FMA, Cowboy Bebop, Fate/Zero, Hunter X Hunter… I delved into comedy anime like Baka Test (which I finished reading on Baka-Tsuki), Daily Lives of High School Boys, Seto no Hanayome, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Niichijou… I had even watched Shoujo anime (even though I was not a young girl) like Seitoukaichou wa Maid-sama, Ouran High School Host Club, Kimi ni Todoke and thoroughly enjoyed them.
However, up till that point, watching anime was just an entertainment hobby of mine. Only after I was exposed to Slice of Life anime did my opinion change. I first watched Angel Beats, and when the ending came, I found myself in tears. I was amazed at how a single storyline could affect my emotions that much. Following that, I binged watch several Slice of Life anime. Air, Kanon and so on. One day, at the peak of my obsession, I discovered a little title called Clannad. I soon discovered that it was by the same company that made some of the titles that I'd watched before, so I went into it with some high hopes. And well, season one was touching, but it was well within my expectations, after watching Angel Beats and whatnot. However, Clannad had something that the other titles did not. A second season. Curious, I thought, well why not?
Boy, was I not prepared for that fucking second season… Clannad: After Story destroyed me. If any of you haven't watched it, stop reading this post and go watch it now. I don't care if you drop my story, I'm just content that I had enriched your lives by letting you know how awesome After Story is. For the first time in my life, after watching a series, I felt empty. I felt as if there was an endless void that ripped my heart in half and that feeling lasted for a solid week. Ever heard of feels train? Clannad: After Story is like getting run over by the feels train while the conductor used the feels bat to hit you every single second. So, once I was finished griefing, I thoroughly reflected upon my experience. How could a story, that had no living creatures in any part of its production, tear me into shreds emotionally? Then, I had an epiphany. It was all about the story. You see, all forms of entertainment that I enjoyed, movies, dramas, anime, manga, light novels, video games, they all had one thing in common. They all had a story. It sounds stupid to say, but it was something that my young mind had pieced together. So, a slight flicker of passion started to burn within me. I wanted to write stories that made people feel that way.
As I grew older, I started watching many more mature animes, like Kara no Kyoukai, Death Parade, Death Note that all had a theme of morality behind it. Instead of the emotional train wreck that Clannad had put me through, it made me question the existence of everything, something that very little Hollywood or Chinese/Korean/Japanese drama ever could. Also, let me shout out a little-known anime called "The Legend of the Legendary Heroes." Severely underrated in my opinion and I can't seem to get my friends to start it. Perhaps you guys would after reading through this post. :p
I wanted to be like Maeda Jun (writer of Clannad, Angel Beat and Kanon) and write touching and thought-provoking titles, and what better way than to write a web novel? Naturally, I'm nowhere near the level of Maeda Jun and the folks at Key, but I'm trying my hardest. After all, how could I climb Mount Everest without taking the first step? If I could make you guys feel even a fraction of what I felt after watching Clannad: After Story, then I'm content.
So yeah, before this turns into an anime recommendation section, let's talk about the pacing of the story, which was a significant issue that had been brought up by multiple users. As a novice writer, I'm still trying to figure out when I should speed up the pace and when there should be more exposition. At the start of this novel, I had a more direct 'tell not show' writing style which is something that I am still trying to fix till this day. Furthermore, I feel that my writing has a systematic structure that had been ingrained into me due to my numerous years of schooling and learning how to write reports, essays and whatnot. That's why I have been reading multiple successful author's works, trying to find the best style that fits me. Trust me, I have been researching. I read many successful works and analysed their styles. I took time off going to social events just so that I could read/write more. After all, I want to improve my writing. I want to deliver the awesome story of Spirit Immortal (I'll get to that later) in the best possible writings to you guys. In conclusion, my writing style still is a work in progress, and I hope that you could bear with me as I continue my experimentation.
Okay, now that the soapy stuff is out of the way, let's discuss the actual story. This is something that I don't often do in Author's Thoughts or any comments in general as I am not a good secret keeper. I'm afraid that I might accidentally divulge everything, in an accidental comment or otherwise. So I'll try to be very careful here.
The theme of Act One is family. Or to be more precise, what is a family? This is something that I had deliberated on for years, even before I decided to become an author. In Chinese culture, there is this saying, "Blood is thicker than water." I'm sure many of you who are frequent readers of eastern fantasy have come across this quote. However, one day I asked the question. Is blood really thicker than water? Why is it that just because someone is related to you, they must be closer than anyone else in the world? That's how the idea of the orphans came about. I wanted to explore the relationships between children, who have no clue about whether their related or not, and see whether they can be as close as real family. Furthermore, I wanted to see if the adults that adopted them, in this case, the First Elder, the Instructor, etc. would treat them as if they were their own children. And I tried to show you guys that they genuinely loved for the orphans, albeit in a flawed way.
Let me give another hypothetical example. A child was adopted as a baby by a foster family. The child was loved for, cared for and even treated as the most important family member by those who had no blood relations to him. However, one day, when the baby is grown to be fifteen years of age, the biological mother demands that the foster family hand over the child back to her custody. Is it truly right? If we're going by the doctrine that "Blood is thicker than water," the child should be reunited with his mother. However, she is no longer part of his 'family.' There had been no ties of love, memories shared or anything that could bind the two together. The foster family, which had treated him as their own son, is now his true 'family.' That's why when Shin found out about the truth of the Awter Clan, he didn't go full on rage mode and vow to kill everyone who had the Frie Clan's blood. It was because even though he is the heir of the Awter Clan, in his mind, he had no ties to it.
Junius, on the other hand, is the polar opposite. He loved his family and would do anything in his power to reunite the orphans with their rightful 'family,' those that shared the blood of the Awter Clan. Although his purpose is righteous, his methods are flawed, which led to the unhappy circumstances in 'The Unfulfilled Promise.'
And now… We are finally addressing the elephant in the room. I'm sure many of you who read the last chapter are just dying to wait for me to talk about this. The deaths of Ariel, Lily and Linus.
When I planned out the entire story, this was the turning point of everything. Ariel's death. The promise that had been made in chapter one will forever remain unfulfilled. I had actually run into some issues when I first started to write book four. A problem that no author should have… I didn't want to kill off Ariel. I had grown too attached to her antics, and I wanted Shin and her to remain together and become some sort of power couple. I had even toyed with the idea of re-planning the story from scratch just to keep her alive. However, the more I thought about it, the more it would ruin my beautiful ending. If Ariel lived, the ending wouldn't make any sense. So, I stuck to my guns, and I wrote the initially planned story, as much as I didn't like to. I'm sure that there will be many who will dislike my choice to kill Ariel and might even drop the novel altogether. And that's fine. I can't force you to read my story anyway.
I'm sure you guys can tell that I try my best to avoid the Wuxia/Xianxia cliche storylines that follow the same arc over and over. However, that, in turn, means that my writing style has to flesh out many details so that you guys can follow the story. So bear with me on that. Each Act will follow a theme. For instance, Act One's theme is family and Act Two's theme is… Well, read to find out!
The future of Spirit Immortal is unknown, even to me. I will be starting my internship soon and possibly, a job offer might come. Once I have the job, there would be so much less time for me to write so I don't know if I can continue my daily releases. Especially since I'm not getting paid to write and this is essentially my hobby. However, I promise you this, as long as there are readers, I will continue to write. I just love the story too much to just walk away. I will try to finish the story within two-three years, but as it stands now, I don't know if that's a reasonable estimate. So, who knows what the future would bring?
Alright, I shouldn't talk anymore lest I accidentally leak my entire storyline to you guys. To be honest, I have been dropping many hints about the end of Act One, and I'm sure many of you caught on early. In truth, I had also dropped subtle hints about the final ending in many of the chapters. I wonder if you guys have picked up on some…
If you like the story, feel free to leave a review or a comment in the latest chapter, especially for my readers on Webnovel. I don't get notifications if you post comments on older chapters so I won't be able to respond. Please don't ask questions hinting for spoilers. As I explained earlier, I'm not good at keeping secrets so I will ignore the question altogether.
Thank you for supporting Spirit Immortal! Do leave a comment or review that tells me how you think about the novel! I hope that you have a lovely week ahead! Till next time! :D