Author's diary - 04 - Volumes look back

Spoilers for volumes 01 through 10!!

(Authors' diary chapters are not part of the main story and are not necessary to follow the overall reading experience. This is just the author talking to the readers. Do not read this if you don't want the whole story revealed to you.)

Hey everyone, author of the novel here. I'm currently four chapters into writing volume 11 but I'm currently in the process of moving and finishing some assignments, and since I have this weird obsession of only releasing chapters after the whole volume is done, volume 11 might take a while to come out.

To make up for that, I wanted to make another entry in the diary, haven't done one of those in a while. Btw, let me know if there is anything you would like me to make a diary entry about. I'm thinking about doing a favorite mangas, movies, and series one day. Stuff that I consider to be my favorite inspirations for writing.

So anyway, this time I will be reviewing my volumes, all ten of them. Just a nice look back at what I was feeling when writing these things and how well I felt they came out.

Gonna try not to go too deep into it or we will be here all day.

Volume 1: Looking for the right candidate - The prologue volume of the novel. When I started this novel I only had two ideas in mind, I wanted a character that could become a weapon, and I wanted to have two protagonists, one male and one female. Why? Heck if I know... I'm a weirdo I guess...

Overall I felt this volume was a tad rushed with a lot of things happening too fast and not giving time to sink in. This taught me to try and take things slower in the upcoming volumes.

This is also the one where I just kept throwing darts at a wall and trying to see what would stick. I introduced spirits, dragons, candidates, Ria's ability to turn her hand into claws... And then I barely used most of it cause I got absorbed into other ideas.

I like this volume but I feel it could use a cleanup or two.

Also, my God, writing Marcus was so therapeutic, something about writing people who enjoy life just makes you feel good inside. I love characters like Spider-man or Percy Jackson, people who know how to look at life and go "You know... My life is kind of a pain rn, let me throw a small joke to try and ease it a bit."

Volume 2: The lost girl on a new world - It's the start of Evie's story!!! Oh my Lord, I enjoy writing Evlin so freaking much. I was not expecting to like someone as much as I liked Marceus. At the time all I wanted was a way to connect this volume with the ending of volume 01. At first, I was planning on having Evie join with a party of adventures and one of them would be a mage that would help her reach Marceus.

But then I just kept becoming more and more engrossed in her story until I reached the ending of the volume and was like "oh yeah... Marceus is a thing...". I wasn't expecting my mc to become a mage. I'm sure everyone is sick to death of hearing the words "You see... Magic is not really magic... It's just blah blah blah..." But I couldn't help it. I had no idea how to explain magic when I started and all I could think of was "Why do mages use wands and staffs??".

I was so proud of myself going "Aha!! I figured out a brilliant explanation for how magic works!!" and then my friend came to me and said "Dude... Harry Potter did that years ago..." and I was like "F***k!!".

The funny thing is I had watched HP as a kid but the scene with the ogre in the bathroom and the guy with a face behind his head scared me so much that I completely erased how the plot of that movie worked from my brain. (And before anyone goes "You should read the books!!" I don't care... I did not enjoy this world at all... They make a magic world look like the worst thing that could happen to you... The only movie I liked was the fourth, cause it was the only one where it felt like they were trying to pass magic as something fun.)

Anyway, where was I...? Oh right!!

Volume 3: Let the games begin! - This is the Evlin vs Xadi volume. Something that I started doing on volume 02 and kept doing it in here is the concept of build-up. I basically start the volume saying that Evlin and this random guy are going to fight. And the whole volume is just build-up to that moment.

Evlin being afraid of the guy, thinking of what she could lose if she wasn't strong enough to beat him, trying to find ways to gain more power to face the dude, strengthening her bond with Ashley, all while you (the reader) have an alarm (me) going on your brain screaming "These two are going to fight! These two are going to fight!".

This is basically how my whole novel works. I tell the reader "This is what we are doing next." and then just try to build-up the momentum while we try to reach that destination.

Volume 4: Where to next? - This is where Evie and Daren finally join their stories. The first thing that came to my mind was "What do I do with these people when they talk?". I legit had no idea. Do they get along well, do they not get along well? What would be more interesting to see? And why?

So I just went... Screw it... I wanna see Evie fight Daren, that sounds like it could be fun to write. And they do, and that led to what's still my all-time favorite chapter "Fragile Heart".

Basically, after breaking this family in the first half of the volume, the second half is about trying to put it together.

But then I remembered "Oh yeah... The volume is ending... I need a climax..." which lead to the creation of the demon-slayers coming absolutely out of nowhere, lasting 3 chapters, and then just vanishing until two volumes later. I need to start planning these things better...

Volume 5: The longest night - The one where Marcus just wipes the floor with the cast. I've had this idea for ages. The guy that the heroes were looking for all this time turning out to be one of their major new enemies and just demolishing them. This was all I wanted to do at the time

But then I also introduced Mia, cause I needed Marcus to have a partner (Cause I think my heart will stop working if I don't give people partners, I don't know why... I have an obsession with partners, time skips, and gravity... The gravity one, in particular, is very bizarre, not gonna lie...), and then I just imagined "Wouldn't it be fun if she was Ria's sister?".

And then we had the whole thing with West, the whole thing with the god's competition, somehow I decided to also insert a marriage proposal, I don't know why, I love a good romance but I suck at writing those.

As I keep writing ideas just start coming out of nowhere and I just keep going "Would this be interesting? Would this work? Would this be fun?".

Volume 6: Whispers of death - The start of the demon kingdom saga (OMG, this freaking saga lasted 5 volumes!!!). This is where I started to try going into a slightly darker direction. Not too dark of course (the demon lord is called "Chuck" for crying out loud...).

During this time I kinda realized I haven't been doing too much with Gustav and decided to give him a major role by making him patch things up with Evie and becoming close friends with her.

But them I remembered "Wait... If Evie and Gus start getting closer... What happens to Ashley??". Then I remembered that I had this idea where the cast would use the power of recreation to become monsters and blend into the demon kingdom and started to wonder "What if one of the characters started to get possessed by its monster...?". But the more I thought about it the more I realized it wouldn't make sense, after all, Evie turns into a monster all the time.

And then it hit me...

What if it wasn't a monster... what if it was a demon!!

What's the difference?

One starts with "M" and the other starts with "D".

Brilliant!!! 5 stars!! Author of the year right here everyone!!! Applause, applause!!

So the rest of the volume became Gus and Evie becoming closer while Ash would start feeling left out. And who would come to her aid? Drya!! My favorite villain. This all leads to the next volume...

Volume 7: Inner demons - This is where I take two massive risks.

One, I benched Evie. I wanted to try and build up her heroic entrance as well as trying to give a bit more focus to the rest of the cast.

Two, I turn Ashley into a jerk. This was very, very, VERY, tricky to do, cause if I made her too unlikeable I could ruin this character forever. Having heroes doing bad things is always tricky because, while we don't want them to be absolutely perfect, we still want someone likable to follow.

I needed to make sure I could express why Ash was doing the things she was doing, as well as trying to place part of the blame on the demon in her mind.

This lead to some really fun interaction where the girl just kept roasting everyone all the time to gain power from their suffering (Btw... "Your suffering gives me power" should be the tagline of this novel XD).

We also had Evie chatting with all the gods, which resulted in one of the best chapters ever where she just faces off with East for the first time, and they both realize that there is absolutely no reason for them to be fighting, but they still decide to fight just cause they can't stand each other.

We also have the introduction of the superweapon. A concept that had also been on my mind for a while. Again, letting the reader know what's gonna happen and then just try and build up to that moment.

Building up for Ashley becoming evil, building up Evlin returning, building up for the superweapon. Build-up, build-up, buld-up, I love build-up.

Build-up is like the anti-exposition to me.

Exposition is about shoving tons of information down the reader's throat so he can enjoy how "Rich, and deep, and detailed your world is."

Buil-up is about letting the reader know just enough, just a little bit so that he will want to see more of things to come.

One is about revealing the whole picture, another is about showing a small piece of the picture so the reader will want to see the rest.

Volume 8: The king of hatred - This is it, guys!! The one, the only, the legend, CHUCK!!! The major bad guy of this saga is finally revealed, and just like me, he is an absolute dork.

I love the idea of this massive figure of evil and destruction being just a guy with a silly name that just wants to laze around. It just kills me, God I'm so childish...

Anyway, this is the volume where we finally, FINALLY, reach the demon kingdom. And once again, we get more set-up and build-up for the big battle that is about to come.

And when I say set-up, I do mean set-up, cause my God, there were so many things that I had to solve in this volume.

I had to establish why Chuck's sword was such a big deal. Why Ashley was still in the demon's body. How Evie would get new powers in the war. Why Lilith and Daren had to be separated from the rest of the group. What was Chuck's and Drya's big goals.

I needed to clear this all up so that when the fight started we could just focus on the fight. I felt like someone about to go on a travel packing up my bags in a rush so I can just enjoy the ride.

I felt like I did a good job overall.

One small detail is that I try to insert a rescue mission with Daren and Lilith to go after Ashley. But midway through I realized that the mission was too boring, easy, and fast. The just entered the castle and face Drya.

To fix that I removed the second half of the chapter and split it into two. Then I filled up the first chapter with a small backstory for Evie and Ashley, and the second with a challenge for Lilith and Daren to explore her hate for demons.

I guess this was basically filler, but it was filler that further developed their characters a bit I felt.

Volume 9: Pieces set in motion - The start of the war. Going into this I was terrified cause I had no idea how to write wars. I was afraid that it could get too chaotic at points with the perspective changing all the time from character to character.

The highlight for me was the fight with Ria, Auren, Mia, and Marcus. I love this idea of ultimate sword vs. ultimate shield.

We also had a final goodbye with Xadi. Xadi was a character that I wasn't that attached to, to be honest. He was just a jerk that was fun to write, but even I felt like I probably should have done more with him. I guess this would be my one regret...

And also we finally had Evlin waking up and drop-kicking Mia in the face. For those who read Konosuba, this is a reference to my all-time favorite scene in that novel. Yeah, you know which one I'm talking about.

Volume 10: Gambit of the found girl - I love this volume. This is the big climax of the saga. The only thing I adore more than build-up is the pay-off. Everything lead to this volume. The demons, the gods, the warriors, the ice-cream (What the hell is my obsession with ice-cream??? Why do I keep using this joke?? Why do I keep finding out so many bizarre obsessions with the weirdest things as I write this novel??), the whole thing comes into a clash in this volume.

We finally have the rematch with Evie and Marcus that I've been wanting to do for ages. Also, we have the whole team fighting with Chuck while Ashley is leading them, as well a closure to the way she treated them so badly, all building up to chapter 100 which I tried so freaking hard to make it match the name of the novel (Yes!! I try to build things up even in the middle of the pay-off!!).

We also have the demon leader chanting in rhymes, which was something I've been wanting to do ever since I saw the novel "World of heroes" doing a chapter where characters keep saying "Listen to the sound of my voice...". I just saw that and was like "Dang, that sounds cool! I wonder if I can insert that in my story as well...". Then I remembered the sick scene from Hellsing abridged where Alucard "goes for a walk", as well as the scene from the Danny Phantom cartoon where the ghost knight traps his whole city into the some ghost barrier and starts chanting about how they have 24 hours to deliver the ring to the ghost ring.

I kept pilling up these ideas and references and just went "Aaaahhh!!! I want a cool chanting for my villains!!", which lead to the "Night falls during your call" chant. It's kinda corny, but I liked it.

Oh yeah, also Evie became a living weapon and fought a giant dragon, but pfft... who wants to hear about that right?

Which leads us to the present volume where we are finally back at the real world.

I always wondered during isekai stories, what would happen if/after the mc returns home. I think the only reference I have is Digimon of all things... And even then I just remember them returning for a bit, just so they would go back later... I don't know... I think our own world is kind of a cool place to explore as well, right guys? ... Right?

Anyway... Sorry for wasting your time... This felt less like reviews and more like me just going "Man... Remember when we did that?".

I guess its kinda hard to review my own work cause I kinda want people to have their own conclusions at the end of the day. I just hope you are enjoying it so far.

I know I am.