Magic sword academy!
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door of Li Xiaoci's house. She quickly put on a dark-colored tracksuit and ran to open it.
And then...
She saw a beautiful young lady in her early twenties standing at her doorstep.
Chen Yulan, the editor-in-charge of the Light Literature Publishing House and also Li Xiaoci's editor, was young and attractive. She had just graduated from college and was a bubbly and lively college student.
If the memories of two lifetimes were added together, Li Xiaoci's mental age would be enough to be her godmother. But for now, based on Li Xiaoci's appearance as a junior high school girl, she had to treat her as an older sister.
"Teacher Mo, how's the new book coming along?" Chen Yulan asked.
As she spoke, she naturally walked in and then looked at Li Xiaoci with an imposing gaze.
"Oh...it seems...I haven't written much yet..." Li Xiaoci whispered.
"Then how about the outline? Show me the outline first." Chen Yulan said.
"Cough...what I meant was, I haven't written much of the outline yet."
"Then show me what you've written so far." Chen Yulan said helplessly.
"..." Li Xiaoci.
"It's been a month, Teacher Mo, and you haven't even started writing the outline?" Chen Yulan realized and glared at her.
So...
Li Xiaoci silently shifted her gaze elsewhere.
She had just crossed over, and the outline of her new book had not been touched for over a month. Could this be blamed on her? No, it wasn't her fault!
"Mo Shao... can't you have some ambition? How can someone who writes novels be so lazy?" Chen Yulan was so angry that she wanted to wring Li Xiaoci's neck. "Don't tell me that all you've done this month is play games."
"Wow, how did you know?!"
"What are you so happy about?" Chen Yulan angrily reached out and started messing up Li Xiaoci's hair, like a bear child, then sighed. "I was just passing by your door, and I thought I'd ask, but you really didn't disappoint me."
"Of course not, of course not," Li Xiaoci nodded repeatedly.
"I'm not praising you!!!" Chen Yulan gritted her teeth. "The deadline for the Light Novel Award is at the end of this month. If you don't participate in the next half month, you won't be able to participate at all."
The Light Novel Award was a writing competition held by the Light Novel Publishing House. Anyone could participate, and the top three winners would not only receive a large cash prize, but also have their work published in print. More importantly, the Light Novel Award was more prestigious than the monthly "Monthly Award" for debut light novelists. Often, new writers who won the Light Novel Award became popular authors overnight, with more prestige than third-rate light novelists like Li Xiaoci. Therefore, many established authors also submitted their works to the competition to boost their fame.
"Okay, okay, I know," Li Xiaoci said dismissively, waving her hand.
After Chen Yulan left...
Li Xiaoci finally started to seriously consider her new book. Obviously, her primary writer's skill card inherited the ability of her predecessor, and she needed to rely on this to gain her first bucket of reputation.
In fact, with her basic writing skills, it wasn't difficult for her to write a novel.
The difficult part was how to win a top three spot in the Light Novel Award.
She had heard that many well-known light novelists were participating in this competition. These were authors who had already debuted before the end of the Third World War, and were absolute veterans in the industry. Compared to these giants, Li Xiaoci was not very confident.
Currently, she was only a third-rate light novel author.
But!
She also had a trump card!
Although technology was more advanced due to the war, the development of the entertainment industry in light novels was still in its infancy. The feeling of reading a light novel was similar to that of traditional literature, which was described as "easy-to-read novels," but often wasn't easy to read and was heavily themed around war.
As a transmigrator, she had a lot of knowledge of the cliches in light novels. In this early stage of the industry when these cliches were not yet overused, using those tropes that had been overused in her past life was like being the first person to eat crabs or drink milk – she could take the lead and stand out.
Why can IS become a masterpiece in animation? Why can Doupo Cangqiong become a god-level web novel?
It's because people were not familiar with these tropes at that time!
Therefore...
Li Xiaoci opened up her Word document and decided on a title.
The trope she's going to use is the common academy trope, which is quite representative, like IS, Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, and Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan, where the male lead enters the academy, encounters various misunderstandings and starts interacting with the heroine, like walking in on the female lead taking a bath or something. Then, he'll act cool and try to win over various girls with different attributes.
In the animation industry of her past life, this type of light novel was synonymous with trashy adaptations and clichés.
But!
Now, she's using this new formula just like writing Xiao Yan in the webnovel community back in 2005, and it still works great!
So...
Li Xiaoci slapped her thigh!
The title will be called "Magic Sword Academy"!
This name will definitely become a cliche in the future, but in the current industry, light novel titles are pretty profound. Of course, we're talking about genuine meanings of profound, not the kind of hehehe meanings. In this industry, a straightforward title like "Magic Sword Academy" stands out more.
As for the name of the male lead...
It's actually pretty easy to decide.
First of all, it's best to pick a surname from Ye, Su, Xiao, or Lin. These surnames will definitely become cliche in the future, but they're still quite popular now. As for the "given name," it must have the word "Fan." Without this word, how can we reflect the protagonist's seemingly unremarkable appearance?
Alright, decided. The name will be Su Fan!
Regardless of whether this name will become cliche in the future, it's still quite adorable and can be considered leading the trend of the times.
Next, we need to decide on the female character's settings.
The characteristic of light novels is that they sell character design, and the lovable and cute female character setting has completely become the "core" of a light novel. If web novels are driven by characters, then light novels are driven by plot to shape characters. It can be said that as long as there are cute girls, otakus will definitely buy it.
However, because the requirement for the Light Novel Grand Prize submission is more than 100,000 words, there is currently no need to arrange too many harem characters, so let's decide on two for now.
As Li Xiaoci typed on the keyboard, she had a serious and cute expression.
This was her first time, whether as a boy or a girl, how could she not be nervous on her first time!
In any case, she cannot afford to make any mistakes!
First of all!
The first harem member!
Let's call her "Sophia". For her setting, she will have blonde twin-tails, be a genius girl from the Magic Sword Academy, and have a European royal bloodline. It would be even better if she had a small bust, after all, since ancient times, tsundere girls are usually flat-chested.
The first tsundere girl character setting is complete, and then it's time to move on to the second harem member.
Let's give her a Sakura province and tribe bloodline and call her "Hoshino Jyunna". In terms of her setting, she will be a black-haired three-nothing girl, a senior student at the academy, and her chest size is about the same as Li Xiaoci's, which is a C cup. It would be best if she is also one of the academy's top geniuses and has a flaw that complements the male protagonist.
Like traditional literature, light novels nowadays are not "light" at all. The cute attributes such as tsundere and three-nothing that can touch the hearts of fat otakus are unheard of.
Since Li Xiaoci only has the basic writer's skill card, she cannot shape "Sophia" and "Hoshino Jyunna" as deeply as Sugisaki Yukiru did with Erii Usami in "Dragon Girl", but that's already enough!
...
When Li Xiaoci finished outlining the first volume, it was already pitch black outside.
Gotta say, writing an outline is a really difficult task.
Back when Li Xiaoci was a 25-year-old single otaku, she used to envy web novelists and light novel authors, imagining how great it would be to become an author herself. She would write novels every day, play games, and engage in self-care, living a carefree life!
But now that she's actually writing, even just the outline, her enthusiasm has quickly died down.
Can you believe it? She spent four hours racking her brain to come up with a hundred-thousand-word outline and synopsis, and even then, it was just a cookie-cutter plot! This isn't the glamorous life she imagined, with all the daily pampering and sugar babies. Just writing an outline and synopsis is exhausting!
And then...
Li Xiaoci suddenly realized that after finishing the outline and synopsis, her primary author skill card had undergone some changes.
"Author (Primary): 14/10000"
It seems that even without relying on reputation points, she can still gain experience through practice?
She saved the outline and synopsis, yawned, and lay down on her bed like a salted fish. But she couldn't shake off her anxiety. She was confident in the formulaic nature of her story, after all, what's a formula without manipulating the reader's emotions? However, the Light Novel Grand Prize, hosted by the Light Literature Publishing House, isn't decided by readers or the market, but rather by the opinions of the editors themselves.
In other words!
If the editorial department doesn't think her work is good enough, she might not even get published!
Not to mention she only has a primary author skill card, her writing skills are just average at best. She can't even sell her words or show off her eloquence. In terms of writing, she has no shining points and even an ordinary light novel writer would have better skills.
Although!
She is convinced that this work, written with her experience from a past life, can definitely scam some money from otakus. But can it move the editors?
Honestly, it's a bit of a gamble.