Novelist Running Through Time - Chapter 71

TL: KSD

Can One Teach Writing?

Can one person teach another how to write?

My answer is “no.”

That’s because a novel is an object that projects the humanity of its author onto paper. The only way to explain what a certain novel is, is through its title alone.

So, one person can’t teach another how to write.

Writing comes from within oneself.

That’s my principle.

However, just as Gu Hak-jun once did to me, it’s possible to teach how to observe and extract the writing hidden deep within one’s heart. And also how to refine it to suit the taste of the masses.

-Moon.

The voice of a mentor from my memories brushes past.

-“The masses,” “the readers,” are not entities with substance but rather a collection of the tastes of a non-specific majority, responsible for the demand of cultural product content. Moreover, the tastes of the masses change with the trends. Identifying that is a very difficult task. However, there is a place where the current tastes of the masses are distinctly manifested.

-Where is that, professor?

-The cinema.

Alright. Let’s start with that then.

Sneaking a glance at Gu Yu-na, she still looks like a cat that’s been stroked the wrong way, clutching her laptop and wary of me. It’s just fanfic, no need to be so shy.

“Yu-na.”

“…What.”

“How about we go to the cinema?”

“…!!!”

For some reason, Min Sunbae, who was playing mobile games in the corner of the club room, dropped his phone with a thud.

Side EP–Automaton Murder Case

“How was it? Did you enjoy it?”

“Uh, umm….”

Gu Yu-na, whom I met over the weekend, was unusually dressed in casual clothes.

But talking about Gu Yu-na’s casual wear means a hoodie with a yellow furry creature on it. It used to be so suffocating to see her wearing only that in the past. It’s a waste of appearance not to mention it doesn’t even match.

Seeing the young Gu Yu-na wearing that hoodie, however, I think I understand why she was so attached to this piece of clothing.

The sleeves longer than her wrists made the outfit dangle loosely, her adorable head fully encased in the oversized hood, and hair sticking out towards her shoulders.

Truly the pinnacle of fashion!

(For this age group only)

“Stop right there.”

“…!”

Click. I captured a photo of Gu Yu-na on my phone and prepared for the next schedule at the ticket counter.

Just then, Gu Yu-na hesitates a bit before asking me what we’re doing next.

“Are, are we going to eat now?”

“No. We watched the first-ranked movie, now it’s time for the second-ranked one.”

“…?”

“Popcorn and butter-grilled squid are enough for a meal, right?”

Without hesitation, I booked tickets for the movie currently ranked second in the box office. Then, with a dazed Gu Yu-na in tow, we made our re-entry into the cinema.

To fully grasp the fragmented needs of the masses, one movie is not enough. We must at least check out the top 5 in the box office.

That’s what being ‘major’ means.

After a whirlwind binge-watching of movies, it’s suddenly evening.

Feeding hamburgers and fries to a wilted Gu Yu-na brought back her vitality.

A minor incident occurred when an overly revitalized Gu Yu-na attempted to pinch my side in her frenzy, but regardless, it’s time to reap today’s fruits.

“What do you think is the commonality among the movies we watched today?”

“What?”

“According to you, Yu-na, what’s the common theme among the top 1 to 5 movies in the box office?”

People are taken aback by such sudden questions.

There are two reasons for this.

First, they can’t identify any commonalities, and second, even if they can, it’s difficult to articulate them in refined language instantly.

These are matters of thinking and vocabulary.

And they are the most basic skills required to write a novel.

However, Gu Yu-na lacks affinity (and ethics, conscience, empathy, consideration, and sociability), not thinking or vocabulary skills.

She is the daughter of Gu Hak-jun.

“…Good versus evil? Rather than that, it’s more about the protagonist defeating something. There’s an adversary, and they’re defeated. The process emphasizes action, and it doesn’t stray far from the protagonist-helper-adversary structure. The protagonist gets entangled in an incident due to a special occasion, defeats the adversary, and gains a treasure? A reward? A fruit of their efforts….”

“Good.”

Gu Yu-na managed to somewhat approach the essence on her own power.

Now, it’s just a matter of slowly connecting those dots for her.

“Everything you just mentioned, you learned it in school, right? Plot and story, the basic structure of a story, you learned it there.”

“Um….”

“Do you think the movies you watched deviate much from that basic structure?”

“…No?”

“Right?”

The most beloved stories among the masses are not the ones with fancy variations and techniques added.

The most beloved stories are those that remain true to the basics.

Of course, adding variations to the story is not harmful. Every character being evil in a picaresque shows what a bloodstained mud pit looks like, and movies that break away from the introduction-development-turn-conclusion structure to focus on depicting leisurely daily life show the greatness of the mundane.

But can that satisfy everyone?

If asked, the answer is ‘NO.’

In the end, if we examine the meaning of popular works, stories must statistically flow in a certain way.

Works that satisfy a specific taste 100% receive love from a niche, and works that satisfy everyone’s taste by 70% receive love from all.

Thus, popular works are true to their roots.

Sticking to the basics is essential for creating popular works.

“Do you understand up to here?”

“…Yes!”

Gu Yu-na was looking at me as if she would believe anything I said, with sparkling eyes so adorable that I took another photo of her.

I probably looked like that too when I first attended Professor Gu Hak-jun’s class. I swallowed the past that had turned into a bitter memory and moved on to the next lesson.

Stick to the basics.

Although this is what the teachers at Baekhak Arts Middle School always say, Gu Yu-na has only now accepted this fact. The teachers would probably feel wronged. They’d wonder why she wouldn’t listen when they spoke but would listen when Author Moon did.

But the enlightenment gained after directly facing the tastes of the masses for 10 hours inherently comes with a difference in intensity.

Gu Yu-na is currently, after being immersed for more than 10 hours in the world of creative works crafted by hundreds of experts, barely returning to reality.

Before that inspiration fades, I need to elevate Gu Yu-na’s inspiration to a higher level once more.

“Alright! What’s the basis of a story? Introduction, development, turn, conclusion? Effort and reward? Characters, events, setting? The protagonist meets a helper, defeats an adversary, and receives a reward? It’s actually impossible to explain with words. But Yu-na, you already know. You’ve seen it for 10 hours. The well-selling stories share a common thread.”

“Um….”

Gu Yu-na’s blurry eyes seemed almost hypnotized. It’s true. Her gaze was not on me but on the world of stories and plots.

I clearly pointed out what her gaze should find next.

“Yu-na, now within the basic structure of a story, try to find elements like those of a ‘detective story.’”

“…What?”

“I mean, look for scenes like Sherlock Holmes. Where the detective finds the criminal, the truth of the case is revealed, and a twist that starts with a minor foreshadowing shocks everyone, adorning the conclusion of the drama…. Those kinds of elements of a detective story.”

The movies ranked from first to fifth in the box office had different themes and genres altogether.

Marvel superhero movies, local crime investigations, Japanese animations, Hollywood blockbusters, and so on.

However, if you look for ‘detective story’ elements within them, you’ll find endlessly detective story-like elements.

The hero tracking down the villain’s evil deeds becomes a detective in their own right. It goes without saying for crime thrillers, direct descendants of detective stories. The foreshadowing-twist structure, which was the identity of detective stories, is widely used across genres, and the Hollywood villain confessing their sins at the end is a self-portrait of a criminal confessing their crime trick.

It was inevitable.

Detective stories and novels dominated modern literature.

And literature was the mainstream culture of the modern era.

Meaning, contemporary culture, built on the soil of modern culture, naturally had to incorporate elements of detective stories!

In the modern era, dubbed the dark ages of mystery novels, detective stories did not die.

Instead, they received so much spotlight that they merged and mixed with all cultures.

In other words, the genre of detective stories is not something that needs to adhere to the basics of storytelling; it is the basics itself.

While romance, the origin of all novels, might have a slightly lower foundational strength, detective stories have their own ‘foundation.’

“Do you want to… control that foundation?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Then you are a detective story writer.”

I remember.

The mystery novel’s supernova, Gu Yu-na, who independently published and sold 300,000 copies on her own to avoid the disgrace of rushing into contracts with publishers eager for her father’s name.

* * *

Though I pushed Gu Yu-na’s back with a motivation that no YouTube motivational video could match, it was impossible for a detective story, or any novel, to magically appear overnight.

Especially since Gu Yu-na was serializing “Demonic Sword~nim, please control me!” at the time.

The day Min Sunbae wrote “Demonic Sword” because Gu Yu-na was too tired, the novel’s quality plummeted, and after 287 comments complained, Gu Yu-na became the main writer of “Demonic Sword.”

However, since Gu Yu-na started writing a detective story, it was only natural for me to take over the baton.

Since we were all plotting the story together, taking over “Demonic Sword” wasn’t too difficult for me.

While writing the scene where Josef, now the master of the Demonic sword, returns to the academy and causes trouble, changing his homeroom teacher for the fourth time,

I received an urgent call from Lim Yang-wook.

I answered the phone, wedging it between my shoulder and ear without stopping the relentless sound of the keyboard.

“Yes, hello.”

-Yo, In-seop!

“What’s up.”

-Are you busy?!

“No.”

-Then come to the office!

“Why.”

-There’s a drama proposal for “Guitar”!

Upon hearing the news of “Guitar” being turned into a drama, I immediately caught a taxi to the Baekhak Entertainment office.

Unfortunately, Baek Seol, who always warmly greeted me at the entrance, had left for the headquarters, but Lim Yang-wook rushed out barefoot to welcome me.

“You’re here!”

“Are you making ‘Guitar’ into a drama? It won’t be easy…”

Handing me a Choco Pie from the supply room, Lim Yang-wook led me to the meeting room.

Lim Yang-wook, brimming with excitement, explained with a grin. His explanation was only seven letters long but had significant impact.

“It’s terrestrial. NBC.”

Having appeared on BMB entertainment shows a few times, I was familiar with the broadcasting world, but if you compare the weight of terrestrial broadcasts to BMB, there’s a bit of a gap.

My work being aired as a drama on a terrestrial broadcast station…

It was a strangely new and pleasantly tense feeling. Of course, I wasn’t as thrilled as Lim Yang-wook, but still. That drama would be the production team’s work, not mine.

“But, is it okay?”

“What is.”

“I mean… ‘Guitar’ doesn’t seem like a terrestrial drama style, does it?”

Even though I’m not an expert on broadcasting, I understand the difference between cable and terrestrial dramas, not because I’m well-versed in drama, but because of jokes I’ve heard online.

Koreans, who love terrestrial dramas the most yet also hate them the most, often joke about overlaying any decent content with the style of a terrestrial drama when something good comes out.

Inserting indirect advertisements for Korean red ginseng in serious scenes or slapping someone with kimchi, as it were.

As seen in this joke, in terrestrial dramas that inevitably follow stereotyped stories and cannot escape the influence of advertising capital…

A story where two kids wander through the city’s light and darkness, directly confronting the raw face of society?

Moreover, a scene where the protagonist’s mother (a minor) dies from the very start of the story due to running away from home?

Even cable TV would say crossing the line, so it was hard to believe that a terrestrial broadcaster would make this into a drama.

Expressing such concerns, Lim Yang-wook said,

“Well… There will be some adaptations, of course. Since it’s not confirmed yet, don’t worry too much about it.”

“It’s not confirmed?”

“Yeah. The broadcasting station wanted to see you? Specifically, the drama writer in charge of the adaptation.”

Lim Song-i. It was a name I was hearing for the first time. Well, I wasn’t familiar with the drama scene.

And hearing that I had to meet someone I’d never met before made me a bit reluctant.

Even if “Guitar” were to be turned into a drama, it wouldn’t be my work but the work of those who made it, so I wondered if there was really a need to meet.

However, Lim Yang-wook’s words made me think differently.

“The person mainly writes in the mystery genre. You’ve probably heard of them?”

The names of the representative works that Lim Yang-wook listed were familiar to my ears.

Indeed, they were works that even someone as uninformed as me would know.

After a moment of hesitation, I cautiously asked Lim Yang-wook.

“…Can I bring a friend along?”

“Who is it?”

“A well-behaved friend.”

*****

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