Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 239.5 - Authors Note

(dark fiction refers to what we commonly call the evil MC genre)

Someone asked me to recommend a few similar web novels. The longer the better.

Actually, I think there’s a limit to a book. What do I mean? What I mean is that each book comes with a certain amount of novelty.

For example, back then there was Renegade Immortal. 7 million characters. That looked like a lot. But I read about 4 or 5 million and didn’t continue.

There’s also Reverend Insanity, a legend among dark fiction. But after I reached almost 3 million characters, I stopped following.

Of course, part of it is because some of the content is very similar to one another, but I was mostly just tired. I feel that if you write more than 4 million characters, that book is basically dead.

The reason is simple. There are too many loopholes, too many characters. The content becomes repetitive and tiring to read.

Not only is the author tired, but the readers are tired too.

Besides, the authors who can hit this sort of word count are likely to be those who are earning a living off this work.

Take Reverend Insanity for example. For survival, the author had to give in to demands, he had to change his plot along the way, he had to adhere to the national writing standards. And so, he had no choice but to write more and more chapters that didn’t have any substance in it. I’m sure a lot of you could tell. The writing became more and more pointless. Diehard fans, please don’t start railing at me – I’m not mocking him and I’m not despising him. I feel bad for him.

Because writing a book is about writing what is in your heart. But once it’s directly correlated to your survival, then…you will end up making compromises.

We aren’t in the golden era of web novels right now. In fact, it’s the opposite. We’re in a time where web novels are plentiful yet awful.

After someone twisted Battle Through the Heavens, a huge number of novels about some young stupid guy starting as a bum weak-to-strong novels flooded the market.

But I’m sure anyone who read the starting of this book would know that Xiao Yan wasn’t the good for nothing that most of such books start with. He had become one because of that dumbass ring.

However, a lot of novels that wanted to ride on its popularity overlooked this point. They forcibly made the MC a useless bum with no redeeming factors, then added some ridiculous fairy-like beauty who never gave up on him or left his side despite having some fucking incredible background, usually an older sister, a younger sister, a sister-in-law or someone like that.

Also, many people have labeled my book as a transmigration rebirth sort of book. Actually, if you look at the story itself, I would say it is one. But if you’re referring to the characteristics according to the trends in the web novels now, I would say it’s completely different.

The rebirth stories now refer to restarting life by pushing the timeline backward and giving the MC some golden finger of knowing all of history.

The transmigration stories are usually about some system that doesn’t have any originality, something that makes him the god of the world and other heaven defying shit like this. In short, it’s something that will follow the MC for the rest of his life.

At the same time, how these things came to be, where they came from, why the good for nothing was chosen to be the MC etc. are never explained even after you finish reading the entire book.

So, if you compare my book to such books, I don’t think this book falls into the transmigration and rebirth genres. Because firstly, Gu Suihan doesn’t have a gold finger that knows everything about history; secondly, he doesn’t have some beautiful woman by his side from his childhood; and thirdly, there is no system or anything like that.

At most, Gu Suihan is a cultivator who was lucky enough to stay alive, take over another body and restarted his cultivation journey.

Also, there are a lot of people who have certain ideas on how a dark fiction MC should be like.

Actually, do you know what in dark fiction turns readers off the most? It’s when the MC has clearly done something wrong, or done something that is clearly immoral or inhumane. The MC is the one who’s in the wrong, yet the author insists on blaming the other party.

Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say the MC has killed a loving husband and wife purely because they’ve pissed him off. Some authors would push the reason for the wrongdoing to the husband and wife, saying things like “it’s too bad, you pissed off the MC” etc.

The other problem is the matter of intelligence. Those saints, saintesses, elders, emperors, supremes, whatever – somehow they all become idiots when they meet the MC.

This is over exaggerating things.

Nobody is stupid. To put it bluntly, everybody has their own plans on how they want their lives to turn out. Take modern day society for example. When men go after women as an example. If the woman is average in most aspects and looks odd or ugly, then no man would go after her. But if you switch things a little, like if the woman is ugly and fat but her family is rich and powerful, then there would be some who would go after her.

Then if you look at it from the other way, when women go after men. It’s his looks or something about him that would benefit her that would make her go after him. For example, for some women are willing to sleep with directors in order to get a better role or become famous. Or some put in a lot of effort to hook a rich man’s son so as to marry into a wealthy family.

To put it in very realistic terms: if a person doesn’t have any qualities or things that can help the other party to get where they want, then there will not be any relationship issues, conflict of interest and things like that.

Novels are based on real life too. There’s no need to force anybody against the MC to be in the wrong, to be an antagonist, to be hypocritical or have other similar negative traits. And there’s certainly no need to force this person to have a negative IQ.

I believe I’ve mentioned this before. For the sake of getting what he needs, Gu Suihan can be a hero, a noble, righteous, good man. In the same way, for the sake of getting what he needs, he can wipe out cities, annihilate clans and kill as many as he wants.

A lot of people are always so perplexed, wondering how they could make the MC seem indifferent and cold-blooded without killing anyone or doing anything awful.

But look at real life. When an old person falls, most people would just look but few would help the old person. Isn’t that indifference? Being cold-blooded?

You don’t always need to brandish a weapon to show such traits.

I hope that every character in the book will have intelligence.

My standard of writing can’t produce a pretty piece of work. After all, I don’t have a lot of time and energy, and most of all, writing doesn’t bring me any gain.

But like I said in the beginning, if people are reading, then it means that this book is still able to give some people a little happiness and a little joy. That means this book is still worth something. It’s not much, but it’s not zero either, right?

Finally, I have emphasized this many times before. I’ve edited the plot and adjusted several scenes. I’ve deleted at least 40% of what I originally had. For example, typical scenes in other novels like auctions, leveling up in some secret realm, characters being snobbish and pretentious and then getting slapped in the face etc.

If I wrote all of that out and threw in some useless words and stuff, I would be able to hit at least 300 or 400 chapters.

But time and tide waits for no man. I will end classes by the end of the year, start my internship at the beginning of next year, then graduate in May.

That’s why I’m already very tired now that I’ve hit more than 200 chapters. I estimate that at most, at most, the max I’d give myself is 500 or 600 chapters. Then it’ll end.

The ending is something I had conceptualized right from the start and I’ve never changed that.

Even though my standard of writing is limited, I’ll never give in and join those contract writers. Even if something happens in my life and I can’t continue writing, I’ll still write out the final ending. At the very least, my readers won’t be displeased or feel regret and things like that.

Finally, let me recommend a few fairly decent books and throw in some of my thoughts, or should I say, review and opinions.

Fanfiction (The Legend of Qin: Major Antagonist System)

This one isn’t too bad, it adds a few things to the original universe it’s based on and the character building is very well done. The events are getting a bit draggy now, but it’s still considered a pretty good book in general.

Trafford’s Trading Club

The author of this book writes pretty well. He’s like a higher being, looking down at humans and describing the various ways they behave.

Horror Radio, Horror Web Novel

In general, I prefer the second book. But they’re both not bad. The latter is completed while the former is still putting out new chapters.

Strongest Boss System

Predictable system lighthearted novel. The economy system and all that in the novel is a complete mess but the characterization of the MC is well done. But it’s getting more and more tropey now and the IQ levels of the antagonists have gone down.

Reverend Insanity, Aspiring to the Immortal Path etc. I think everyone has read these books so I won’t talk about them. Erpangzi’s books are not bad, but after reading I Shall Seal the Heavens I didn’t read anymore. Comparing Renegade Immortal, Pursuit of the Truth to the more recent A Will Eternal and I Shall Seal the Heavens, the events, setting and general writing of the former titles are way better.

I decided to write this long chapter mostly because I saw some reader comments on the book reading app and wanted to rant a little. Whether you guys read it or not doesn’t matter to me. I’d probably write a new chapter tomorrow. Probably.