End - Vol 1
Hi guys.
As you can see, the first volume is over and with that I think it's time for a few words.
As you all may know (at least those who read the fanfic description), this is my first time writing a story, so I have no experience, I'm a NOVICE, if I were asked to write a report or a thesis I'm more than qualified for it, but from what I learned while writing this volume, they are completely different things, writing a story is more difficult in my opinion, since it seeks to convey feelings, it was in that aspect where I think I falter quite a bit.
I can honestly say that this fanfic got out of hand, I had several ideas regarding how the story would develop, but events occurred that triggered things I hadn't anticipated, since I'm admitting my mistakes, I decided to write this so I could compare what my original ideas were and how it all turned out, you can affirm or dismiss as you wish in the comments.
1. MC
Expectation:
Originally, I sought to create an MC that moved away a bit from the clichés in Isekai, so it should not be a student inexperienced in society, with idealistic ideas or a sense of justice, nor should it be an adult tired of the state of his current life and who wanted to correct his regrets in a new life as is the case of Tensura, so Kai was born, an adult who although he had difficult moments in his life, overcame them and had hope in life, someone who would miss his lost life, but who had the necessary maturity to know that he should give priority to his survival, as an extra, I wanted my MC to be someone behind the scenes, similar to how Shadow in The Eminence in Shadow dreamed of being an eminence of the shadows.
Reality:
I didn't know how to properly manage his development of both his strength and his emotions, in terms of strength I would say that I could have given him more adventures in the forest, something like jungle survival, but it got out of hand, I raised it too quickly to how I wanted it to develop, on the side of his emotions, many might have found it abrupt that he expressed his emotions in specific chapters, it is because I didn't know how to develop it, perhaps if I had added subtle emotional details during each chapter it wouldn't seem so strange when it is sentimental.
Comments:
Maybe because I didn't specify the MC's character from the beginning, added to the fact that I didn't want to reveal everything about his unique ability from the beginning, several people wanted the MC to constantly fight on the edge of life in order to quickly increase his strength, NO, that was never my intention, my MC is not a reckless guy, you can call him paranoid, but I would say that he is cautious, because no matter how strong someone is, a carelessness can be fatal , that could be seen in his first battle with the horned rabbit.
2. Unique Skill Adaptable
Expectation:
The skill was meant to function as a support skill, helping him quickly adapt to his situation in his new environment, and allowing him to survive long enough.
Reality:
In my opinion I kept her at bay pretty well, sure, Kai uses his self-regeneration quite a bit, but as for his resistances I didn't make it so easy for him, for each resistance he had to make a hard effort to acquire them.
Comments:
I originally gave him the adaptive ability not to work as a power trigger, but as an insurance for him to survive, it was my response to not wanting the plot to have to constantly align so that a guy with no battle expertise would face monsters accustomed to killing, since it was within the rules that when reincarnated in the Cardinal world one always gets a unique skill, I gave him one that no matter how much trouble he got into he could get out alive although not in the best conditions, of course, as long as he didn't mess with beings much stronger than him.
3. Antagonist
Expectation:
I had originally planned that throughout his adventure he would encounter some antagonists to offer Kai growth, both in strength and psychologically.
Reality:
By not properly managing Kai's strength, the antagonists he had planned did not pose a serious threat to Kai.
Comments:
The Hobgoblin boss was the first of them, but as they could see, with Kai's stealth skill, he was no longer a challenge for him, the same happened with the others he had planned, it was only Shadow panther as the last antagonist of the forest he had planned that could face him.
4. Mira
Expectation:
Shadow panther a simple antagonist that Kai had to overcome.
Reality:
She ended up becoming Kai's partner/partner.
Comments:
When I created the character I only planned for him to be an obstacle, but when I started writing Mira's motivations, I ended up liking the character, I didn't want to waste him as just any NPC, so I wanted to incorporate him into Kai's group, I can say that it was because of that sudden idea on my part that more problems were unleashed later.
5. The Plot.
Expectation:
Volume 1 was intended to focus on "FEAR," whether it was Kai's fear of an unfamiliar environment, the fear of perishing and not having another chance, the fear of facing beings he knew he couldn't resist, like Guy Crimson.
Reality:
For many, he was a coward or an uncontrolled paranoid.
Comments:
As I already mentioned, I didn't know how to manage Kai's emotions, coupled with his careful personality, it was annoying for some of you, perhaps due to the existence of the Adaptable skill, several thought that Kai would be a guy who would constantly look for life or death fights to promote the skill and quickly become OP, NO, this is not a One Piece fanfic , where it is essential to do that for your Haki to become stronger, this is a Tensura fanfic and since the Prologue chapter I mentioned that I did not like OP characters and in Author's Notes I later told you that I did not have the confidence to create an interesting story where the MC becomes OP too quickly.
And realistically, fighting on the brink of death is something I find very absurd, at least in Kai's case, if I wanted to make him OP quickly I would simply send him to look for extreme environments so that he can adapt in a systematic and controlled way to all types of damage, in addition to clusters of magicules concentrated enough to trigger his evolution quickly, all this without needing to expose himself to the possibility of death, as was his case when acquiring resistance to magic .
It was because I didn't want him to get strong too quickly that I tried to stop him from learning space magic (although it's already difficult without a teacher, mention a space magic user in the main work who doesn't have at least the strength of a Demon Lord seed or who isn't part of a Demon Lord faction), because I didn't want him to be able to move around too fast, that's why I shot myself in the foot when I gave him Shadow Movement , at that time I was excited about the addition of Mira, that I didn't see the problems that giving him such a skill would bring me.
A question would be from me to all those who want Kai to become OP as quickly as possible, perhaps by evolving or with an AI like Great Sage .
Honestly, What do you want the fanfic to be about once Kai becomes OP?
Explore the world
It is possible, but it quickly becomes boring, at least in my opinion.
Creation of kingdom
Actually, if we pay attention to the original work, all the strongest guys in the world ended up doing that very thing so as not to get bored, they got to the point where anything they found even slightly interesting they accepted fanatically, that's why Rimuru was able to become friends with them, because they wanted the new things he created.
But that's what we have the original story for. I don't give myself airs of being able to create a better kingdom construction than the author of Tensura. His entire story revolves around kingdom construction. Sure, I can create a faction, but with what objective?
All those who rule in Tensura do so to protect their respective races, Kai being someone who does not have high ideals of protecting those in need, I do not see it necessary for him to establish a kingdom, at most an organization where the members are his subordinates.
Participate in canon events
Definitely not, since I started this fanfic I wanted to have minimal contact with the canon.
Because I'm already tired of the same events, Rimuru creates a monster kingdom, then they attack it, kill its citizens, he fights back, kills an army, becomes Demon Lord, resurrects its citizens, becomes an ally of Dwargo and Sarion, tries to be friendly with humans, humans conspire against him in the shadows, Eastern Empire attacks, World War, etc.
I've read too many Tensura fanfics like this already and most of the authors didn't finish them.
I don't have confidence in recreating the personalities and way of thinking of the characters from the original story, so that they don't seem like they are other people, which is why I didn't want Kai to interact with such characters.
6. Fights
Expectation:
An intricate choreography of attacks and dodges, where the slightest mistake will lead to losing, where cunning will overcome strength.
Reality:
Somewhat mediocre battles.
Comments:
I emphasize, I am a novice, although I used to conceive these epic battles in my imagination, when writing them, sometimes because I did not have much time, or I was tired when I got home from work, I simply did not take the time necessary to polish the details, which ended up giving us the battles that I have written.
It may not seem like it, but each chapter over 3500 words takes me around 5 hours to write, being able to write more than 50 words per minute does not mean that one can write a chapter in an hour, even when I had a general idea of what the chapter would be about, creating the dialogues, detailing the actions, as well as the environment, takes time, my respects to those authors with extremely long chapters.
7. Publication time
Expectation:
I originally planned to upload chapters daily.
Reality:
I had neither the time nor the desire to do it.
Comments:
Originally the chapters were going to be between 1000 and 2000 words, which allowed me to get used to writing the fanfic, something I had never tried and upload a chapter daily, but it was after creating the first 4 chapters, that I didn't like that I always ended up cutting the chapter during something in progress, as a reader I didn't like that to happen in a fanfic that I read, so I began to make the chapters of the amount of words necessary to finish what I started in the chapter, that gave rise to chapters as long as 5000 words, but that became a problem, as I already mentioned, it took me a long time to create a single chapter, it was impossible for me to create one daily, so I changed to 3 per week, after a few weeks and with a repertoire of chapters advanced to publish, I encouraged myself to publish every two days, something that I have maintained for a month, but it was because of this same thing, that I was pressured several times to write a chapter just to publish it, that I did not have time to plan with the development of the plot in advance, well, you already saw how it ended.
Also, sometimes I came home very tired from work and didn't feel like writing, but it was because of my responsibility that I always tried to upload chapters.
Now I can understand those authors who ask for Patreon subscriptions, writing and working at the same time is very exhausting, if I had to continue writing, I would like to do it without the burden of another job on my back.
No, I'm not going to create a patreon, this was and still is a means for my entertainment, I don't plan on it being a job.
Look, it was nice to write and have someone like my mediocre writing, that's a good feeling, I think every author enjoys that, but I have to be honest, sometimes when I came home tired from work only to read in the comments of the chapter I scheduled to be published the same day, a comment complaining about this or that they didn't like about the chapter, I felt like just deleting the fanfic and just reading fanfic by other authors.
Especially the part about the incorrect use of he or she.
When I clearly told them in the description that English is not my native language and I used an AI to translate, many told me that I could correct it later, but to be honest it is a pain to have to keep track of those mistakes and then correct them, just for the reader's convenience.
But I didn't delete the fanfic, because of all those "thanks for the chapter" I saw in the comments, I didn't want to let them down.
But to be honest, I'm tired, my workload is heavier these days and when I get home, I don't feel like writing anything, and since writing isn't my job, well, I plan to quit.
It might be for a week or two while I clear my mind and my workload decreases, it might be permanent, I'm not sure, I'm also already hooked on this plot that I started and I would like to finish it, but I don't know when I will do it, so I will put the fanfic on hold.
I can only say to everyone who made it to this point.
THANK YOU FOR BEING THERE!
A tip for those who want to write their own fanfics, someone in the comments mentioned that they want to create their own Tensura fanfic.
Manage your time well and plan your story in great detail, avoid making last minute changes when you are already writing it, it can happen to you like it happened to me, and trigger problems for what you planned later and for the love of god, if you are going to abandon it at some point, let your readers know, I hate it when I sit there like a fool waiting for a chapter of a fanfic I'm reading, for weeks and then they never publish it again, but if the fanfic's status is "Serial", change it to "Pause" or "Completed" please.