*TN: Translated with reference to unknown translation “The song is ended, no one is to be seen. On the river the mountain peaks are so blue!” from dict.cn.
And what I hoped for was “on and on the WangXian melody drifts; the song ceases yet the figures persist”.
The clamour will take its exit, while you and I will persist.
—Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 2016.08.12
Old Version
Finally finished writing…
This is my second long series as well as my second original danmei. During the serialization process, there have been many ups and downs. After the last chapter, I do feel a sense of being freed from suffering, but when I saw the page that recorded my outline finally be blank after deleting it bit by bit, I also feel somewhat unwilling to part with it.
After I finished Scum Villain, I’d been mulling over this story for half a year. This is the first time I challenged a story with a greater number of characters and more complex relationships. I spent a long time writing the outline, always feeling unsatisfied with it and changing things here and there. In the end, I really couldn’t drag things on anymore, and grit my teeth and published it. The first few chapters were fairly rushed, and my drafts were intermittent as well. The longest draft was the part where they killed that turtle, with seven thousand words. The rest were mainly raw updates without any drafts. It was all thanks to Mr. Outline that I could keep up with daily updates for a while. But after all, the outline wasn’t detailed enough. There were still times when I felt so stuck I could ram my head and hands into the wall.
Nice details and interactions need to be perfected by time and energy, and time and energy were exactly what frequent updates lacked. During the serialization, it wasn’t that I couldn’t see the many problems, but rather that I knew, yet I couldn’t pay attention to them and could only force my way forward. And so… after a period of rest, I’ll make heavy edits on the entire story, enriching the details, adding plot elements, changing places that didn’t logically make sense, editing sentences. At around May or June, I’ll replace the old version on JJWXC altogether. If any readers would like to come back and revisit it, they’d probably find many Easter eggs in the edited version XD.
The following includes some of my thoughts during the writing process.
First, on the fantasy setting:
One good thing about fantasy stories is that you don’t have to be too historically correct and you can make changes to certain customs however you want. The conventions in this story are mainly from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties as well as the Tang Dynasty. Chairs were rare. To ‘sit’ usually means to sit on one’s knees. The ceremonial clothes were mostly the Tang cap and the round-collar robe. However, chilli peppers and apples appeared even though they only happened in the Ming Dynasty. The hip-and-gable roof on the buildings were named in the Qing Dynasty. The vocabulary and poem allusions were even more examples of time-travelling. And the age at which one was given a courtesy name was lowered to fifteen. Anyhow, the author pretty much massaged together all of the Ancient China elements she liked and brewed them in a pot. There’s no accuracy at all. So whatever. Just read about the characters and the story.
But there’s just one thing. People from the past really did call their mothers ‘Mom’.
Second, on character:
Both WWX and LWJ are highly ideal characters, so there wouldn’t be too much dispute on their moral standing. They’re perfect as the protagonists. Of course, I do like WWX a lot, but if I’m looking for a boyfriend, sorry, I’ll only have LWJ please.
All of their character elements were created in binary opposition. The bold and the principled, the concealed yearning and the flaunting coquetry, the red rose and the white rose, the cold, dignified one and the devilish, untamed one… The more different they were, the better. Still, their core was the same. Which usually means their outlook on life is the same? In any case, this isn’t the point. The point is that I love the chemistry between them!
The characters Xiao XingChen and Xue Yang are pretty much old friends of mine. In high school, every evening self-studying session* I’d pay no attention to studying, sneakily writing things down on a notebook. That was when I settled on their names and overall personalities. But back then, there wasn’t a full plot or any context. There were only a few fragments of their interactions, some of which I directly put into the story, such as drawing sticks to determine who to purchase the vegetables. To have characters and pieces of dialogue that previously only existed in my head be seen by everyone and discussed so fervently is a curious feeling indeed.
*TN: In China, a day in class may last for quite a long time. Apart from class, there are also morning and evening self-studying sessions where you have to remain at school. The evening ones can last until nine or ten.
When writing paragraphs about Xue Yang, I had to adjust my mentality to be in the darkest, cruellest state, while it was the exact opposite for Xiao XingChen, from whom I felt holy light every time I wrote about him. Switching between the angel and the devil brought quite some satisfaction. But ever since XY officially walked onstage, the comments section suddenly exploded. He’s indeed the owner of Jiangzai*.
TN: Jiangzai, XY’s sword, means to release catastrophe.
There was only one key word in A-Qing’s original character setting: ‘bouncy’. Apart from this, there was almost nothing. I only came up with her name they day before she appeared. After the details were fleshed out, I sometimes even feel that she’s kind of cute. But writing about her really felt so noisy… almost as if there was really a girl chirping around in a high pitch.
Before I finished coming up with anything else about Wen Ning, what I first decided on was, “He has to die!” “I’m going to make him die!” The original plan was to make him turn into ash on the boat leaving Lotus Pier, but when I wrote up to that point, I turned around and found that there wasn’t enough foreshadowing. And there wasn’t a reason he had to die, was there? Killing him off would be very abrupt, almost as if I was angsting for the sake of angst. So even though I really wanted him to die, I could do nothing but give up. It was the same with our little princess Jin Ling. He was also supposed to die. In order to defeat the big villain, he turned himself into a fierce corpse to replace Wen Ning. But since Wen Ning didn’t die, he wouldn’t have to replace him either.
Everyone should know what Jiang Cheng’s keyword is without me saying it. In the beginning, I thought with with XY’s existence, Jiang Cheng’s negative energy would definitely seem skimpy. Who knew he became the ultimate superstar of the comment section? Compared to him, XY was almost a poor, has-been idol. Only now and then would someone decide to drag him out again. Of course, in the end, under the combined PDA attacks of WWX and LWJ, the past and present superstars were obliterated.
LXC. I have no idea why some readers think he’s someone who ‘hides his wit deep inside. In truth… I’ve never shown any traits of his that could be interpreted this way. To be able to see through his brother’s little thoughts doesn’t mean it’s the same with others, and to become sect leader didn’t require deep thoughts and acute perception. Perhaps it was only because he had a high birth, nice personality and excellent performance… Maybe it was because I accidentally made him too favourable in the beginning that in the end everyone was like ‘WTF you’re actually just sweet, pure, and oblivious?!’ I feel so bad for him with how much fans he lost on his way. Pat pat, LXC.