Afterword

Afterword

First off, I’d like to thank you for reading this from the bottom of my heart.

This is volume two of the novelization of my work on Shousetsuka ni Narou. With such a short span between updates, what I plan in my mind versus what actually comes out in the end can be a bit different. If all had gone according to plan, this volume would have included the competitive guild mission.

The spring rookies’ tournament was supposed to be a lead-up to it, but before I realized it, the tournament itself had taken up nearly an entire volume... That’s a result of constantly pushing out updates without proper planning. I was ad-libbing a lot. This sequence kept going until it eventually became a whole book.

I’ve learned from experience that when you publish on the web or in a physical book, the contents of your work morph to fit the medium. When you’re publishing online, it feels like every new update has to have its own big turning point. I think that having one with each update really does help maintain the tempo of the work at large.

On the other hand, you can’t dig as deeply into character development and world-building. Sometimes, you start to think, “Oh no! This part doesn’t have any big events!” Then you worry that the prose doesn’t have enough punch. There are pros and cons to both web and print publishing, but for works without a defined vision or established flow, I’d say web publishing is the better option.

For me, the bottom line is simply to write fun things! Instead of careful calculation, I emphasize the atmosphere in the moment. Energy and enthusiasm are important! I’d like to keep ad-libbing and going without a solid plan for as long as I can manage.

When I was writing battles in the past, I would constantly think about how I could write the strategies, tactics, and characters without contradictions, so that the explanations were convincing. Having a novel that can stay afloat despite taking the opposite approach shows that authors can be both open-minded and profound.

I’d love to be able to take on both approaches at the same time, publishing on the web while also working on new releases, but my fingers just can’t move that fast! However, I do have more ideas for web novels. Robots, time travel, war stories... It’s a shame I can’t manage it all. I would like to be a faster writer, or maybe make more time in my day for writing.

Perhaps labor reforms will suddenly rise up and get us those three-day weekends. I don’t need a higher salary, just more time! If I have that, I can make money on my own terms! Please!

So, like I touched on before, next book, we’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty of the competitive guild mission. My plans aren’t quite solidified, though, so I might end up getting totally sidetracked. Who knows?

I publish my works on Shousetsuka ni Narou ahead of time, so if anyone’s interested, be sure to check it out there.

Finally, I am deeply grateful for everyone who helped me with this work: my lead editor, N; my lead artist, Hika Akita; and to everyone else involved, I thank all of you for your considerable efforts. This volume’s illustrations were so wonderful; I can only imagine what the next ones will be like.

Well, see you next time!