Chapter 162
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 162
Chapter Title: Afterword (Reviews)
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Hello, everyone. It's Starfire.
...
I have so much I want to say in this afterword. I don't even know where to start.
So, I'll just ramble on whatever comes to mind.
It might end up all over the place...
I have so many things I want to tell you readers. Please bear with me.
Hmm, shall we start with how I got into writing this novel lightly?
It wasn't anything special.
I wanted to read a story with a protagonist who uses this kind of ability.
I thought it might be unique if the protagonist communicates with the author to shape the story.
That's all it was—a tiny impulse from somewhere, something I just wanted to write.
No other reason.
The reason this novel is pure love? Really nothing special there either.
My previous work had no romance, so for this one, I debated between pure love or yuri.
In the end, I went with pure love.
Maybe in another timeline, it could've been yuri.
Hearing this, you might think:
Wait, what about the plot then?
There was none.
From writing the prologue to now, scribbling this afterword.
No plot whatsoever.
All I decided when starting the prologue were two things.
The protagonist is a possessed TS girl mistaken for a mastermind, who uses threads from clothing.
And she shapes the story by talking with "Writer-nim."
Yes. That's it.
What kind of ability Yoo Siu has, Writer-nim's true identity, how those two connect.
Amelia, Dorothy, Ha-yul, Laira, Spira, club president—all those characters.
None were planned.
I started from a complete blank slate.
The only ones there were Arte and Writer-nim.
Suddenly, a famous line from Director Bong Joon-ho's movie Parasite comes to mind.
"Do you know what plan never fails? No plan at all."
That's right.
I didn't intend it, but it turned out exactly like that.
I couldn't even decide the protagonist's name, so around chapter 1 or 2, that's when I picked it.
I remember taking it from Tiresias, the prophet from Greek myth—the original? TS story. I made the protagonist's name from that.
That's what he's famous for, huh.
He killed a snake, turned into a woman, lived as one for a while, then two gods visited him—her?
Zeus and Hera.
The two gods asked: Who enjoys sex more, man or woman?
Tiresias answered:
"Women get nine times the pleasure of men!"
Arte Isis is an anagram of that prophet.
Tiresias.
Arte Isis.
Haha.
I once thought about using that as foreshadowing someday. But it ended up just as a motif, never woven in.
The one time I touched on it was when Ha-yul asked if it was a prophecy.
That's all. A bit regrettable.
Of course, I was deciding the protagonist's name mid-story, so naturally, I hadn't picked a name for her pure love partner either.
In the end, it became Yoo Siu, the generic everyman male lead.
His ability? I picked it on impulse: Intuition.
When Writer-nim explained her own ability, was it comparing it to Schrödinger's cat?
Maybe that's why.
I don't know. I just wrote what popped into my head, so whether Writer-nim's ability came first or Yoo Siu's, I can't quite remember.
But one thing that won't change: In the end, a being close to a god gets taken down by Laplace's Demon.
Writer-nim as a character is a bit of a sore spot for me.
She always got hate.
Feminazi. When's she dying? Cringe. She's a sieve.
I aimed for an irritating but cute character.
But she just kept getting flak, so I wondered if I'd botched the setup.
The whole reason I started writing was because of her, so changing her wasn't an option.
In the end, I stuck with it, and luckily, plenty of people found her cute.
Laira... well, her name comes from the descendant of the sun, Laira.
Feel the glorious light of the new sun.
A repulsive 5:3/5 guy.
No idea? That's fine, you don't need to.
Miracle priest... You did great... Ugh, my head hurts.
But I only borrowed the name—no deeper motif.
...That said, she was actually this novel's turning point.
You might've known.
Remember the early scene where Laira nearly died to Arte?
I agonized over that scene long after writing it.
Kill her or spare her?
I chose to spare her in the end...
If I'd killed her, the ending might've been bad or normal, not happy.
Maybe the dark parts would've dragged on much longer.
It was a scene that nearly derailed the whole direction.
And Spira.
She was set to die too.
The reason I spared the snake was that Tiresias motif I mentioned.
Arte, whose name implies she should've killed the snake, spares it instead—and through her mouth, learns the truth that they're not puppets, but real people.
That was the idea.
The serpent in the Bible gives Eve the fruit of knowledge, right?
I drew from that.
Some say the fruit of knowledge is best seen as the fruit of wisdom.
So, the snake (Spira) gives the fruit of knowledge (they're all real people), and Eve (Arte) eats it, realizing the truth.
That was the plan.
Well, now that we're at the end, it died on the vine.
If I'd paced slower and lingered more, I could've unfolded Spira's story.
Regrettable.
Just one of those accidents from having no plot.
Hmm, talking like this, it might sound hopelessly reckless.
But that's exactly why I had so much fun.
I felt like the captain setting sail with you readers as my crew, plunging the ship called Squinty mastermind into the foggy, endless ocean with no land in sight.
And the result? Well.
As you can see.
Some crew jumped ship midway, some joined later, but we made it safe.
Lucky.
...Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing.
Writing while holding down a day job is tougher than you'd think.
Even with your headpats keeping me going, I'd take breaks often—and early on, I got some real nasty hate.
Why's this TS?
Futanari vibes suck, tag it.
Gay or what?
Sheesh...
Now I'm numb to it after hearing it so much, but back then, I was reporting people on Nobelpia like a madman.
I even yelled at PD-nim, "Help me, PD-mong...!" when I couldn't take it anymore.
I can only thank that PD-nim.
If not for them, I might've snapped and quit writing.
Seeing I finished now, my mental fortitude was tougher than I thought.
They just listened and gave some cookie-cutter advice...
But sometimes, just having someone like that makes all the difference.
Nothing else major.
Writer's block happens sometimes, whatever.
It's an occupational hazard.
Hmm.
I don't know what else to say going forward.
I have tons I want to tell you all...
But if I keep going, it'll never end.
So, how about some talk on the next project?
Good news: This time, there's a rough plot.
Next one's academy too, though.
Of course, not as a student this time.
Let's try from a teacher's perspective.
Not teaching classes, though.
Huh? Then not a teacher?
Don't worry—the counselor stuck in the office is still a teacher, right?
In Squinty mastermind, tons said Arte killing felt off-putting.
So next protagonist's a good kid? ...Yeah, I like good protags too.
But plain counselor might be boring.
...Okay, how about spooning in some hypnosis?
A kindly-faced teacher, always gentle with students.
Students who trust and follow her.
Then her secret hypnosis ability gets exposed.
Students freaking out in betrayal.
The warm teacher we always trusted...
Teacher, you didn't hypnotize us...!
Something like that.
Isn't it great...? I love it...
Of course, it needs buildup, so it'll come late in the story.
For that scene, I could write a hundred chapters.
Anyway.
So next time, look for "I Became an Academy Counselor." But with hypnosis.
When's serialization?
Monday next week.
Someone said that.
Sleep is for the dead.