Mid-Series Review at Ch. 78 - For Truly Bored Readers Only - (Still, It's a Pretty Long One, So Copy-Pasting Identically Haha;)
Hello, this is the author TripleF. I felt like leaving a mid-series review, so I wrote this post. Honestly, when I see other readers binging 2-3 chapters a day and breezing past 100 or 200 without a second thought, dropping one at just 77 chapters probably seems like a huge overreaction. So go ahead and skip it as the author's pointless rambling—no hard feelings.
Lately, I haven't poured this much effort into anything... and there's a bit of self-reflection mixed into what I'm writing here too.
I've never serialized a novel before. Sure, I scribbled some cheap pulp stories in a notebook back in middle school, but that's about it. So this trashy, lowbrow third-rate erotic tale is my very first serialization. Thinking about that leaves a bittersweet taste.
Truth be told, I've got these grand dreams (don't laugh...) and a sky-high ego, so ending up here means I've basically thrown it all away. To borrow a metaphor, it's like a 40-year-old elite who musters the courage to quit his job and start a business, only to crash and burn spectacularly. Now he's numbly standing beside his wife hawking sausages on the street, not even flinching when she snaps, "Can't you get that one thing right?"
This novel, Representative of the Goddesses, was something I kicked off in a mad scramble when my life was falling apart. I didn't want to stick out school to the bitter end, I'm getting on in years, so I figured I'd better scrape together some cash. If it takes off, great. That was the whole mindset.
Originally, I'd planned a straight-up wuxia story without any sex—something about scraping by against all odds, returning to the family that threw him into peril for revenge, and slaughtering everyone involved. A classic revenge drama. But when I sat down to write, I quickly realized how woefully short my knowledge was. My final verdict? "I can copycat it, but I ain't topping instant ramen."
So I pivoted hard: "Screw it, write a decent isekai smut to earn some pocket change," and dove right in. Being my debut, I didn't want to make excuses for any shortcomings, so I hunted down 4 or 5 successful erotic novels, dissected them for reference. Stuff like specific words that get people hot and bothered... the rhythm of the prose... timing and spacing... all those nitty-gritty details. I put in real research, and while I'm sure it's still lacking, I'm truly grateful to everyone who's said it turns them on.
Of course, that approach birthed its own monster: zero plot, just nonstop banging. Trying to write my first real novel slammed me into walls right away. Tweaking every tiny detail ate up a minimum of 4 hours per chapter—up to 7 on bad days. (Half of that was pure agonizing.) It was absolute hell T_T. Thankfully, now I wrap it up in under 4 hours.
I kicked things off in first-person for max immersion, but it didn't take long to realize it'd demand endless agonizing for the descriptions I wanted. First-person basically requires leaning on surrounding objects as crutches. Like, "Hold up, I need to describe this to make it steamy, but the protagonist can't even see it from here?"
The good first-person smut out there uses tricks like "screen open—" or scrying orbs to let you play observer and quench that thirst. That's why my story got its own scrying orb.
First-person sex scenes were a total headache too. One rule I stick to religiously: "Follow the camera." It's all about cranking up immersion so vivid images explode in your head. But then: "From this angle, there's no way Raoul's eyes could catch Cecilia's slutty face?" You tilt your head, but you have to describe it... If you go ahead and detail her unseen expression—what she's doing, how she's reacting—it risks jarring readers right out of the fantasy while they're mentally replaying the scene. (Though sure, sometimes I half-ass it with "eh, they'll forgive a little camera slip.")
So I'd grit my teeth, delete those sex scenes with tears in my eyes, rejigger the positions, add a mirror to reflect her lewd mug... or have the women take charge, reveling in the fuck so they naturally turn their heads and lock eyes... or use a third-party witness like the daughter or mom for faces and dialogue... If all else fails, fall back on "It seemed like..." or "Her voice made it plain as day."
Beyond that, to make scenes stick in your memory, I hammer home key beats: "looking up at her," "gazing down," "strands of orange hair," "her XXX doing ~." Stuff like that, on repeat.
But my sluggish update schedule and glacial plot pace probably make readers forget it all anyway T_T. I'll step it up.
Whoops, this got rambling. Anyway, the point is: I'll keep grinding hard, so please stick with me going forward. (_ _)
Nyaa, gimme 10 million won plz.