## Chapter 77 – Mid-Novel Review Of The General Store
78.
-A Mid-Novel Review Only for the Truly Bored-
(Still, it’s a pretty long review, so I’m just copy-pasting it as is haha;)
Hello, this is author TripleF.
I wanted to leave a mid-novel review, so here I am writing this.
Actually, seeing other people churning out 2-3 chapters a day and easily surpassing 100 or 200 chapters, leaving a mid-review after only 77 chapters might be a bit of an overreaction.
So, you can just think of this as the author’s useless rambling and skip it if you want.
Lately, I haven’t been this diligent about anything… and this writing also has a bit of a personal nature to it.
I’ve never serialized a novel before.
I did scribble some generic fantasy novels in my notebook back in middle school, though.
So, this vulgar, third-rate erotic novel is my first serialized work. Thinking about that makes me feel rather bitter.
I actually have grand dreams (don’t laugh…) and a very strong sense of pride, but the fact that I’m doing this means I’ve let go of everything.
Yeah. To make an analogy, it’s like a 40-year-old elite who, after making a big decision to leave their company and start a business, fails miserably, and then, even when their wife selling sundae yells, “Can’t you even do that right?” they just feel numb.
This novel, ‘The Goddesses’ Proxy,’ is a novel I hastily started because my life was on fire.
I didn’t want to go to school until the end, and since I’m getting older, I figured I should at least make some money. It would be nice if it went well. That was pretty much my mindset.
Actually, at first, I was thinking of a martial arts novel without any erotic content. The setting was something like barely surviving, returning to the family that put you in danger, and taking revenge by killing those involved… a revenge story like that.
But when I tried to write it, I realized I lacked a lot of general knowledge, and the conclusion I reached was, ‘I can imitate it, but it won’t be anything more than an instant copy.’
So, I changed my goal to ‘Let’s write a decent erotic novel in a fantasy setting and earn some pocket money,’ and started right away.
I didn’t want to rationalize it by saying, ‘It’s my first work, so it’s okay if it’s a bit lacking,’ so I tried to find and analyze 4 or 5 successful erotic novels as references.
Specific words that I thought were arousing… the rhythm… the timing and spacing… these kinds of details. I did a lot of research, and although I’m still lacking, I’m really grateful that some people find it arousing.
But the problem with that is that there’s no plot, just sex scenes.
When I tried to write a novel properly for the first time, I immediately faced difficulties. I spent at least 4 hours, sometimes up to 7 hours, on each chapter, fixing every little thing.
(Half of that time was spent agonizing)
It was truly hell ㅠㅠ Thankfully, I can finish it within 4 hours now.
Especially, I started in the first-person perspective to increase immersion, but soon realized that I needed a lot of thought to achieve the descriptions I wanted.
First-person perspective almost requires the use of surrounding objects.
For example, things like, ‘Wait, I need to describe this to make it arousing, but I can’t see it from the protagonist’s perspective?’
In well-written first-person erotic novels, they use things like ‘screen open-‘ or a crystal ball to allow a certain degree of observation, which resolves that thirst. That’s why a crystal ball appeared in my novel as well.
First-person was also quite a headache for the sex scenes.
One rule I try to adhere to as much as possible when writing sex scenes is,
‘Follow the camera.’
The reason is to increase immersion and make the image in your head as vivid as possible.
‘But there’s no way Cecilia’s lewd face would be visible from this angle?’ I’d wonder, but I still had to describe it…
If I described her facial expression or what she was doing from an angle where the camera (Raul’s eyes) couldn’t see, there would definitely be readers who would feel a sense of incongruity while playing the scene in their heads.
(Of course, sometimes I just gloss over it, thinking, ‘Well, they’ll probably overlook this slight camera misalignment, right?’)
So, after tearfully deleting the sex scene I had written, I’d correct the position again, use a mirror to show her lewd face, or…
Or have the women actively enjoy the sex and naturally turn their heads to make eye contact…
Or have the third-party daughter and mother describe it through their faces and dialogue…
If that wasn’t possible, I’d describe it as ‘It wasn’t visible, but it seemed like ~’ or ‘From the sound of her voice, it was obvious.’
Besides that, to make sure the scene stays in your memory, I keep repeating and explaining key points like ‘looking up,’ ‘looking down,’ ‘orange hair,’ ‘~doing XXX.’
But my frustrating release schedule and slow pacing sometimes ruin it, making readers forget ㅠㅠ I’ll try harder.
I ended up writing a lot, but anyway…
So, the conclusion is this.
I’ll work hard, so please continue to support me. (_ _)
Waaah, ten million won goal.
