Summary and Reflections on Volume 4
Coincidentally, Volume 4 has exactly 111 chapters, about 250,000 words.
According to the outline, volumes three and four should have been connected, which means that the contents of these two volumes combined should have been less than 300,000 words.
However, in the end, the word count exceeded almost twice.
This is certainly not nonsense (I won't admit it!), but I tried my best to write the behavioral motivations, internal logic, and plot progression of the supporting characters in more detail than originally planned.
In the previous chapter about the Buddha Lotus Temple, I asked everyone whether the stories of the supporting characters should be written in more detail, and most of the answers I got were affirmative, so I did so.
In fact, this is really not easier than just writing about Wei Changtian.
Let’s get back to Volume 4.
My feelings about writing this volume are quite complicated, which can be seen from the updates of the last dozen or so chapters. The updates are very irregular, and the number of words in each chapter varies, which is very unstable.
In fact, the entire fourth chapter tells a big story -
Ning Yongnian's shocking layout around Yuanzhou City, and Wei Changtian's firm determination to rebel as a result.
In order to make all this seem as reasonable and natural as possible, I spent almost an entire volume laying the groundwork.
I know that even so, most of the readers who follow the novel will still feel that the ending is very sudden when they reach the end.
After all, according to the general routine, Wei Changtian would definitely take action at the critical moment to destroy Ning Yongnian's conspiracy and save the lives of three million people.
In the end, he was unable to do anything.
Including the previous "Beheading Yama Luo", it failed twice.
I understand that writing this way might not be a wise choice for grades.
But I still wrote it this way.
There are three main reasons.
First.
Up to now, or since Xiao Feng's death, the plot development of this book is no longer the traditional "kill monsters, upgrade, change maps" repetitive routine.
The thirteen new Sons of Heaven who appeared were not meant for Wei Changtian to kill them one by one and repeat the same trick.
These people all have their own stories, and will have opposing or non-opposing positions and interactions with Wei Changtian. Everyone is not just a supporting role who "appears and then is killed."
Since they possess abilities and cheats that are no less powerful than Wei Changtian's, they shouldn't die so easily.
Only by using a lot of words and through happy or sad plots to portray them more three-dimensionally can such characters stand out.
second.
It’s true that Wei Changtian came from another world, and it’s true that he has a system.
But I don’t know if you have noticed that from the beginning to the end of this book, Wei Changtian has never obtained any treasure because of "luck", nor has he ever obtained any opportunity because of "luck".
Everything he obtained was achieved in the early stage by having foresight about the original work and intercepting Xiao Feng.
The later period was achieved through a series of planning.
Since he has no luck bonus, he naturally cannot be "omnipotent".
When faced with some situations, being powerless means being powerless.
As you can see, those coincidences that should have happened to the "protagonists" will instead happen to the "villains" such as Bai Youheng and Ning Yongnian.
This is unpleasant, but reasonable.
third.
I want to give Wei Changtian a motive that actually makes sense for his behavior.
I have been reading online literature for at least ten years.
I started from watching "Zhu Xian", "Bad Guys" and "Very Pure" and have been watching them till now.
There are many well-written fairy-tale and fantasy online novels, but most of them always make me think about a question.
I only saw the protagonist constantly fighting monsters, killing people, stealing treasures, and upgrading. But what was his reason for doing so? Self-protection? But compared to rushing to those big forces to show off and then being hunted down by them, isn't it the best way to protect yourself to live a peaceful life? Or is it to pursue immortality? Then just hide away and practice. I know that if it is written like this, it will not be a novel, but I still feel that the protagonist's motivation is not clear enough.
To this day, only Er Gen’s explanation in “Xian Ni” has left the deepest impression on me.
"Since ancient times, those who follow the will of heaven are favored by heaven and earth. However, behind this favored person, there is the body of an ant! My way is not to follow the will of heaven, but to act against heaven and cultivate against the will of immortals according to the feelings in my heart. What I seek is not only immortality, but more importantly, to get rid of the body of an ant behind me. This makes it rebellious."
After so many years, I have completely forgotten what story Xian Ni told, but I still remember the six words "follow the rules and you will be an ordinary person, go against the rules and you will be an immortal."
Of course, my book is not about cultivating immortals, so there is no need to go against the will of heaven.
However, I think the word "rebellion" is the most fundamental motivation for all the protagonists of online novels.
Because what you want cannot be achieved, you must break through all obstacles in your way and go against the trend.
You can go against the will of heaven, against the emperor, against the king, against the way of the world, anything is possible, but you must first meet three conditions.
First, the protagonist must have something convincing and something to strive for.
Second, the protagonist must have an enemy that he really needs to "go against", at least an enemy that can be called a rival.
Third, the protagonist’s psychological transformation from “not going against” to “going against”.
Strictly speaking, Volume 4 is about these three conditions.
About Youjia.
According to the outline, the character Yujia was originally going to die in the fourth volume.
Her background and experience determined this outcome.
Death is actually the best ending for her.
But maybe because I gave too many hints before, so during the writing process there were readers who kept saying that Youjia shouldn't have died.
And this ultimately led to such an outcome.
Youjia, maybe it won’t appear again.
As for whether she died or not, everyone just needs to understand it according to their expected results.
Well, that’s about what I wanted to say about the plot.
I know that many parts of this book are not well written and the update speed is also slow.
However, as I wrote more and more, I gradually understood where my advantages compared to others lie.
To be more brazen, the emotions are better created.
Whether it is sadness, joy, anger, or grandeur, it is easy for me to enter into these emotions during the writing process, and I can barely express them with my writing skills.
But I also understand where my shortcomings are.
Of course, I won’t talk about the shortcomings.
In short, I am quite satisfied with the book I have written so far, and whether it is for financial rewards or passion for writing, I am motivated to continue writing.
Write a complete story.
Finally, report the results.
The performance of "Villain" on the main website of Qidian has been steadily increasing. The single chapter has received over 6,000 orders. The average order is a bit disappointing, but it is not far from being a masterpiece.
In addition, the performance in terms of free end and channels is also good, and the overall income is indeed something I did not expect before I started the book.
It’s enough for a part-time job, so I am really grateful for the support of every reader.
Finally, I don’t ask for votes or rewards, I just ask if you can praise me???
“The author wrote it so well!”
“It’s so well written!”
“Awesome!”
Well, something like that.
Thank you everyone!! ps: I will take a break today and update the fifth volume tomorrow——
A sword travels thousands of miles to touch the Dragon Gate!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
