Three thousand words of leave request, let's talk about the second volume
Today's update was a bit difficult to write, and I haven't yet achieved a satisfactory result. But I'm already tired, so after thinking about it, I decided to take a day off to make some adjustments.
It’s not that I don’t have time to write, but I’m not satisfied with what I wrote. So it seems that I shouldn’t simply throw in a note and run away. After thinking it over, I decided to just chat about something else.
Of course, some readers may think, "Who wants to see you chatting here? I want to see story updates." In fact, you are right. I'm sorry. I will try to make my updates more stable in the future to meet your expectations for the story. Please forgive me a few times, thank you.
Well, I was going to say something.
Let’s talk about the second volume of this book and why many readers feel that it “lacks the same atmosphere as the first volume.”
First of all, let me make it clear that the atmosphere of the second volume so far is "different from that of the first volume." This is not an illusion, but a fact. Rather, I have been working on the second volume so far with the attitude of "I hope to make the atmosphere of the previous stories more relaxed."
The kind of story that readers want to see, "with a similar atmosphere to the first volume", will generally be in the "third part" of the second volume.
When talking about the third part, we have to talk about the internal division of Volume 2.
During the planning stage, the second volume actually did not have so much content at the beginning. In the very beginning, the content planned in my outline actually only included two parts: "National News" and "Main Line". In other words, the original content of the second volume was actually about the Fangting City team going to the country for an assessment, and then the assessment part was casually explained, just like the first volume cut into the main storyline.
But in the end, when I was planning the second volume in detail, I chose to expand the content and turn the entire second volume into a "big volume". It is even possible that the second volume will be the longest volume of this book.
I have divided the entire volume into three parts, which I personally call p1, p2, and p3.
The first part, p1, which I privately subtitled "The Shadow of the Claw Mark", is a completely additional addition based on the second volume of the first edition.
The story I want to complete in this part is about the warming relationship between Bai Jingxuan and Cuique, the subtle changes in the relationship between Lin Xiaolu and Cuique, the addition of the key character of Emerald, the return of Aso Yuanxiang, and the introduction of some related concepts of the "Claw Mark" organization.
Because the effect I originally wanted was to make p1 of the second volume of this book relaxing enough so that readers don’t have to worry about “is there a depressing plot here” and can read this part of the story easily. So regarding the setting of the villain, I chose to design the Claw Mark cadre "Red Kite" as a person with a weak sense of morality, who does whatever he wants but has no clear evil ideas. I didn't even design a complete boss battle for Yuan at the beginning. I originally wanted her to attend the New Year's party of Fang Ting's team, and she would go there to eat and drink for free, then leave and go back to fool her leader.
But later, I felt that such a plot was too imprecise and violated the setting of the Claw organization. Although Yuan should be such a character in terms of personality, such a design was too frivolous. So in the end, White Wolf was introduced ahead of time, and a boss battle was created under her impetus, which was the legendary 2 vs. 9 that many people felt was a bit subtle, so that Yuan's combat power seemed too strong? However, this degree of deviation is within the plan and can be resolved later, so the final p1 becomes what you see now.
Then comes the p2 part that I am currently working on, whose subtitle is concise and to the point, “National Assessment”.
This is also a point that I originally didn't plan to write about in detail, because at the beginning I just wanted to use this as an excuse to let the protagonist's team go to the country and expand the map of the plot. I even planned to briefly mention the assessment process of the three juniors, and just write about Cuiqiao's reunion with Mo He in the kingdom, and then explain the past stories related to the garden defense war, and then this part can be ended.
However, everyone who has read this should have discovered that the P2 that has actually been written is completely different from my "original idea".
The current P2 is a collection of a large number of main and branch lines, including the relationship between Delphinium and the Magic Academy, the past of Delphinium and Mo He, the possible collision between Delphinium and other gem scepters, the assessment process of the younger generations, the attacks of Claw Mark and Black Cinder Dawn, the secrets of the Royal Court, the new magical girl ecology of the new era... and so on, a super hodgepodge composed of excessive elements.
The reason is that my positioning of this p2 has changed.
In my plan, p2 of the second volume is no longer a simple expansion of the story map, explaining the transitional part of the past of Cuiqiao and Mohe. My current hope is to make p2 a "background reference book" for the story of Xiabanmo.
I added a lot of settings in this part, the scenery of the country, the customs of the country, the people's ecology, and its power structure... and many more, including other magical girls active in this world. I hope that through this p2, readers will have a feeling that their worldview has become broader and richer.
So I slowed down and began to enrich the experience of the Fangting City team's trip to the country, hoping that these experiences can make the world of this story more detailed and make most of the settings more well-founded.
The effect I strive for is that after reading p2, when the reader imagines the scene of "becoming a new magical girl and going to the country for assessment", they can imagine a detailed and complete process.
I am fully aware that this approach would be very willful, because the addition of settings will inevitably slow down the progress of the plot, which makes people feel that it is "watery". Combined with the update speed, which I was not optimistic about to begin with, this makes me even more anxious.
However, even if I have to apologize to you, I will not change my mind. Even though I am having a hard time writing now, I don't intend to change my mind. Because I think this is necessary, and it is a preparation to make the story of After-get off work Devil more heartwarming and to make the subsequent stories more touching to you.
In the process of perfecting these detailed settings, I actually felt very tired when writing. It was much more tiring than pushing the established main storyline according to the outline. It can be said that it was a completely thankless task. Including today's little Kawen, it is because of this idea that I have to think of some new content when writing this plot.
But I have to clarify one thing. The reason I had trouble with this part was not because I didn't know how to write the plot, but because the amount of details that needed to be filled in exceeded my expectations, which resulted in me spending far more brainpower than I thought possible on filling in the details...
But even so, I still believe that although the plot progress is slow in the early stage of P2 during the update phase, and the large amount of content filled with details will make people anxious, after I finish this project, the subsequent story experience will be better.
So please give me some trust. I also hope that you can read p2 in a relaxed and happy mood. If there is anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, please scold me. I hope that after scolding you, you will feel happier when reading this part of the story.
As for the content of the national assessment, I can also give you an overview. The following process will largely revolve around the experiences of the three teams of four people from Fangting City during the assessment. As well as a small number of stories seen from the perspectives of the jeweled scepters on the viewing platform and other passers-by magical girls. The first three items of the practical test are purely internal competitions among candidates and will not involve Claw Marks and Black Dawn. So at this stage, you can completely adopt the mentality of "see how the younger generations perform" and witness the stories of all kinds of idiots. I will try my best to write about the growth of the younger generations in this part of the story, and use this as a starting point to gradually start the process of handing over the baton from the old to the new in the Fangting City team.
Oh, this doesn’t mean that Delphinium will be marginalized and no longer be the protagonist as her juniors grow up. After all, "Off-Duty Demon" is mainly the story of Delphinium. It’s just that as the juniors gradually grow up, the relationships and status within the team may also change? Of course, these plans are a little far-fetched, at least they will happen after the third volume, so we will not discuss them here.
Just talking about p2 of the second volume, everyone must be clear that there is no coincidence in the world. If there were no accidents, the story of the p2 assessment chapter would be a bit too top-heavy. Therefore, at the end of the actual combat assessment, external forces will inevitably be introduced, and the plot of the collision between Delphinium, Kingdom, and Claw Mark will officially begin. As for the real truth about the garden defense war, what is the relationship between Mo He and Delphinium, the purpose of White Wolf, the plans of the gem scepters...these are all contents that will be gradually revealed in the later stage of P2, so stay tuned.
As for p3 of the second volume, which is the real main line originally planned for this volume, I may have to keep it a secret for a while.
My current plan is to complete all the contents of the assessment chapter before August or September of this year, and then enter p3 of the second volume in September.
I don’t want to reveal too much about its specific content for now, but after P2 is finished, I will probably give a summary and talk more about it.
I can only give a relatively vague promise, that is, p3 of the second volume will return to Fangting City and will return to the style of the first volume of this book. Therefore, what p3 presents will be a story with very heavy emotions, a story with the saltiness of tears and the sweetness of warmth.
All in all, because it’s too tiring to think about the details, I’m stuck today and have to take a day off! (End of this chapter)
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