[Average 500 chaps a day: I sometimes wish I can write. I at least won't make this type of mistake. I sometimes feel sad because so many authors ruin their novels like this. If I can write, I will probably create a better novel than this.]
It was an average comment but something Aiden picked up was the last line.
Something clicked in his hand.
It wasn't like before today, he had never thought something like this. Reading so many webnovels, he had also felt that he could write one. Maybe he won't reach the storytelling quality of the more experienced web novel authors but at least, he won't drag the novel to its own destruction.
But this idea had never gone anywhere, mostly because Aiden would get busy in one thing or the other.
Also, he had never gotten chances to study more on the writing side of a web novel. Reading so many of them, he knew that they were a bit different than the average novel in the bookstore.
They were made for wish fulfilment and enjoyment.
Maybe, that was what he needed at the moment.
'A web novel is an extremely light read. I might be able to occupy myself with it and at the same time, it would be a good shift from the dark nature of Kai.'
He thought in his mind and pondered on it for a while.
It was a pretty good idea but one thing he was worried about was that the web novel won't get any traction. If he was going to write one, he didn't want to use his real identity.
Mostly because there was no need for that. Web novel authors normally use extremely funny pen names like 'My junior is my pen' and 'I eat Mangoes'.
He wanted to do something like that too instead of just using his real identity.
If the novel got famous, he could reveal it.
'Sounds like a good plan.'
Aiden thought and without wasting any time, he began writing down a few ideas he had for a web novel.
In the past, he had thought of cool web novel ideas. Some were cultivation ideas while others resembled more like light novels.
He wrote them down one by one.
<I'm the Overpowered Janitor.>
<I transmigrated into the body of a playboy who flirted around with yanderes.>
<Retired Cultivator Life.>
<My Cultivation Master was an Actor.>
<I'm the Brother of the Villain.>
After writing them down, he wondered which one he should go for. He wanted this novel to just be something fun to write and nothing beyond that, so it was important to go with a story that he would have the most fun with.
It was still very confusing.
All the titles looked enticing to him but they also looked to fall into web novel cliches, something that he wanted to do a bit differently.
His thoughts were not to write just any web novel.
'Web novels have a lot of potential but in the end, they fall into cliches and worlds that seem identical to any other from the same genre. There's just no new things that authors do.'
He wanted to make something different even if he was going to play into the normal web novel formula.
Trying to take a different approach, Aiden first listed down things that he needed to avoid. The common cliches and mistakes that authors rarely seem to learn from.
Like unnecessary love interest, identical worlds and plots that seemed lazy and even a lack of innovation in the power system. Out of all this, the biggest cliche was how the world revolved around the main character instead of the main character revolving around a story.
Though, Aiden was more understandable of it as he treated web novels as wish fulfilment but he did want to tweak it a bit and give his main character more obstacles.
Even in a fantasy world, web novels always seemed like they were restricted by something.
There were only a few web novels that actually have interesting worlds and Aiden wanted to surely change that. At the same time, he didn't want to drag out any plots.
Slowly, he began to think about the plot of his web novel.
If he wanted to pick a genre, it would be eastern fantasy aka cultivation as the first web novel he had read also fell into this genre.
Aiden personally believed that it was the most interesting web novel genre that wasn't explored that much. After all, in a world where anyone could be an immortal, the possibilities were boundless.
Though, Aiden focused much more on the world structure.
In a world with cultivators, it was normal for them to have a lot of authorities but at the same time, he wondered what would happen if they followed a system like democracy instead of something like autocracy.
Aiden played around with ideas like that. He also decided to put much more emphasis on the ocean. It was a world setting that he felt was really neglected in these types of novels.
'An Atlantis type civilization in a cultivation world is interesting… But will they be humans? Maybe another race.'
He thought and thought all night. As time went by, his thoughts became clearer in what he wanted to do. He made science an important aspect of his world and mixed it with cultivation, making it an unique occupation.
This gave rise to a lot of interesting gadgets and equipment that made the world much more vibrant.
Finally, after setting up his world, he focused on his main character.
'How to form my main character? What's his ideology? His background? Aspirations.'
He slowly delved into them and tried to come up with the best character possible. He wondered whether he should make his main character a noble? Or someone from a famous clan? Or should he go the cliche way of him being the young master of a degrading clan?
There were a lot of options but in the end, he decided to make him a common person. This gave Aiden more opportunity to play around with the character and avoid any unnecessary baggage.
At the same time, he gave a lot of thought to the cultivation technique of his main character.
He wanted to make it much more interesting than just a simple cultivation technique where someone would keep getting new techniques and have a sword as a weapon.
His attention lingered on weapons and thinking a bit, he felt like a weapon based cultivation system sounded pretty interesting.
But he didn't want to go the sword cultivator route.
'An axe? Nah, it's too bulky. A dagger? An assassin cultivator sounds nice but it doesn't suit my main character. A trident? It can be an interesting weapon but it's fairly limited. Wait, I got it!'
The weapon he chose in the end was a bow and an arrow — A weapon that was extremely flexible yet it was rarely used in these types of novels.
Aiden imagined his main character using different types of arrows and focusing more on ranged combat.
'Eagle eye cultivation manual.'
That sounded like the best name for his cultivation technique. There were a lot of ways he could move with that type of power system for his main character.
He slowly built up his character and gave him a dream of looking for an artifact that had submerged into the ocean with the city of Atlantis.
At the same time, Aiden decided to add a light element to the novel by using misunderstandings for comedy.
He gave the characteristic of being extremely low key to the main character but because of his hidden abilities, people would start to doubt his background which was actually common. But they would think otherwise.
Like that, he made up a few more plot points. He even gave him the job of an engineer as a sub plot so that he could build up his arrows and innovate.
After making up a few cultures and languages, the plot was mostly ready.
Without wasting any time, Aiden started to write it.
He tried to adopt a more simplistic writing style for this novel and completed two chapters before sleeping.
The next day, he did 3 more and posted it on the largest web novel website — Wuxia Updates.
Now, it was time to see the results.
***
As Aiden was working on his first web novel, Zavier was extremely busy with the post production work of [The Black Saint]. He had nearly shot the footage of over 200 minutes but the movie couldn't be that big.
People already felt like the movie was dragged out when it's a little above 2 hours.
Zavier wanted the movie to have a good pacing, so that it wouldn't look like it was dragging. This was actually a complaint of a lot of people, regarding the first movie.
So, he wanted to rectify it but the problem was that whatever scene he watched, he felt like it belonged in the final cut.
There was no helping it and it wasn't just because he was the director. The editor who was working with him had the same feelings.
It was hard to take out any scene. And there was only one reason behind it.
"Aiden's acting is so good that it's hard to edit out any scene that has him in it."
