Sep 08, 2023
To:minatika
Yaaay! Congratulations, you reached the end! 😱😱
Okay, where do I begin ...? Hmm ... I think first of all thank you SO much! For reading, for commenting so many long and enthusiastic comments. And of course for your thoughts and the suggestions throughout this story! 😊❤️❤️❤️
You've seen many details and celebrated along the whole way. I'm really grateful for that! 😊
And I'm also exceptionally grateful that you wrote this critical review for me! 😊❤️ Really! This totally made my day, when reading this! 😊
But I also understand, that this might feel a little a little stress-inducing, because you feel like shaking up a person, maybe making a damage you can't undo, based on mostly a subjective gut feeling that is hard to pinpoint to actual facts. 😅
So I see why you would rather not keep doing this. That's okay. Just to reassure you: I'm honestly really happy about this and feel encouraged and motivated to write something that will be even better next time! 😊
But also: Welcome to my world 😂 This is how I usually write, and probably why I am rather slow with it. Exploring things from all different sides and weaving them into the parts I'm more comfortable with to provide a story 😂
I'm happy you liked the developments from this last chapter and the way this story concluded! 😊
Indeed, I always try to to add a certain layer of realism and "trivia" to my stories (mainly because I love this as well), and helps grounding things in reality. That's my approach to making things more relatable and I'm happy you also noted this as a strong point! 😁
It's also great to hear, the dynamics between them worked out as intended! 😊
Regarding the points of possible improvement, there also weren't many things that really surprised me! 😊
I think my characters in general are probably more mature than would be usual. That's a general aspect throughout all my writing (thinking back at all my novels 🤔). The wholesomeness aspect in this one even exaggerated this more, since mature behavior and communication => mature characters. I've also seen this in "Your Lie in April", where the characters are middle schoolers and sometimes feel much older than that 😂 Same for Horimiya, (Anohana) and (Your Name), who were more or less strong inspirations for this story as well.
I agree, that this could definitely be turned into a university setting, if necessary, but for me, personally, it doesn't need to be 🙂
And in regards to the other points, I fully agree to them! Working out distinct character voices (also in regards to their dialect) doesn't come to me that easy, so it's always a grind! 😂 Same with all the names thrown in. I think with more material to back these characters up, this would have made things better 😁👍 ... but would have taken me another month 🤔
And in regards to the usage of scene break symbols: I guess I'm a little bit peculiar and question a few techniques used in Web Novels too much 😂
I don't like switching first person narrators between several characters for example. To me this mostly comes across as "lazy", especially if the switching happens throughout a chapter. I always feel like "Really skilled writers don't need a first person narrator to bring the emotions across". And it's similar with these scene break symbols.
For me there are chapter breaks to switch a scene and if doing this inside a chapter, a "really skilled writer doesn't need scene break symbols". At least I can't remember reading any "real" (older paperback) book that had symbols like these to indicate a scene changing. I just think they sometimes also had chapters with just very fewer words (~500) 🤔 Maybe that could be a way to go?
For me, scene transitions feel more natural if they are only subtly hinted at in a text and not as "invasive" like a clear indicator jumping right at you. Also, when reading texts from other people, who are using these things, I usually think that these symbols wouldn't be necessary for me. If I just ignored these indicators, the transitions would be very much clear enough for me.
Perhaps I'm just strange with how I read (maybe that would also explain why I am so slow at it as well 😂) or I'm not skilled enough as a writer to make these transitions clear enough 🤔
The one you mentioned there for example was meant to portray a match cut/jump cut. With real, visual cuts like these, you usually have a shot moment of disorientation as well, so I also liked this effect when reading (even though this is a self-creation from me, so this should maybe be seen separate from regular scene transitions that also happened along the lines) 🤔
But let's discuss this: Maybe I'm just too old school with this approach and my writing should be more inclusive in this regard. What do you say to these points? 🙂
And just to clear this up: I also started writing this in July. Not all the time, because I still had assignments for uni to finish, but at the side I sketched out a few ideas and planned the general plot, wrote the first chapters and everything. But I guess next year, I think I should start a little earlier with the actual writing and not bother too much about all the plotting 😂
And don't worry about your opinion being biased. Every opinion is and I'm very much aware of that! 😉 Therefore I also questioned your assumptions and try to discuss a few of them to find a more neutral middle ground!
So thank you so much for being a part of this journey! This really helps me immensely! 😊
So thank you for reading! ❤️❤️❤️
