Aug 07, 2025
Hiya Pope! Thank you for reading the whole thing! And I'm grateful you would take the time to write and share your thoughts.
Hey, I love Heinrich too! He's supposed to be that best friend/jerk/clown that invariably accompanies the main self-insert in every romance VN ever made. I used to always wonder why that archetype (heh there's that word again) always appears but I guess the answer is obvious, once you think about it--he's the guy who's allowed to say all the crazy stuff the hero isn't. (of course this ends with him getting his ass beat, usually by one of--or all of--the girls.) .. All the memorable lines go to the best friend!
Contests, yeah ... writing with time/word limits is something I hadn't done before! I'm thankful to the contests if for nothing else than the deadlines forced me to write 2 novels in half a year. Before this I was producing at a rate of, hmm let's see ... (flips through calendar) ... 1.2 novels per, err ... 12 years.
Thanks for the recommendation--I have not heard of that one. I'll definitely have to check that out. (cue me, trying to precariously place another book on my backlog stack that's trembling like an endgame jenga tower)
Had a few months away from the creation of this thing and looking back on everything I would consider the leadup to the argument and the breakup itself to be weakest part. Which kinda sucks because it's supposed to be what's promised to the reader from the first paragraph. Funny story: that leadup and fight was like, originally six whole long-ass chapters. Spent a weekend writing it, finished Sunday night, and when I read it back at midnight it was the worst thing I'd ever read in my life. So I rewrote it all over the course of a Monday workday. The initial revision had Cameron seeming completely unhinged, the second revision I try to blame his behavior on the crystal drink/coma effects, which also doesn't work because now it's not even the actual character acting out, it's just a plot device doing the work. And so the final product you see now is just skipping all the leadup and going straight into the argument itself, which I think works better because in the heat of the moment you can justify any kinda of flimsy foundation for an argument and blame it on high emotions. That's how humans work, anyway. I think. (I wouldn't know since I'm not originally from this planet.**)
**That's a joke. I must clarify that's a joke.
Most of the other plot points are pretty much intact from my original mental outline. The millennia time skip, the body swap ending... The water gun fight, the start with the train ... The war stuff. Oh, one exception was that originally Miyu's last stand would be some big battle sequence involving a huge battlefield but I don't really have the skill to pull that off. Some plot details emerged unexpectedly. You know when you have those plot beats that just fall in place without you having to do anything and it just feels right? I always take those as a sign I'm on the right track. I think if there's anything to 'chase' after in writing, it's when those moments happen. For instance I didn't really have a way to have Cameron get Yuka alone at her own wedding filled with hundred of guests without it seeming too contrived--but luckily I had for whatever reason put in a random throwaway line about multiple dresses in the shopping chapter, and realized I could make up some cultural tradition about not seeing her between dress changes. Another part was Miyu being able to save the one girl, and have that same girl (and her daughter) become a part of Cameron's life in old age. Originally there would be no survivors after that section, and the human/elf couple that helps Cameron later would just be some unconnected random villagers. It hit me at some point I could connect those two events together. --I always love it when things just 'fall' into place together like that, unplanned.
Hey it means a lot that you would read more. ... I DO think that whatever I come out with next will be, um... for lack of a better word, a lot sillier. So err.. just be warned, ha. I think it'll take some time to recharge the creative part of my brain because I do think doing UD and ACS back-to-back has left me kinda tapped out. So I think the next update you see from me... Well, I wouldn't take it as seriously. Ha ha.
But actually I do feel the same way toward your work. I will be there day one the next time I see "Pope has published a new chapter". I probably think about Just East of Eden on a.. weekly basis? The chapter where Lucille has to drive Jackie to the hospital? Specifically the Renai Circulation part and the joke about air conditioning. And then when she has to merge lanes later. Those will pop into my head unprompted and I'll have myself a giggle. Your stuff genuinely occupies my headspace more than anything _actually_ professionally published in the last ten years. (I honestly really keep meaning to sit down and finish VxV. I really really like it so far and I have NOT dropped it, life just keeps getting in the way. I really want to sit down and give it my undivided attention and I will ... Sorry!!!!!)
Thanks for reading again! What I posted before in Web Novel Club hasn't changed... Writing is just ... something we have to do. So I'm never gonna stop. Hope to see you around again!
lol.. yeah