First of all, I would like to thank all the friends who can still feel touched, happy, satisfied and other emotions from this story of fate.
A sentence I have mentioned several times in the acceptance speeches or at the end of each chapter is: It is impossible for me to meet all the expectations of everyone, because everyone’s personality and experience are different, and their demands may be different, and they may even contradict each other. To have everything is often equivalent to pleasing no one, which will only make the story become a hodgepodge. Sometimes, some people can get what you want to express, while others cannot. This is not the author’s fault, and of course, it is not the reader’s fault. It can only be said that in the corresponding scenario, the two parties are not on the same channel.
This time I chose "Light Chasers" as the title of the second volume because I not only like grand narratives, and how a group of people, generation after generation, overcome difficulties, work hard, and sacrifice themselves for the same goal to chase that ray of light, but I also like to write about the tiny human beings in life. In a world full of suffering, a large number of people struggle to live, like moths to a flame, for the sake of tiny hopes and a better future.
It's like when the sun is shining, you will always see a lot of dust under the light. Some of them will gradually fall down, but new dust will come and join the flying ranks, and fate will laugh at you and say, "Look, another stupid person comes to chase the light. Look at the losers in front, they are enough to fill up the sea."
Such light-seekers may have a bleak ending, and may spend their entire lives only to utter a curse in the end, but they still yearn for the light, but they cannot reach it.
Therefore, I wrote the second volume from two perspectives. The first is Lumian's inner struggle, from wandering in pain, confusion and resistance to gradually rebuilding social relationships, and then to suffering blows again and again, with his values shattered, and finding strength from them, and the initial process of self-salvation from a spiritual perspective. The second is the experiences and results of the specific people around him, which in turn gave Lumian that spirit and different degrees of power.
There are definitely minor changes in Lumian's character from the beginning to now, but there is no fundamental, radical change. If you put aside the reasons and excuses he makes for himself and look at what he does and how he treats the people around him, you can really know what kind of person he is.
He once had a wonderful family, but it was destroyed by his father. He was once protected by his grandfather, but he watched his last relative die of illness. He was once adopted by his sister and had a very wonderful life for nearly six years, but eventually lost it. During this process, he wandered as a child for several years, relying on cruelty and self-exploitation to survive, but when he has the spare energy, he will take the initiative to help the dying old man who reminds him of his grandfather.
This was his original background, and the five or six years he lived with Auror were crucial years for a person's character growth. He was softened by the comfortable and warm life, and was taught and influenced in all aspects. These, combined with his original background, shaped his current personality, a personality that can empathize with the lower classes and offer help despite being stubborn.
After remembering that his sister was a believer in fatalism with the help of Mrs. Puaris' words, Lumian's collapse was not only the fall of hope, but also the shattering of values. He helped the playwright unconsciously to find something to do because the other party was also a writer and was eager to vent his inner emotions. In this process, he would inevitably go against the three views taught by Auror, and would also show a state of not caring about anything and doing whatever he saw others do. Afterwards, he experienced the misfortunes of the lower class people again and again, felt angry and unwilling, and after having empathy, he regained the three views formed by Auror's influence.
So, after he pushed Franca away, he said that someone had once reached out to him. At this time, I was able to truly present the character that was previously underwater. So, the person who gave him the light not only gave him a good life, but also shaped his current personality. That light is not only Auror, but also his self-redeemed soul, his reshaped values, and Auror who has truly shaped who he is today, no matter what he has done.
Here, it doesn’t matter what kind of person Aurore is; what matters is the influence and significance she brings to Lumian.
Sometimes, if you really write based on other people's comments, you will find that it has no effect or meaning. For example, if I write about Aurore, a bunch of people will come out and ask why she is the elder sister again and why I am thinking about Aurore again. If I don't write about her, a bunch of people will say how thin and unreal Aurore is, and I can't empathize with her. So, how can I not write about her but also shape her well? My choice is to start from a very early stage. When I see similar comments, I will just scroll down and skip them, and follow my own steps.
In fact, I roughly understand the real reason and the crux of the problem. After I finish writing "Fate", I will analyze it carefully. It is very interesting to read about the psychological state, but it is meaningless to do this now and it will not solve the problem.
It is precisely because Aurore has such a profound influence on Lumian, so, from a certain perspective, shaping Lumian is also equivalent to shaping Aurore, which is one of the techniques for completing the character.
Of course, the psychological problems brought about by the disaster in Cordu Village will also affect Lumian's choices and performance.
After writing the second part, there are two points that puzzle me the most: First, regarding the forced script submission, some people were very concerned that Lumian covered his face when he went to see the theater manager, but on the other hand, they ignored the fact that Lumian never considered covering his face when he subdued the guard, and that he covered his face only after Janna covered hers. I think I wrote it very clearly, and any more emphasis would only be a few extra sentences afterwards. Under that scenario, it was impossible to directly write about Lumian's psychological changes, as that would lose the beauty of the description.
Secondly, why do you care so much about mystical smelling salts? They can only deal with the influence of Sequence 7. When Susanna failed to arouse desire, I used two or three hundred words to write about the failure. The failure was due to the interference of fate and the worsening luck in throwing the dice. Are you really not going to watch it
As for why "Fallen Mercury" chose the purple flame that could burn through the branches of the Shadow Tree and destroy Susanna's immortal body, that is another story.
Precisely because the main plot of this film is Lumian's initial spiritual self-salvation, the whole film presents a situation of being restricted everywhere, unable to expand the structure, and always trapped in one place. This is the reflection of his psychological problems in reality, and it is also the inevitable development brought about by psychological problems: resisting new interpersonal relationships, resisting thinking about other things, just wanting to complete Fors's task, not considering anything else, and then going with the flow to solve things around him. This limits the second part to the market area and to the gangster plot.
The way I dealt with his psychology and emotions was either to perish in silence or to explode in silence. Therefore, a large amount of space is missing from the psychological description of Lumian, which is replaced by silence.
First, the repeated use of psychological descriptions and emotional outbursts will make the subsequent catharsis lose its power. Second, in many cases, silence is more resonant and powerful.
After repeated silence and accumulation, it finally broke out and was vented out, and even the passing dogs would curse the arsonist.
Here, it is different from the mysterious performance. The clown can be deep and introverted, like the Don River flowing quietly, but the hunter and the witch cannot do that. There must be an overt publicity, there must be a shout.
Having summarized the writing methodology and various keywords does not mean that every one of them must be used, because some are universal and applicable to any occasion, while others are limited by environmental conditions and character, and cannot be used universally. The worst thing about writing is to cut one's feet to fit the shoes.
Among the people around me, I originally wanted to construct the Golden Rooster Hotel as a complete and real society, hoping that every tenant there would have his or her own story, corresponding experiences and encounters. But later I found that not only would the workload be too large, but it would also contradict the main story. After all, this is a fantasy novel, not an urban novel, and it would be a disaster if there were more than a certain number of ordinary people as supporting characters.
Therefore, I divided the tenants of the Golden Cockerel Inn into three categories. One category is purely as background, existing only in the conversations of Charlie and others, in order to increase the depth of the characterization of the inn. One category is characters that appear in this film as dust, including the Ruhr couple, the madman Flamand, etc. Another category will have plots later, such as the intelligence dealer, the young man who pursues the upper class and his mother, and the nude model who did not come back. This avoids arranging everyone's stories together, which would be too coincidental.
Another character prototype I mentioned from "Down and Out in Paris and London" is Jenna's mother. In that book, there is a dishwasher in the hotel who is in her fifties. She always wears a wig and puts on eye shadow and other makeup. While working hard every day, she insists that she used to be an opera actress. I think there must be a story behind such a person, and she is very suitable for the family that the character of Jenna needs.
Among the descriptions of these people, I am most satisfied with the part about Ruhl and Michel. The contrast between the city of joy and the cruel reality is what I wanted to express, and it is also the dust in the theme of the light chasers.
I originally wanted to use the inevitable illness of old age, gradual collapse, and bit of death to highlight the structural social contradictions and the helplessness of the elderly, but after thinking about it, I decided that this would be better used in the mystery. The main contradiction of Fate is the invasion of foreign gods and the various influences brought about by the evil gods. In order to show the nature of the end of the world and the harm of the evil god's believers, it is better to lean towards this aspect, which can also better string together the plot.
The same goes for the death of Jenna's mother. I had to use the logic that could happen in reality, but also add the unnatural effects of being too hasty and impulsive, so as to get closer to the theme. So, what I hope to achieve is not to move people or bring tears, but to arouse sadness and anger.
There is a big problem being dealt with here. For the sake of suspense, I put the possible extraordinary influence at the end, so that many readers cannot connect the two together and find it absurd. Now think about it, I can switch to the perspective of the congressman's office in advance and explain that there will be abnormal emotional fluctuations. Although this will lose some suspense, it will be smoother emotionally.
Similarly, because of Lumian's mental state, the second part will have a mixture of limitations and confusion. For the serialization, this means that there will be a lack of main lines and the structure cannot be opened up. It was not until it was directly pointed out that Mr. K let Lumian join the Savoy Party for the Iron Cross and for a bigger conspiracy that I felt that the problem in this regard was solved and the story became smooth.
Now that I think about it, I could have used some techniques to omit some steps and moved this forward to the middle of the second part, so that the subsequent lines wouldn't appear scattered. This is the biggest problem with this volume.
I have written a lot, so let me end here.
What exactly is the Iron Cross plotting? What lies beneath Trier? The truth behind the disaster in Cordu Village will be revealed in the third part, "The Conspirator".
Well, as usual, I will take a break for three and a half days from now on, and resume updating at 7pm on Sunday.
Also, because I have a child now, I have to take care of her in my free time, but after I started writing, it is hard to find time to go out with her on weekends. The sequel is really difficult and takes a lot of energy to write, so I had originally planned to start taking one day off a week halfway through, but now I can only do it earlier, starting with the third part, starting from next week, there will only be one chapter at 12:30 noon on Saturdays and Sundays. Please forgive me.
Finally, thank you for your support.
Finally, please also ask for next month's ticket~
Also, thanks to LIVY37 and Zhuri for rewarding the Silver Alliance again.