In fact, I was planning to talk about this when it was put on the shelves, but it has been put off until now.
This story begins as a traditional urban cultivation of immortals. It can be seen from the first three chapters that, except for the addition of high-voltage electricity cultivation, it is not much different from other urban cultivation of immortals.
When I first sent it to the editor, no one was willing to sign it because the subject matter was too old. Later, editor Lu Ming helped me and signed the contract.
I also took the initiative to change my writing style, leaning towards daily campus life. It turned out that the change seemed to be quite good, and many people liked it.
But there were also many problems. Most of the people who were attracted by the first few chapters came here to see how people cultivate immortality in the city, to watch people show off and then get slapped in the face, rather than to watch daily life.
As a result, many readers complained that the later plot was too bland and distorted, so they abandoned the book.
On the contrary, most readers who really read the book on a daily basis will quit after reading the first three chapters, or even the first chapter.
You can't please both sides.
Let’s talk about Ding Shuyan. The handling was not good, and until now, there are still many controversies about those chapters.
In the subsequent plots, I have been avoiding similar poisonous points, such as whether cultivating immortals can change IQ.
I am a reader and have read quite a few online articles. I know that many people complain that the protagonist seems to have an incredible IQ on paper, but actually acts like a fool.
So I simply set it up so that cultivating immortals could not change IQ, and I thought this would avoid the IQ problem.
This caused a lot of controversy...
As time goes by, I realize that it is impossible to satisfy everyone and I can only try to avoid controversial issues.
There are many problems in the transition from cultivating immortals in the city to daily campus life. That is, in order to depict the campus, the plot of the protagonist must be reduced accordingly, and supporting roles need to be added, so it gradually becomes a group portrait.
Then again, I was told that I only wanted to see the protagonist.
So the protagonist goes to cultivate immortality and engage in business, but because of the setting of immortal cultivators, it is not easy to engage in conspiracies and tricks, and only the simplest and crudest methods can be used, otherwise he will appear stupid.
As a result, many people said, please stop writing about cultivation and business, and come back to writing about daily life.
Then, after writing too much about daily life, some people said it was too bland, without ups and downs, and they were bored.
In the process of switching back and forth between cultivation, business, and daily life, there are people complaining in almost every chapter.
I'm always trying to find a balance in the middle.
I know that everyone doesn’t like the revival of spiritual energy, the ancient martial arts family, or rushing to the moon and Mars.
So I chose the method of soul replacement, adding more plots, and laying the groundwork for several chapters to make it more reasonable. As a result, many readers directly skipped the part about the other world, or simply deleted the book.
Actually, now that I think about it carefully, I could just write about daily life. Why should I write about cultivating immortals? It would be a thankless task.
I'll continue writing in the style of everyday writing until it reaches 1 million words, and everyone will be happy.
Or maybe I shouldn't have changed my writing style from the very beginning. There is still an audience for urban cultivation novels.
Moreover, I can write the pretentious and face-slapping characters quite smoothly. I can just keep fighting all the way through. When I reach a bottleneck, I add some ancient martial arts families, foreign vampires, gods and so on. When I reach a bottleneck again, I add alien invasions.
If you keep writing like that, your results won't be worse than they are now.
What I remember most clearly is that a reader wrote a review of several thousand words on the previous book, telling me not to try to do something thankless and to write a simple plot. I was very dissatisfied when I read that review, and I just wanted to do something different.
I still have it now and take it out to read when I have nothing to do.
Thinking about it now, I admit that what he said does make sense.
Let’s get back to the present. Actually, with this kind of writing style, there are no great writers to refer to anymore, and I can only figure out each step by myself.
As for the results, it’s okay. With 24-hour follow-up, the number of subscriptions is around 2,000. It’s not that good, not even a fraction of what the great ones get, but for me, I’m already quite satisfied.
Don't worry about it being discontinued. The last book had 30 subscriptions, and I was able to keep writing for three months. Even if the data drops a lot now, it can't be worse than the previous one.
There is no need to worry that the author will run away after being criticized. I have a good attitude. The number of people who criticized my previous book was no less than this one. Every day when I opened my eyes, I could see people scolding me for that book.
Even with 30 follow-up subscriptions, I can persist, and for this book, at least there is hope for the results.
There will be other-world plots in the future, it’s just a matter of more or less. Once the subsequent outline is ready, I will continue writing at my own pace. All I can do is make the story interesting.
Finally, I would like to thank my friends who have always supported me, those who often give me rewards, whose IDs I can see in the background, and those who point out typos for me and leave comments in new chapters.
Thanks also to the silent majority who are willing to support this "strange" story.