Save The Second Male Lead

Random Ramblings: Tutorial

Optional read, skip it if you want or stay if you wanna.

List of things that cropped up while I was writing and trivia that might be missing from the story. They're loosely in order of chapter, but most are general enough to apply to the whole arc.

1. I included pictures only because I had them and wanted to use them. I would do more to set the mood, but I can never find the 'perfect' picture (I also forget most of the time).

2. In chapter 1-1, I said that not all chapters would be so long, I lied.

3. It took a horrendous amount of time to edit because I kept changing things. Some details may be missing because I kept changing things.

4. Reading back, I realise how jumpy it was at the beginning, I think I've gotten the hang of it now though. There are probably still gonna be some pacing issues, but I'm working on it.

5. The story and characters have changed drastically since their conception, Olivia being the worst offender. Whatever happened to her being a tomboy?

6. While writing 1-2, I was suffering from, and still have, severe hayfever.

7. I had to go back and change a lot of the wording, it just felt too stiff before.

8. Next arc is gonna be either ultra-modern or ancient, let me know if you prefer one or the other.

9. I wanted to do a subplot involving another host and make more of a traditional system novel (i.e. doting husband and an initially-reluctant-but-eventually-super-possessive-type of uke). Hence, Jake.

10. You call tell that it was in chapter 1-5 that I found my direction. I knew how I wanted the story to go, but it was then that I actually figured it out.

11. Writing it hard, I just want to give you all the spoilers and explain it all at once.

12. 1-5 took the longest of all of them, I spent weeks on it.

13. The plan was to make Amie fall for Andrew instead of Evan, but that never worked out so I dropped the idea.

14. In the scene, during chapter 1-5, where Evan is snooping on Jake sulking in the dessert place, Evan is calling Andrew.

15. Sudden feelings are sudden.

16. I did want to develop the other characters better but decided against it since this is only the first world and I didn't want to spend too long here.

17. The point about Zach knowing so much about Amie is that he hadn't noticed that he'd been subconsciously watching her the whole time; he cares more than he thinks.

18. After a certain chapter, I took a long break from writing, can you tell which one? Because I certainly can.

19. A = Amie, B = Beth, C = Cassidy, D = Danielle, E = Evan. Two dead and one missing.

20. Amie is part of the group because Lucille is using it to monitor them

21. Evan is part of the group because he wanted to know all the latest gossip about his brother, he knew of the plan beforehand but used it as an excuse to call Jake.

22. In the play, a large part of the reason the man rejected the girl because she was no longer a virgin (still fucking hate Claudio). I added for foreshadowing, drama and to vent.

23. Beth was a very good actress, good enough to hide her crazy.

24. Chapter 1-7 took a dark turn pretty suddenly.

25. I often forget to italicise words, or sounds, like hmm and ahh.

26. There's already a large cast, but would you believe it was actually going to get bigger?

27. You're supposed to stick to fewer people since it'll be easier to focus on and develop them, making them feel more real and interesting. I should do that next time.

28. I spent a long time trying to make chapters 1-7 and 1-8 as horrific as I could, but I could've made it worse. I held back because I thought it'd be too off-putting if went any further.

29. Protagonists are very good at looking good.

30. In 1-8, I was very much on the fence on the about the rape. I couldn't decide whether Andrew would save her before or after. In the end, I chose during. I was also thinking about making it worse (e.g. people were supposed to come after the man, pregnancy, etc.)

31. I have a feeling that 1-7 and 1-8 are going to put some people off, but I did it anyway.

32. I could've published this yesterday, but I held off because I was scared.

33. While writing this arc, I really wanted to move on to the next one because it's actually a good idea. This one was supposed to be a slow slice-of-life, but I then realised I'm not good at that so I changed it.

34. Sorry to anyone expecting yaoi, that's coming in the next one.

35.  Fun fact, I wanted to be an editor for a translation group a while back to help get my favourite series out faster. I had a whole list of groups, but it turns out I wasn't needed anywhere when I messaged them about it. It's not like I have any experience and I know that they probably need more translators than editors (or they may have already caught up to the original), so I get why I was unneeded. They were all very nice about it though.

At the time, I said I was okay, but I'm still kinda sad about it now ಥ_ಥ

Word count:

1-1: 4445 words

1-2: 3865 words

1-3: 4580 words

1-4: 4700 words

1-5: 4374 words

1-6: 4138 words

1-7: 4807 words

1-8: 4598 words