Special Interview 2: "Planning Memoirs – Author’s Edition: Reflections from Three Rivers"

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Reporter: “Welcome to the latest installment of the ‘Planning Memoirs’ author interview segment! Once again, we have with us the retired boxer and current student from Night Pivot City, the one-eyed author, Mr. [Author].”

Author (laughs): “Hello everyone, it’s me again.”

Reporter: “Hello, hello! Welcome, Mr. Author! I’ve heard your recent novel ‘Wasteland Romance Game’ will soon be featured in the Sanjiang recommendations, so I wanted to invite you here for a discussion.”

Author: “So that’s why you called me here?”

Reporter: “Exactly! How do you feel about your work making it to Sanjiang?”

Author: “Well… I’m really grateful to the editor for her trust and to the readers for their support, but honestly, I feel a cold sweat of guilt, something like ‘Is my book going to become a daily source of poison on Sanjiang?’ To be honest, I’m not some remarkable author. If you ask me for any secret to web novel writing, I could only tell you to write what you find fun… So, yes, I feel pretty unworthy… but I’ll keep writing regardless.”

Reporter: “Let’s delve into some juicier topics. If you don’t mind, could you talk about the inspiration sources for your book’s characters? I believe the readers are curious.”

Author (reflects): “Sure, I can do that. Let’s start with the protagonist, Chen Entropy. The name actually came from a male lead I imagined for a doujin for quite some time.”

Reporter: “Ah?”

Chen Entropy: “Ah?”

Author: “Ah? Chen… Planner, why are you here?”

Chen Entropy: “What do you mean? This interview column is called ‘Planning Memoirs’—how could I not be here?!”

Author: “Should I continue with this topic?”

Chen Entropy: “Go on, hurry up! Let me have some fun~!”

Author: “Alright, I’ll continue. Actually, I was bored and thought about drawing a doujin, even had the script ready. The male lead was named ‘Entropy Ren’—as the name suggests, someone who could travel across worlds, selling peculiar items as a shopkeeper and living purely for fun. The female lead was…”

Reporter (interrupts): “I don’t think you need to give such detailed introductions.”

Chen Entropy: “Don’t listen to him, continue~”

Author: “Never mind, I’d better not go on… In the end, this doujin project was scrapped because my drawing skills are terrible—making a comic would exhaust me to death.”

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Chen Entropy: “Were you planning for it to be a pure romance doujin?”

Author: “Of course, it would be the ultimate victory for pure love!”

Chen Entropy: “That’s better~ I won’t kill you, keep going.”

Author (relieved): “The name ‘Nayuta’ is quite simple—it’s directly inspired by Fujimoto’s ‘Chainsaw Man’ and ‘Prophecy Nayuta’. It’s the impression of a ‘cute, lively but powerful little sister’. When designing this character, I was influenced by the fact that in many youth romance harem works, the sister-type character is often portrayed as spoiled and capricious, loving her brother but constantly causing trouble for him out of selfishness, leading to polarized opinions. So I wanted to create a sister who is ‘not annoying, doesn’t cause trouble’—competent in every way and extremely doting on her brother.”

“As for ‘Chiyo Asougi’, her name is a fusion of two memorable names from ‘The Great Ace Attorney’ and ‘Dona: Dona’. I considered ‘Haruki Hanayama’ as well, but decided to leave that for a minor character. The reason the lady’s name is ‘Chiyo’ and not ‘Chiyoko’ is simply because I didn’t want to pad the word count with people’s names—names over five characters annoy me.”

“The inspiration for this character came from the prevalence of ‘mafia heiress’ types in youth romance novels, who tend to exude an air of superiority and extreme dominance, always surrounded by bodyguards or ready to kill. The male lead is usually threatened and at the mercy of such women. While I understand why masochistic readers might enjoy these dominant female characters, I really dislike them, especially when they’re part of the underworld. So I thought, if I could recreate a classic cold, authoritative mafia heiress, then have her dignity go to the dogs thanks to the protagonist… it might be quite hilarious?”

“In the first encounter between the protagonist and Chiyo Asougi, many readers felt frustrated, especially the scene where the male lead is slapped by a female bodyguard, but I oddly enjoyed writing it. Perhaps because I imagined the protagonist’s expression after being slapped as that confident smile from Jack taking off his glasses—so there’s this anticipation that ‘something big is coming’?”

“But honestly, I didn’t handle Chiyo’s early story as well as I wanted. Originally, I wanted the protagonist to be in control throughout and steadily conquer the mafia heiress, but when writing it, I found many parts couldn’t be logically resolved, so I ended up adding elements of luck to the plot.”

Chen Entropy: “That’s true. The first time I was brought to the Tokugawa Society, I was honestly pretty nervous.”

Author: “The name ‘Black Karyss’ was just me smashing my face on the keyboard. ‘Black Ka’ is ‘hack’, and ‘Lyss’ is ‘less’—just a random naming. Her design referenced Futaba Sakura from P5.”

“Xu Qing is another face-on-keyboard creation. The surname ‘Xu’ gives me an impression of a rich, self-admiring playboy… maybe influenced by ‘Nightwatchman of Dafeng’?”

“As for ‘Chu Jianlai’, the name comes from a short martial arts story I wrote, inspired by Li Yu from ‘Legend of Style’. He’s a talented, wealthy young martial artist whose family is exterminated after he obtains a powerful treasure, falls to rock bottom, eats the treasure and becomes an immortal war god, slaughtering the martial world. ‘Jianlai’ is a homophone for ‘Sword Comes’, and ‘Lai’ is from ‘Penglai’. I also considered ‘Chu Donglai’, as in ‘One sword comes from the East’, but both names are similar.”

“There are also some background names, like ‘Master of Pipe Control’, which is just a joke, no need for explanation. As for the priest in the neighboring black market, he’s not worthy of a name. Then there’s the Daoist master ‘Yu Qian’ and his granddaughter—their surname comes from ‘Legend of Style’, where there’s a girl named Yu Qian Fenghua, a memorable early female character for me. She hid in a well, waiting for the protagonist to keep her company, my second favorite character in the book besides Xiaocao.”

“Finally, about the naming of Jin Yuchuang: Whenever I think of Korean celebrities, I think of the surname ‘Kim’—I guess many people do, like Kim Soo-hyun or Kim Chan-yeol? In high school, many girls liked them and posted about them constantly. I used to dislike pop idols, but now I see they’re just voluntary merchandise on display. As long as they perform and earn money honestly, and fans stay rational, there’s no reason to condemn them. ‘Chuang’ comes from Hajime Isayama, and ‘Yu’ from a famous Bilibili content creator.”

Reporter: “Haha, what an entertaining response! Next, a question readers care about—a lot of people look at your past works and worry you’ll drop your books. What do you think about that?”

Author: “Well~ Actually, I personally know at least three authors who’ve changed pen names after dropping books, even though their results were far better than mine, sometimes dropping books in the middle of recommended slots. So judging whether an author will drop a book based on their previous works is something to be considered carefully.”

“The reason I continue using this account is precisely because I dropped books without regrets. I remember my first signed book—after thirty thousand words and going live, it only got three hundred bookmarks. I realized there were many problems, but to fix them would require a complete rewrite, which Qidian would never allow, or even if I rewrote it, attracting more readers would be unlikely. Forced by circumstances, I persisted until over sixty thousand words before finishing it.”

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“My second book went live without even reaching three hundred bookmarks—the results were even worse, and I realized I had made mistakes but couldn’t do major revisions. Plus, the pandemic broke out, and I was living away from home, always anxious about being evicted from my rented room due to some sudden event. In that situation, I had no mood to continue writing, especially with such poor results.”

“I wrote a few more later, but none got signed, so there’s not much to say. My philosophy is simple—if the results are terrible, just drop it. Rather than wasting time, it’s better to read others’ works, improve myself, and aim to write better books in the future, or maybe switch careers entirely.”

Chen Entropy: “I totally get that. It’s like ‘Don’t hang yourself on one tree, try a few others instead’?”

Author: “Wait, what kind of proverb is that?”

Reporter: “But Planner’s point is not without merit. Next question: What do you think is the meaning behind your writing?”

Author: “It’s for fun, obviously. I’m pretty indifferent—it’s because it’s fun that I started writing novels. If I were writing for profit, my friends would have persuaded me to write fanfiction two or three years ago, since that’s really fast money. I’ve thought more than once about why I write novels, and my conclusion is: ‘I want to write and share the stories in my heart, and that’s interesting,’ so I started writing.”

Reporter: “Mr. Author, for the final question of this interview: Do you consider yourself a writer?”

Author: “I… don’t think I am. Because a real writer is someone who takes responsibility for every word and plot, pours their life’s energy into their craft. I write for fun, write whatever interests me, I’m just a hobbyist.”

Chen Entropy: “You’re so strict with yourself—is this like one gun pointed at the enemy, one at yourself?”

Author: “No, no, nothing so dramatic. It’s just ordinary self-reflection, a reminder not to lose my mind like Fan Jin after passing the imperial exam.”

Reporter (nods): “Then I sincerely wish you maintain your inner joy and don’t get lost in wealth or fame.”

Author: “Thank you, I will.”

Chen Entropy (yawning): “Alright, that’s it, that’s it! I’m off to pet the white fox!”

Author: “Can I pet the white fox too?”

Chen Entropy: “No way—she’ll blow up if a stranger touches her!”

Author: “Then I’ll pass, I need to get back to my chemistry investigation report.”