The Webnovel Writer's Chatgroup 20 Author's Pov#4: Daokouhai

"Finally, home sweet home" - I sighed when I reached this d.a.m.n door. While the only bus stops quite far away from my street, realistically reaching my house requires me to go all the way down said alley. And that could be considered normal, if not what awaited me past the entrance.

- "Grab me some floor tiles!"

- "Be careful with this paint, idiot!"

- "Where the heck is my gypsium?"

Instead of furniture, I had bags of cement and buckets of paints laying everywhere around. Rather than a quiet toilet, there is an empty s.p.a.ce in soon-to-be wc, where even the actual toilet got removed to allow the building group to lay the floor down. The noise of typical Slavic buildup can be heard not only from ongoing work in my own house but from every corner of this multifamily building, that just recently was pa.s.sed to owners hands.

I'm forced to live in this kind of place by my work. The one thing I could look up when coming back is refreshingly cold beer from a portable car fridge and another dose of craziness awaiting me behind Inkstone discord doors.

Throwing my backpack to the corner of my so-called "room", I sat in the only place where I could at least pretend to take a comfortable position – between my laptop supported by bare wall and pyramid of pillows, that serves as my backrest.

Remember what teachers in the school used to say about prolonged staring at a TV or computer screen? I just finished watching two different frames firing up in succession for the last eight hours, I instantly got pulled in front of my own monitor, where sweet gates of authors discord await.

"Lolis are better that shotas!" - right after opening the general channel, I'm welcomed by this kind of quirky message, followed by lines after lines of quarreling about this pointless topic. Do those people realize that if anyone heard them in real life, they would instantly call for the closest police patrol?

"Elyon got muted for one hour" - yet another happy ending for some dominatrix hidden behind MOD color in the active member's list.

After waiting for fitting timing, I finally type.

"Hey, guys! I came here for head pats and Nyans, but I just ran out of cats"

Yeah, I know it's not really original, but half a year spent in this horrid place taught me that those "cultured and dignified" authors hidden behind elaborate pen names are just normal people with their own quirks. They are the same as any other random person met in the street. Maybe with just some different… tastes?

"Hi! (head pat emote) How is your day going? (smiley emote)" - one of the hidden gems in this chat, replies to my greeting. While there might be others who did so as well, her reply is the one that outshines every other message appearing.

As my heart gets just a bit warmer and noises surrounding me are slowly muted by my brain, I chat with this strange bunch for a while. Soon I say my goodbyes and stretch my fingers again. Taking as comfortable position as its possible in the cramped area made out of furniture to big to be hidden away somewhere else, I gently stroke my gaming keyboard.

It's leftover from my childish aspirations to become a professional league player. This helps me immerse myself in the world I created in my own head in past weeks. While organizing my thoughts, I go through some of the most important points that I took from Brandon Sanderson lessons and think about how can I lead my characters from one point in the story to another. Of course, I remembered to advertise it on discord yet again!

Sinking down the bottomless hole of my own creation I have to struggle with all my psychical might to not let my mind wander to all those beautiful and heart-catching moments that will appear later in the novel. For me, they might be something great as I already know my own story, as well as someone possibly can, but I cannot just carelessly pour my ideas on the page shown by my faithful, broken laptop.

First, come setting. Readers need to know where the situation is taking place. Is it rainy, or maybe the sunrays are bothering the characters? Is the location flat, or filled with hills that obstruct vision, and make the whole setting smaller but more detailed? Where are the other people in the scene and why are they there?

Experienced authors might be able to write this kind of stuff without even thinking about it, but I'm really far from this point. As a reader, I tend to skip parts with less action than others, but as a writer, I simply can't. I need to find a perfect balance between showing the world and making them feel attached to my characters. As a certain villain in a recent hit movie said – everything must be perfectly balanced.

When I finally find the optimal setting, I start typing furiously, trying to paint the scenes happening in front of my closed eyes as close as my ability allows. Why did the custom official approach the main character with enmity? How can I show it without making it obvious? Those kinds of thoughts are left behind. Now, I write.

I type and type and type. It doesn't matter if I make mistakes, Grammarly and revisions will fix them later. It doesn't matter if the dialogue doesn't flow properly, I care about conveying the point, working the style out might wait. I fall into the typing spree, as events on the small scale unfold before me, without even my realization!

Yes, I do have an outline, perfected by weeks of effort. I know what needs to happen on a global scale, but how can my characters reach those points? I'm discovering it right now.

I type and type until my fingers cannot hold anymore. After a few quick gulps of soda, I quench my thirst and go back to writing. Workers left the house a while ago, no one can stop me now. Well, everyone can but that requires breaking through entry doors!

I hear my phone signaling I got the message. To h.e.l.l with it! It's probably another pointless weather alert that recently stepped upon the road to becoming a meme. Checking it out would require me to stop internet tethering and move my lazy a.s.s, I will do that later.

But at some point, everything stops. My characters reached the point when their next decision will be essential to the development of the story. Will they try to bribe the official? Or maybe break through the border to avoid paying customs?

Even I do not know that. But this feeling, this sense of accomplishment signals me that it's over. This chapter can't be overwritten, as it would lose its right tempo. It will get shorter during editing, but the plot won't move forward even an inch.

The laptops clock indicates that I need to go to sleep soon, but my work is not over yet. After doing my best writing the chapter, the most annoying, bothersome and important part hits me. Now I need to edit this mess to fix major grammar and spelling mistakes. Grammarly will help here. Then I need to go through it again, fixing the style and the flow.

When I finish it, I put my chapter in yet another free software, that points out the mechanical flow, length of phrases, level of wording used or even how many times certain figures of speech were used. When I'm finally done with fixing all of that, I go through the chapter yet again, this time – reading it out loud. Apparently, this step can help find stuff that I omitted before.

In the end, I still have some parts I'm uncertain about, some specific names that might be wrong, some phrases that sound awful. I open the discord yet again and type.

"Hey guys, quick question, I'm not sure about few things, who has some time to help me out?"

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Author's Thoughts

Hi Guys Elyon Here! This chapter is written by the Author Daokouhai. He's currently writing his novel right now and I hope that we will see it soon! Until then, we'll be patiently waiting for the story that he is building for each and every one of us.