Hello and good evening to you! My name is Menchikatsu, author of My World and You. I know you were expecting a chapter this week and will be horribly disappointed (hmmm…or maybe not…GAH! I hope you’re at least a little disappointed!) this week by the slight detour in the story. I swear I’m not slacking! With the holidays and a new surge of Coronavirus upon us here in America, things have become rather hectic, so my usual process of editing and rewriting has been thrown completely off-kilter. I hope you are all keeping safe during this trying time. I don't want anything to happen to any of you or those you care for!
I thought about rushing through the process, but I really didn’t want to give you a half-assed chapter filled with too many errors and random bits of rambling adding nothing to the story ( I mean, more than I already do, anyway.) I also think it’s important to know a bit more about the characters you’ve been reading about and, some of you might be interested in the process I have when I write. For those interested, this and the next two weeks is for you! For those of you who couldn’t care less, please know I don’t blame you and I hope you will join me again when the story continues December 19!
For this week’s vignette I will be discussing a bit about the process of writing My World and You, how it started, where it’s going and a bit about what’s to come not only with MWAY but the new project on deck after. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to either message me or post them in the comments section below. I’ll always reply or, at least, like what you write!
So, My World and You began as, honestly, a complete departure from Kunoichi. I wrote Kunoichi as a manga-style high drama piece with short chapters and over-the-top scenarios no one would ever face. I was happy with the way it came out but I really kind of wanted to slow things down a bit and explore the environment and characters a bit more in this one.
I decided to place the story in the Tottori Prefecture as it seems to get no love except maybe as a reference to “backwoods” from time to time. Tottori is very picturesque with the only sand dunes in Japan (complete with camels!) as well as the famous Ube shrine (which is where our main character, Kasumi, works, in fact.) The main appeal to me, however, in setting the story there is that Tottori is the least populated prefecture in Japan. This was important to me because I wanted the main character to view the town as something akin to a prison from which there seemed no escape.
The basis of the story was a manga I am reading called “Liberty” written by Kitta Izumi (the voice actress from Cardfight!! and No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular) and illustrated by Momono Moto. I call it the most hated GL manga on Mangadex. If you have ever read it, you’ll see why. Personally, it’s my guilty pleasure and, though I hate it, I love it, too. Anyway, after reading it I had an introduction to a story pop into my head I found interesting:
“I was born here. In a small house down the coast from Mount Daisen with a wooden floor and purple flower curtains I took my first breath. I would do what my whole family had done for generations. I would stay in this small town, marry a fisherman, raise 2.4 children to adulthood before watching 1.6 of them move to a city far away where they would live a life of their own. I would cultivate several friendships my husband approved of; friendships which would never be tested by hopes or dreams or unfulfilled ambitions. Then, one day when the storms blew in from the Sea of Japan and lashed the worn windows, I would draw my last breath staring at those same purple flower curtains.
I would want for nothing because to want you must be aware you don’t have. I would dream of nothing. Hope for nothing and at the end; when I was laid to rest, I would be no more than a memory, perhaps, to the children I’d raised and a name etched in stone on a small marker where I’d been laid to sleep forever. The winds and sea would eventually wash that name away and I would rest in obscurity, finally truly becoming what I always had been…nothing.
That was my lot in life. You changed that outcome. For better or worse, you pulled me from my destiny and dared me to hope and dream. You lit a fire in my heart that burned too bright and hot to be extinguished. I don’t know whether to thank you or curse your existence. Once the horizon was no longer the edge of my reality, I knew longing. I knew what it felt like to want so I could never accept my fate.
Now, although some day my name will be washed away from a simple stone marker like it had never been, that marker will not be in the shadow of Mount Daisen. In so many ways, though it’s selfish to say, I wish I had never met you. I wish I had never felt the warmth of your hand or basked in the joy of your smile because I miss it. I miss you. Sitting here in my small room far from the Sea of Japan I can only wish you were here. The kotatsu is warm but your absence chills me in a way the heater can never erase. You gave this hell to me.
Each day, waking up with hope springing eternal in my heart that today I will find you is torture, because each night I curl up under this blanket and lay my head down unfulfilled. You gave me the world beyond the horizon and then were gone; leaving me alone to navigate a land you opened for me. A place you can exist in, but I have no experience or skill for. I hate you for opening my eyes. I love you with every fiber of my being and I hate every second of it.”
I wrote that and thought “Yes…but what does it mean? The story evolved as I wrote the initial outline and fleshed the characters out a bit, so my initial introduction doesn’t necessarily hold true anymore. I wanted to avoid any tropes but, let’s be honest, that’s not really possible anymore. Rather than avoiding all tropes I contented myself with the oldest trope in manga, the new student. Why fight the horde of tropiness when you can embrace it and wallow in its glory?
When I write, I usually start with the ending of the story. In this case, the end of the entire series, and work back from that point to figure out how I get there. Since the whole story is broken into three parts, I had a clear point I knew I could stop at with each book. Once I figure out how to break it down I write the bios for the characters. Who are these people? What makes them tick? What are their thoughts and personalities? How do they react to situations they find themselves in? What are they thrilled by and afraid of? I like to know who my characters are.
Then, finally, I start the outline. I go chapter by chapter with just a rough idea of the point I want to reach. Once the outlines are done I start writing. My first draft is usually really bad. It's tough to edit by myself since I read it the way I intended to write it; not necessarily how it comes out, so I tend to read it aloud. Once the editing is done, including cutting of unnecessary things, I do a final check of grammar and spelling and post it here!
I’ve written the outline and am currently working on finishing the story which will be the first of three planned books telling the whole story of Kasumi and her world. I wanted the story to be a bit more introspective than Kunoichi was, with a touch of emotional depth. I wanted the villain to be less over the top and the hero to be more human. I hope I’ve accomplished that so far and you aren’t too disappointed.
I also wanted this to be a high school story because only in those few short years is the future truly open for many of us. College comes and the future begin to coalesce and then adulthood and the time for dreams and hopes begins to grow short, overwhelmed by work and pretending to do adult things as well as we’re able. As Emi would say, the eternal suckiness of being an adult sets in. In high school we’re still young enough to explore our own bodies, some areas for the first time, and we’re beset by worries which can quickly dominate our entire existence, even though in hindsight they seem small and petty. It is the last time for many of us where we can fully embrace being the emotional train wrecks we all secretly are and not feel like we’re being judged too harshly by our more adult acquaintances.
For the next book after My World and You, I will be doing my first try at an Isekai novel about an elf, a mage, a prince and some drama, action, and brutality (still GL, though, because GL forever!!!). I hope you’ll join me for that. Then I’ll be back to work on MWAY Book 2! Since there will be a gap between the books for MWAY I’ll give a proper ending, so it won’t be a cliffhanger. I hate when authors do that, leave me hanging for years while they go about their merry way. I promise the ending of Book One will be a proper end so if you never read 2 and 3 you won’t be too dissatisfied!
You are why I write. I don’t make money from writing and, if I could make millions from writing stories no one read, I don’t think I’d be interested. At the end of the day, if I’ve brought a smile or frown or anger or sadness or joy to your few moments with my story then the work is well worth it. Thank you for spending your precious time with me and reading my humble stories. It means more than you’ll ever know. Next week will be the process of creating the characters and Ms. Kasumi's interview. The week after will be the other characters and then I will be back for the final push to the conclusion! I hope you’ll join Kasumi, Emi, Saki, Mizuki, Aria (not Jun. Screw that guy.) and the others! Thank you!
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