Lord of the Mysteries — Final Thoughts(Part 2)

Final Thoughts (Part 2)

As final thoughts, I definitely have to look back over the entire book, talk about the gains and losses in its creation, and only then can I know what should be maintained and what should be improved. Mm, I will discuss this in combination with my own writing methodology. Of course, this is something I refined for myself. It does not mean it is suitable for other people or other platforms. If you gain insight from it, that is very good. But if you copy it directly, it is very easy to find that the soil and water do not suit you. Even truth is divided into absolute truth and relative truth, much less this kind of very personal realization. Those who learn from me live; those who imitate me die, right?

For me personally, the first keyword in creation, and also the most important keyword, is “expression.”

The word “expression” is very broad. In a narrow sense, it can be equivalent to the theme of an article or its central idea. In a broad sense, anything one hopes to convey to readers belongs to the category of expression. We can express our thoughts on human nature, our understanding of the world, or the satisfaction we obtain. To put it more plainly, we can also express: I want it to feel very satisfying.

What did I hope to express with Lord of Mysteries?

First, a novel, interesting, worthwhile, complex, and fun worldview born from fusing some knowledge of Western mysticism with elements of the Cthulhu Mythos and the SCP Foundation.

Second, a beam of light in darkness and despair. (“Yes, precisely…” Amon was about to jump out, only to have Klein cover His mouth. “Precisely me.”) This beam of light is both compassion within human nature and a hymn to human courage. The darkness and despair are not only the circumstances of workers and farmers during the First Industrial Revolution, but also the Old Ones, evil gods, the unknown, the unobservable, chaos, madness, despair, and helplessness brought by Cthulhu Mythos elements.

Third, the confrontation and fusion of humanity and divinity. Why did I position Klein’s pathway as “Seer” and its endpoint as “The Fool”? On one hand, it was required by the story itself, and the Seer pathway could naturally unfold many mysticism elements in the early stage, bringing them in with interest. On the other hand, the hidden main body of Lord of Mysteries—uh, it is not really hidden, since I wrote it in the synopsis—is: the legend of a Fool.

In other words: the journey of a Fool.

And Tarot cards, a very important element in this book, have a relatively widely accepted interpretation: as a whole, they describe a Fool’s journey, beginning from The Fool and ending with The World, achieving completion.

Of course, I could not simply copy the interpretations and imagery of the Tarot cards. I would definitely make certain modifications in accordance with Lord of Mysteries. Therefore, the journey of a Fool refers to the gradual transformation from human to god, and to the spiritual journey brought by the confrontation and fusion of humanity and divinity.

On this point, because I wanted Klein to always retain a human side, a warm side, I did not portray it too directly through his inner psychological activity. More often, I expressed it through others, through the frequency and depth of his interactions with the entire world and the humans around him. It is more indirect.

Therefore, the further into the later stages the story goes, no matter how Klein emphasizes his humanity, the reading experience everyone gets is that he is drifting farther and farther from human society, becoming lonelier and lonelier, more and more abstract, gradually losing the feeling of flesh and blood. This is the journey of a Fool.

This structural design is actually a little clever, because my inspiration came from previous books. Mm, Martial Arts Master aside, people said about my earlier books that the further into the later stages the protagonist went, the more inhuman they became, the more they broke away from reality, and the less they seemed rooted in the world or society. So I might as well turn this kind of change from something unconscious on the author’s part into something conscious. This inspiration basically appeared after I finished reading some books on Tarot.

Looking back now, the first point was barely achieved. The second point, the part about light, was done well. The darkness was very good in the early stages, but as the level of power rose later, it weakened.

This is indeed a problem. It is also a structural problem with Lord of Mysteries, and it is also the fourth part of my methodology, “structure,” which I will discuss later.

Returning to the topic, starting from Sequence 3, the book’s mysticism aspect and its fear of the unknown experienced a certain stylistic split. As far as Cthulhu elements are concerned, once the unknown is explained and truly steps onto the stage, it loses most of its charm. Therefore, in the later stages, the sense of chaos and madness was maintained rather well, but darkness, despair, mystery, and the sense of insignificance were all somewhat lacking.

Before I began the book, I hesitated over whether I should write only up to Sequence 3 and leave the rest as background. That way, the overall style of the mysterious world would be very unified, and that fascinating sense of exploration, accompanied by fear, trembling, and mystery, could run through the entire text.

But in the end, I was still somewhat greedy. I hoped that Lord of Mysteries could outline the general shape of the entire worldview, so that afterward, I could calmly play within this worldview.

For the third point, my personal score is above passing, but not over 80. The main reason is that my heart was still not ruthless enough, and the expression was not direct enough.

After “expression,” the second set of keywords in my creation is “fun and interesting.”

That is to say, once I determine what I want to express, I must examine whether my subject matter and possible methods of expression are suitable.

It is not that certain subjects cannot be written. Setting aside external factors, whether a subject can be written depends only on whether you can write it in a fun and interesting way.

Home cooking also depends on who cooks it and how they cook it.

Mm. Humans, in essence, seek novelty and strangeness. Of course, they also pursue satisfaction and emotion. I handle the latter two in the “emotion” section. Here, I will only talk about novelty and strangeness.

Novelty does not simply mean rarity, and strangeness does not purely mean sensationalism. They should be closer to having new ideas and being somewhat different from others.

As for fun and interesting, there is still quite a big difference between them in terms of meaning. Fun refers more to playfulness and novelty. Interesting can carry the meaning of “something worth pondering.”

Something interesting may not necessarily be fun or humorous, but it can immerse people and make them feel that it is meaningful, that it can be pondered, and that it can let their imagination spread.

Something fun may not necessarily be interesting either. There are many novels now that are purely lighthearted, humorous, and meme-based, and they also have a huge market.

Of course, the two can also be combined. If something is fun while also making people feel it is interesting, making them willing to ponder, study, immerse themselves in it, and fantasize, then it has double the attraction.

If something is interesting, and on top of that, the writing, character interactions, and details are made fun, that can likewise add the finishing touch and give everyone more motivation to keep following.

For Lord of Mysteries, the goal I set for myself was to first make it interesting, then pursue fun. Looking back now, the system of the twenty-two pathways, 220 potions, nine sefirot, and the acting method did indeed achieve novelty, strangeness, fun, and interest.

As for behavior, interactions, and details, I also tried my best to keep them from being monotonous or dry. Most of the time, I still met the requirements.

Of course, there remains room for improvement in this aspect.

My third creative keyword is “immersion.”

Do not immediately think that immersion means wish fulfillment. In truth, there are many kinds of immersion. It is true that many people immerse themselves in the protagonist, but some immerse themselves in the protagonist’s father, mother, brother, or girlfriend. Some immerse themselves in supporting characters, in the roles of audience and reader, in the worldview, in the community of Earth, in the sacred feeling of science, in classical culture, and so on and so forth. There is no single form.

Once an author has determined what they wish to “express,” and has found a fun and interesting point of entry in the subject matter and method of expression, the next thing to consider is: from which angle should the main readers immerse themselves? This will determine what narrative technique you use, what article structure you adopt, and what kind of groundwork you lay.

Previously, on my public account, I posted a three-chapter brainstorm. That was actually an idea generated while I was thinking about “immersion.” I hoped the main readers would immerse themselves in the knowledge of Earth, watching a native make jokes and grow with the help of Earth’s knowledge, with a mentality that was both amused and proud, and with satisfying moments.

For Lord of Mysteries, apart from the common immersion in the protagonist, I put more energy into the power system, potions, acting method, and overall worldview. Therefore, I used many techniques of suspense and mystery-solving, setting hooks little by little and unfolding things little by little, allowing everyone to immerse themselves.

The fourth creative keyword is “structure.”

After walking through the first three steps and thinking through the story outline, I then have to conceive the overall structure of the novel according to these things.

Therefore, when I say that the ending portion of Lord of Mysteries was imagined from the very beginning, that is something you can completely see. Echoes between beginning and end, the cycle of fate, the closing of the story—these all unfold under a large structure. Personally, I find that there is a peculiar beauty to this.

Beyond the overall structure of the novel, there is also the structure of each individual part. I talked before about the structure of Volume 1. I am very proud of it; it was done very well. I also talked about the structures of Volumes 2 and 3. After that, I rarely mentioned this word, mainly because the further I wrote, the greater the constraints, and the smaller the degree of freedom. If I could not think of a good structure or good point of entry, I would rather adopt the most common or already-used story structure. There was nothing particularly worth discussing.

Among them, Volume 4 is a type of layered progression that finally detonates the buried lines. Volume 5 is vortex-shaped, rolling larger and larger until it produces a major change. I think I mentioned Volume 6 before: it is a plain sandwiched between high peaks before and after. Volume 7 is a sudden outbreak amid daily travel, overall rather close to the structure of Volume 2. Volume 8 continuously pushes climaxes, then ends with lingering aftertaste.

Within this, because the structural idea for certain volumes was not clear enough when I officially began writing them, or because I did not know how to achieve the expected effect, rhythm problems appeared in the middle portions, or certain things had to be sacrificed for the sake of plot logic.

These are all experiences and lessons. In the future, when beginning a new volume, I need to do my best to make my own setting and grasp of the structure very clear, rather than merely having a concept and then vaguely trying, exploring, and writing. If I write that way, then if my luck is good and my state is good, I may seize inspiration and perhaps produce a surprise. But most of the time, many, many problems will appear.

The fifth set of creative keywords is “reality and authenticity.”

This actually developed from the third keyword, “immersion.” At first, I felt that what produced the strongest immersion might be the most realistic environment, and then one could transcend reality on that foundation. The most realistic thing is, without question, our daily lives: the urban genre.

Under that premise, urban fiction is absolutely the easiest genre for immersion. So after finishing The Sage Who Transcended Samsara, I thought of blending xuanhuan into the urban genre. It would be both realistic and transcendent of reality, and at the same time, I could train my ability to write daily life and details. Thus, Martial Arts Master was born. In truth, the early-stage effect was quite good. But later I discovered that I had underestimated a problem: the limitations of the urban genre itself. Because I did not sufficiently consider this when designing the setting, the later stages could not unfold, the story became repetitive, and lacked change.

This idea of mine has been verified in some of the popular genres of recent years, which is somewhat gratifying. However, the gaze of 404 is watching the urban genre, so the large trend I imagined was unable to appear.

After finishing Martial Arts Master, my understanding of immersion and reality became deeper. I came to believe that compared to “reality,” “authenticity” better reflects the essence.

As long as something is authentic enough and can immerse readers, it can achieve the effect of reality, and it also carries more of the pursuit of novelty and strangeness.

Therefore, when writing Lord of Mysteries, I consulted a large amount of materials and enriched the details precisely to make this world vivid and lifelike, allowing everyone to naturally immerse themselves while reading. They would know what people eat here, what they use, how much things cost, and what the customs and habits are.

This actually has something in common with AAA games in recent years: an open and free world, but one that is authentic enough.

A sense of authenticity and immersion—this was an idea that gradually became clear to me after finishing Martial Arts Master and during the process of writing Lord of Mysteries. Only by this point did I truly refine my complete writing methodology.

Of course, writing this way is truly exhausting. Very exhausting.

On this point, Lord of Mysteries did very well in the early and middle stages. Later, after the Sequences became higher, it weakened to a certain degree. The next thing I need to think about is how to create authenticity at high power levels.

The sixth keyword is “smoothness.”

I remember talking about this in the earlier summaries, so I will not say much here—mainly because after writing so many words in one breath, my thoughts are starting to wander, and I want to play and be lazy.

My understanding of “smoothness” is that plot turns require enough groundwork; emotional progression requires enough time to ferment and an appropriate enough release. If the former is not handled well, and turns are made merely for the sake of turns or climaxes for the sake of climaxes, they will only feel abrupt and fail to reflect the sense of impact. If the latter is not handled well, it easily becomes melodrama and over-sentimentality.

In this regard, I have always restrained myself. If it is not suitable to stab readers with tragedy, then absolutely do not do it. You cannot stab for the sake of stabbing. If a major character cannot die in a way that has value, is appropriate, and has impact, then it is better for them to live. Trauma for the sake of trauma is not smooth.

Likewise, do not randomly make things sentimental where sentimentality is not needed. Emotional expression must distinguish clearly when it should be restrained, when it can erupt, whether the overall atmosphere supports this, and so on.

Also, you cannot make face-slapping for the sake of face-slapping or satisfaction for the sake of satisfaction. When the plot pushes forward, satisfying points will naturally arise smoothly, without making people embarrassed.

In this aspect, I did fairly well in Lord of Mysteries. The only time I went overboard was the chapter with the self-questioning, but even that had traces leading to it.

The seventh keyword is “characters.”

I have said before that I am someone who has the story first and the characters afterward, which is somewhat different from having the characters first and the story afterward. But starting from Martial Arts Master, I increasingly felt that characters are equally important.

In a novel, the worldview is the skeleton, the plot is the flesh, and the characters are the blood. Without good characters, the novel will become heavy and lifeless. It will be hard to keep every part of a long-form work interesting and attractive, and it will also be difficult to create resonance, emotion, and all kinds of feelings.

In terms of character creation, aside from the layering of character design, I can be said to have slowly explored one word: “interaction.”

A character’s image is established through their interactions. Isolated psychological activity and individual action are useful once or twice, but if repeated too many times, they inevitably become monotonous, thin, and dull.

With interaction, characters come alive and reveal different selves in different interactions.

I will not expand on the specifics because I have written too much and want to finish quickly.

Also, extreme characters inevitably come from extreme plots, and extreme plots inevitably shape extreme characters. The two are not completely separate.

In Lord of Mysteries, I went from a vague understanding to clear application, so I did gain something in this regard and created some decent characters. Of course, due to length and due to character growth curves being unable to keep up with Klein, some characters can only be considered to have completed their first half. I hope the future second book can portray them better.

Overall, although Amon is disliked by many people, His overall character completion is the highest after Klein.

Similarly, I have certain problems in shaping many antagonist characters. I mentioned this in Volume 7. I am always used to setting them too strong, resulting in too few opportunities for them to appear, very little emotional accumulation, and even less interaction. I will need to change this in the future.

In addition, combined with the keyword “authenticity,” characters must also pay attention to the issue of whether they become distorted. Sometimes, if humor is overdone or memes are overused, it is very easy for characters to become distorted and degrade into the kind of roles found in most anime. Of course, this does not mean such characters cannot have charm. Whether they are distorted or not still depends on the overall atmosphere of the story.

The eighth keyword is “change.”

This is the one I mentioned most often in summaries. What a novel must avoid most is remaining unchanged. Whether it is the open storyline or the hidden storyline, there must inevitably be a certain degree of change, otherwise it cannot support a very long length. Even the simplest infinite-flow fantasy stories have to eliminate the repetitive feeling of the plot through one map change after another.

During the process of writing Lord of Mysteries, in the middle of Volume 4, the advancement line stretched too long, causing insufficient change and a decline in plot tension. Previously, in the later stages of Martial Arts Master, things became difficult to unfold, the plot began to repeat, and fights grew increasingly boring. These have all been mentioned before. I need to improve them properly in the future, always pay attention, remain clearly aware, and prevent them ahead of time.

The ninth keyword is “details.”

Details. The devil is always in the details. This is also the key to putting “immersion,” “authenticity,” “smoothness,” and “characters” into practice.

Without details, there is no question that things will not feel authentic, immersion cannot be achieved, interactions will be uninteresting, and turns will be abrupt.

This is a big topic, so please allow me to be lazy and not discuss it. After all, this is not a writing class.

In short, Lord of Mysteries has many details, and therefore it gained texture, characters, images, and emotional resonance. I am very satisfied with this. But the battles in the later stages focused too much on expressing abstraction and conceptualization, gradually lacking details. This is indeed not a small problem.

At present, I have gained some ideas regarding this. The inspiration came from JoJo: give abilities rules and limitations, rules and limitations that are as simple as possible but clear enough, then work within that framework. This way, abilities have boundaries, and details are guaranteed.

This is one point that can be improved in the future.

The tenth keyword is “emotion.”

Writing up to this point, I really do not want to write anymore. I am too tired. I have emotions now.

Sigh. In truth, many web novel authors have talked about emotion, and quite a few even place it at the core of their own creative methods. The entire story is planned and laid out around how to stir readers’ emotions.

I also value emotion greatly, because a good climax, a good passage, or a good character will ultimately contain or bring emotion. Without emotion, the story becomes dry and lacks sufficient attraction.

I will not talk about other techniques for building hatred and so on. I know many of them but use few. I prefer using plot conflicts to push forward.

However, with regard to emotion, I will constantly pay attention to whether the progression of emotion is natural and smooth, and whether there are too many interruptions in the middle. Otherwise, one cannot build up a climax or build up impact.

In addition, emotion cannot be equated only with hatred and release, nor only with love and justice—no, nor only with being moved, liking something, satisfaction, and so on. A good author must try to enrich their arsenal and have more types of emotions they can mobilize.

In Lord of Mysteries, the emotion I gave overall was quite restrained, and I kept the progression of emotion smooth. Therefore, these many creative keywords definitely do not exist separately. They cooperate with one another and are naturally integrated.

As for classic scenes of emotional expression in Lord of Mysteries, I can recall several with my eyes closed, so I will not praise myself. Mainly, I am too lazy to write them out. In short, this was done pretty well. In the next book, I hope to increase the explosive intensity of emotional release and combine it organically with other forms of emotional expression.

The eleventh keyword would be replacing “climax” with “impact,” with scenes such as “Chernobyl” serving as examples. The twelfth keyword… Forget it. I will not write it. I am too tired, and the ink has run dry. In any case, the rest are the less important ones.

Writing out my creative thoughts, I am not afraid of others learning from them. Quite the opposite: I really hope someone learns from them. That would mean I could have many books suited to my tastes to read. But creating a novel in this way is destined to be tiring. Of course, it is also very satisfying.

Mm, finally, let me report the numbers. Lord of Mysteries now has an average subscription of 109,000. Because the final volume gave a boost, follow-up subscriptions have remained quite high, overall a little higher than Volume 7 as a whole. Most of the time, they hovered between 61,000 and 63,000. The lowest was still around 58,000, I think. The highest was the final three chapters, all of which broke 70,000. The last chapter now has 90,000 within twenty-four hours…

After finishing the creative summary for Lord of Mysteries and summarizing the gains and losses, let me talk about the new book.

Mm. I will not directly begin Lord of Mysteries 2. I am worried I would repeat some things from this book. I hope to write something else first to change my brain and accumulate a little more.

As I said before, the new book will be chosen between wasteland and xianxia. While writing Lord of Mysteries, I hoped my next book could have a lighter tone and be more fun, so at first I leaned toward xianxia. Later, someone told me I could completely make the protagonist a little crazier and have him dilute the tone of the wasteland. That seemed quite interesting.

In short, the scales are balanced again now. After I rest for a while and empty out my brain, I will ask myself which one I want to write most.

The new book is preliminarily set for mid-November. I will announce the specific time on my public account. From now until then, I will first serialize a small extra of twenty to thirty thousand words here. Afterward, I will intermittently and irregularly post some Lord of Mysteries settings, write some small extras, announce the new book’s subject matter and some settings, and solicit cameo characters. Search “wuzei1985”; it is the one with the anime avatar.

Finally, once again, thank you, everyone. Thank you to all friends who subscribed to this book and liked this book. It was you who gave me the opportunity to tell the story in my heart.

Also, thank you to the friends who have always voted with monthly tickets. Two days ago, we broke Qidian’s male-frequency monthly ticket record. Let us congratulate ourselves. Laugh.

Thank you to the friends who supported characters on the rankings. Because of this, Klein, Audrey, Leonard, Sharron, and the others have their own birthday parties.

Thank you to the friends who tipped. My attitude has always been: do not let this affect your own life, your studies, or your other entertainment. Under that premise, I can only pull open my pocket while saying, “No need, no need.” Who doesn’t love money? Serious face.

Thank you to the friends who generated electricity out of love for Lord of Mysteries and recommended it to others. Being liked and affirmed is a wonderful experience.

Thank you to my forum moderators and managers. You truly work hard, and the blame you shoulder is both black and huge.

Thank you to my advisory groups. You spent too much time giving suggestions on covers and merchandise.

Thank you to the friends who posted comments and chapter comments. Most of the time, you brought me a good mood. At first, I read every single one. Later, there were more and more, and I truly could not finish them all. That would delay my writing, so I could only set a fixed time and read a portion.

Thank you to all the friends who accompanied Lord of Mysteries all the way to its completion. These two years, having your company was my fortune. I also hope this becomes a beautiful memory in your lives.

At the very end, I press my hand to my chest and bow in salute.

At the very, very end, times three: the promised extra will probably update on May 7 at 12:30 noon, in the form of chapter notes, one chapter per day, for seven to ten days.

After finishing these final thoughts, I will take a good rest and sleep in properly.

I look forward to meeting you again!