Chapter 8

I am an author, Chapter 008

Chapter 8

"Great!"

I was worried that if this didn't work out, what would I do.

But it cleanly took the top spot.

I closed the Bukjoa website as if I didn't need to look at it anymore.

"I've set up the conditions to attract traffic. If it can't maintain the top spot even after being held overnight until morning, it means I can't write."

Everything would be decided when I wake up.

But I didn't go to sleep right away.

I reopened the third volume manuscript that I had just closed after posting the latest chapter.

"How much did I write?"

I checked the amount I had written for the third volume all day today.

'Control, Q, I.'

In the Korean word processing program, pressing these shortcut keys shows how much you've written.

I confirmed the number of characters displayed in the document statistics window.

I was surprised when I saw it.

"Wow! I wrote this much?"

Characters: 55,930

After revising the manuscripts for the first two volumes all night, I woke up at 3 PM.

Considering I ate and talked to Chul, I had written non-stop for about eight hours.

"Did I really write this much?"

With the paid serialization market, most authors posted a 5,000-character chapter daily.

The time allocated for each chapter varied widely among authors.

Some authors could write a chapter in less than an hour, while others couldn't finish even after spending an entire day.

But how much did I write?

I wrote about 7,000 characters per hour.

If other authors heard this, they would probably curse me.

Don't deceive us.

I was also surprised by the incredible speed.

"Could I have received a buff to my writing speed when I regressed?"

In the paid serialization market, it was common for modern-setting regression novels to give the protagonist additional buffs.

For example, the protagonist might return to their younger self and gain exceptional abilities in their field, or learn and grow skills like a game character.

I wondered if I had received a writing speed buff when I regressed.

"Otherwise, this incredible speed..."

But thinking about it, it wasn't impossible.

There were occasionally authors in the paper book market who could produce a volume's worth of content in one or two days.

Considering them, this speed isn't entirely unrealistic.

"Should I check if I really received a buff?"

The method to check was simple.

The reason I could write this much might be because I had already written up to the fifth volume in my head.

So, if this ability is truly a result of regression, I should be able to write at this speed with a new work.

I decided to write for just one more hour to test my ability before going to sleep.

"Hmm, what should I write?"

First, I needed to decide what to write.

Title, theme, and goal.

The title is the first thing that shows readers what the work is about.

But since I was writing to test my ability, I didn't need a title right away.

The title would naturally come once I decided on the theme and goal.

"Theme, since I just wrote about an emperor, how about a mercenary king named Katsu?"

I thought about writing about Katsu, the mercenary king, who was the father of the protagonist Loki in "Emperor Loki."

But I decided to write a different story.

"Since I already set the details of Katsu while writing 'Emperor Loki,' it would be hard to objectively test my ability."

So, I postponed the story of Katsu.

"Let's see, what's a popular theme these days... Dragon stories? No, they're already on the decline. Maybe something lighter, like a high school romance?"

While considering these two themes, I had an idea.

"Sure, dragon stories might not be selling well anymore, but dragons are still considered the best. What if a high school student, who can only handle griffins or wyverns like others, could control the strongest race, dragons, all by himself?"

This idea came from combining the two themes.

I started by writing the title I had been thinking about.

Tap, tap, tap!

Title: Dragon Knight

Once I decided on the title and theme, the protagonist's early story and goal were set.

"The prologue... Yeah! I was only thinking about a poor protagonist who aced the college entrance exam and got into a prestigious university, but suddenly got diarrhea and couldn't even go home after the exam, so he went to the back mountain and encountered a gate."

I started writing the prologue, reciting the story I had just thought of.

It felt like a lot of time had passed, but how long could a short prologue take?

I focused solely on the prologue, not paying attention to the time.

"When he went in, he found himself in an academy where he could become a Wing Knight, a knight who tames and controls flying monsters."

I wrote up to the point where he crossed the gate.

Then I got stuck.

What scene should I use to end the prologue?

"The professor could naturally admit the protagonist by sending him to a place where information about new students is collected. But since the protagonist is from another dimension, he shouldn't have a last name, so he could be placed in a position where a certain number of commoners are selected each year."

But this didn't seem enough.

I added more realistic settings.

"Commoners are selected because a legendary Wing Knight came from that background, and the protagonist's ability to understand a different language after dimensional travel can be a buff."

Once I set the necessary settings for the story, I only needed to decide one more thing for the prologue.

The ending.

The key was how to end the prologue.

I had already quickly progressed to the point where the protagonist had traveled to another dimension.

The setting of a high school student traveling to another world is common, so there was no need to explain it in detail to the readers.

Writing a long, predictable story would only make it boring.

"Let's end it with the protagonist being surprised by the dimensional travel."

I decided on the final scene of the prologue and continued writing.

But I got stuck again.

"Umm, should the protagonist be surprised by not understanding the language? No, this is too common in dimensional travel stories. A visual image that shows he has traveled to another dimension would be better."

A visual image that would make the protagonist realize he had traveled to another dimension.

After some thought, I made a decision.

"Okay, let's do this."

The protagonist, who had just crossed the gate, was surprised to find himself in broad daylight, different from the night before. He looked up at the sky, puzzled by the shadows covering it.

In his knowledge, the only giant thing that could fly in the sky was an airplane.

But what covered the sky in his view was not an airplane.

It was smaller but large enough to block the sun.

It was a flying griffin.

The protagonist, seeing this, delivered the final line of the prologue.

"Wh-What is that?!"

I typed the final line, feeling the protagonist's surprise.

Tap.

"Great, prologue complete!"

After finishing the prologue, I remembered something.

"Oh, I forgot to start the stopwatch!"

The new work, "Dragon Knight," was meant to test if I had received a writing speed buff from regression.

But I had forgotten to start the stopwatch while focusing on the manuscript.

"Still, I started around 12:10... Huh?"

I checked the current time.

It was past 1 PM.

01:15.

It took me over an hour to write the prologue.

"No way. How many characters?"

I checked the number of characters in the document statistics.

The short prologue was less than 3,000 characters.

2,230 characters.

3,000 characters? What?

It was less than half of the 5,000 characters, which is the standard for a chapter.

But it took me over an hour to write this.

I tried to deny the reality.

"Maybe I started a bit late."

I said this to avoid facing the reality.

But I couldn't ignore it.

I thought I had gained a good ability through regression.

If it turned out I hadn't, it would be quite disappointing.

"Let's try writing the first chapter."

I changed my approach to test myself.

Originally, I planned to write for an hour with a stopwatch, but this time, I decided to check the time after completing the first chapter.

"1 hour and 20 minutes from now, let's start then."

I opened a notepad and wrote down the start time. I waited, thinking about how to start.

01:20.

"Let's go!"

Tap, tap, tap...

I continued writing, creating the content of "Dragon Knight" as I went. Finally, I completed a chapter.

"5,280 characters. How much time?"

I looked at the clock in the bottom right corner of the monitor.

03:50.

"Oh!"

2 hours and 30 minutes.

Considering the time, it wasn't slow.

Many authors took several hours to produce a chapter.

It just didn't match the 7,000 characters per hour speed from earlier.

Considering it was the beginning of a new work, it was relatively slow.

New beginnings are always exciting and thrilling, so adrenaline usually flows.

That's why authors often write the beginning of a new work quite quickly.

Usually, it takes about an hour per chapter.

Moreover, I had a few scenes stored in my head from writing the prologue.

Considering all this, it was too slow.

"Did I not get any buff from regression?"

I thought the reason I could write the third volume of "Emperor Loki" quickly was because I had already written it once.

But I tried to deny the reality again.

"No, maybe I got a temporary buff from writing 'Emperor Loki' all day, and it's now on cooldown. Let's try one more chapter."

So, I wrote the second chapter of "Dragon Knight."

When the manuscript was completed, it was:

07:00.

This time, it took 3 hours and 10 minutes, 40 minutes longer than the previous one.

"Damn, I won't do it. I just wasted the night. Let's check 'Emperor Loki's' performance and go to sleep."

I opened the Bukjoa website.

A cheer burst from my lips when I saw the Today's Best section on the main page.

"Wow!"

***

9 AM.

All genre literature publishers were in a state of emergency.

The reason was a work that had appeared like a comet.

When they came to work and turned on their computers, they checked the Today's Best on each serialization site.

One of them was the Bukjoa site.

A work that had appeared there.

A work that overwhelmingly dominated all other works.

Rank Author Title Original Works Recommendations Views

1st Lee Joon-kyung Emperor Loki 8,853 42,890 189,800

2nd Huttbaram Gale Mage 3,420 3,720 60,100

3rd Disney Toy Chronicles 2,380 2,820 58,700

...

"Emperor Loki."

Lee Joon-kyung's debut work had launched a massive carpet bombing on the genre market from the very first day.

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