Monster Girl Extravaganza - Lunadea with Fish Girl Evolution

Monster Girl Extravaganza Day 2!

I have to say how excited I am over all these, next up is Lunadea with Fish Girl Evolution.

Again already an established author with Syl, a Slime Monster Evolution LitRPG

So let's dive in!

First of all, tell us a little about yourself? Online or Offline.

I was a programmer turned data engineer for ten years, bored out of my mind and waiting for a non-compete clause to expire so I could start my new job. I had been devouring hundreds of Light Novels and began exploring Kindle Unlimited for more to read. 

From there, I heard of Royal Road and had the random thought of "hey, why not post something?" and so Syl was born! I honestly had no aspirations of becoming a writer full-time and saw it as a fun hobby to do on the side. And yet somehow that random thought snowballed into where I am today.

Where does your inspiration come from? What childhood books, or movies were your biggest draw? 

My childhood book series is "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan, which, honestly, while I enjoyed it, made me firmly believe that I could never write something. I thought that to write a book, you needed to be as descriptive as RJ, who is notorious for even describing things down to the type of stitching on their clothes.

Then I was introduced to the world of Japanese Light Novels and was shocked to discover that "no, you don't need to describe all that stuff in detail," and became fully immersed in their stories. My top 3 JPLN are:

"Ascendance of a Bookworm" by Miya Kazuki

"So I'm a Spider, So What?" by Okina Baba

"The Apothecary Diaries" by Natsu Hyūga

What was your first story on Royal Road and how did it grow you and your brand from there? 

My first story on RR was Syl, a Slime Monster Evolution LitRPG. 

It started off relatively slow since I had no idea how RR worked at all and didn't even know what a "shout out swap" was or anything like that. I was writing for fun, chugging along at my own pace, and watching my numbers grow over time.

It actually did rather poorly on Rising Stars from other authors' standards, not even making it past #26 if I recall correctly, and just under 2k followers. Right now, it's sitting at 11k followers and has three books out on Amazon. So while it didn't come out of the gates swinging, it grew over time and has continued to do so.

I launched a second series, Bookbound Bunny, a slow-burn, slice-of-life, progression fantasy about a bunny girl and a talking book. By comparison, it had a much more successful RR launch and RS run, ending with over 5k followers and currently sitting at nearly 7k. This was quite a relief for me as I had a growing fear that I'd be a one-hit wonder, and while it hasn't grown as big as Syl yet, I'm pleased with its trajectory.

The exciting part, tell us about this newest release?

Fish Girl Evolution follows the adventures (or misadventures) of Shu, a girl thrown into a cultivation world as a koi armed with a system and a burning desire not to die again. Shu starts as a helpless little fish in a big pond and must survive and thrive, and eventually gain her freedom out into the big, wide world.

I'm hoping to blend some of the fun of monster evolution and xianxia cultivation with a simplish system providing Shu the "golden finger" she needs to come out on top.

What made you choose to tell this particular story? 

I've been on a xianxia cultivation reading binge for a while now, and so I've been itching to write something in that genre. I even wrote an entire, almost 10k-word April Fool's joke in Syl in a cultivation world just to scratch that itch temporarily.

That's when a group of authors and I started talking about monster girl stories for RR, and we began joking that they should all be titled "X Girl Evolution" and all release at the same time. We kept joking about it, poking each other, and eventually it went from joke to reality.

I have a few other ideas on the back burner that I occasionally write a chapter for or jot down some ideas for. Still, none of them I wanted to repurpose into fitting the "X Girl Evolution" title, as I'd already workshopped names that I'd fallen in love with for them.

So I needed a new one. I knew I wanted to write a xianxia, but I needed a monster or animal that would fit the xianxia theme (in my opinion). A fox would have been my first thought, but we already had someone who picked "Fox Girl Evolution," so I needed something else.unknown node

I'd always enjoyed the whole fish>dragon myth featured in Asian lore, and so I went with that, and Shu the Koi Fish was born.

What have you learned with previous writing that you’ve harnessed here?
Ie what is your writing process?

My writing process is I come up with a main character, usually stemming from a particular power, feature, or trait, and I build out what my "ideal" version of them would be in my head, before downgrading to "what is the starting point". Once that's done, I start thinking of what world would let this MC thrive in and begin slowly building it out around them.

As for continuous writing past that, I mix a bit of plotting and pantsing, where I set milestones I want to reach and always try to head towards the next one, but I pants between said milestones. I appreciate the flexibility this offers, allowing you to have the best of both worlds. Some of my most well-received arcs in my stories have come from random pantsing between milestones.

What is your biggest regret with writing? Or your hardest lesson learned?

Not keeping things simple. When I started, I had no idea I would be where I am today, and so I took a very much "everything and the kitchen sink" approach. My system in Syl is quite bloated and is a nightmare to manage and has caused me numerous headaches, so much so that I wrote an entire other story on the side without a system just to clear my head.

If you could tell our new authors 3 things that helped you get to where you are today, what would they be?
1) Read. Never stop reading. A common trend that a few of us have noticed is that all the "unicorns" recently on RR have all been voracious readers. Seriously, I have to tear myself away from reading to write my next chapter almost always. 

2) Don't be afraid to shoot your shots, but be realistic with expectations.

3) Readers care more about reading an entertaining story than flowery prose. You don't need to describe clothes like Robert Jordan or make poetry like Shakespeare: if your story is fun and enjoyable, people will read it. It's one of the reasons why people will even read MTL novels with "engrish" because the story is simply that good. Also, please don't mistake prose for basic spelling and grammar. unknown node 

Any other parting nuggets of wisdom? 

I guess this is a bit of an expansion on points 1 and 3 earlier, but if you hate this genre and don't like it, then I don't know if you can find success here. 

I can only assume it's due to the expanding success of Progression Fantasy and LitRPG as a whole that many others are now coming over to join the trend. While I'm glad it's growing, there's an underlying bitterness festering as well.

Some quite vocal people view LitRPG as a "cheat" to gain success in this space and try to disparage it in almost any way possible. They certainly don't enjoy reading it; they begrudgingly try to force themselves to write it and then wonder why it's not working. If it were as simple as slapping a LitRPG system on any story, then there would be infinitely more successes.

I've had quite a few people ask me "how did I get where I am," and when I answer "I just love this genre and am reading constantly," they get upset, as if I'm hiding a secret that I refuse to share.

I simply love to read, and when I'm dying to read something but cannot find it, I write it myself.

All Social Media Links.

https://www.royalroad.com/profile/412962/fictions

https://www.reddit.com/user/Lunadea_txt/