Monster Girl Extravaganza - Shallren with Cow Girl Evolution

Monster Girl Extravaganza Day 3!

This one looks amazing. Welcome Shallren with Cow Girl Evolution

If you're not excited, I'll be excited for all of us!

So, tell us a little about yourself? Online or Offline.

I’m Shall Allren. Shallren for short. Shall for shorter. I used to have a bad habit of pointing at myself whenever someone says the word ‘shall’. I’ve been writing since I was a kid, but my environment doesn’t cater to writers at all. I struggled to improve until I found Royal Road, especially the communities that I’m now a part of. It’s been like an explosion of improvements for me.

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

Like I said up top, my environment doesn’t cater well for writers, specifically English writers. I didn’t have access to awesome books until the internet became a common thing (aging myself here, lol). For childhood books, my only real constant sources were the Harry Potter books, because of how mainstream and easily accessible they were. I had access to a library with the Lord of the Rings which I didn’t get to finish. The Internet really is a lifesaver.

Anime was probably the easiest media I could access back then. Yu Yu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, Full Metal Alchemist. Let me also add Yuru Camp in here just to give a sample of the wide range of genres I can go through via Anime.

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

My first story was Brymeia: The Visitor. It didn’t really get any traction, but it allowed me to put my foot in the door. It got me entry to a whole lot of knowledge and helped me remove any misconceptions I have with regards to serial publishing vs trad.

My more successful story, and what I would probably point towards most of the time is ‘When The Cute Godkiller Opens A Tavern’. Here, I applied a lot of my learnings from the first one and prepared, really prepared to help it be more successful than the first. It’s not a unicorn, but it was within my expectations.

The exciting part, tell us about this newest release?

The story’s called Cow Girl Evolution: The Most Virtuous Holy Cow.

It follows Sherly who gets isekai-ed and turns into a cow for some reason, and eventually finds out that she’s actually a demon-cow. A spawn of Taurus, one of the Great Zodiacs.

One of the main focuses of the story is how she always needs to prove herself to not be evil, and eventually works her way into becoming the most holy cow in the world.

Don’t laugh at it!

What made you choose to tell this particular story? 

It was either this or a unicorn girl evo story. The unicorn was a fun concept, and a good play in our circle when we mention a ‘story’s getting unicorn status’ or something along those lines.

I found Sherly, the Demon-Cow more endearing to me, though.

What have you learned with previous writing that you’ve harnessed here?

Ie what is your writing process?

I’m exercising both my plotting and pantsing processes on this one. I only plot the big milestones, and then let myself fall into a groove and let my subconscious take it away. I’ve been told that I have a habit of making my side-characters a little too relatable, probably more relatable than the MC, so I’m trying to write Sherly as I would a side-character this time around.

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

I should’ve joined Royal Road way sooner. Not to overly hype the website or anything. But it was the catalyst where I found my greatest improvements and the communities where I don’t have to pretend like I’m doing anything else other than writing.

If you could tell our new authors 3 things that helped you get to where you are today, what would they be?

Read. Respect. Write.

Read stories you like, learn from them. Find which worked and which didn’t.

Respect other writers and their stories. It doesn’t matter how opposite you are from them, whichever genre they’re in, what they’re working on, whatever. IF you’re new to the field, mind your manners. I know we all love our own stories, and we think it’s the best thing in the world, and that everyone should read it. But if you let your ego run free, you’re just going to alienate yourself and ruin your success. It doesn’t hurt to be respectful.

Write, because what else are you going to do? Yap on discords all day? Don’t judge me!!!!

Any other parting nuggets of wisdom? 

Don’t follow everyone’s advice. Don’t regurgitate everyone’s advice, because you’ll look like a helpless baby. 

Choose a few people that you trust and stick with them. ‘Find your tribe’ so to speak.

Also, be careful of prose burnout. It’s a legit thing. If you can’t maintain your level of sophistication throughout an entire volume, don’t bother writing with rich prose from the get-go. It’s a thing you can practice by writing and reading a lot. So don’t bother tiring yourself out with a glorious, grandiose first chapter just to lose the rich lines after two or three chapters… or even five, or half the volume. You get what I mean.

All Social Media Links.

My Royal Road Fiction page please: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/396828/fictions

My Patreon too, thanks! https://www.patreon.com/c/ShallAllren

There’s also the gopubyourself profile here, but I’m not sure if I did it right, lol (I think you did, also looks great)