Monster Girl Extravaganza - ahoge_bird with Succulent Girl Evolution

Monster Girl Extravaganza Day 4!

This one is pretty special if you ask me. Big welcome to ahoge_bird with Succulent Girl Evolution

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

Like most other authors, I was a voracious reader and only started writing because I “ran out of stuff” to read. For context, before I started writing I read so many books I ended up losing track of plots or even of series/authors I’ve read, so I started keeping a reading journal to make what I read stick in my head. From there, because I was forcing myself to engage with the works more seriously, I started noticing the “craft” bits of writing: why do certain scenes make me feel a certain way? How do I feel? How did the author do it?

And most important of all, I started figuring out why exactly my reading pet peeves peeved me so much.

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

I’ve reread the Harry Potter series so often growing up that it’s the one that takes up the most space in my mind. Also, anything that would be on a Scholastic book fair catalog when I was in public school, I’ve likely read all those too. In middle school through college, I was also super into anime and manga and then eventually Asian dramas (hence my romance story…).

Video games are a huge part of my life too, so I was absolutely gobsmacked when I discovered LitRPG was a real genre. I’m so impressed by and thankful to the authors who pioneered LitRPG, because I never imagined you could blend the satisfaction of playing a video game with reading.

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

More to Love is my first story on RR (I wrote fanfiction when I was 8-12 years old, but none of those fics lasted nearly as many words as MtL so I don’t count those). I don’t know that it got big enough to actually have a brand, but based on the lovely comments from my readers I would guess my brand is that I’m a “good” enough writer.

I do worry MtL’s success was pure luck, since my dataset only includes one point.

The exciting part, tell us about this newest release?

Succulent Girl Evolution! This is way outside my realm of what I normally read, so I’m quite nervous that I’ll fumble the story.

Bubbles is an innocent (read: naive) little succulent who accidentally gets a system when the land she’s growing on starts to get razed, as the greedy Duke seeks to obtain magical power to further his ambitions. She had no aspirations other than to live an uneventful life in a beautiful garden with her friends and favorite person (“Master” Remraf, who spent his entire life caring for the garden), but her tender and kindhearted nature compels her to help Rock, a mana mineral with untapped potential, escape his fate of being captured and used to carry out the Duke’s will. Intertwined as she is with Rock’s powers, Bubbles then starts to grow beyond what she thought was possible.

What made you choose to tell this particular story? 

I had no intention of writing this because I don’t read monster evo stories; Syl was the only one I read, so I doubted I could do justice to this genre because I didn’t know the tropes well. But when my author friends pinged me about doing a “Monster Girl Evo bomb,” their enthusiasm was so infectious I ended up saying yes. I had decided to stop writing MtL only about a month before, and I figured I could use Succulent Girl as a low-stakes writing exercise to recover my mental from dropping my first story and also stretch my writing and creativity muscles. Essentially, I’m treating Succulent Girl as a low-stakes story I can just have fun and practice/experiment with.

I chose a succulent because all the cool monsters were taken I’m a maverick cockroaches/insects grossed me out so much during the research phase I needed something ridiculous to trigger my curiosity about a genre that normally wouldn’t draw me in in the first place. And now, I’m having so much fun following Bubbles’s growth and adventure :’) 

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

I’ve learned that if I don’t pay attention, my writing tends towards the darker/more serious/depressing end of the spectrum. Which isn’t bad, exactly, but I don’t want to be the type of author with no range, so Succulent Girl is an active challenge to write on the lighter, happier side of the spectrum.

Ie what is your writing process?

My overall process (inception of an idea) involves a lot of media consumption. Going back to my reading journal, I recall I specifically started writing MtL because I was on a streak of reading poorly-written romances. The streak of bad books aggravated me enough to think “even I can write a better story than this!” and that gave me pause. I’m a big believer in not criticizing others for things you can’t do yourself, so I decided I should write a romance story just so I could either put myself in my place or justify my criticisms (ie: put up or shut up).

As for the actual nitty-gritty writing process: 

• I do macro-scale plotting when I have down time but not in front of my desk/computer (so like when I’m doing cardio or in the sauna, or waiting outside on an appointment or something, I’ll be asking myself questions like “what’s X’s motivation? What happens next?” etc.)
• In the evening / before bed, I’ll be outlining the next chapter. Because my brain is already tired from the day’s work, I feel less inhibited, so it’s easier for me to “follow the flow,” so to speak.
• Early in the day before I get mentally fatigued, I’ll write the actual chapters following the previous night’s outline. The right words come more easily to me when my brain is fresh, which minimizes editing time.

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

I regret I didn’t start writing earlier! Just kidding, I’m happy with where I’m at now (plenty of room for improvement!). I think my only real regret is getting into the business side of writing before I was ready. I wasn’t a unicorn by any means, but I earned enough on Patreon to be lured into focusing on monetizing my story instead of just focusing on my craft and the fun I was having.

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

1. Read! There’s no way around it. Read the good stuff, read the bad stuff, and read enough to make sure you’re able to justify why something is good, bad, or meh.

2. Network! There are so many amazing authors in this space, and the beauty of this space is how accessible everyone is. I love reading other authors’ analyses of stories and their crafting process. Getting into the author discords and talking to them is basically crowdsourcing ideas and wisdom, honestly.

3. Have fun! It’s important to enjoy the process, because that’s the secret to longevity in anything, not just writing. The moment something stops being fun, then it becomes a war of attrition to get your chapters out there, and there’s no way you can win against tedium.

I just realized these three things all just boil down to being a nerd about stories.

Any other parting nuggets of wisdom? 

It’s not wisdom that’s only applicable to writing, but going through the process of being an author crystallized the concept for me. Be very clear about your goals (writing for fun? Writing for yourself? Writing for money? Doing something else?). I know how easy it is to move goalposts (especially when you start talking to bigger authors who literally make a living off of their stories), but constantly shifting goalposts is how you end up stagnating and not learning anything, and ultimately feeling unfulfilled. Be objective when you evaluate your results so that you can make an informed next step, whether it be continuing to hone your craft or deciding writing (or whatever) isn’t for you.

All Social Media Links.

I’m mostly a lurker, so other than Royal Road and Patreon, I’m not very active elsewhere.

https://www.royalroad.com/profile/344788