han sooyoung has, of course, been drunk on the validation of comments and likes on her stories. her first works were such, a no name without even an avatar to her profile. the first one she posted got, maybe 10 likes, a couple hundred views. a single comment that said, "wow this is good!" the notifications petered out in a few days, and she was stuck with writer's block until the next.
back then, her bio was so cringe she had, when revisiting that page again since her first time creating it, revised it to reflect just two words.
"still writing."
what else was she? being a 'reader' at least, wasn't enough. too many people who thought they could write spew incessantly meaningless sentences they call a story without paying mind to the intricacy of it. anyone can write, sure, but can just anyone tell a story?
that's what she believed in.
the next few of her works wasn't as big of a bust as the first one. han sooyoung knew she was a good writer, and an even better storyteller. she didn't earn her degree for nothing. her popularity grew and grew, until SSSSS-grade infinite regressor hit the top of the webnovel charts, and she was racking up thousands of views within the hour of a new upload.
the matter of kim dokja was strange. reader kim had left such nonsense about plagiarism in her comment sections, and got bombed-near immediately.
when she did take a look at this ways of survival, she was appalled. it was horrible, full of cliches it couldn't even utilize properly, of tropes that felt too stiff and played straight. and here was its reader, at chapter 854, still commenting, still reading. same ever "author-nim, yoo joonghyuk will be alright, right?"
how do you explain this feeling of envy? she can point out a few users that had been consistent in her notifications, sending love for the novel, telling her how much they enjoyed it, that they were looking forward to the next update. attention got her to monetization, and people still loved her work, and she survived.
she remembers this one time, when she went on a forum for webnovel writers. there was a post from a chinese webnovel author asking advice about fans who act like haters in the comments. apparently, there was this one guy who, without fail, commented on his work, criticizing his excessive use of tropes, how his worldbuilding didn't make sense or something. however, same commenter would cite really specific chapters and moments, would dish out backhanded compliments and suggestions for plot progression, and subtly fawn over how much he loved the MC, if not for the fact that said author wasn't doing him justice.
han sooyoung could relate. she scrolled through the comments. nanago wasn't particularly helpful with slang, but from what she could gather, this airplane person was pretty notorious for his atrocious writing. some comment or other was about his novel was just as bad as it sounded, even if it was immensely popular. it sounded like his commenter had some points to make.
she left a comment, something along the lines of "just sounds like you gotta work on ur writing anyway." the rest of the comments, a mix of languages, said more or less the same. she promptly forgot about it, only to find a reply a week later.
airplane shooting towards the sky: finaldirector111-bro, you should should know better than anyone how authors need to survive! I get paid by the chapter! People like it! Anyway, even if i wanted to do my analysis on poetry and the universe, I'd get bashed faster than my protagonist, and that's bye bye money.
airplane shooting towards the sky: Also, speak for yourself, what's that SSSSS-whatever of yours? Like it isn't hitting past the 2000 mark either.
there were already some replies, she didn't look through them. irritated, she blocked him. she couldn't help her thoughts wandering back to that kim dokja, the only reader of the absurdly-still-ongoing ways of survival.
on one hand, how lonely. on another, how lucky of that author, right?
