Hello readers, I'm Arc Salt, the author of this article.
Thank you for reading my work, and I'm honored to share my story with you through the serialization of web novels. I sincerely hope you will enjoy the present and the story to come.
Since I'm willing to write a novel, it's clear I'm someone with a strong desire to express myself. Faced with my very first post-launch afterword, I actually want to cram many thoughts into it. But after careful consideration, never mind. Wouldn't it be better to spend that time writing more of the main text?
What remains is a brief introduction of myself, to discuss my writing career—I hesitate to tarnish the term 'writing'—During my earlier student days, I created some free anime fan works under a different pen name on Qidian (fan works couldn't be published back then). Later, due to injuries, academics, and other reasons, I stopped writing and left the scene, only to take up web novel writing again recently because I couldn't suppress my rampant daydreams.
While I may be considered an old hand in terms of the time I've been in the industry, the creative work I did through fan fiction didn't allow me to develop my skills in plot structuring and pacing well. After years of not writing, my weakened literary skills and ability to construct narratives left me quite ashamed. So I might as well face up to it and call myself a new writer.
My current work, "After work, then become a Magical Girl," or by the original title I had in mind: "A[LI]CE," is actually a challenge and attempt for myself. I've constructed a relatively complete outline and setting for it, and laid down many foreshadows early on, with the hope that they will sustain me to finish this book properly.
Therefore, if signing a contract and publishing were to be seen as analogous to the old days of print publishing (though it might be a stretch to elevate myself so), this book would be considered my debut work.
Thank you to those who are willing to support and subscribe to my debut. Your upcoming subscriptions will become the first royalties of my life.
If you have endured the free chapters with my uncontrollably light novel-esque translation tone, the use of pointless attributives, the bland plot arrangements, and battle scenes that are painful to write but stubbornly attempted... all I can say is, "Thank you for your patience."
Although I promise to try to correct these aspects and aim for improvement, these elements are likely to continue to pervade my writing for the time being. I apologize to readers who dislike these features yet still give me a chance, and I am sincerely grateful for your tolerance and patience.
If you say you like them, well, then perhaps we've already become kindred spirits.
After all, despite being full of flaws I'm well aware of, this book is truly the fruit of my serious contemplation and creative efforts. Your willingness to like it means a great deal to me.
As the launch day approaches, and experiencing this for the first time in my life, I'm quite nervous and excited, regardless of how well it does. This experience is precious to me.
That's enough about me personally. Let's move on to discuss updates.
Since I'm also employed full time, I usually write after coming home from work, which makes my update schedule irregular. During the worst of times, I went several days with inadequate sleep.
The universal expectation for web novels is a daily update of 4,000 characters, challenging for me since I write slowly and like to ponder over the minutiae and the choice of words. I hope that whatever I present to the readers, at the very least, is readable to myself, even if it's not ornate.
Going forward, I will strive to adapt to this update pace. However, after launching, I will prioritize quality over the initial surge for recommendation spots and update volume. Therefore, if sometimes I really can't manage 4,000 characters, I ask for your understanding.
As for the update on the day of the launch, I'll have a small burst, updating 6,000 and aiming for 8,000 characters to conclude the current plot arc, and then, it should be an even more interesting sequence of events than what's been seen so far.
Lastly, I'd like to express my gratitude once again to the readers who are willing to pay and subscribe to this book: Your support will be the motivation for me to keep writing. And I also apologize to those readers who've read this far and are now ready to leave: I'm sorry my work did not meet your standards for consideration.
Let's witness the unfolding story together, and then meet again in the endnotes of the first volume.
Arc Salt, February 28th, 2023