Editing The Longing Of Shiina Ryo:Volume1 Afterword

Greetings, I am Ryuno. 

Forcing myself to keep this afterword short, I cannot help but feel uneasy. This being my first finished (and hopefully published by the time you're reading this) work, there is not much for me to say. It sure was nice creating this world, but it was also very hard for me to actually write it.

However, now I can say I make part of the second most underrated class of workers in the modern world (plumbers being the first, because without them we would have to both rethink our water and sewage systems and travel through several worlds and castles only to find out that the princess is not where she was supposed to be): the novelists, smiths of words and conquerors of wild dark seas. Without us, most people wouldn’t dream.

This is my masterpiece.

Not the modern usage, though; this certainly is not going to be my best work, since I hope to evolve as a writer and make several other fiction books. I meant it as the original usage of the term: this is the work I present to the guild as an apprentice willing to become a master craftsman.

Even if my effort is accepted, this will not be the end of the quest: ''au contraire'', new possibilities and obstacles will branch out every minute at the moment this dream I idealized for so long become a reality. Pretty much like every single thing does every second, according to some scientific theories…

Oh dear, there was I being all meta- again; either my words are too filled with metafiction or with metaphysics, which is probably just the long term result of methodically listening to metal music and letting myself be carried beyond and between (it varies depending on your Greek thesaurus, or shall I say dictionary in order to avoid another rapid fire series of puns and wordplays) the constant metamorphosis of metaphors into metaverses due to the growing belief in Many-Worlds interpretation.

Since being humorous is not something I often succeed at (most likely because of my unconditional, endless love for meta-jokes), allow me to try a completely different approach to this.

Considering '''x''' as a hypothetical world where I did manage to get this story published, a few new issues appear as the previous problem (not being published) is solved.

*I don't have a fan base yet.

*I don't have a defined, predictable writing style yet.

*I don't even have an "Other books by the same author" section on the back cover, for crying out loud.

However, finishing my first novel (and I don't think I can call it that, because of the word count monster) allows me to shield myself and even counter those fierce self-accusations.

*I might not have any other works yet, but I suppose I have the time it takes to make them; not only that, this "novel" is only the beginning of something much, much bigger. Right now, I am thinking “novel series”, but hopefully someone with great financial resources will look at this and think “franchise”.

*I might not have a defined writing style, but it just means I still can evolve and amuse you all for a few years until you realize that my writing have become formulaic. Not that it will be such a bad thing, as long as I manage to play with the tropes I will have established myself.

*I don't have a fan-base yet, but (pardon my intentional misquoting) "build it and they will come" sounds very good for a plan. I got this misquoted tip on the Internet, therefore it must work; it was posted on the Internet, after all.

So, only Time shall prove if x is a possible outcome or not. Not only that, it shall also prove if this me is currently living in the x world. The same Time whose existence I don't quite believe in seems to be a valuable ally on my way to becoming a not-so-bad novelist and a wonderful storyteller.

Maybe I should believe in Time. He is probably not as tricky as Santa.

- Ryuno

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[The_Longing_Of_Shiina_Ryo:Volume1 Chapter 4: Ayaka|Chapter 4: Ayaka]]
| Return to [[The_Longing_Of_Shiina_Ryo|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>