Chapter 354 (1/2)

Selecting a Title

Zhao Youyue finished reading “Ya Jing’s””Bakuman” in a single breath. Something caught her curiosity. As she read through the script, she found some written word errors. But these errors had been amended by someone else. Compared to the handwriting in the notebook, the handwriting of one who revised the errors was more of a girl’s slender and diminutive.

Although Zhao Youyue had spent more time reading online literature than traditional literature, she was still an experienced reader, regardless. She was familiar with the writing differences between male and female writers.

In general, the writing style of male writers was boisterous and rough, to put lightly. To be blunter, they were horrible writers, their depictions of details were unacceptable, their descriptions of emotional feelings were even more awkward. Readers could immediately tell that they were single dogs, at a glance.

On the other hand, the writing style of female writers was rather exquisite. Their writings were better than male writers, in general. They could, however, get excessively hung up over details, or their plot would be developed entirely around a “romance.” The scope of the setting would seem to be relatively small, always giving a feeling that all the characters in the work cared about nothing, but to fall in love with someone.

But of course, this was overgeneralizing matters. Some male writers had delicate writing styles and described details greatly. If they were to create a heroine, they might even be mistaken for a female writer. When they attempt to refute such assumptions, no one would believe them. Even if some believed, they would still project their initial impressions of these writers being Lady bosses——Who had asked them to write like ladies?

Some female writers spread the settings of their stories far and wide, without getting hung up on the emotional aspect. Such writing styles would often attract male readers, but at the same time, they would lose female readers who preferred plotlines centered around love.

It was not easy to be a writer. Adjusting oneself to the readers’ taste was difficult. No matter how you write, someone would always be unsatisfied. It would be best to write according to your ideas.

When male readers read books targetted for females, they would be in constant fear about the appearance of male protagonist. It was a stereotypical belief that when the male protagonist appears, the heroine will receive all kinds of intelligent-reducing attacks. That would be very depressing and distressing.

Under such circumstances, there was a type of heroine work written for male readers, which was precisely the ‘gender-bender type novel'[1] which contained no male protagonists whatsoever.

Of course, some would say that gender-bender novels were susceptible to being cursed. For example, that ‘somebody’ would turn out to be the Drug Lord. But in fact, no matter what novel it is, the unexpected always happens. Those readers’ noble, generous fathers should forgive them once, and give them a chance to turn over a new leaf.

Zhao Youyue’s instincts told her that the actual writer of this “Bakuman” might be a male. Lin Shiya was the one doing the revisions. But Zhao Youyue did not dare jump to conclusions. If this matter was exposed, Lin Shiya’s reputation would come crashing down. It was unacceptable for the practice of ghostwriting in literature circles.

But of course, web novels were a different story. Commercial literature such as web novels could really learn from mangakas. Such individuals co-created entire studios, and drew under the same pen name. Someone would be in charge of the outline; someone else would be responsible for the character design. Each arc might even be written by a different person. Work would progress at a breakneck pace.

However, such practice was extremely scarce. It was hard to say if such stories would even be popular.

Another typical situation would be a particular writer losing his interest to continue writing. Thus, he would have a ghostwriter keep writing in his stead. Such circumstances often occurred in the web novel world.

Such an option was not on the table for writers who had a specific form of writing. Readers would be able to tell at a glanceIt would be a hopeless attempt.