AkalE
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- Jun 6, 2020
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The author of the slice of comedy isekai Crystal Down.
AkalE: Tell us about Crystal Down? What’s in store for the readers?
0xReki: About my story… It's my 3rd attempt at writing something and it's finally something I don't cringe so much that I wanna delete it. Like I did with my previous attempts.
It's a slow life comedy isekai. Don't expect that much action.
I poke fun at other stories from time to time. If I find something interesting, I go for it. Mostly I stick to the more popular stuff. Other times I just take a jab at overused tropes. It’s always rewarding when a reader catches on to the reference in a chapter. Maybe I should poke at some stories from Scribble Hub too.
AkalE: Crystal Down has a lot of interesting concepts like the duodecimal numbers. Where do you find these interesting bits to draw inspiration from?
0xReki: At my university the computer science Student Council was advocating for a broader field of interests. To broaden our view of the world. I was even chairman for a year. We wanted to fight the scourge of people only knowing their field of expertise and disconnected from the real world and “go not my department”.
So just gathering the odd fact and stuff was normal for us. I remember someone printing out the paper about the output velocity of excrement with penguins. It was a fun paper to read.
No, I've graduated for 3 years now and working as a Network Administrator.Still interested in ridiculous sounding papers.
AkalE: You are one of the few authors with their own website hosting and social media accounts even before ScribbleHub.com began. How did you end up here?
0xReki: I think it my story for that is similar to most others. I had been using NovelUpdates for a while now. I started taking Notice of ScribbleHub when it popped up on NovelUpdates. About a year later, I noticed it was still there, so I decided finally have a look at it. It looked like my story would fit here, so I decided to put my story on ScribbleHub too.
Originally I started with just my website. With GitHub Pages setting up something like that is easy if you can use markdown. It's some work, but if you use the tools correctly you get exactly what you want.
It can be a little daunting when you start out and I will help anyone interested in setting up a page.
AkalE: Is it harder to get readers on your website compared to ScribbleHub, or did is it the opposite?
0xReki: Getting readers for your own site is hard. Very hard.
Even using SEO optimization doesn't help much. Only after started cross posting on SH did I get more readers. Or bots. I can't tell.
I'm not using Google Analytics. So I can't tell if ScribbleHub gives me more readers for my page. I'm just pulling the access numbers from Cloudflare. But judging from the comments that come in from time to time, I'd definitely say cross posting on ScribbleHub gave me more traffic on the page.
AkalE: And do you plan on publishing Crystal Down in the future?
0xReki: Right now I just write for the fun of it.
Publishing… Yeah, I've been researching that as well. Kindle Direct Publishing is quite neat. Since they print on demand you don't have the risk of ordering too many copies.
AkalE: As an aspiring author what are your favorite novels?
0xReki: Well I guess that's an easy one. The only ones I care to buy in a physical versions are Mahouka, Overlord and Kino's Journey. I read other Light Novels too, but I just get those as eBook.
As for non J-Fiction. I'm currently in the process of sourcing some Books my Walter Moers. Some say he's the German Terry Prachett. And I'm currently trying to source those too.
AkalE: There are a lot of people that do not find time to write while working at the same time. Can you give one tip for someone who wants to start writing but cannot find time?
0xReki: All I can say is from my own experience. Just collect your ideas. For a webseries everyone keeps reminding that consistent publishing is important. I agree. But I fail to do that. My ups and downs are so hard I can't make backup buffer for it. So I'm going with transparency instead. Don’t be afraid to tell your readers that you will be late. Just don’t leave them in the dark.
Also, don't get discouraged if your story tanks because you can't afford to regularly post. And don't be afraid to revise old chapters. When you start out you'll eventually improve over time and think your early work is bad. That's how it is. Revising it helps you gain new readers in the future. Though cross posting your story to too many sites can make it quite chore to revise. So I'm thinking of dropping RoyalRoad and stick to my website instead.
AkalE: That’s a really practical advice. Do you have any interesting moments that pops into your mind when you were worldbuilding for Crystal Down?
0xReki: Right. I don’t know if I should say this. Paper is an easier medium to put down a bunch on incoherent thoughts for brainstorming. But last summer a breeze blew away half of my notes.
So only half of the world has reasons I still know. The other half I forgot but I have definitely put in some thought into it. Hopefully no one will be able to make out which parts are written on the fly.
AkalE: I didn’t notice that at all! So any final remarks?
0xReki: As much as I'd like to plug my story here. I'd like to plug Eiyuden Chronicle, too. The maker of JRPG Suikoden got together and are creating a spiritual successor to Suikoden.
I've just recently started playing Suikoden 1, for the first time. And I have to say Eiyuden looks like a Suikoden with Octopath Traveller graphics. Their kickstarter is still ongoing until the end of the month. So please do give it a look.
AkalE: Thanks so much for speaking to me. I hope everyone has learnt more about you. Readers, please do check out Crystal Down. on ScribbleHub or 0xReki's Website.
(Please give Crystal Down some readers so that other writers would be interested in the interview as well. :D)
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