As this is a completion essay, I should naturally look back over the entire book, discuss the gains and losses of the creative process, and only then can I figure out what should be preserved and what needs improvement. Well, I'll discuss this from my own creative methodology. Of course, this is something I've distilled for myself — it doesn't necessarily suit everyone or every platform. Gaining insights from it is great, but copying it wholesale can easily lead to problems. Even truth has the distinction between absolute and relative truth, let alone something as personal as this kind of reflection. "Those who study me survive; those who copy me die," right?
Personally, the first keyword in my creative process, and the most important one, is "expression."
"Expression" is a broad term. In the narrow sense, it can mean the theme of a work or its central idea. In the broad sense, anything you hope to convey and deliver to readers falls under expression. We can express our thoughts on human nature, our understanding of the world, the satisfaction we've gained, or, more colloquially, simply wanting to feel thrilled and fulfilled.
So what did I want to express with
First, a novel, intriguing, thought-provoking, complex yet entertaining worldview created by fusing elements of Western occultism with Cthulhu Mythos and SCP Foundation lore.
Second, a ray of light amid darkness and despair — ("Yes, it is precisely—"
Third, the confrontation and fusion of humanity and divinity. Why did I designate Klein's Pathway as "Diviner" with "The Fool" as its endpoint? On one hand, the story itself required it, and the Diviner Pathway allows many occult elements to unfold naturally and engagingly in the early stages. On the other hand, the underlying theme of Lord of the Mysteries — well, it's not exactly hidden, I wrote it right in the synopsis: a legend of the Fool.
In other words: a Fool's journey.
Now, the Tarot cards — a very important element in this book — have a widely accepted interpretation that describes, as a whole, a Fool's journey, beginning with the Fool and ending with The World, achieving completion.
Of course, I couldn't simply copy the Tarot's interpretations and imagery. I made certain modifications in conjunction with Lord of the Mysteries, so a Fool's journey refers to the gradual transformation from human to god — the spiritual journey brought about by the confrontation and fusion of humanity and divinity.
Because I wanted Klein to always retain his human side, his warmth, I didn't express this directly through his inner thoughts. Instead, it was conveyed more indirectly through others — through the frequency and depth of his interactions with the world and the people around him.
So, the further the story progressed, the more it felt to readers that no matter how Klein insisted on his humanity, he was increasingly distancing himself from human society, growing lonelier, more abstract, gradually losing his flesh-and-blood feel. That is a Fool's journey.
This structural design was actually a bit of a clever shortcut, because my inspiration came from previous books — well, excluding Martial Dao — where people noted that the protagonist became more and more inhuman in the later stages, increasingly detached from reality, no longer feeling rooted in the world or society. So I simply turned that unconscious authorial tendency into a conscious choice. This inspiration came to me after reading some books on the Tarot.
Looking back and comparing: the first point was barely achieved. The second point — the light part was good; the darkness was solid in the early stages but faded somewhat as the power levels escalated later on.
This is indeed a problem, and it's a structural issue with Lord of the Mysteries as well — something I'll address later in the fourth section of my methodology, "Structure."
Back to the main topic: starting from Sequence 3, the book experienced a certain stylistic split in its occult and fear-of-the-unknown aspects. When it comes to Cthulhu elements, once the unknown is explained and truly takes the stage, it loses most of its allure. So, while the sense of chaos and madness was well maintained in the later stages, there was a definite deficiency in darkness, despair, mystery, and a sense of insignificance.
Before I started writing, I was quite torn on whether to stop at Sequence 3 and leave everything else as background. That way, the overall style of the mysterious world would remain unified, and the captivating sense of exploration — accompanied by fear and trembling — and the sense of mystery could run through the entire work.
But ultimately, I was a bit greedy. I wanted Lord of the Mysteries to sketch out the broad outlines of the entire worldview, so that afterward, I could work within it freely and at my own pace.
As for the third point, I'd rate it above passing but no higher than 80. Mainly, I wasn't ruthless enough, and it didn't come across clearly enough.
Now that I've talked about "expression," the second set of keywords in my creative process is "fun, engaging."
This means that once you've determined what you want to express, you then need to examine whether your subject matter and the possible ways of expressing it are a good fit.
It's not that certain subjects can't be written about. Setting aside external factors, whether a subject can be written well depends entirely on whether you can make it fun and engaging.
Even home-style cooking depends on who's doing the cooking and how it's done.
Well, fundamentally speaking, humans are drawn to novelty and the extraordinary. Of course, they also seek excitement and emotional resonance — I'll address the latter two in the section on "Emotion." Here, I'll only discuss novelty and the extraordinary.
Novelty doesn't simply mean being rare, and the peculiar doesn't purely mean seeking out the bizarre — they should be closer to having fresh ideas, being somewhat different from everything else.
As for "interesting" and "engaging," in terms of their literal meanings, the gap between them is actually quite significant. "Interesting" refers more to being fun and novel, while "engaging" carries an additional connotation of being "worth pondering over."
Something engaging isn't necessarily fun or hilarious, but it can draw you in, make you feel it's truly worth your attention, something you can mull over and let your imagination run wild with.
Something fun isn't necessarily engaging either. Right now, there are plenty of novels that are simply lighthearted, humorous, and full of meme references — and they have a huge market.
Of course, the two can also be combined. If something is fun while also making readers feel it's engaging, willing to ponder, to explore, to project themselves and fantasize, then you get double the appeal.
And if, beyond being engaging, you can make the writing itself, character interactions, and details fun as well, that serves as the finishing touch that gives everyone more motivation to keep reading.
For *
As for behavior, interactions, details, and the like, I also tried my best to avoid monotony and tedium, and for the most part, I met those standards.
Of course, there's still room for improvement in this area.
My third creative keyword is "immersion."
Don't assume that immersion is just self-insert wish fulfillment. In reality, there are many kinds of immersion. Yes, many people immerse themselves in the protagonist, but others immerse themselves in the protagonist's father, mother, brother, girlfriend. Some immerse themselves in the supporting characters, in the role of the Spectator, the reader, the worldbuilding, the collective identity of Earth, the sacredness of science, classical culture, and so on — the list goes on.
Once an author decides what they want to "express" and finds an interesting and engaging angle through subject matter and means of expression, the next question is: which angle should the main readership immerse themselves in? This determines what narrative techniques, structure, and foreshadowing you should employ.
I once published a three-chapter brain teaser on my public account, and that was actually born from thinking about "immersion." I wanted the main readership to immerse themselves in Earthly knowledge, watching with a mix of amusement and pride as a native character stumbles, makes a fool of himself, and grows — all with the help of that Earthly knowledge, delivering that satisfying rush.
*Lord of Mysteries*, beyond the common approach of protagonist immersion, also devoted more attention to the power system, potions, the Acting method, and the overall worldview. To that end, I extensively employed mystery-solving techniques, dangling hooks one at a time, peeling back layers gradually, letting readers sink into the story.
My fourth creative keyword is "structure."
After completing the first three steps and nailing down the story outline, you then need to design the novel's overall structure based on all of that.
So when I say that the ending of *Lord of Mysteries* was planned from the very beginning, that should be completely evident. Foreshadowing and callback, the cycle of destiny, the convergence of the story — all of this unfolds under one grand structural design. Personally speaking, I find a peculiar beauty in that.
Beyond the overall structure of the novel, there is also the structure of each individual part. I've discussed the structure of the first part before — I'm very proud of it and think it was done well. I also talked about the structures of the second and third parts, but after that I rarely brought up the term. This is mainly because the further you write, the greater the constraints and the less freedom you have. If I couldn't come up with a good structure or a good angle of approach, I'd rather fall back on the most common or previously used story structures — there's nothing particularly noteworthy to discuss.
Among these, the fourth part follows a layered progression that culminates in detonating all the planted plotlines. The fifth part is a vortex structure, spiraling ever wider until a massive upheaval erupts. The sixth part — I think I mentioned this before — features a structure with twin peaks sandwiching a plateau in the middle. The seventh part involves a sudden explosion amid daily travel, structurally close to the second part. The eighth part is a continuous push toward climaxes, followed by a reflective denouement.
Because some volumes didn't have a fully clear structural vision when I started writing them, or I simply didn't know how to achieve the desired effect, the middle portions of certain volumes ended up with pacing issues, or I had to sacrifice certain elements for the sake of narrative coherence.
These are all lessons learned. In the future, when I start a new volume, I need to make sure my grasp of and plans for the structure are thoroughly clear — rather than having just a vague concept and fumbling my way through, experimenting and exploring as I write. If you do that, you might get lucky, catch the right inspiration, and produce something surprising, but most of the time it will lead to all sorts of problems.
My fifth set of creative keywords is "reality, authenticity."
This actually evolved from the third keyword, "immersion." I originally thought that the most immersive setting might be the most realistic environment, and then transcending reality from that foundation. And the most realistic setting is, without question, everyday life — the urban genre.
With that premise, urban fiction is definitely the easiest genre for reader immersion. So after finishing *Reverend Insanity*, I thought about merging xianxia into the urban setting — something that is both realistic and transcends reality — while also honing my ability to write about daily life and details. That's how *Martial Arts* came to be. In fact, the early results were quite good, but I later realized I had underestimated one problem: the inherent limitations of the urban setting itself. Because I hadn't considered this sufficiently during the planning phase, the story couldn't expand in the later portions and became repetitive, lacking variation.
This idea of mine has been validated by several trending genres in recent years, which is quite gratifying. However, the watchful gaze of censorship has been fixed on the urban genre, preventing the emergence of the kind of grand trend I had envisioned.
After finishing *Martial Arts*, my understanding of immersion and reality deepened even further — I came to believe that compared to "realism," "authenticity" better captures the essence.
As long as something feels authentic enough to immerse the reader, it can achieve the same effect as realism, while also carrying more of a thrill of novelty.
That's why, when I was writing *Lord of the Mysteries*, I researched extensively and fleshed out the details, all to make this world come alive — so that everyone would naturally sink into it while reading, knowing what people eat, what they use, how much things cost, and what the customs and traditions are.
This is actually quite similar to the AAA titles of recent years — open, free, but sufficiently authentic worlds.
A sense of authenticity, immersion — this was an idea that gradually crystallized for me after writing *Martial Arts* and during the process of writing *Lord of the Mysteries*, and it was only at that point that I truly distilled my own complete creative methodology.
Of course, writing this way is genuinely exhausting — incredibly exhausting.
This is something *Lord of the Mysteries* did very well in its first and middle stages; later, after the Sequences grew higher in power level, there was some decline. The next thing I need to think about is how to maintain that sense of authenticity at higher tiers of power.
The sixth keyword is "gentleness."
I believe I covered this in the earlier summary section, so I won't go into it again here — mainly because after writing so many words in one go, my thoughts have started to wander, and I'm feeling the urge to slack off and have some fun.