Chapter 52: Arc 1 Author Q&A INTERVIEW!

In a dark underground room .... two humans and a single mic.

Q: Hey M.G Driver! It's been about close to three weeks now since you uploaded your prologue, how do you feel?

A: Every night I wake up at 3am, scroll through my author dashboard to see the number of followers I have. I literally jump with joy everytime I see one more follower. I also slightly tear up if I lose one.

Q: When the fuck is the MC going to get his System and beat the fuck out of everyone on the planet, fly into the sun and black out, white out then green out?!

A: Err.... never, because there's no omnipotent System in this novel. Or stats, battle power, power rating etc. And I don't think his current body can handle the temperature of the sun. I don't think any living human in my novel can. There's such a thing as green out?

Q: People drop the book at the first five chapters. I think you lose 60-80% of your readers in that same time - reasons include too technical, too much worldbuilding, not enough tension etc. Are you planning to fix this? Is there a solution.

A: No, I don't think so. I tried a lot of face-slapping starts, but it gave off too high of a tension peak at the start. I had Ceres as part of a destroyed village, an asteroid miner left for dead, an alien baby, loads of starting emotional tear jerking stories. All of them were pretty hard to carry it into the main story I wanted to tell.

To really have a good long-lived novel, you have to balance the tension properly. Of course, the way to get readers ASAP is to do peak tension battles and instant gratification at the very start for five chapters, but I think usually those stories falter really hard later on, as they keep rehashing the same process.

My novel does kind of have the same process (it's MC progression) but it's more like a JoJo power system rather than a "OMG HIS POWER RATING IS OVER 9000, He can beat 9001 if he tries hard enough". The MC does get some unique (I think it's unique) power that is not directly powerful, but he finds interesting ways to defeat his enemies.

As for the worldbuilding, I wanted to make things as real as possible. I specifically decided not to do soft worldbuilding and went full hard as I can with a couple of handwaviums (FTL anyone? Nanomachines, son MUAHAHAHA) - a world that you could see yourselves living in. Economy, government bureaucracy, etc. I could have dripped it through dialogue, and I did have a draft that worked like this (hint: it was terrible and confusing for all my beta readers)

Q: Your book cover sucks! No boobs, no girls, no sexy bodies. I want to see Braton's guns on the cover! AND WHERE'S THE HAREM TAG?! WHEN CERES SEX SCENE?!

A: I'm working on that right now, but the new cover is Cardenia-focused (can't do Lisa, she's only 19 right? Trissa is a bit too crazy). Ceres is too busy training for the competition to get a harem. Dest Legion before hoes.

Q: When will you stop dragging the novel?

A: You might feel like I'm just pumping word counts to meet some novel contract, but the truth is I don't have any word requirement or contracts etc. Everything I write about plays some part in the story far down the line, every company name you hear is reused in arc 2.

I want it to be an evolving world that reacts to the actions of the MC in a realistic believable way. I try to keep it close to Ceres's POV as much as possible, but sometimes you get a better image of him seen through a normal person's eyes.

Q: Too! Many! Exclamation! Points! When! I'm! Reading! WHY?

A: I get super tense and excited when I write my own novel, so I naturally insert exclamation points. To save myself the shame, I blame the Mech Touch for influencing me(yes, I've read up to almost the latest chapter). I have since re-edited the novels.

Q: HOW MANY CHAPTERS IS THIS GOING TO TAKE? WILL THIS BE LIKE ONE PIECE AND NEVER-ENDING? ARE YOU AIMING FOR 10,000 CHAPTERS?!

A: To be honest, I think the current story trajectory will take it to way past a 1000 chapters, which means three years approx? Arc 2 is currently slated to be about 175 chapters long, so there's that.

Q: What the fuck is Arc 1 and Arc 2? How many Arcs are there?!

A: Arc 1 is Orphanage
  Arc 2 is... I can't say the name yet, it's spoilers.
  Arc 3 is a war arc (don't worry, I won't make the same mistakes as other light novels)

  Arc 4 is where the story goes far beyond the Loeric Empire (hint hint)
  Arc 5 is when you start to see signs of the First Apocalypse happening (hint hint hint)

  Can't think of any arcs beyond that, so maybe Arc 6 will be the last.

Q: Are you going to drop this novel?

You are reading story Ceres’s Chaos: A Tragic Space Opera at novel35.com

A: Even if I drop right now, I will not drop it during the middle of an Arc. I'm nearing the end of Arc 2 (which means 100 or so more chapters) and I swear as long as I am well and healthy, I'll fucking keep on trucking.

Q: Speaking of trucking - when the hell is the isekai truck rolling in?

A: I only got hovertrucks, so they usually crush with the downwind force rather than hitting them head on. I think in that state, it's very hard for Isekai Central Command to accept you. I don't have stereotypical japanese trucks any longer in the story. I can make a truck shaped missile though?

Q: Why can't I pay for Patreon advanced chapters?

A: I'm not really intending for this to be my full time job. Maybe when the novel gains a lot of traction, then i'll look at it again. Comment below if you want to pay for advanced chapters - I seriously doubt anyone would want to.

Q: Are you going to kill any characters? Will Ceres die?

A: Uhm, like I said, no plot armour. Characters will die. I'm just going to ignore that second question.

Q: Why are the villains so fucking overpowered? It feels like the main character has no agency or control! Can he even make his own decisions?

A: That's life innit? How you expect Ceres to do anything against those above? He's not a System Wielder or some wuxia immortal that can tell people 'you're courting death'.

And again, no plot armour. Lose = Lose, Win = Win - that's it. Ceres is smart and focused, he picks his battles when he can, runs when he should.

Q: Do you REALLY REALLY need to go through this whole 'graduation competition' thing? Don't you know animes uses competition to drag shows out?

A: Yes and yes. Don't worry, I guarantee you the payoff will be worth it, just hang in there, or wait till Arc 1 chapters are all out and binge read them. Arc 1 ends at around chapter 70-80.

Q: Can you summarize your story? I find it hard to explain to others in a succint manner, I'm like he repair this, punch this, kick that...

A: Good people do bad things, and bad people do worse things believing that it is for the good of all mankind. It hasn't changed in the Galactic Era, it only became more amplified.

Q: How did you come up with the title? It's ass!

A: I really really tried a lot of titles. I even tried ChatGPT and what not. Ceres Chaos just rolled off much easier IMO. Originally it was supposed to be Ceres Chaos: The First Apocalypse, but I soon found on RR that if your title didn't put the genre behind, it's over. Hence the swap to 'A Tragic Space Opera'.

We haven't really gotten to the space opera or the tragic part yet, so its a bit disingenuous. Maybe I should put like [Sci-Fi Progression]?

If you got any suggestions, you can put them in the comments.

Q: What comments? Are you talking to me?

A: Right sorry, forgot I was in a room with just you.

Q: Final question - WHO THE HELL CAME UP WITH ALL THESE QUESTIONS? AND WHY ARE WE IN THIS ROOM?!

A: Me. I'm taking a break.

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