Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 3.2 - Chapter SS6

About the Writing Process 

Q: What first inspired you to start writing Bookworm? 

A: Once my duties as a parent calmed down and I had more time on my hands, I thought it might be fun to start writing as a hobby, since it doesn’t cost money and can be done at home. It never even crossed my mind that it might one day become my main job.

Q: Just to get a general idea of your creative process, how do you write the story, and how far ahead do you plan things? Fantasy worlds like this have an entirely different culture and religious system from what we’re familiar with, not to mention a bunch of colorful characters—how do you plot all this out? 

A: I began by building the world the story would take place in, considering the geography, climate, history, architecture, cuisine, fashion, industries, general economy, status structure, religion, their views regarding love and marriage, the relationship with nearby countries, and the fantastical elements. I’m not very good at creating things from scratch, so I based a lot on German culture, while also taking inspiration from places like Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. There are also some elements that draw from historical Japan. 

I think it’s fine to sometimes play it a little loose with your setting as this leaves it room to grow, but you really need the basics in order so that, if someone asks a fundamental question, you have an answer for them. In my case, I read somewhere over fifty books as research before I started. This Q&A session has made me really glad that I did all this, too! 

Once the world was built, I started formulating the plot. The first things I decided on were the beginning and the end; knowing how the story opens and concludes provides the overarching framework that I can fit everything else into. 

I mostly write on copy paper, and what I initially did was outline the plot from the beginning of Part 1 up to the very end on an A4 sheet. To give you a general idea, it was something like: “A soldier’s daughter so sickly she’s on the verge of death.” ? “Uses her modern knowledge to invent things, which leads to her meeting a merchant with connections to nobles.” ? “Finally makes paper! Woohoo!” ? “Barges into the temple’s book room during her baptism.” ? “It’s discovered that she has mana.” ? “Uses negotiation skills and her connections with the merchant to become an apprentice blue shrine maiden in the temple.” ? “Saves the orphanage and gets more manpower.” ? “The printing industry steadily advances.” ? “Draws the attention of nobles during a ritual that requires the use of mana.” ? “Finishes a book with mimeograph printing.” ? “Some trouble with a noble from another duchy that begins with a Devouring orphan.” ? “Separates from family and enters noble society.” ? “Becomes the archduke’s adopted daughter.” As I’m sure you can see, I focused the plot on her progress making books and her ever-increasing status. 

With the broad outline established, next comes the... less broad one. My rundown for Part 1 ended up covering a full A4 sheet, taking up just as much space as the full outline. I wrote all the events that needed to happen between her reincarnation and her joining the temple—things that had to happen no matter what detours she made along the way. 

Once the more detailed outline was done, I started creating the main characters: the daughter of a soldier, her family, a merchant to serve as her bridge to noble society, someone to connect the soldiers to a merchant, a childhood friend to make paper with her, and so on. 

I consider the personality and role of a character to be their most important aspects, so names and appearances are settled on last. During the plotting stage, I give characters placeholder names like Merchant A, Childhood Friend (Male), and Attendant 1 (Adult Man). 

Then, once the characters are in place, I write the most detailed outline yet. What I do here is fill the spaces between the essential events. “This scene needs X, so I’ll write a scene about making X.” “I should have a scene with X before Y happens.” “I want a scene describing X at least once.” These are the kinds of thoughts that cross my mind during the process. Something that often keeps me motivated is wanting a character to say a certain line, or having a particular back-and-forth that I really want to include. 

The chapters I post to Narou are based on this most detailed outline. In some instances, I might detour a little based on the feedback I get, but it’s usually pretty casual and I’m always ready to get back on track with the important stuff. I don’t really like things being too strict and rigid, since I find that less enjoyable. The idea of being satisfied in the plotting stage and not changing anything is a bit, well... Either way, I try to give myself some leeway when it comes to the story.

Q: In what way do you write Bookworm? It’s really impressive that you publish a chapter every weekday, so yeah. I’m curious. 

A: The night before, I grab some paper and write a detailed outline of what will happen next, including some lines and explanations that I absolutely need to include. I then flesh out the conversations before finally putting everything into order. Next, I type that all into my computer. One time I injured my arms and had to use voice-to-text, but speaking the lines out loud was really embarrassing. The next morning, I add details for the environment and situations, then publish the chapter. I still spend about five to six hours every weekday working on the web novel, and I believe that’s been consistent ever since I started. 

On weekdays, I also read and send emails regarding the book and manga adaptations, with the latter having a lot of mapping out, rough drafts, and finished pages for me to double-check. When a lot of double-checking work builds up, I can spend more than an hour just looking over things and replying to emails. 

I do work regarding the novel adaptation on weekends so that I can publish chapters every weekday. As a recent example, I spent August having a nigh constant back-and-forth about the finalized illustrations for Part 3 Volume 1, while also beginning preparations for Part 3 Volume 2. Around this time, I also had deadlines for the TO Books special edition short story, as well as the third manga volume’s bonus short story. 

During September, the month Part 3 Volume 1 was due to be released, I spent a lot of time putting together the manuscript for Part 3 Volume 2. In the end, I was able to finish the main text in the first half of the month and the two original short stories in the second. I also spent this time simultaneously writing documents for the new characters, listing out which pages I wanted illustrations for if possible, and putting together the comments on the character introduction pages. If there’s a holiday in the month that the book is published then I get some extra time, which I’m always overjoyed about. 

In October, the month after Part 3 Volume 1 was published, I spent my time going over the Part 3 Volume 2 galley proof; I absolutely without fail perform two checks for both the first and second proofs. The afterword and author comment are also usually due this month, and in this case, so were the temple map, short story, and Q&A for this very fanbook. I also needed to use this time to write the bonus short story for the fourth volume of the manga adaptation, which I started during the first half of the month. It’s at the end of this month that I started sending emails about the illustrations. 

November, the month before Part 3 Volume 2 was due to be published, had me checking the finalized illustrations and making preparations for the next volume, Part 3 Volume 3. This whole process continues in a cycle for each book in the novel adaptation. Then there’s also the manuscript for every other issue of the monthly magazine Everybody’s Library. You know, I don’t think I rest much on the weekends at all... (Hahaha.)

Q: How do you decide on the names of characters, original nouns, chants, and so on? (I do know that a lot of your inspiration comes from German.) 

A: For the main characters, I regularly consult European name registries and directories of German names. There are a decent number of characters who have anagrams for names, and sometimes I just think of some relevant adjectives and such that I plug into German. I believe Bezewanst’s name was based on the words for “bad” and “fat belly,” though I changed the spelling a little. I did something similar for the gods and chants. I ultimately go by feel based on their role and personality.

Q: Do the words just flow out of you, or do you visualize the scene and then describe that visualization? 

A: I often visualize things in my mind. I’ve had anime dreams before with voices, sound, and everything! Gunther sure looks cool when animated. I also had a dream where Lutz and Myne played together after seeing a moving illustration on Pixiv, which was really cute.

Q: I’m always surprised by how all the characters act with their own agency. How do you keep track of all their schedules and the foreshadowing? I feel like everything that happens in Bookworm is more than what you could accomplish with just a notepad. 

A: It’s less a notepad and more sheets of copy paper. When writing the middle-depth outline, I detail the actions of not only Myne, but all the other major characters too. It was pretty easy to manage in Part 1 when there was only the lower city, but starting with Part 3, the characters were split between the lower city, the temple, and noble society, which has demanded that I use a lot more paper lately.

Q: How do you decide on a character’s hair and eye color? 

A: I kind of just go with the flow. There are some characters that I originally thought up as having one hair color, then changed it later after feeling that it wasn’t quite right. One time, I forgot to change the setting document after changing someone’s hair color, so some time later, I got a comment online that I had mixed things up.

Q: It seems to me that this work is roughly based on Cinderella, but is that actually the case? 

A: No, I didn’t base it on Cinderella. I originally had four or five stories in mind that I wanted to write, though. These included one about making things, one about a fantasy world, one about gathering materials and creating things like in the Atelier series, one about good succeeding over evil, and one about school. I thought long and hard about which one to go with, and then finally realized that I could just mix them all together. So I took my favorite parts out of each plot and combined them into one new story.

Q: Were you consciously considering popular trends on Narou, like isekai reincarnation, when you started Bookworm? 

A: Actually, it was the exact opposite. I wanted to write about libraries with “books” as the main keyword, but then I realized that wouldn’t be feasible with a protagonist who grew up in the culture of my fantasy world. Having her be reincarnated was like a solution to that problem. I mean, it would be weird for a poor commoner girl to know so much about books and making things, wouldn’t it? I simply couldn’t progress the plot without the main character having some baseline of modern knowledge. It was just a happy coincidence that Narou readers happened to be really receptive to it, and I was overjoyed about not having to hold back with what I wanted to do.

Q: Are there any characters who were revised after you outlined the plot? If so, I would love to hear who they are and how they changed. Was it a personality change? Did they get a bigger role? Like how Damuel wasn’t supposed to be such a pitiable character, but keeps getting more and more pitiable as the series goes on. 

A: I usually add substance to the characters after thinking up the general story outline, but there are several that I ended up reworking or combining into one. Myne is one such character. I originally pictured her as a meek, quiet girl who lived deep in the mountains. But a meek girl wouldn’t be able to overcome the barriers of status and distinctive cultures, so she ended up becoming the rampaging little gremlin that we’re all familiar with. 

Other than that, Benno comes to mind. In my initial plan, it was Otto who would take Myne to the guildmaster. But the guildmaster was old enough that he couldn’t run around himself, and he was from such a historied store that he was too conservative for new inventions and ideas. I thought about how to bridge the gap between Otto and the guildmaster, and ultimately came up with Benno. He has connections to an ex-traveling merchant and a historied store, plus he’s young with lots of ambition and motivation, so he basically stole all the roles that I had expected to give to the guildmaster! Haha. 

Lutz was in a similar situation. I originally intended for Myne to make paper with Tuuli, with Freida joining in midway through, but then it struck me that all the physical labor would be an issue with only girls involved. My solution basically involved Lutz taking over most of the work that I had planned for Tuuli and Freida to do. 

I also thought up two potential routes for the temple, where either the High Bishop or the High Priest would work to protect her. In one scenario, the kindly old grandfather High Bishop would dote on her while the High Priest tried to eliminate her due to the threat her immense amount of mana presented. In order to save Myne, the High Bishop would turn to the noble society that scorned him, begging his nephew the archduke to save her. I wasn’t really satisfied with how the kindly High Bishop behaved, though, so I ultimately went with the High Priest route.

Q: Were there any stories that inspired you to make this incredibly lengthy and ambitious series? 

A: I think I’ve been influenced by all sorts of movies, books, and games that I’ve watched, read, and played. If you ever think, “Wow, this is a bit like X!” then you might just be right. To be honest, I have so many inspirations that I can’t really point to just one and say, “This is it!” 

About Miya Kazuki 

Q: I would like to know what your associates (mainly your family) think about you. 

A: Let’s see... “I think it’s weird to have a mom who suddenly gets ideas for her books in the middle of cooking and stuff, then shouts, ‘Get me my notepad! Someone, take my place!’” “Don’t write until you collapse. Get some rest. You don’t have much stamina as it is.” There we go.