TBATE Questions
Q: What are the Alacryan shields made out of because it couldn’t be pure mana because it doesn’t come form the body but also isn’t really described to have an element? - The Wet Mop
A: It's elemental-based. Some alacryan Shields manifest defensive spells derived from different elements (wind is popular because of how flexible and fast it is).
Q: How do you feel about the community's mostly negative view of Cecilia's character? Was it something you expected or planned for? - Romeo
A: I made Cecilia a flawed character, and it's also why I never gave her a "redemption" because that took away from the core of what Cecilia is supposed to be. She is a character stunted in mental and psychological growth because of the powers she had and the people who wanted to study it, and coupled with the manipulation she received from both Agrona and her most trusted person, Nico, her view of reality and her "happy ending" was skewed in a way that would make many people dislike her. It's why at the last moment, when Arthur "banished" Cecilia and Nico, their ending was irrelevant. There was no room for Arthur to feel anger or vengeful. There was only apathy.
Q: Will we ever see what spellforms/godrunes look like? - International Draw
A: I would imagine in the comic :)
Q: When (or if) did you realize what the end of TBATE is going to be? Where you like the author of Attack on Titan who had the ending planned from the beginning or have you just been going with the flow and chose an ending later on? (side note if you did have an ending in mind has it changed based on fans' opinions?) - The Lance of Days
A: I think I realized the exact volume around the time the relictombs arc got fully underway. I didn't have the complete ending figured out from the beginning... that would be giving myself too much credit. I had a direction I wanted to take TBATE but never an ending until quite later on in the story.
Q: At what point did you have how exactly the final keystone was going to work settled in your mind? Was it a quick thing or more something that went through several versions to figure out a trial that was both challenging for Arthur as well as conveying whatever the ability would be in the solving in the same way that was the case with the other keystones? - Vorvor
A: It definitely took several versions of trial and error because the final keystone was a sort of amalgamation of Arthur's other keystones. The visualization process is what also took a long time, the threads, how Arthur interacted with it, the time-loop, etc. Those were what took a long time. I knew what I wanted Arthur to come out of the keystone with--the power he would have, but how he would project and display that power was something that took a bit of time for me.
Author Questions
Q: Do you have any advice to make yourself actually write and stop procrastinating over it? I've been stuck in this loop of wanting to write but never being in the mood or scene to do it for far too long now and was wondering if you have any advise (and if tmk asks the language is in progress still, this may or may not be an excuse for procrastinating) - CZPokeblade
A: I had this problem at the beginning of my "career" where I would write massive amounts but only when that creative "burst" hit me. It became apparent rather quickly that this wouldn't be a good long-term habit so I just started writing a little bit a day. Start small, write 200 words a day about your novel. It doesn't have to start from chapter 1. Just write anything about your novel, from whatever perspective you want. Just hit that goal you set for yourself and wire your brain to start writing when you have that document program opened up. It'll get easier the more you do this.
Q: Thoughts on the genres of LitRPG and any other miscellaneous subgenres that exist within the webnovel sphere of writing? - dragoncommands
A: My main thoughts on these subgenres are that your book shouldn't be defined by it. TBATE has progression fantasy elements in it because I love some of the traits evident in that subgenre, but I wouldn't call TBATE just a progression fantasy. I don't want to narrow my novel down to sticking with one subgenre, but instead leveraging the tropes existing in those subgenres to make my story more compelling.
Q: As a writer, how do you come up with so many new characters that are unique and don't feel similar (or at the very least too similar) to one another? I've been thinking on a story for a while but want to make the chars unique and interesting - Arakret
A: I think I may discussed this already with some of you but I always just try to put a small quirk in their relatively simple backstory in my mind to help shape my brain around how they would act/react to certain scenarios. Having a full character chart filled out of what they would do in x scenario becomes too tedious for me so I just try to give them some sort of simple backstory I can use to help flesh out the choices they would make.
Q: Do you use any on- or offline methods to help you visualize large settings? - PrimordialPakWire
A: Settings are actually one of the things that come easily to me. My brain and I love exploring fantasy spaces and it's easy for me to visualize. I just see landscapes in my head and try to best capture that into words.