Amongst All Other Worlds, Why Did It Choose Such A Clichéd Setting?

Author's Note, Discussion, & Comments

If you've made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read the first light novel in my series "Amongst All Other Worlds, Why Did It Choose Such A Clichéd Setting?" It has truly been a fun experience learning how to write and convey the information I so vividly see inside my mind.

For those interested, I am self-diagnosed with hyperphantasia, which is the capability to produce startling, almost life-like, mental images when picturing objects or characters. While this sounds like a really cool thing, it also comes with its own set of unique challenges. Take for example, trying to remember if you locked the door to your house or apartment before leaving for an outing. Most people would probably remember themselves accurately locking the door, or have some doubts, in which case, they would rack their brain until their anxiety regarding "locked living premise safety" is satiated, or, bug them the whole day with no reprimand.

However, being able to create such strong mental images around actions, makes it difficult to trust my memories of events. Did I truly lock the door to the house? Or was that just my brain perfectly recreating a mental image of "me" locking the door?

Brushing aside the brief, unwarranted tangent on picturing images, false memories, and securing living spaces, this "unique quirk" has brought plenty of joy to my life, where I can create, watch, and play movies in my head on demand. Eventually, I had the thought, "why not turn the isekai story I play in my head, into a novel?". After all, if I enjoy this fun little world I've built, there's a chance others might enjoy the quirky, unique characters as well! So, using my imagination as I guide, I gradually worked on how to transform the images I see in my mind, into captivating and easy to understand passages of text. Well, that was the hope, at least...

While I think it was probably obvious, my writing "picked up" when I could finally write for specific characters I enjoyed creating, such as the careful, always calculating, inquisitive fox, filled with seemingly endless and arbitrary battleplan numbers. Or the cheeky demi-human cat maid with mysterious, powerful magic capabilities. Let's also not forget the analytical and scientifically focused Kotato, with oddly specific descriptions, who is probably the only person that would use the sentence "it looked like anything but an organ designed for processing visual wavelengths of light" when referring to an eyeball.

I'm sorry Jake, but you just weren't meant to be...

With that said, I have some questions for the readers:

1. Should I make the story description / synopsis, truly accurate? Or, was it a nice surprise once chapter 14 rolled around? This is something I debated, and wasn't sure if the "generic and totally 100% accurate" current description would work, or cause readers to lose interest / not bother reading at all when viewing the novel?

2. Would a reordering of chapters work better on the perspective shifts? For example, Inari's perspective would be "bundled together" at the end of the novel, kind of like a bonus viewpoint once Ko gets back and finally gets to sleep in their proper "room". Basically, Chapters 13-14 and 26-29 all appear at the end of the novel.

Regardless if anyone reads this, comments, or finds the story interesting, I intend to continue writing and ideally, improve in my communication capabilities. On my end, I have roughly an extra 50,000 words completed into novel 2, which finally starts to delve into the labyrinth underneath Solara. Readers will finally learn more about the seemingly unknown "World Serpent" as a few new characters join Kotato and Inari along their journey. While I don't like to reveal too many spoilers, I hope these characters will be just as memorable as they join the cast!

With that said, future updates for the series will now happen on a weekly basis, releasing on the Friday of that week. Friday, Aug 30, 2024 will be the next scheduled update, and will help set the stage for what's to come in "Amongst All Other Worlds, Why Did It Choose Such A Clichéd Setting?".

Until we meet again,

~Kotato