Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Selecting a Title

Zhao Youyue finished reading "Ya Jing's""Bakuman" in a single breath. Something caught her curiosity. As she read through the script, she found some written word errors. But these errors had been amended by someone else. Compared to the handwriting in the notebook, the handwriting of one who revised the errors was more of a girl's slender and diminutive.

Although Zhao Youyue had spent more time reading online literature than traditional literature, she was still an experienced reader, regardless. She was familiar with the writing differences between male and female writers.

In general, the writing style of male writers was boisterous and rough, to put lightly. To be blunter, they were horrible writers, their depictions of details were unacceptable, their descriptions of emotional feelings were even more awkward. Readers could immediately tell that they were single dogs, at a glance.

On the other hand, the writing style of female writers was rather exquisite. Their writings were better than male writers, in general. They could, however, get excessively hung up over details, or their plot would be developed entirely around a "romance." The scope of the setting would seem to be relatively small, always giving a feeling that all the characters in the work cared about nothing, but to fall in love with someone.

But of course, this was overgeneralizing matters. Some male writers had delicate writing styles and described details greatly. If they were to create a heroine, they might even be mistaken for a female writer. When they attempt to refute such assumptions, no one would believe them. Even if some believed, they would still project their initial impressions of these writers being Lady bosses——Who had asked them to write like ladies?

Some female writers spread the settings of their stories far and wide, without getting hung up on the emotional aspect. Such writing styles would often attract male readers, but at the same time, they would lose female readers who preferred plotlines centered around love.

It was not easy to be a writer. Adjusting oneself to the readers' taste was difficult. No matter how you write, someone would always be unsatisfied. It would be best to write according to your ideas.

When male readers read books targetted for females, they would be in constant fear about the appearance of male protagonist. It was a stereotypical belief that when the male protagonist appears, the heroine will receive all kinds of intelligent-reducing attacks. That would be very depressing and distressing.

Under such circumstances, there was a type of heroine work written for male readers, which was precisely the 'gender-bender type novel'[1] which contained no male protagonists whatsoever.

Of course, some would say that gender-bender novels were susceptible to being cursed. For example, that 'somebody' would turn out to be the Drug Lord. But in fact, no matter what novel it is, the unexpected always happens. Those readers' noble, generous fathers should forgive them once, and give them a chance to turn over a new leaf.

Zhao Youyue's instincts told her that the actual writer of this "Bakuman" might be a male. Lin Shiya was the one doing the revisions. But Zhao Youyue did not dare jump to conclusions. If this matter was exposed, Lin Shiya's reputation would come crashing down. It was unacceptable for the practice of ghostwriting in literature circles.

But of course, web novels were a different story. Commercial literature such as web novels could really learn from mangakas. Such individuals co-created entire studios, and drew under the same pen name. Someone would be in charge of the outline; someone else would be responsible for the character design. Each arc might even be written by a different person. Work would progress at a breakneck pace.

However, such practice was extremely scarce. It was hard to say if such stories would even be popular.

Another typical situation would be a particular writer losing his interest to continue writing. Thus, he would have a ghostwriter keep writing in his stead. Such circumstances often occurred in the web novel world.

Such an option was not on the table for writers who had a specific form of writing. Readers would be able to tell at a glanceIt would be a hopeless attempt.

Whoever it was who wrote "Bakuman," Zhao Youyue regarded it very highly, and was confident that it had the potential to create an 'iconic character.' The absence of a protagonist made it ideal for her to get involved. As long as she remains involved in the literary world, and become the unofficial protagonist by decree of the readers, that would mean that she had succeeded!

When she obtains the iconic character card, she would gain the powerful ability to create works. Then, she would be able to create her original compositions. She could even become an original author, while collaborating with Su Li, and publish new manga.

Undoubtedly, "Bakuman" had a bright future. Since the "Two Dimensional Gate" was still in cooldown, she thought that she could make friends with Lin Shiya, and customize a female character.

This was necessary, as there were no colorful female characters within "Bakuman" yet. The vantage points mostly originated from male characters.

Something caught Zhao Youyue's interest. She noticed the archetype of a character similar to Han Leng——a genius high school student writer. This character had become rather famous after receiving the New Concept Composition first prize. But, he soon learned that he could not earn much money by writing traditional literature. Therefore, he switched to online writing, and started to write web novels

However, this genius high school student writer still had an unfulfilled literary dream. He amassed knowledge from various web novels to write a piece of work in the future. It did not have to be liked by mass readers, but it needed to be steadfast in its ideals.

This genius high school student writer had been given the ability to have a gorgeous writing style and innate word acuity. To accumulate materials, he was willing to do anything. Therefore, he became a Lady boss

"Ya Jing" actually had such high expectations towards a genius high school student writer like Han Leng?

Apart from Han Leng, she had also noticed the archetype character of the great suspense, mystery novelist, Ou Yang. It just seemed that "Ya Jing" was not interested in this great writer Ou. She even considered Ou Yang to be a very conceited person who greatly objectified females and disregarded their values

In short, there were various breeds of writers in "Bakuman." Zhao Youyue would not be surprised, even if the archetype character of Su Li appeared next. Zhao Youyue even entertained the possibility of earning yet another sleeping victory by possessing Su Li's archetype character. After all, Su Li's curse had given people a deep impression.

If she obtained the "Su Li card," she might even be able to receive some "mysterious power from the East." Of course, she could also end up as the " Pan of This Generation." That would be the negative effect

Works similar to "Bakuman" would have a hidden setting similar to "The 4WD God". If all the primary students in "The 4WD God" had maximum stamina, then the readers in "Bakuman" would have maximum literary appreciation capability. They would have the stomach and palate for any form of writing. At the same time, the top writers in "Bakuman" would produce works similar to 'glowing dishes,' that sent readers drowning themselves in their contents.

Therefore, the novel "Bakuman" of this world, was a piece of work with the same energy level as "The 4WD God". Zhao Youyue could specifically travel into "Bakuman" by sacrificing "Zhou Chun's card." She was already coming up with some ideas about the female character she wanted

A bookworm girl who had a refined taste for reading.

Translation note:

[1] Gender-bender novel - It refers to novels with no male protagonist. In the eyes of most readers, transfiguration is a novel in which a male turns into a female and become the protagonist. The main point that attracts readers is the conflict between a male's heart and a female's body. The outside world greatly changes their attitudes, the deterioration of friendship and love, and finally lifelong belongings.