Hi there! My name is Bastian and online I usually go by the name of Chunwa.
The name is loaned from a korean web novel, called Id, the Final Fusion Fantasy, and that's what I do:
I'm writing my own original novel; A Dragon's Curiosity.
Ever since I was a child, I always enjoyed reading, mostly fantasy and crime thrillers/mysteries and romances.
Going from that, I eventually discovered japanese light novels, namely Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (MKnR), and devoured all the fan translations avaible. Once I was at the current end of translations, I needed something else to read, discovering more and more japanese novels.
One of my greater regrets is giving chinese novels a try after that. I liked the japanese style, yet the main characters usually had moral concerns every time it came to face a villain or were too shy to actually get together with the heroine.
Well, no more! Coiling Dragon (CD), the first chinese work I've read was everything I wished for, decisive, epic and a fun read, often devouring more than 40 or 50 chapters until I've ran out again. As these things go, once I reached the end I looked for other chinese works, happily diving into new worlds and learning about merciless main characters, scheming elders and cultivation instead of magic.
The last stop on my journey to become a writer was fan fictions. With releases only every other week, I found a site called royalroad after reading Legendary Moonlightsculptor (LMS) again, where people from all over the world were able to publish their own stories.
Often even daily!
Devouring the new found treasure trove of exciting new ideas, I eventually figured ... why not write my own? Having read quite a lot in the past and always loving to see the story take an interesting twist, I started to plan a bit ahead, thinking of a world I wanted to create. Especially on royalroad, where publishing was fairly easy as the forum provided tools to create a page for a story.
On December 2015 I reached out to the mentor/mentee subforum, asking one of the more experienced authors that offered help. Luckily one user decided to help me out and even offered to read my notes and help me develop my story line. And most importantly, he gave me the advice to start a side project to practice my writing, no one starts perfect! So, I took my original idea which involved stat screens, a level system and evolution paths and pondered, what could I write to practice? In the following week, I lucked out and had a dream. Waking up in the middle of the night, I figured: This is what I want to write!
Sitting down and writing out the details, I mailed back and forth with my mentor, laying out the details and slowly coming to the point where I had my first chapter finished. A proud moment for every writer. My mentor proof read it, and still gave me valuable advice. Before I start giving the world a chance to read my creation, I should write out the first ten chapters, to see where my story is headed and if I can stick with writing.
Still proud, yet also recognizing the value of the advice offered, I continued writing whenever possible until January 2016. Having managed to complete 10 chapters, I uploaded all of them on royalroad, anxious to see whether people would like my idea or not. Everyday I'd either write a bit more or check the chapters for comments, hungry for feedback. My mentor eventually decided that I was fine on my own and reached out to another aspiring author. Chiisutofupuru, if you're reading this, thank you so much for assisting me in taking my first steps towards becoming an author.
With positive feedback and a regular schedule of posting chapters, I eventually found and IRC channel where translators of popular chinese novels chatted from time to time. Happy to talk to like minded people, I regularly had the channel open while writing, sometimes asking for feedback on ideas I had or going through possible scenarios. Eventually, I met a fellow original novel author, Tinalynge. Finally mustering the courage, I asked her to look over my work and maybe give me some feedback, if she had the time.
Getting a response back quickly, she also encouraged me to keep writing with a positive message, telling me she liked my story and what I can improve. She also convinced me to start my own wordpress site to upload, to increase my visibility. And that's just one tiny bit of the invaluable advice she gave me over time. Eventually, I asked her about joining the same site she was releasing her chapters on, Gravity Tales (GT). With her help and after applying, I was allowed to join the site, one more proud moment.
Since then I've met more authors, editors and many great fans. But I want to talk about one more: Tyxev.
In the IRC channel I mentioned I eventually talked about my novel and writing. During one of these talks, I mentioned I was in search of an editor. The first few gave it a try and eventually dropped it again. But not Tyxev. After asking her to be my editor, she did a splendid job from the get go, developing a good working rhythm with me and releasing quality chapters. For over 6 months now she worked tirelessly on the chapters, cleaning up the messes I slapped together and adding depth to the story.
Tyxev, I can never ever thank you enough.
Well, and I guess that's the story how I found my way to writing.
Other than that, I'm studying mathematics in Germany, hopefully getting my bachelor and then master of science.
I like to go on walks with my dog, Emma, an adorable jack russell terrier or go out on my bike. Currently I'm trying to get my drivers license down while also writing and going to university, which is a bit of a hassle but still something I want to do.With my birthday coming up in about a month, I'll turn 21.
I've been introduced to steem by a fellow writer, Tinalynge again, make sure to check out her story Blue Phoenix (BP), and am looking forward what this platform can do. In any case I want to be here from the beginning, to see where it goes.
And that's it from me! I hope it's not too much, and thank you very much in case anyone made it all the way down here!
Cheers,
Chunwa