#audioblog

NoGameNoLife’s Note: To those who are curious what the author of Dear L said during the audio broadcast, I’ve summarized some parts in the first person’s point of view. It’s a super loooong “summary”:

 The manhwa started by chance, it just happened when I was trying to get some ideas to make a manhwa. There were two supporting characters (which I hadn’t even decided their name back then), it was a gentle woman, and a courageous, naïve, romantic secondary school girl. It was just two characters and I still hadn’t thought of the plot, but I became more and more interested in these two people. I was curious what would happen if these two people met. And the next day, I drew (created) the first chapter of Dear L.

After the first chapter, there was actually still a lot of content that was undetermined. These two characters felt like characters that I was unfamiliar with, even though I was the one who created them. So as the story progresses, I’m slowly trying to understand them.

The story’s title came from a “very emotional starting point”, because sometimes we’d call a lot of people 亲爱的 (dear), but the meaning in it may be complicated. It may be a form of love,

comfort, or warmth, but it’s definitely an intimate emotion. This was the detail I cared about the most, and through characters like Wei Wei, Ding Yi, Lu Si Chen, Xiao Ou, I’m trying to answer some of the questions that I’m curious about, like (regarding) romantic relationships and friendships.

There are a lot of things in this story which I don’t have an answer for. It’s like, when I’m walking on the road and see others, I’d wonder why they’re sad or happy and how they’d react if they encounter certain problems. And I’m trying to familiarize myself with these 2 characters through the story.

(The picture of the paper stacks is her first work). Dear L was never a novel. After looking at these draft papers, I’m sure you guys (the fans) would understand the process of creating the manhwa. The thing I’m most concerned of isn’t myself, and not about telling my story to everyone, so 60%-70% of it is an original idea. I’d like to explain the process, and also find an excuse for the slow updates (laughs).

I usually change the text a few times, it’s the most pleasant part of the process, but also the part which I’m most concerned of, because I’d think “would they (the characters) really do that?”, “would that person say that kind of thing?” and how they’d react, reply…because these are things I don’t know yet when I started the story. I would usually think what kind of speech would suit their personality.

I became interested in creating manhwas when I was a postgraduate (studying in Boston). There were comic stores there, but it was a bit different from where I came from, they were many different kinds of people, from students to old people. And I quickly found myself immersed in reading graphic novels.

The story I’m telling (drawing) is not something that has happened to me, I’m not the type to talk about myself (tell stories based on myself). It’s imaginary (the characters), like what would happen to them…

Dear L is just one of the many stories I’ve thought of, before drawing this, I’ve never actually thought of drawing/writing such a straight forward love story.

It was a challenge writing the story, there were many times when I was thinking of the script, I’d think “would they really say that, would they think like that?”, I don’t want to pretend or just write a story that others want to hear, I hope the reactions of the characters in the story is realistic. They may be selfish, may be despicable, or may be a coward. But I still hope their reactions are realistic.

Fan’s question: What are Lu Si Chen’s feelings towards Wei Wei, is it just selfish possession, or she really loved her?

Answer: Actually, for this, I’ve never really considered the “definition” of Si Chen’s feelings toward Wei Wei. Just like in reality, a person’s feelings toward another may be mixed with (affected by) different factors, like age, time, reality. Because of those, they couldn’t keep it “pure”. Maybe sometimes when we read some youth stories, we may feel that it’s clean, simple, and straightforward, but in this story, Dr. Lu’s actions (decisions) are always affected by external factors. No matter it’s Wei Wei or her, they’re just trying their best to fulfill their “role”, but because of this “role”, they may have to hurt others in order to protect someone/someone’s feelings. If it’s so easy to do the right thing for something (relationship), then a lot of people wouldn’t be sad. And, in my opinion, there’s no one that’s not selfish, but it also doesn’t mean that those who chose to be selfish would be happy, or they won’t regret (their decisions). And I don’t think a love without possessiveness is true (real) love.

Note: The author didn’t mention the level of possessiveness, so I didn’t write anything on that. And when she talked about this part, it seems she was crying as her voice sounded broken and even the fans say they could hear some sobbing sounds. So I guess the remaining 30% of her work is really based on her real life experience…

Fan’s question: Does your profession has anything to do with drawing manhwas?

 Answer: I never thought of drawing manhwas would have anything to do with my future job. When I started becoming interested in manhwas, during my teens, I never thought of wanting to become a professional manga artist in the future.

Fan’s question: Asking about the drawing of Dear L.

 Answer: Actually everything was done by using the computer.

 I’m trying my best (to update faster), but I only have a head and a right hand to do that, because I’m doing this (story/manhwa) alone, and I have work and some daily routines. After thinking it through, I decided to prioritize quality.