Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 344 Huang Qingya's Progress
After dinner, Cao Sheng took Huang Qingya to his study.

She has already sent the outline, detailed outline, and main text of "The Story of Xiao Qiao" to his email address. He can see it by opening his computer and logging into his email.

Cao Sheng had already seen the outline before. This time, after opening it, he glanced at it a few times, looked at a few places that had been modified, and then didn't look at it any further.

What he was most curious about was the detailed outline written by Huang Qingya.

I'm curious how her first detailed outline turned out.
Upon opening her detailed outline, Cao Sheng was immediately astonished.

Because her detailed outline was made using a self-made table, down to each chapter, listing out the characters, scenes, and plot objectives of each chapter in detail. This outline was much more detailed than the one Cao Sheng had made.

Cao Sheng turned to look at Huang Qingya sitting on his lap in surprise, "Isn't your outline a bit too detailed?"

Huang Qingya turned to look at him and smiled, "A detailed outline! I think it's better to be more detailed. At least with such a detailed outline, I can have a clear understanding of the content of each chapter, and I shouldn't get stuck while writing."

Cao Sheng: "..."

After a few seconds of silence, Cao Sheng couldn't help but remind him, "The outline is too detailed, which can easily become a constraint for you. For example, you might suddenly have a brilliant idea, but because the outline is already this detailed, you can't add your new inspiration. It's like pulling one thread affects the whole thing. If you add even a little bit of plot, the entire outline will have to be changed, or it might even become completely useless. Have you considered that?"

Huang Qingya frowned and thought for a moment, then nodded. "What you said makes sense. In that case, I won't add any new inspiration. I'll just write it exactly according to the outline. That should be fine, right?"

Cao Sheng: "..."

After a few seconds of silence, Cao Sheng nodded and said nothing more.

He had made very detailed outlines before, but he encountered the problem he just mentioned: the overly detailed outlines became a constraint, limiting his performance on the spot.

It had caused him a lot of distress.

I'm torn between adding new inspiration or not.
If we add more, the detailed outline will need to be significantly revised, or even completely scrapped.

If I don't add anything, and I write everything according to the detailed outline, I feel very uncomfortable. I always feel that it would be better to add new inspiration.

Over time, he lost his passion for writing that book. The more he wrote, the less joy he found in creating, and the more painful it became.

But he knew that every author was different.

I've also heard of authors who have very detailed outlines and still achieve quite good results. Because of these detailed outlines, they don't experience writer's block every day, and they update a lot every day, easily producing 10,000 words, and their income keeps rising.

So he didn't say anything more.

I squinted as I read the detailed outline of "The Story of Xiao Qiao".

After reading for a while, he noticed that Huang Qingya had added a very unfamiliar character to the early part of the book's plot—a boy who grew up with Xiao Qiao, their childhood sweetheart?
In the detailed outline of the first dozen or so chapters, this boy who grew up with Xiao Qiao has so much screen time that he seems to be the male protagonist of the book.

This surprised Cao Sheng.

Because he didn't remember there was such a man in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

In order to help Huang Qingya develop the outline of "The Legend of Xiao Qiao", he also searched for information about Xiao Qiao online. The information showed that the birth and death times of Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao were unknown. The information also showed that the two sisters were encountered by Sun Ce and Zhou Yu on the road after winning a battle. They were immediately amazed by the beauty of Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao, and then they divided them up, one for you and one for me, it was that simple.

The information Cao Sheng found online did not include Xiao Qiao's upbringing before she met Zhou Yu.

As a beautiful woman, it's already quite good that Xiao Qiao has left a name and a few descriptions in history. Why would the ancient historians waste too much ink on her?
Therefore, Cao Sheng strongly suspects that the childhood sweetheart in the detailed outline is a character fabricated by Huang Qingya.

"Was this character your original creation?"

Cao Sheng pointed to the names in the detailed list and asked Huang Qingya.

Huang Qingya smiled and nodded, humming in agreement.

Cao Sheng frowned. "Why create such a fictional character at the beginning? Isn't Zhou Yu the male protagonist of this book?"

Huang Qingya turned to look at Cao Sheng and explained softly, "Zhou Yu died too young. If we use Zhou Yu as the male lead, Xiao Qiao will soon be a widow, making it difficult to write the later romantic scenes. Readers might also be dissatisfied with the second and third male leads who appear later. Moreover, the information shows that Zhou Yu only met Xiao Qiao when he was fighting against Sun Ce in Jiangdong. That's history! We can't change it casually. But Xiao Qiao is the female lead in my book, and I want to start writing from her childhood. So I think it's necessary to give her a childhood sweetheart to add some romantic scenes. I think that's quite reasonable. Think about it, which girl hasn't had a crush on a boy during her growing up? Don't you think so?"

After a pause, before Cao Sheng could reply, she continued, "Furthermore, if this character were the male lead, the romance in this book would be even more captivating. The story could depict Zhou Yu using his power to force Xiao Qiao into marriage, while Xiao Qiao's father and family, fearing the power of Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, dare not refuse and instead urge her to marry him. At the same time, it could also be written that this childhood sweetheart suffers greatly, and after Zhou Yu's death, readers shouldn't be too disappointed, and might even be delighted, perhaps hoping that Xiao Qiao and this male lead will end up together. The subsequent romance would be easier to write. What do you think?"

Cao Sheng: "???"

Cao Sheng looked at Huang Qingya in surprise, then smiled and nodded after a moment. "Not bad! You've thought it through quite thoroughly, and it makes sense logically."

Huang Qingya was a little happy, "You think it's okay?"

Cao Sheng nodded, "It should be possible."

Huang Qingya's explanation just now made Cao Sheng look at her with new respect.

He realized that Huang Qingya had made great progress in her writing over the past two years and had developed her own unique insights.

As for whether readers will accept her writing style?
He can't be sure right now either.

Cao Sheng thought her logic for this adaptation was acceptable.

The most important thing in writing a story is that it must be logically sound.

Reality may disregard logic, but fiction cannot.

Cao Sheng opened the main text of "The Legend of Xiao Qiao" and began to read it chapter by chapter.

The more he read, the more surprised he became, because he found that Huang Qingya's writing had improved considerably and had developed a good writing style. In the first dozen or so chapters, she wrote about the sisterly relationship between Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao, the father-daughter relationship between Xiao Qiao and her father, and the happy childhood years of Xiao Qiao and her childhood sweetheart.

He hadn't read any of Huang Qingya's novels for a while, and he was surprised to see how much she had improved.

In terms of writing style, there is already a sense of ease and fluency.

This surprised Cao Sheng and also made him feel somewhat emotional.

He suddenly realized a problem: his advantage in writing skills probably wouldn't last much longer.

As a reborn individual who made a living by writing before his rebirth, he had an advantage in writing skills after his rebirth. After he ushered in the era of online novels, those writers who were just learning to write online novels always had various problems with their writing skills. Ninety-nine percent of the writers were not as good as Cao Sheng in terms of writing skills.

Having already written tens of millions of words, his writing style was already well-developed. While it might not be considered exceptionally outstanding, it was well-suited for storytelling, allowing him to express the stories he wanted to tell very well.

But today, upon noticing Huang Qingya's improvement in writing style, he suddenly realized that other authors' writing styles have probably also improved considerably in the past two years.

Furthermore, he also thought: My writing skills are unlikely to improve significantly in a short period of time. Just like those top students in school, who can usually score above 85 out of 100 on a test, it will be very difficult to improve further, and even if they can improve, the improvement will not be significant.

New writers are like underachievers in school, who can only score 20 or 30 out of 100 on tests. They seem to be far behind top students, but if they study hard, their grades can improve significantly. If they study diligently for a long time, they may catch up with the top students in a year or two.

The same applies to the online literature industry.

For writers with good writing skills, it is difficult to make significant improvements in their writing.

However, as time goes by, those writers who were originally not good at writing or whose writing was just average will see a very obvious improvement in their writing skills. Before long, they will catch up with those who have excellent writing skills.

Therefore, Cao Sheng realized that he would soon lose his advantage in writing. With these mixed feelings, he finished reading the draft of "The Story of Xiao Qiao".

Huang Qingya: "Finished watching?"

Cao Sheng hummed in agreement.

Huang Qingya turned around and hugged his neck, asking expectantly, "So what do you think? Is it okay? Is there anything that needs to be changed?"

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Very well written! You've made great progress."

Huang Qingya was pleasantly surprised. "Really? You're not lying to me?"

Cao Sheng nodded, "It's true, even more real than Genghis Khan."

Huang Qingya's smile brightened, and she happily kissed him several times on the cheek. Then she hugged him tightly, rested her chin on his shoulder, breathed a sigh of relief in his ear, and whispered, "Hearing you say that makes me feel much more at ease. You know what? I feel like I've put all my effort into writing this book. I've written every chapter very carefully. I think this is my highest level, and I probably won't be able to break through it for the next two or three years. So, if you say this book isn't good, then I really don't know how to write it."

Cao Sheng: "..."

Cao Sheng believed her words.

Because of the book's quality, it wouldn't have been possible if she hadn't been careful when writing it.

Therefore, he had mixed feelings at the moment.

He was happy for her progress and delighted that she was so serious when writing, but... there was another voice in his heart saying: a strong woman is not suitable to be a wife.

Now, he has achieved great success in his career and has earned more money than he can ever spend in his lifetime.

Since he has such financial means, he won't place much importance on a woman's financial situation when looking for a partner.

Deep down, he is a very traditional man.

He hoped that the man would be the breadwinner and the woman would stay at home. He felt that earning money to support the family was his responsibility, while having children, educating them, and being filial to his parents-in-law were his wife's responsibilities.

If he is incompetent and doesn't earn enough to support his family, he can accept that his wife should focus on her work, since he himself is unable to support the family and must bow to reality.

But can't he support his family?
Since he has plenty of money, he naturally wants to find a wife who can focus her energy and attention on the home.

Having lived for over forty years in both his past and present lives, he has seen all sorts of families.

I've seen couples who work themselves to the bone to earn money, but neglect their children's upbringing. One child dropped out of school before finishing junior high and drifted aimlessly in society.

I've also seen husbands work themselves to the bone to earn money, while their wives are never home, preferring to live a carefree life, and their children, neglected and becoming very rebellious.

I've also seen husbands who only care about their own enjoyment, wives who work hard to earn money, and children who are neglected in the same way. The wives are exhausted and look old early, while the children are disappointing.

Of course, I've also seen husbands earn money while wives stay home to take care of their husbands and children. Although they may not become very wealthy, their children have excellent grades, are very polite, and have good upbringing.

Cao Sheng has seen all kinds of families.

This is probably the main reason why he could never find a suitable marriage partner before his rebirth.

Because at that time, young women rarely had the qualities of a virtuous wife and loving mother.

Back then, after dating them for a while, he would analyze in his mind whether they were suitable to be a qualified mother.

Can she cook? Can she do laundry? Can she stay at home? Is she mild-mannered? Does she yell at the children easily? Or even hit them? And so on.

result?

No young woman could withstand his analysis.

After his rebirth, when he first got together with Huang Qingya, he once thought that she met his standards for a wife. He thought she had a good temper, could cook, liked reading and writing, and should be able to stay at home and take care of her husband and children in the future.

but……

He hadn't expected that she also loved writing so much.

Surprisingly, he has a strong sense of career ambition.

While Cao Sheng was distracted, Huang Qingya's hands started to wander, taking off his T-shirt. After taking off his T-shirt, she didn't stop, quickly arousing Cao Sheng's anger.

After a long while, the clouds dispersed and the rain stopped.

She sat on his lap, panting, and whispered teasingly in his ear, "You're such a grown-up, why are you still like a child? Do you like to eat that? Didn't you get enough of it when you were little?"

Cao Sheng, who was resting with his eyes closed, said lazily upon hearing this, "What are you saying? I'm just a child who was weaned 20 years ago!"

"Puch..."

Huang Qingya was amused.

"You are shameless!"

she says.

Cao Sheng: "It's not just me who's like this. By your logic, which man had enough of this when he was a child?"

Huang Qingya was amused and chuckled, her shoulders shaking with laughter.

……

This evening.

Back home, Huang Qingya contacted the editors at the publishing house she had previously worked with and submitted the manuscript of "The Story of Xiao Qiao" to two publishing houses in Taiwan and mainland China.

She was a little nervous when submitting the article.

Although Cao Sheng said the book was well-written and had no problems, she was not an editor at the publishing house, and she was still unsure whether the new book would pass the review of the two publishing houses.

After all, her book "The Biography of Xiao Qiao" is not the same type of work as her previous works.

Previously, she wrote romance novels disguised as fantasy novels.

This new book, "The Story of Xiao Qiao," is disguised as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," and can be considered her transitional work.

It seems that no one in the female-oriented genre has written a work like this yet.

Would a publishing house even consider it?

She was a little uneasy.

(End of this chapter)