Do novelists always have great Chinese grades?Not necessarily. Utsudo’s Chinese grades were decent but not near the top, and she often writes characters wrong and gets corrected by editors. She believes that in commercial writing, prose just needs to let readers understand clearly and simply; what matters most is story, characters and creativity — and nowadays creativity matters even more.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Novelists must have great Chinese grades?

　　People often ask me: “You’re a novelist — you must have had great grades in Chinese, right?”

　　Or they say: “You definitely know this character, right? You write novels, after all~”

　　

　　Uh, let me tell you clearly: my Chinese grades were decent, but never among the top few in class. I often write characters wrong too, and sometimes have to Google when choosing characters while typing. I once used the wrong one and got corrected by my editor — so embarrassing (covers face

Student days spent doodling in class

　　Honestly, although I loved reading outside books and often went to the library on weekends, I didn’t like reading textbooks. Basically I only studied right before exams (though I paid decent attention in class and didn’t doze off much).

　　However,in math class, I doodled in my textbook the whole time.

　　A teacher once told me: “OOO, stop drawing dolls in class.”

　　

　　That math teacher was so gentle and patient. Even though he often scolded me, I still really liked him~ He was probably my favorite math teacher ever.

　　Even when I made a mess of word problems, he’d still try to give me a few points — such a good person!

　　My overall grades were okay. After all, I come from a family of teachers — if I did too badly on a test I’d get scolded to smithereens, and possibly lose a lot of freedoms —like no games, no snacks, no going out, and other things that make kids unhappy.

　　So for convenience’s sake, I had to put in some effort on tests so the results weren’t too embarrassing XD

　　But basically I’d given up on math. On the university entrance exam, I went in, guessed C for everything, then put my head down and slept. That was probably the most carefree major exam of my life — I hadn’t studied any math at all, and could only do probability XDD

　　There was no math in university, and I basically paid close attention in class and rarely dozed off. If a general-ed class was mind-numbingly boring, I’d take out a little notebook and write my novel, working on outlines or settings.

　　So there’s no myth that novelists are especially good at Chinese. Maybe in the literary world, but not for me, a popular-fiction writer… By the way, everyone in my family is a teacher — my mom taught history and geography, my dad and sister are Chinese teachers — so slacking too much could get someone killed!

　　It would become the famous historical Rebellion of the Three Teachers (no such thing

　　That was my own school experience. I also know writers who were great at studying, and ones who didn’t study at all. Everyone’s different; I just happen to be in the middle — my Chinese is a bit shaky but not too shaky. This is what they call following the Doctrine of the Mean (not really

Games and the path to creating

　　Speaking of which, I’ve loved playing games since I was little. As a kid I’d borrow single-player games from my cousins to binge, so I’ve been into games for a long time.Besides my personality, I think games were a big reason I later wanted to take the path of novelist or creator。

　　When my parents turned off the lights, that’s when I’d sneak up to play on the computer — even the night before major exams. I even got caught by a teacher back then (the teacher played too). Luckily I still got into a public high school XDD

　　The moral of this story: playing online games withyour teacher is fine, just not on the same server.

What commercial writing requires of your prose

　　Personally, I think in commercial writing, your prose just needs to convey meaning simply and clearly to readers. Of course, more beautiful prose is even better — just not so beautiful that no one can understand it. After all, what matters most is the story, characters and creativity.

　　And nowadays,“creativity”may matter even more, in any industry.

　　By the way, my essay grades were actually pretty good — no hard skills, but top-notch at making stuff up (?

　　If you don’t take your exams seriously and don’t study properly, watch out — you might become a novelist (X

FAQ

Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #57 (in Chinese)
• Next: #59 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.

📚 More on this topic: Writing Mindset & a Writer’s Life: Ghost Island Column Guide