Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Why would a novelist become a VTuber?Utsudo once wanted to turn the Ghost Island series into videos and made a virtual avatar, “Tutuzi,” using a program’s built-in assets, but gave up because it couldn’t be used commercially. As VTubers became popular and costs dropped, she got a custom avatar sponsored by her friend Red Wife, started livestreaming, and opened a new YouTube channel for stream highlights.

The Ghost Island series is nearing its 100th installment

　　In the blink of an eye, I’ve been writing the Ghost Island short-essay series for over two years.

　　Back when I first decided to serialize this series, I worried I’d run out of inspiration after a few posts. Little did I know that once I decided to start writing, inspiration would keep pouring out — quite a surprise.

　　Besides things I encounter at work, maybe it’s because after so many years I’ve merged my work and life together. Whether it’s big or small things in life, the way I view the world, or even chats with friends and family, it’s all more or less related to being a novelist.

　　Maybe it’s because being a novelist has long been inseparable from my life.

　　So, just as I originally intended, this series can keep going, and before I knew it, it’s nearly reached its hundredth installment. Thank you all for your support along the way.

　　Thinking back to why I wanted to write this series in the first place —after writing novels for so long, I wanted a bit of change. Plus newcomers occasionally asked me questions, so I figured this series might offer some people advice — let’s give it a try!

Experimenting with the virtual avatar “Tutuzi”

　　After writing in that spirit for a few months, I suddenly had an idea: since video is getting more and more popular, could I try turning the Ghost Island series into videos?

　　With that in mind I searched around, and a friend happened to recommend a virtual avatar program. I used its built-in assets to create “Tutuzi.” When I recorded the videos back then, I didn’t think much — I just wanted to turn the text into images and sound, so I basically read straight from the text.

　　But I didn’t consider that when turning text into visuals, the script must change too — like stating the topic at the very start. I also handled the image processing and post-production layout completely on my own by trial and error. It took lots of time but the results were poor, and when I found out the avatar couldn’t be used commercially, I just canceled the plan.

A custom VTuber avatar and a new channel

　　A few years later, as VTubers boomed, more and more people had custom virtual avatars. Unlike Tutuzi back then, your own avatar has no copyright issues, and costs keep dropping, so I once again got the idea of recording videos with a virtual avatar.

　　I now have a VTuber look kindly sponsored by my friend Red Wife, and I’ve been using it to livestream for several months. But lately I have too much writing debt and haven’t had the energy to plan a video series. I’ll announce more if I have further plans.

　　This is a channel I recently started from scratch,currently mainly featuring livestream highlights (chats, games, creators’ tea parties and so on). Other video series will also be posted here later,and the old place will be used as a warehouse. Everyone’s welcome to subscribe and like!

　　Below are highlights from the last creators’ tea party witha Hong Kong platform~

This is my new YouTube channel~ only for highlight clips of all kinds

Other planned video series will be posted here later too

Everyone’s welcome to subscribe so you don’t miss any videos ＞ｗ＜

Your support is our greatest motivation to create

FAQ

Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #94 (in Chinese)
• Next: #96 (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.