If you spend less time writing books, are you still a novelist? When Utsudo joined an agency and compiled her list of works, she found she’d written only about four novels the previous year and briefly doubted whether she still counted as a novelist. A friend reminded her that reducing her share of fiction and trying essays, comics, games, self-media and livestreaming was the direction she chose to combine with and promote her novels. That put her mind at ease, and she looks forward to turning these new experiences into material for her writing.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Compiling my list of works after joining an agency

After joining an agency, my first task was to organize all the works I currently have. I thought I’d have tons to fill in on the form, but when I actually did it, there were fewer than I expected.

Part of the reason is that many are series, and a whole series counts as one work, so the list came out shorter—only sixty-something entries… Okay, I won’t make excuses. Over the past two or three years, I really have written far fewer novels.

Why I’ve been spending less time writing books

The reason is that in recent years, besides fiction, I’ve spent a lot of energy and time trying new things—essays, comics, games, self-media and so on. Also, although I’ve written fewer novels, the commissioned works are demanding and take more time than usual.

Counting it up, I only wrote about four books last year. That’s unprecedentedly few—it shocked me!

But I was busy all year. The Ministry of Culture grant project is heavy, and researching and digesting the material took a lot out of me. There were other things to handle too. I kept working on fiction, but compared with before, my output was pitifully small QQ

So when I realized this, I fell into repentance.

Am I still a novelist?

I thought: I pride myself on being a novelist, yet I’m spending less time writing novels. If this goes on, can I still call myself a novelist?

But after reflecting, I told a friend about my confusion. She looked at me helplessly and said, “Didn’t you tell me you wanted to find ways to combine fiction with other things or promote yourself? Of course you’d have less time to write novels.”

That’s when it hit me: right, my strategy was to reduce the share of novel writing and try all kinds of different things. How did I forget that myself?!

Haha—I let out two awkward laughs, not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Trying new things becomes nourishment for creating

Being reminded that this was the direction I chose did put my mind at ease. Looking back at my footsteps over the past few years, I’ve been more active than when I only focused on fiction. After adding different kinds of creative work, I’ve found my thinking more flexible, cross-disciplinary collaborations have increased, and I’m definitely more visible.

As for the results, I’m not sure, but for now I’m fairly satisfied. I hope to have even more experiences next year, and maybe later I can turn them into nourishment for my writing and keep working hard on this path.

In the blink of an eye, it’s almost the end of 2022 again. Please keep supporting me next year!

Lately I’ve been busy planning and promoting a convention booth—another new experience. I’m really looking forward to it.

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #162: Celebrating 1,000 Followers on Twitch
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• 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.