Novelist Running Through Time - Chapter 218



Only Noblemtl

The novelist who leapt through time, chapter 218

“People often misunderstand that novelists are people who publish books…

As soon as the word ‘misunderstanding’ and the word -deunde were used, everyone noticed that it was a misunderstanding.

A novelist is not someone who publishes books, but someone who writes.

A publisher is someone who publishes a book.

So strictly speaking, a novelist was a profession that threw their writings at publishers and prayed to the heavens to publish them as books. They could be seen as a kind of shaman.

These days, times are good and you can publish a book with your own money, but at the time, it was like a salaried worker quitting his job and starting a business.

It means that you need guts, confidence in yourself (and your abilities), and money.

People who possess these three qualities are rare, and even among those rare challengers, few succeed.

So, salaried workers dream of becoming entrepreneurs, but they don’t put it into practice.

So, I also dream of self-publishing, but I have never put it into practice.

Like an office worker who goes to work every Monday to meet his boss, I just held back my feelings of frustration and disappointment as I went to meet the publisher’s editor.

Now that we’ve gotten this far, I can finally get to what I want to say.

The reason why I wanted to put up my love experience on the newsstand with all sorts of distortions and embellishments is exactly the same as what I heard from the editor of the publishing company that day, and it is as follows.

“I’m sorry, but it will be difficult to publish this content.”

It was a story I had heard hundreds or thousands of times in my life.

Sometimes it’s an email saying, ‘I’m sorry, but in this contest-‘ and sometimes it’s a face-to-face email like this.

To survive as an unknown novelist like this, you have to get used to ‘rejection’.

There is no need or reason to be angry.

If you are a rational member of society, it would be a wise choice to pretend to realize your own shortcomings, say, “Oh, really? See you next time,” and then go out for a drink of soju.

But at that time, I was not in a ‘rational’ state.

If you think about my circumstances even a little, you too, the reader, will easily understand why I did that.

First of all, it was not long after ‘her’ death that I submitted the first version of this novel to the publisher.

That is to say, after experiencing the death of the person I loved my whole life, not long after that, instead of keeping the things I had experienced with her buried in my heart, I dug into them frankly, wrote down all the things that could be considered shameful about the deceased, and showed them to everyone in the world, sold them, and made up my mind to write, and after much mental anguish, I ended up writing.

No matter how much of a job a novelist has, honestly, it was a bit exhausting.

But honestly, I had a bit of a contradictory expectation that since my life and her life, two people’s lives, were contained entirely in one book, it would become a widely praised masterpiece in the future.

But how resentful must this be, since it was cut by the publisher’s editor before it could even be published.

I immediately asked why it wasn’t published.

“Well, this type of book… Well, since essays that take the struggle with illness as their main topic are factions, name value and popularity are just as important as the quality of the work…”

It meant that no one was interested in your detailed life story.

And also the miserable life of that nameless woman who sucked and bit that bastard.

I knelt before that cold wall of reality.

And I thought about it.

I am a man with no guts, no confidence, and no money.

So what else can we sell here?

How on earth do I get people to read this book?

The answer was brutal.

Something that all humans have, and the most valuable and precious thing that humans have.

The point was that ‘love’ had to be sold.

That’s how I came to describe my love with her, with some dramatization, and if I were to continue the story with a little more dramatization, I would have to tell you about our date in LA where we watched fireworks together…

Of course, she was a person who had never been on a cruise ship, let alone an airplane, until she died.

EP 13-Chunbyeon Manhwa

The author’s manuscript titled ‘Cheonbyeon Manhwa’ soon received the enthusiastic attention of Baekhakmunko publishing staff.

The reason why publishing company employees who handle hundreds or thousands of books a day pay so much attention to one novel is simple.

Because it was easy to read.

“It feels like Deadpool keeps breaking walls, but it’s a bit like reading a web novel…”

“Come to think of it, didn’t you say that you wrote web novels in the past?”

“I wrote one recently, too.”

“That’s not a novel, it’s an idol viral.”

“Ugh, it’s so light that I wonder if it might not sell well…”

“Does a writer sell because of his content?”

“Well, it’s gotten to the point where it’s a bestseller just based on its name value. It’s good that we have less work to do for promotion.”

In the corner of the office hallway, a familiar bundle of manuscript papers was fluttering in the hands of the two employees who were talking so much.

It was recommended that employees review manuscripts before publication, if only to test the quality of the products before they were delivered to consumers.

However, for Lim Yang-wook, it was absolutely unacceptable to carry a manuscript that could be leaked out of the office and continue to chat while waving it around.

Where is Lim Yang-wook from?

He is from the publishing planning department of Dae-Baekhak Publishing Company, which boasts a strict, dignified, and serious corporate culture.

However, since the employees he had captured were from the free-spirited Baekhak Entertainment (which even had two cafes within the company), Lim Yang-wook quietly closed his eyes.

It is absolutely not the case that President Baek Seung-won should have set up a library at the Baekhak Entertainment headquarters.

This is a completely separate story from the fact that Im Yang-wook has suddenly become more lenient towards Baekhak Entertainment employees, but Baekhak Entertainment’s CEO Baek Seung-won has recently started making huge investments in publishing.

The ‘Marionette’ incident, which seems to have been the trigger for the CEO Baek Seung-won’s love, resulted in the creation of an in-house library at Baekhak Entertainment, something that did not even exist in Baekhak Bookstore.

A wall that doubles as a bookshelf is filled with a collection of world literature, various perfumes are placed to create an atmosphere like an old library, and there are tablets that can read almost any e-book…

As soon as the library that seemed to suit Lim Yang-wook’s tastes came into view of the sales office, Lim Yang-wook smiled kindly like a living Buddha.

Of course, with that sinister intention, I was racking my brain trying to figure out why President Baek Seung-won suddenly made a gesture of wanting to do a long-run with the release version…

Today, I decided to take a break from the darkness of Im Yang-wook.

Today, I am Lim Yang-wook, a pure literature boy, no, a literature uncle.

Lim Yang-wook, a pure literature gentleman, recalled the story his employees had been chattering about just a moment ago.

‘Easy?’

no.

In Lim Yang-wook’s view, ‘Cheonbyeon Manhwa’ was one of the most difficult works of a writer. In his personal opinion, it was almost like ‘Dark Adaptation’.

Of course, Lim Yang-wook could understand why the employees who had read ‘Cheonbyeon Manhwa’ said that the novel was ‘easy’.

That’s because the sentences are easy.

The writer’s writing style, which had been following proper literary formality, underwent a change during the ‘Cheonbyeon Manhwa’ period.

The change was more than just ‘light’; it was brief, brisk, and even somewhat vulgar.

However, when describing ‘fabricated love’, the existing solemn writing style was used, which, in contrast to the light writing style when discussing ‘unfabricated love’, gave the impression of mocking the dignity that established literature possessed and was considered to possess.

‘How peculiar…’

That’s right.

The writer began to use sorcery.

That’s why, despite the novel’s difficulty, the staff found the book entertaining.

Because you can read it straight through even if you empty your mind.

And it seemed obvious where the writer had learned this style of writing.

‘I should have never let that damn use it…’

For Lim Yang-wook, who liked literature to be authentic, even though he did business like a gangster without any basis, this could be said to be an unwelcome change.

But regardless of one’s likes and dislikes, the literary value of ‘Cheonbyeon Manhwa’ seemed clear.

This novel has three stories unfolding simultaneously.

A manipulated and beautiful love story between ‘me’ and ‘her’.

A true and dirty love story between ‘me’ and ‘her’.

And the story of ‘me’ who writes such a love story.

These three stories unfold in a jumbled manner, without even maintaining the order of past-present-future.

And the form of ‘love’ also changes infinitely, changing infinitely depending on the perspective and time…

That is the hidden meaning of the title ‘Cheonbyeon Manhwa’ that Im Yang-wook thought of.

“hmm……”

Lim Yang-wook, who had finally entered the pleasant world of thought, decided to continue this pleasure a little longer.

Lim Yang-wook, a pure literature gentleman, skipped his afternoon work like a reckless high school student and headed to the company library to sit on a soft chair.

And after exercising the power of an ‘executive’ and changing ‘Ddaengdaeng’ to ‘Not Ddaengdaeng’ with a few text messages, I continued my thoughts while smelling the scent of books in the library.

The first thing that comes to mind is a calm-looking boy who always carries a blanket around.

Man of letters.

There were various titles for the child. Genius boy, genius novelist, etc…

However, Lim Yang-wook knows that the core identity of a writer is ‘a boy from an orphanage.’

And the boy from Saebitneulbom Orphanage used to think of ‘love’ as a value, not an emotion.

For a boy who has never received love from his parents, ‘love’ is not something that can be taken for granted.

It is a sacred purpose to be longed for, desired, and finally achieved.

It is not a universal and natural emotional state that all humans have.

The love described in ‘Love Story’ was like this. The love described in that book was a sacred and religious state of cultivation that a person finally realized after suffering throughout his life.

But in ‘Cheonbyeon Manhwa’, love is a commodity that can be sold at any time.

What on earth did the writer see?

What changes have occurred in these two forms of love?

* * *

For Kim Byeol, love was just one of many emotions.

Like joy, anger and sadness, it was an emotion that had to be practiced, analyzed and acted out.

The know-how about it is as follows.

When lovers walk while holding hands, they should interlock their fingers. The love that people expect from child actors is usually school love, so it can’t be too intense. It has to be pure. Like an elementary school student who doesn’t know what love is, you have to bully the person you love by pretending to hate them for no reason. At this time, the level of bullying should never be extreme. When describing the expression of the moment of falling in love, you have to make a blank expression, but look up from below so that it looks pretty on camera. At this time, it’s best to stand on the left and look up to the right if possible. Since it’s impossible to artificially make a blush appear, if possible, you have the stylist put something on your cheek before going into the scene, etc…

This know-how was a kind of ‘skill’ that Kim Byeol had acquired over a long period of time.

And skill is a skilled act that can be done with one’s eyes closed.

There is no value in something that can be done without any problem.

There is no reason to feel rejected.

In other words, the moment Kim Byeol began to feel reluctant to act out ‘love’, the emotions she felt began to have value.

I can’t act out those feelings anymore.

I can’t sell that feeling anymore…

Kim Byeol now has flaws as an actress.

But he decided not to ignore the flaw engraved on his soul any longer.

Has Kim Byeol become a better person through this?

“Hoo… … ”

I don’t know.

This is not a rational choice.

This is something that goes against the ‘professional consciousness’ that Kim Byeol has blindly followed throughout her life.

Maybe she just got a bad temper after winning the Cannes Best Actress Award, or maybe she’s been getting a lot of attention lately and she’s acting arrogant and out of control.

But is that not possible?

Kim Byeol is a senior in high school. And when you’re a senior in high school, you can act like shit a little. It’s an age where that’s okay.

In this way, Kim Byeol consoled herself and went to see writer Im Song-i to ask her to change the script during the production of the drama, erase the love line, and change the genre in half.

On the left is the expressionless Gu Yu-na, and on the right is the half-mentally exhausted An Ju-hee.

“Hello, author.”

“Huh? Byul-ah? What’s going on?”

Im Song-yi, who saw Kim Byeol’s serious expression, also did not make a fuss like usual and said, “Oh my, our star has come.”

He glanced at Guyuna and Anjuhee, then showed the attitude of a skilled member of society who never leaves any room for error.

Kim Byeol, who was trying to rely on Im Song-yi’s affection, inwardly reproached herself for her cold attitude, saying, “Ugh…!”, but she clearly conveyed her demands.

And then there was silence.

“… … ”

“… … ”

The actor immediately asked the drama writer to change the script.

The reason why no one asked, “Where did you learn to be such a snobby person?” was because Im Song-yi had truly cherished Kim Byeol since she was little.

But now, anger was barely surpassing that ‘care’.

Lim Song-i finally blushed as she realized the situation she was in.

And he laughed.

“under……”

It was a hollow laugh that conveyed the meaning, “I guess I’ve been looked down on to this extent now.”

Lim Song-i asked Kim Byeol with a gaze filled with cold anger.

“What made you bring that up?”

Kim Byeol swallowed her saliva in nervousness, but she was determined that the real persuasion was just beginning.

And then, I tried to gradually unravel the excuses I had been thinking about.

Then Guyuna answered the question.

“I heard you got the other actor’s phone number?”

“What-”

“uh?”

“huh?”