Our Reality (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Afterword

Afterword

Hey there, Crash5020 here. 17 chapters in and I decided to do my first proper afterword segment. Where to begin? I guess I'll start with what led to me writing this story. I wanted to do a story that was different from the other ones I wrote. A story focused on character development without a huge ensemble cast or fantasy and sci-fi elements (no plugs are going to appear here). So this story is kind of an experiment/test to me, but the one thing I know I failed at was making a summary when I first started (I suck at making summaries. Half the time is because I don't want to reveal too much of the story and the other half of the time is because I really don't know how to explain it). But enough with that boring stuff; let's get to the behind the scene stuff.

Behind the scenes

When I was writing the first chapter of the story, I realized something horrifying... I was retreading the beginning. Even with a different MC, I knew no one would get past the first chapter if I just messed with the opening of the game. So I scrapped it and came up with the 1st chapter: Beginning.

I would also like to state that my main goal throughout the first 17 chapters was for Shujinkou to develop a good standing with the rest of the club. Since Sayori was a childhood friend and Monika was the easily approachable club president, it seemed that the most difficult club members he would connect to would be Natsuki and Yuri.

Chapter 1: Beginning. So going into this story, one of the first things I had to decide was how to start it after the scrapped chapter. Since this is a Fanfic, I eventually realized that I didn't need to reintroduce the girls and decided to start things off with Shujinkou already in the club. Another thing I had to decide was which girl he would spend time with first. To handle that dilemma, I used a makeshift spinner and... well, you know the results.

Chapter 2: Alone in a Club Room. After finishing the first chapter, I wanted to do a chapter with Natsuki. Originally the idea was for them to be locked in the club room closet waiting for the others (who of course are running late), but I couldn't find a way to make that scenario long enough since at that point they weren't close friends or anything.

Chapters 3-5: Club Prerequisites. This story came about because I wanted to tell a story from Monika's perspective about how she came across Sayori, Natsuki and Yuri. That's really all that's to those three chapters. There was going to be a scene at the beginning of Chapter 4 related to Monika's School Idol status, but I decided to scrap it.

Chapters 6-9: The Cultural Festival. To be honest, I wanted to save the Cultural Festival event for when the characters had a better relationship with each other, but a voice at the back of my head said, "If you save the good stuff while waiting for that point, then the story's going to be very boring!" So I tweaked the story to where it could be used this early on. Another thing I would like to admit was that I was originally planning for Chapters 7 and 8 to be one chapter, but I had to separate them because I didn't expect the haunted house segment to be so long. Also, Chapter 9 was originally going to focus more on the "Big Event" itself, with Shujinkou trying his best to keep his eyes on anything but the maids, especially Monika.

Chapter 10: Couples Desert. This chapter was my attempt at killing two birds with one stone. Its purpose: to put Shujinkou in a date-like scenario with Monika while they actually have a conversation so that the two could know each other better. One thing I'm surprised I didn't include was to somehow create a situation where Monika would have fed him.

Chapter 11: Detour. This chapter was made to give a short flashback to Shujinkou and Sayori's childhood. Basically a show, don't tell moment regarding their friendship.

Chapters 12-15: Troubled Yuri. I'll talk about the point of that arc sometime in the future. Other than that, this was the first time I introduced named characters to the story since I realized that if I was going to show their life at school, then I would need some other characters. Thus, Fuyu was created to fill the role of Student Council President. When thinking her up, I had a bit of trouble deciding what kind of character she would be. As president, would she be cold and distant or warm and accepting. In the end I decide to compromise and give her pieces of both ideas, where she would be a serious person when conducting her duties, while being friendly when she doesn't. There's also Akuma, but we'll get to him some other time.

Chapters 16-17: Partners and Alone in a Boy's Room. This is it. This is the big one. Shujinkou has to deal with having a girl in his own room. How will he handle that? He honestly handle that a bit better than I thought. Since this was taking place in his own house, I decided it was a good time for his mother to make a short cameo. I would also like to note that I was a bit anxious while I was writing Chapter 17 since, unlike every other time, Shujinkou was bonding with a character while doing something he liked doing instead of doing what the other girls wanted or were already doing.

Creating Shujinkou

During the process of creating Shujinkou, the one thing that consistently ran through my mind was, "Don't create a bland protagonist." So when I was writing the 1st chapter I tried to think of what personality traits he could display, but nothing came to mind. I didn't know what to do with the character at first, so I gave him the quirk of him having interesting daydreams.

I knew that I needed more than that, but I wasn't too sure what else to give him after that chapter. Instead, I just added his interests and quirks as the story went on. It was surprisingly easier to do when they weren't the focus of the story. It was really shocking after finishing Chapter 17 to look through the older chapters and witness how Shujinkou changed from the indifferent daydreamer he was in Chapter 1.

I would also like to point out that the scene where Shujinkou having trouble writing his story during Chapter 13 was based off my own difficulties when I started writing.

Shujinkou's relationship with the Club

Like I stated earlier, my main goal was for Shujinkou to develop a good standing with the rest of the club, thought that was easier said than done. One of the things I had to remember was that just because Shujinkou shared a nice moment with the others, they were not magically best friends, which is why I had to give him a collective amount of moments with the others he wasn't already friends with. I even developed a chart to remind myself of where he stands with each of the girls as the story progressed.

Concluding Statements

Well, that's all I have to say about the story so far. So, I would like to cap things off to by expressing my gratitude to those reading the story. You guys are awesome. Here's hoping that the Literature Club are able to go to the Spa Resort.