🧙‍♂️The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop Interview with X-RHODEN-X | Fall Recommendations | Runeblade pops off

This week, we interview the fantastic X-RHODEN-X from The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop, recommend brand new stories that are taking off, and look at what a truly successful Royal Road launch can do.

WEEKLY RECS | X-RHODEN-X INTERVIEW | WRITING A GOOD STORY RESULTS |

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Interview with X-RHODEN-X from The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop

X-RHODEN-X’s The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop is an absolutely top-notch, addictive time loop LitRPG following Orodan, who starts as a simple hardworking militia member for his country, and ascends to greatness with the most important power of them all, willpower. This story has caused me to lose sleep for the past week. I literally cannot sing it’s praises enough, and if you are unsure about reading a time loop story, give this one a try. Fair warning, you won’t be able to stop reading once you start. I’d recommend having some food on hand like pizza or tenders. Thankfully, I had thanksgiving leftovers (Canadian Thanksgiving, I am not a time traveler), because all I did in my free time was read this story. Link here.

Hello Rhoden! Really appreciate you agreeing to this interview. Obviously I’ve been enjoying the heck out of your story. Just to get the gears going, can you tell me how you planned out your story, and how it came to be? Did you make a conscious effort to write an addictive story? Long chapters but they still kept me reading and reading. It’s a great mashup of some of the main genres in the space, and I would love to know your thought process when planning. As far as I can tell, this is your first story on Royal Road. How did you stumble onto LitRPG and Royal Road and what prompted you to start publishing there? Have you written in a professional capacity before? Can you tell me a bit about your writing process? What’s your schedule like?

Heyo! Thanks for having me! And I’m flattered to hear you stayed up that long reading my work! Boy, where to start? I suppose I can talk a little bit about how I came up with the idea of ‘The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop’.

I’ve always liked the concept of time loop stories especially since reading Mother of Learning. Not from Royal Road mind you, but the older days when it was being released chapter by chapter on FictionPress. From that time, I had the idea in mind that I wanted to do a time loop story myself, but alas, I was a kid in high school who didn’t have the time. Over the years I watched films about time loops, read other fantastic time loop stories like the Perfect Run and watched anime like Re: Zero. But something was missing… there was a void in my heart. The parts of Mother of Learning that I really liked were when Zorian was focusing on mastering his basic magic missile spell to the absolute limit until it finally became an invisible projectile due to his masterful shaping skills. Or when he honed his mind magic to limits no other human mind mage had reached.

What I really craved, was power progression. And while there’ve been some excellent time loop protagonists in recent years, I felt that there was a void yet to be filled. The issue was that people in a time loop often fall victim to fatigue, mental stress and the gradual accrual of trauma over the horrible things that happen to them. The question I sought to answer then was a simple one. What if, instead of a normal, even talented, person… we instead threw a madman with no sense of self-preservation into a time loop?

A character who in a regular adventure would be the first reckless soldier to die charging the enemy army himself. A person who had an obsession with fighting bordering on unhealthy. A warrior who simply ignored the notions of trauma, stress and fatigue? From there, came the concept of Orodan Wainwright; the militia man from humble beginnings who finds himself in a time loop.

When it comes to consciously trying to make it addicting, I honestly try not to focus on that too much. Rather, I have a basic tenet I follow, which is: the story should be what’s advertised on the tin. When people read ‘The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop’ they aren’t about to read a romance novel. Consequently, I naturally tend to gravitate towards the sort of epic writing and crunchy number gains that people might like to see. Not because I’m consciously trying to make it addicting, but because I try to keep the story and its direction focused and faithful to Orodan, this stubborn man in a time loop who enjoys grinding skills.

In terms of planning, I started writing as a hobby, and the early chapters experienced a little less planning and foresight than the later chapters now do. Particularly since I wasn’t expecting for it to gain the popularity that it did. Still, nowadays the release frequency has slowed down a bit, mainly because a decent portion of my writing time consists of charting skill level increases, plot points, character arcs and world building while deciding how they should all fit into scenes which are part of a narrative.

As for myself, I got introduced to LitRPG by reading stories on Royal Road such as the Arcane Emperor (by Aternus) and The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound by puddles4263 (aka Noret Flood). I actually posted my very first chapters to Scribble Hub! Royal Road came after once I had roughly 80,000 words written and took a gamble wondering if a larger audience would like my stuff. As I’ve come to learn, people did like it, much to my astonishment. Especially since I’ve never written in a professional capacity before. Before this, the most I had were a few poorly written fanfictions… and the less we speak of those the better!

I work a full-time day job that I quite enjoy, so this tends to take up a decent chunk of my time. Even then, I try to write for at least three hours a day, and on my days off I’ll spend upwards of twelve hours writing. The process mainly involves two separate windows open. One with the Status and skills, the other with the chapter-in-progress, with perhaps a third window containing plot points and worldbuilding if I forget anything.

One thing I’ve really appreciated about your story is the magic system. It starts off and remains easy to follow, while allowing for a ton of flavor and growth as you get deeper into the story. What went into your magic system? When you were planning it out, did you want to keep things straightforward, and allow for the scales of power to be introduced with the plot? What are some of the magic systems in other stories that you’ve enjoyed? Do you have any recommendations for Authors in creating their own?

Honestly, I like to follow the philosophy of keeping things simple and expanding from familiar ground. When I started Stubborn Skill-Grinder, the idea was to have a world where power and success are categorized by skill levels, their rarity and tiers at certain thresholds. Stats and dungeons felt a little bloated to me, and they begin to get meaningless or introduce contradictions as time goes on. To that end, the simple focus on skill levels makes life and my writing a lot easier. I’ve always wanted to start slow, retain that basic perspective of the low levels and then slowly introduce the readers to more as time goes on. As an example: people in Ogdenborough, Orodan’s home town, treat even those with a skill level of 50 (Adepts) as walking gods. Most of the common citizenry have never seen people with power beyond that, and neither has Orodan. As a result, the reader is slowly introduced to things from his point of view. We start small, but then get to gradually learn more.

I really enjoyed the LitRPG System in the Arcane Emperor! It’s rather basic but it works. I don’t really feel qualified to give anyone advice, but one thing I’ve learned is that beginning from simplicity is a safe and reliable formula when it comes to magic systems. Introducing too many elements at one time can cause reader fatigue.

Another thing I’ve really enjoyed is that under the power fantasy, there is a lot of great themes being explored here with your characters. The recurring characters in the loops are full of depth and life. Orodan himself remains true to himself but develops fantastically. How do you go about crafting your characters? Do you give each of them their own backstory in your notes? What’s that process look like? Do you like sticking to archetypes, or are you going with the flow with each chapter? Did you purposefully put themes of choice and power structures in there, or am I reading into this too much?

The characters are an entire topic for sure. When creating them, I always like to focus on some important questions. What’s their natural personality? What do they want? What point in their lives are they at? What’s their current goal? Orodan himself seems rather one-dimensional at first; bull-headed, stubborn, prone to seeking out battle. Yet, as the story goes on these things aren’t just brushed off, but recognized by other characters. His stubborn nature and battle-lust are real character traits that influence any situation he’s in. He begins by utterly detesting magic as not befitting a warrior, yet as time goes on he grows to adapt and learn.

Similarly, when crafting new characters, I keep a few notes and like to have their personalities fleshed out before I even begin writing them. Partly because it helps me write, but also because it’s a time loop story and we’ll be seeing many of these characters again. Everyone has their own motivations, secrets, problems and things that they value. I like to detail these things ahead of time and then bring them in through small ways over the loops. I definitely enjoy going with the flow and sometimes leaning into archetypes, but archetypes aren’t necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. Sometimes, they can be a good tool to avoid throwing too much new information at readers. And one can still expand in new and unexpected ways from there, even if a character looks to be an archetype at first.

The themes of choice and power structure are definitely intentional. What does one do with power? What’s power meant for? In and of itself? Or to do things and live life the way people want? Different characters have different takes on that question. Some in line with our protagonist, some not so much.

You are a pretty popular author on Royal Road, and I think I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about what that must feel like. I hope you bask in the glory of growing numbers and the grind that writing can be. Because your story is one of the more followed ones, do you feel like there’s more pressure? How do you handle the popularity and the demands of vocal readers? Does the popularity impact your creative process at all? How do you handle criticism and non-critical interactions with readers? Do you have any advice for authors who are growing rapidly themselves and questioning how they are supposed to interact with readers?

I definitely felt pressured at first! Especially when it blew up and there were Reddit comments every other day. It went from me having started writing as a hobby with a story I thought was a fun idea, to me now suddenly feeling rather exposed to a spotlight. My wife definitely helped by being an advisor and shoulder to lean on, as did the fact that I enjoy my full-time job and couldn’t care less if I make money from writing or not. It also helped that I don’t have any advance chapters on Patreon. I have one, but it’s just a tip jar for anyone that wants to support me, which I really appreciate. My latest chapters are always posted to Royal Road, and I don’t have to feel guilty about potentially ripping people off by giving them poor quality in return for their money. A free product means I’m rather relaxed when I’m writing, and this helps take the pressure off and lets me get more creative.

There’s been an occasional vocal reader, and some very vocal critics too. And I’ve always responded by agreeing with everything they have to say! It takes a great deal of stress off when I side with them and agree with their valid criticisms! I’m not deluded enough to believe I’m a literary god, and that’s okay. Because for every one critic who says they didn’t like a certain part, there’s typically ten people who did like it very much. And at the end of the day, I like to think that my work is exactly what it says on the tin and geared towards a certain genre. The critics are, more often than not, folks who don’t like the direction the work takes. Which is fair, but what did they expect clicking on something titled ‘The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop’?

I get along very well with my regular readers though. Even if my limited time nowadays means the interactions aren’t as frequent as I’d like. I sometimes like to engage in the comments on Royal Road and even have a Discord server dedicated to the story. Occasionally, I’ll be daring and engage with the Reddit comments too.

As for advice, what helped me was remembering that I’m writing for fun and as a hobby. New authors should try not to lose sight of the fact that writing should be fun, and interactions with readers should encapsulate the excitement of discussing the work. It shouldn’t feel as though you’re talking to your boss or a client, but a fellow fan of something. Having a sense of humor helps, as does retaining perspective.

Recommendations. I am a bottomless pit of content consumption, and I would really appreciate if you could provide me with some media you love! Getting to know what people consume themselves is a great way to get to know them, I think. Could you please give me 5 pieces of media that you think people should check out? It could be movies, tv shows (I’m recommending From the TV show), books, litrpg, heck you can recommend me a blog. They could be works that have inspired you, or things you just really like.

For sure! I’ve mentioned it a few times already, but I think one of the first LitRPGs I read on Royal Road was the Arcane Emperor by Aternus. It’s unfortunately been abandoned, but I still fondly re-read it sometimes. The New World by Monsoon117 is also pretty good. And the Legend of Randidly Ghosthound goes without saying. I also quite enjoyed the Legend of the Arch Magus by Michael Sisa.

And for the final one, the story which actually inspired me to begin writing my own stuff, was ‘Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse’ by Valerios. Loved the dopamine hits that story gave and continues to give.

Thank you so much to X-RHODEN-X. You should be reading The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop. This entire paragraph is a link to the story.

What Writing a Good Story can do for your Chequing Account

Yes, it’s chequing, not checking.

Runeblade took Rising Stars by storm this past month. And boy, is it a good story. So good in fact, and the author has done things so excellently, that here are the results:

Hats off to Bacon Macleod (that’s a scottish name I think?). You keep doing what you’re doing and you’re going to go very far.

Love seeing authors get their chunk of the pie!

Hope you enjoyed this issue!

🧙‍♂️Saga Scribe