A Devil’s Journey

LV 3

AnAcademicCrisis

It was late at night in an office. A young man looked down at his work and grinned. Although he wasn’t satisfied with the story that he was writing, he was at least happy that he was able to start one of the biggest dreams that he had when he was a child. It was hard work. He had always thought that writing a novel would be easy with a little creativity, but the hard work and dedication that he had put in these last few months had completely changed his perspective. Now, it was finally time for him to post his novel for the world to see. However, he first had to post a review to answer any questions that his beloved readers had. But to post a review, you actually had to rate it first. Obviously, since it was his novel, he decided to rate himself 5 stars in every category. A creator had to love his creations after all. How should he word it? I’ll answer questions here? No, that was too simple. I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! I WILL ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS HERE! No, that was too enthusiastic. As the man continued to ponder about how to write his review, a scoff could be heard behind him. “5 stars in your own novel? Aren’t you a bit shameless?” When did she come up behind him? The man’s shoulders jumped a little, but he tried to hide his surprise as much as possible. Without turning around, he answered, “It’s my novel, isn’t it? If one doesn’t love one’s work, then what’s the point in posting?” The young man paused for a bit before continuing. “...Besides, all sorts of authors do the same, don’t they? Why can’t I rate my story 5 stars?” The woman chuckled and responded, “Yeah, but your story definitely doesn’t deserve that much. I remember reading it. It’s at most half a star in my book.” The man flinched. Come on now. He murmured under his breath. “Well that’s just because you’re a bi-” Swoosh! “-beautiful and caring woman who is also a writing master! Of course, my novel would look like trash to you!” She narrowed her eyes on him. “Just a writing master?” The man gulped. He quickly yelled. “No, no, you’re a Writing Zenith! A Reviewer Supreme! The Pinnacle of Readers! Your words make legends bow down to you!” Hearing his excessive praise, the woman scoffed again. *Hmph.* “Your shamelessness knows no bounds.” The man breathed a sigh of relief. He had just narrowly escaped from death. He tried to do his best to imitate a baby voice and puppy dog eyes. “Can you pwease let me post my review, miss? Pwetty pwease?” The woman cringed. Sometimes she wondered how she ended up in a relationship with him. But no matter how much she said the story was bad, she was the one who had encouraged him to chase after his dream and helped him the most along his path. If anything, she was proud and happy to see that he was finally getting started. Even if the whole world hated his novel and thought it was bad, even if she was the only reader, she would gladly read it if he asked her to. Sighing, the woman slowly opened her mouth. “...Good Luck.” She walked out of the office with a slight smirk, not that the man could see it. Alone in the office, the man sighed. He still had the problem of phrasing his review to deal with, however. Just what could he post that would be interesting to read... Ding! A light bulb lit up on top of the man’s head. Yes! That was it! Why didn’t he think of that beforehand? He didn’t know how to write a review, but he definitely had experience in writing a story. The man began to type furiously on his cheap laptop with renewed vigor. Time passed. - Ten minutes later, the man checked over his review and smiled. Both happy and satisfied, he moved his mouse. “Welp. Here we go.” And pressed the post button. P.S: I'm a new writer so any tips would be extremely helpful. Thank you for reading!