Overseas writers

According to the White Book of 2020 Online Literature and China Literature Corporate, Chinese writers apart, Webnovel had some 100,000 overseas writers creating multi-chapter stories and uploading them daily for readers around the world in November.

The portal for English-language writers on the website was officially launched in April 2018 and had attracted 12,000 overseas writers in 2019.

Ilyas' debut novel, Mr CEO Loves the Devilish Beauty, is a contemporary romance in which a powerful company boss falls in love with a mysterious beauty who has other plans.

For almost two years now, her stories have been set in Chinese cities although she had never been to China until her visit to Shanghai in November to receive an award.

"The Chinese setting in my novel comes from imagination, from the Chinese novels I have read, the dramas I have watched, and the research I have done," she says. She writes under the pen name of XiaoMeeHee, which means "little adventure".

Under the pen name of JKSManga, Shawn's ongoing work, My Vampire System, gets updated daily. With 500 chapters already uploaded, it is by far the most popular English-language online story on Webnovel.

The fantasy novel has got 17.3 million views, has been rated 4.7 out of 5 by 3,500 readers, and received the "Most Popular Overseas Original Work" title at the First Shanghai International Online Literature Week in mid-November.

About his online success, the 24-year-old Shawn says: "Back home, my dad said, 'I know nobody at your age who's doing what you do and earning as much as you earn'."

Unlike Ilyas, Shawn has been living in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, for three years.

Raised up in Slough, the United Kingdom, Shawn was influenced by his father to watch Asian movies and drama in his formative years. Later in life he moved to Hangzhou as a music teacher at a primary school while also creating comics for a manga company.

A faithful reader of translated online literature, like Super Gene and The Legendary Mechanic, he says "the authors have created such an immersive world, I felt like I have escaped from mine while reading it".

He gradually began picking up the tricks of the trade in Chinese novels online-cultivation (similar to the model employed in video games, in which one fights the monsters, gains points and goes up one level in the quest to become immortal), leveling up, martial arts and more.

"I'd unconsciously been noticing how Chinese authors built their plots and employed writing techniques," Shawn says. "Later on, I began noting down the plots that came to my mind and constantly asked myself: How would I describe my story to someone in 30 seconds?"

He came up with the answer himself, deciding that combining the techniques employed in Harry Potter and Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, will "immediately grab readers' attention and help paint pictures in their minds".

In Shawn's ongoing story, the commonly seen "system" and "leveling up" elements of Chinese online literature are in harmony with vampire legends and interstellar sci-fi settings.

Shawn used to wake up at 4 am and write two chapters every day before leaving for work. Until one fine day in August, when he decided to quit his teacher's job and focus wholly on writing.

Readers comment daily on each chapter he writes."Their feedback is my greatest motivation," he says. In fact, some readers have even formed an online community, and get in touch with him.