Exhibition Statement

Introduction

How can this project reflect the author? Ah yes, an 18+ adult content novella written for a college project. Like come on, she want the practice and she wants to grow as a writer, so why wouldn’t she jump at the opportunity? But in all seriousness, she wanted this project to be something fun for her. The novella is about Lune and Pyroubuly as they navigate their star-crossed/enemies-to-lovers relationship. The Mons are currently endangered due to the war between the Mons and the Feens. Thus, Lune is selected as the prince of the Feen's wife in hopes of repopulation and stopping the war together. 

Literature 

Influence

The author took a majority of inspiration from video games and other forms of animation. The world has a heavy influence from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and her characters have influence from characters such as Mai and Priness Yue from Avatar the Last Airbender, Bayonetta from the Bayonetta series, Belail from Granblue Fantasy Versus, and Marshall Lee from Adventure Time. The characters are the focal point of my project, and take the center stage while there is soft world building to lessen confusion. 

Subject

 “Lots of people think romance is cheap, trivial, and the literary equivalent of pornography. To me, it’s an escape, catharsis, a bridge to build empathy, even a political or social statement, all while providing a full mind, heart, and body experience” (Hoang). Helen Hoang is one of the author's favorite romance novelist and the article on different tropes and genres of romance helped the author a lot in breaking them down as well. The way she humanizes her characters in The Kiss Quotient really struck a chord with her. Additionally, the sex scenes she included felt like they had a purpose, to show the intimacy of the characters. “Romance is often criticized for being repetitive — as if repetition is not the way human bodies and souls are nourished. Meals are repetitive…” (Waite). This quote provided her with insight into how she finds that romance should be read by everyone. In addition, how romance can often get a lot of slack from many people, but when she read this statement much became clear. Naturally, there will always be moments of repetition but that is natural in our day-to-day lives as human beings. Many people find comfort in repetition and a schedule and that is the case for me as well. This statement will aid her in not being too harsh on myself if the dates the characters go on blend a bit or how often they visit each other, etc. 

Methods

The methods she constructed were practicing different methods of writing such as including different forms of figurative language and imagery, in addition to practicing dialogue. In addition, although world building does not take the stage in her novella, it is still important that the audience notes it is a fantastical world unlike our own. It took much effort, grit, and integrity to construct this world from scratch, even though the world: Oppni, is simple it is complex. 

Audience and Impact

The intended audience is those who are eighteen years of age and above as it will include adult content and content not suitable for children, additionally, those who are not interested in romance nor dark-fantasy elements will not enjoy this novella. She learned how important it is to follow your heart, as cliche as that may sound. She has changed the idea of her novella numerous times but she eventually found the idea and grew to love and could watch herself grow with. 

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Gabi and the rest of the Arts Faculty for giving me great advice, to my mother for helping and encouraging me to pursue a career in writing, to my father for supporting me, and to my boyfriend for being my cheerleader all the way.

Works Cited

Gutterman, Annabel. “How to Write a Romance Novel in 2021.” Time, Time, 8 July 2021, time.com/6078820/how-to-write-romance-novel/. 

Waite, Olivia. "Sexy, Spicy, Piping-Hot Dishes That Romance Readers Crave: romance." Sep 29 2022. Web. ProQuest. 31 Oct. 2022.

Bench, SW, and HC Lench. 2019. "Boredom as a seeking state: Boredom prompts the pursuit of novel (even negative) experiences." Emotion. Mar;19(2):242-254. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29578745