Douluo Dalu: The Zither Fairy

To every dear reader:

1. Why I decided to write this story

I have always wanted to write an original novel of my own. I imagined all kinds of stories in my head, but whenever I sat down to write, I realized that my writing skills were a serious weakness.

Someone once said that writing fanfiction can help improve your prose, while writing original fiction requires you to know how to tell a story.

I love the original Douluo Dalu, so I thought I could first try writing fanfiction for a novel I love. That way, I could improve my writing while also bringing to life the ideas I had while reading it.

I hope you won't be put off by my writing. I also hope you will point out anything I haven't described well and offer your suggestions as you read. I'll do my best to improve.

2. About the title and content of this story

This story came from an idea I had while reading. The inspiration for the protagonist's character came from Sona, the Maven of the Strings, in League of Legends.

Although I added a lot of elements from Sword of the Three Realms while working out the character profile and outline, in response to the soul skill requirements and the needs of the plot, I decided to keep the title as a tribute to the original inspiration, Sona. The protagonist's codename at Shrek is also Sona.

As for the story, I inevitably quote from the original. There will be more quotations early on while I'm still getting used to writing. Later, if my writing improves even a little, I'll try to rely less on the original and write more stories of my own. When the story is complete, I'll take some time to polish it. I hope you won't lose patience just because there are a lot of passages from the original. Please believe that I am writing this in good faith.

3. Content warnings

The story features the Shrek Eight Monsters. Xiao Wu may have a different pairing, or no pairing at all. The protagonist has a golden finger: a contracted soul beast (or divine beast?) like Huo Yuhao's soul spirit, a divine position, and that's it. I don't really understand what people mean by "Mary Sue," so I can't promise this story won't be one. I'll look into it and pay close attention.

Suggestions for this beginner author are welcome!

[Important notice] I have no chapters written in advance. I write and post one chapter at a time, so updates are irregular!