Chen Xiao in uniform? I’m sold.

Remember back in the days when novels were first being made into TV series? Now, these writers are skipping the novel part and going straight to TV.   With the famous Tonghua (Bu Bu Jing Xin, Cloud Song, Desert Melody) setting the way and now producing her third series  (Perfect Couple, Cage of Love, and an upcoming one), others are joining suit.  A number of upcoming series will be penned by their original authors, including Hai Yan for Nirvana in Fire and Gu Man for Wallace Chung and Tang Yan’s modern series 何以笙箫默.

Others have gone straight to script-writing, producing new works just for the screen.  Most noted for her books involving female secret agents time-travelling and pwning the ancient world,  Xiaoxiang Dong’er is writing a script for Yu Zheng featuring once again special force members, this time set in the Republican era. If anything, the thought of announced lead Chen Xiao in uniform is enough for us to be excited about.

Infamous novelist Vivibear is also working with Yu Zheng on a Palace spinoff.  Despite her notoriety for plagiarism, I’m kind of hoping that Yu Zheng will pick up her book on Lanling Wang because it explains the beauty of the Prince of Orchid Hills by saying she’s actually a girl crossdressing as a boy.

Finally, historical romance writer XiaoChun, who gets nightmares about scriptwriters ruining her books,  revealed she’s also working on a script. Although she’s only written two books, she’s known for her deep knowledge of her subjects and cramming a lot of history into her stories, which is why she’s one of my favorites.

While there’s been a good track record for novelists to advice rather than write their own scripts (the other Hai Yan, Yan Geling, Tonghua, etc.), it’s to be seen how these direct transition from internet novel to script will work. Will these new scriptwriters find success among their predecessors like Qiong Yao and Guo Jingming? What do you think?