my friends didnt invite me to do stuff with them and I am going to channel that into getting work done

>>25007281
Write them as the ugly bullies that the MC crushes to aura farm.

Do you think RR readers would be into piss play? And before you admonish me that it contravenes terms of service, understand that I'll be very abstract. People will know what they're reading only on a subconscious level. I want to know whether it will discomfort or arouse them--or ideally both. I think the autistic segment of readers will dislike it on hygiene grounds, but they can all go hang because of none of this is hygienic anyway.

Question to the slopbrother writers: How many of you care about your prose? Not necessarily in the literary sense of making words an art into itself but - as Sanderson would put it - in being clean, sharp, and invisible?
I've noticed a sentiment that prose doesn't matter in this thread, and it isn't true, even for slop. The biggest (recent!) slop successes all have acceptable workman prose, because standards are raising. You shouldn't look at old examples to refute this point.
Though I'd be interested if there are big recent stories with abysmal prose. Link them

>>25007320
I think AI will be a benison insofar as it raises the floor of acceptable prose in web novels.

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>>25007323
>benison

>>25007323
I don't like AI, but I think it's true to some extent. You would have to learn how to guide the models correctly and have enough writerly intuition to recognize when it's being a retarded robot though, which almost defeats the purpose.
AI prose is pretty damn noticeable.

Using it as a pure spellchecker and grammar nazi is probably useful though. But even in professional creative writing standards vary.

I heard RR is anti-underage sex, but how picky is it? Like can I have my teenagers talk lewdly/crudely? flirt? is it just a matter of avoiding full of "on screen" graphic sex?

>>25007294
>>25007341
Doing this bait twice in a row actually made my skin crawl. Come on man, go do something useful

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>>25007347
Why would that even be bait? I'm genuinely asking because I'm about to start writing a story egirls, it doesn't have any sex or fetish play but I wanted to make some of them very crude

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>>25007347
Dude, just stop replying to him. Report him if he breaks a rule but stop feeding the trolls.
No it doesn't matter if it's multiple people. Stop replying to troll posts. Use your better judgment.

just read shadow slave
what did i think of it?

>>25007347
this. wait a while before shitting the thread up, would ya.

>xhe thinks we don't know about the inspect element
Lurk 2 years before trying to bait, faggot

>>25007352
I'll keep my doubt in check, even if I maybe shouldn't.
Royalroad is a Western website with Western ideals. If you don't understand our culture you will not be able to toe the line. Trying to nail down these edge cases is an exercise in futility. You can tell an underage romance story and be totally fine with a Western audience; you see it all the time. But either you understand what creeps out Westerners - by growing up in our culture - or you don't.
There is nuance here, but verbalizing it is pointless, because even if I spend pages trying to explain, I'm just one voice, and many will disagree with me

>>25007357
Maybe I'm a dumb rube but I believed him

Anyone with half a brain would recognize those are two different people.

>Bro I swear I'm not samefagging

>>25007359
You think it's inferior to Reverend Insanity

>Everyone I dislike is really one person and he's annoying me AAAAACK!

>underage sex question gets loads of replies
>genuine question about writing gets one, and it's saying AI prose is the future
yeah i wonder why this thread is like it is

I wonder how someone can be so retarded

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What would you do?

i don't. you lack imagination. ngmi

Thank God Reverend Insanity ESL hours are finally here.

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where's the space girl WNs

>>25007278
That's... Ohma Zi-O, but green for red, and the chest cog from Build Genius Form, belt is some weird halfway between Ziku Driver and Ginga Driver or maybe Birth Driver
The weapon has the starburst shape from Hyper Muteki
and uh
Gundam Hyakushiki arm wires???

>making the exact same post from the previous thread

>>25007320
>The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you’ve gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words
The measure of good vs bad prose is whether or not it conveys the meaning that you intend to convey. Good prose allows a reader to quickly and easily understand what you are saying. Bad prose forces a reader to struggle to interpret what you mean.

As long as the readers receive approximately what you are intending in an manner that's effortless enough, it's fine.

>but how close to the intended meaning do you have to be
Do you want me to pull out a crystal ball? This isn't something that's possible to objectively measure.

>>25007388
Because the question isn't very answerable.

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I, the fool, misread the magazine submission deadline so now I'm just prayge that it gets approved on time
9hrs before cutoff
gonna have to hope it's approved AND wake up in 4 hrs to hopefully be awake to submit it
killing myself TODAY

>it got a lot of replies
Uh oh, the schizo is starting to hallucinate

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Should I read some works on RR before writing my own or do you think being completely ignorant to the scene will give me an edge in avoiding tropes

>>25007408
>The measure of good vs bad prose is whether or not it conveys the meaning that you intend to convey.
Definitely. If most readers misinterpret you, there's an issue.
>Good prose allows a reader to quickly and easily understand what you are saying. Bad prose forces a reader to struggle to interpret what you mean.
Well... as someone who intentionally writes clear prose, I disagree. Prose can be enjoyed as an art layered on top of an art. Dense and flowery prose will slow a reader down, but still has its place - so long as people still understand you. Obviously, ornate writing like that probably doesn't have its place in webfic.

I should be more specific with the purpose of my post. A lot of authors here shrug their shoulders and say prose doesn't matter, not realizing that writing simple, clear prose is incredibly difficult and takes years of focused effort to become skilled at. Even if you don't want to write flowery prose, you need to extensively practice the art of punchy, clear writing. So that a reader instantly understands you, while the writing is still enjoyable to read and flows naturally.

Again, my question was spawned from a general disregard of prose in /wng/. I think people use the term to mean purple. But sharp and clean prose is a monstrously difficult standard to attain, as all expert-level art is.

>>25007425
if you don't follow exactly what RR wants, you're ngmi
dont read anything on rr though just listen to what I tell you about what rr wants

>>25007425
Popular fiction thrives on tropes and mimicking other popular stories, because people want the familiar. Being ignorant is not a benefit at all in this scene. There would be some argument for this in tradpub.

>>25007432
if your hook is interesting enough then you can get away with just vaguely gesturing that yes you have the tropes the power wank and face slapping
but it has to be a very good or very fucking retarded hook, and delivered in a snappy way

>>25007427
When I talk about slow/hard vs fast/easy, I mean the rate at which meaning is deciphered. Dense and flowery prose is not necessarily harder to interpret, it just packs more meaning into the sentence. You can have dense prose that is bad and dense prose that is good.

Prose as "art layered on top of an art" happens when this extra meaning isn't very relevant (if at all) to the actual story. All prose has some element of superfluous meaning/flair, but the degree varies

>A lot of authors here shrug their shoulders and say prose doesn't matter, not realizing that writing simple, clear prose is incredibly difficult and takes years of focused effort to become skilled at. Even if you don't want to write flowery prose, you need to extensively practice the art of punchy, clear writing. So that a reader instantly understands you, while the writing is still enjoyable to read and flows naturally.
>Again, my question was spawned from a general disregard of prose in /wng/. I think people use the term to mean purple. But sharp and clean prose is a monstrously difficult standard to attain, as all expert-level art is.
Agreed.

>>25007443
>Dense and flowery prose is not necessarily harder to interpret, it just packs more meaning into the sentence.
I'm not trying to be pedantic here - we clearly agree on almost everything. I just disagree on this particular point. Dense prose takes longer to work through, it's harder to interpret. Because it's so thick and uses uncommon words. That's what dense/flowery means.
When I read literature I often have to pause and mull over what the author said. That's the enjoyment of working through art in prose rather than art in storytelling. This is kinda diverging from my original purpose of posting though.

>>25007467
>Dense prose takes longer to work through... because it's so thick and uses uncommon words.
Those uncommon words are used specifically because their meaning differs in subtle ways from more common words. Belief vs conviction, idea vs concept, explain vs elucidate, etc.

The author chose the rarer word for a reason, and obtaining the full meaning requires understanding this choice. This is why it is harder to interpret.

>>25007485
>This is why it is harder to interpret.
Yes, I know. But you said
>Dense and flowery prose is not necessarily harder to interpret
That's all I was disagreeing with. Your 'necessarily' is extremely loadbearing there
I think a properly educated and well-read reader (top 0.001%, genuinely) wouldn't find dense/flowery prose of famous literary authors harder to work through... but that's not the incredibly overwhelming majority of people.
Saying that sort of prose is harder to interpret is a safe statement.

>>25007427
define punchy. in music, they talk about "well, I think right after that transition? You should have something punchy" and when anyone asks, you get a sort of non-response. It comes across as meaning whatever the person wants it to mean. maybe in writing it carries a more clear explanation.

>>25007520
punchy is quick and sharp. a punch to the gut. economic but evocative. dont use me as Google please

>>25007467
taking this definition to heart. Anytime a reader has a limited vocabulary or a reduced ability to understand something its automatically the author's fault. Its as if the reader bears no responsibility to be bright enough to read well. I'm not being argumentative, because I do agree with this concept. Just saying.

>>25007532
you dont have the right mindset to be an artist.

>>25007497
>not necessarily harder to interpret, it just packs more meaning into the sentence.
The dense sentence has more meaning than a less dense sentence of the same length, and that extra meaning is what makes it "hard to interpret". To convey the same meaning as single dense sentence in "easy to interpret" prose, you would need several sentences. Hence why analysis of a literary passage is often longer than the passage itself. It is literally dense with meaning.

By "necessarily", I mean that dense prose can become even harder to interpret, beyond the extra (relevant) meaning added, depending on the skill of the author. The same is true of clear/less dense prose, but most people are a lot better at writing clear prose than they are at writing dense prose.

>>25007526

oh. maybe that's what I call a kick to the gut moment in writing. I think, holy shit that was heavy. How do they take that and not fall apart.

>>25007538
>you dont have the right mindset to be an artist.
and opinions vary

>>25007532
It is true, to an extent, that prioritizing density over clarity is a mistake on the author's part. The degree is subjective though. A children's book should probably be very clear.

>>25007538
>>25007532
This was rude, I'll elaborate.
Its not the author's fault if he isnt understood. The issue is that audience and purpose has to be completely defined in discussions like these. It's not Nabakov's fault if some 80iq reads Lolita and doesn't understand the point of the book.
If you are writing commercial fiction, with intent to be blindingly clear for the highest amount of people, your statement is mostly true. But even still you will have people misunderstanding you. It's seen all the time on RR
Just dislike the sweeping statements in a conversation of nuance

there seems to only be a couple of us right now, and all is calm. if we wanted to, we could all post a short excerpt, and grade each other on writing to sandersonian standards. or not. just thought it would be dangerously close to a literary thing to do.

>>25007532
This is true. An artist-author who has mastered his craft can produce something complex and challenging to read, and it will be GOOD even though IQlets fail to interpret it correctly, or even fail to parse it correctly.

The problem is that there are retards who think themselves smarter than they are, who produce garbage, and think that all criticism of their garbage is a result of readers "not getting it" rather than their own lack of skill.

The test is thus: CAN the author produce the effect he wants in a given audience? Can he target that audience, AND create the desired effect? If so, he is competent at least to that level. If the author cannot do this, and spends a lot of time coping and seething about it, they're a shitter.

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>>25007593
sounds scary. I'll simply just write instead.

>>25007558
> It's not Nabakov's fault if some 80iq reads Lolita and doesn't understand the point of the book
the point of the book is that nabokov was a pedo and he used the pretense of distance and intellectual pastiche to rub his fetish into your face

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>>25007615
Ganbare, anon-shi. I pray your day goes better than mine. I have much to meditate on over the weekend... Heavy revisions necessary before I launch on patreon.

Web novels

Caved in and listened to the Brando 2025 lectures. They're ok. Listened to it more actively while I wrote the second draft and I think they're useful. But I started skipping the how to publish ones at the end because I didn't care for those and skipped to the Ending Beginning one. Was a little off-guard being a few mins in and thought he would talk about the usual topic but most of it seems to be more on the marketing/selling your book topics. His story splicing sounds kinda interesting, but it makes me wish they asked better questions suited to the topic of a story's ending and beginning.

>>25007615
Shaking and panting, I finally screwed up my courage to touch the surface of the water. Making my reflection in the water go into mad disarray helped some, and I kept doing it for a time. Realization set in quick; I wasn't going to burn to death. Anger replaced fear in a flash. I first slapped then punched at the water's surface, beating it with my fists though it was all in vain. I couldn't strike myself, and the image stared back at me as the waves began to slow. The wet mirror laughed at me somehow, as if it knew I was unable to bring it to harm. My own reflection had become all but a sentient soul scarring scourge.

I never before understood people that would break mirrors because there was something in it that made them depressed or angry, yet from this night forward I would understand that feeling all too well. I could only scream for so long, though the need remained. I've had far too many years of learning to control my emotions, and I now wonder if that's as useful a skill as I had always imagined it to be.

The new game became staring at the thing floating on the surface of the pool, because it was no longer human to me. Human beings don't have fire on their head that never burns them. Neither do animals, so I'm something else. I'm no longer human, nor am I an animal. I'm... other. No wonder the girls all screamed at the sight of me. They must have felt what I just did, equal portions of fear mixed with disgust. I'm a monster.

>>25007684
brando's cooked

>>25007689
He's massively popular so he's doing something right.
I'm only halfway through and I dislike all the movie examples. I don't think I've seen a single movie he references. Sometimes I think he wishes he was a screenplay writer and working in tv/movies rather than writing fantasy novels, but then he talks about how he came up and it seems like he really did want to write fantasy novels. Very peculiar millenial mindset.

>150+ chapters and 900+ pages into "beyond the timescape"
>still no timescape mentioned
i think i misunderstood the premise or confused it with another novel. i thought there was gonna be time travel and defying the gods in this one. so far it has been roadside picnic and then sect politics with a side of custom boat building
still liking it though

>>25007689
I was surprised he didn't bring up ai writing or even the webnovel scene at all. if he did they must've been in the actual publishing parts I skipped, listening through the kickstarter I'm baffled why nobody brought up Patreon or webnovel scene. Thjis audience really frustrated me they asked so many publishing questions that had nothing with the title theme.

>>25007687
eh? this is a turning point in the story. I try to imagine everyone is screaming and running away from MC, and they don't know why. Then imagine you look at your reflection, and you realize you have a little blue fire on top of your hair. I figure a person would fucking freak. And, just trying to separate myself from the crowd. Still I spot check, its like people are waking up in a new body with a new face, horns on their head? They're like... oh, yeah. Huh. That sucks. I'm like... no, you freak the fuck out! Trying to convey the heavy gravity of the situation. The Chikara has marked MC, they just saw it and have no idea what's going on. First a new face and body, gets used to that... now *this*. I don't know, is that... punchy? I call this that "kicked in the guts moment". Flameproof suit on, go ahead.

>2hr long "animatic" movie of the first two books of Cradle dropped yesterday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJMuJCLsYeQ

should I read cradle?

>>25007728
The intro, first lecture barely mentions webnovels and litrpg, only to say that litrpg is predominantly in webnovels posted online.
Keep in mind he's lecturing at an expensive university to a creative writing course-taking audience of gullible overly-wealthy retards who's idea of making it is a 10k advance to get their novel tradpubbed so they can brag to their parents and their writing circlejerk buddies about it. Brando even points out in the same first lecture that like a quarter of them have a chance of MAYBE making it, and the rest have no shot, and they'd be better off studying chemical engineering.

While Brando has some valuable insight into crafting a narrative and creating an engaging story, his experience is colored by his tradpub success. He ALSO doesn't mention the insane discrimination against straight white young men who haven't already made it, either. I'd recommend webnovel authors take the useful bits and disregard the out of touch and irrelevant bits, while also learning proper grammar and how to write a sentence properly.

>>25007728
the web novel scene is like 1/1000th of publishing. why the fuck would he mention it?
this is a niche

>>25007744
I'm sure someone could find numbers about how much of a joke tradpub is in current year but the reason webnovels are taking off is the low barrier to entry and lucrative monetization systems available, also with low barriers to entry. Self-pub on amazon and serialization on patreon and discoverability on various free websites easily beats out dealing with agents and publishers and lawyers and IP ownership issues and all that bullshit, only to get the door slammed on your dick because you're straight and white.
Yes I am a bit salty. Fuck publishers. I'll never forgive them as long as I live.

Rough percentage how many stories on road do you think were made with AI?

>>25007766
95%

>comment on ch1: why do this, there's no point in this story after this
>50 chapters later, the same user is still commenting
Guess he found the point

do i want to read max level archmage?

>>25007829
no, but sub to the patreon pls

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>>25007770
really?

So the crowd for this stuff is very like, powerlevel hungry right? classic DBZ formula type thing?

>>25007740
>should I read cradle?
Is it a web novel?

>>25007593
Okay. I'll start.

It was in one of young Raymond’s wild adventures that the second catalyst that would lead to my doom occurred.
I was fourteen, and he was eleven then. It was a cloudy summer day. A storm was brewing on the horizon, and an incessant heat had suffocated the city like a sweaty blanket. The children had chosen to stay inside the school building, and even the rowdy ones huddled around the magic ice spheres as if they were campfires.
I was in the school laboratory, researching a magical array, and even I had to pause my experiments and take off my white overcoat.
“Is the ice sphere damaged? Why is it blowing out hot air?” I asked the applied magic teacher, Ms. Hopper.
“Erm, no, sir. The setting is as low as it gets. It’s just … wasn’t designed for this level of heat,” she said apologetically, beads of sweat clinging to her temple.
“Incredible. Then wouldn’t it be completely useless near the equator? I’m surprised they’re allowed to sell such subpar products.” I shook my head. “I’ll have to look into improving its design later.”
“You will, sir?” Ms. Hopper beamed. “That would be fantastic! My mother always said – you know what my mother always said? – my mother always said, ‘Lucy, this dangblasted thing is a waste of money. I sit here next to it, and I’m getting sweat on my toes! You write to the seller, and you tell them it’s a sham! A sham, I say!’ That’s what my mother always said.”
“Ms. Hopper.”
“Yes, sir!” She stood at attention.
“I won’t be able to continue the experiment like this. Please clear up the desk and put away the equipment. And please don’t call me ‘sir.’ I’m your student.”
“I-I wouldn’t dare, sir – I mean, y-yes, young master.”
“I’m not your employer either, Ms. Hopper.”
“Ah, yes … Master Holden.”
“Damian.”
“Master Damian.” Her cheeks flushed red.
I shook my head and exited the room. Opening the door, I found a row of faces waiting with their sly grins.
“Young Master Holden, has your experiment been fruitful today?” said the vice principal, Mr. Sherman, as he rubbed his palms together.
I didn’t miss his choice of words, but I didn’t take offense to it. It was no secret that I had struck a deal with the school. In exchange for my use of the laboratory and equipment, they would get to write down their names as contributors and take a share of credit for my magical experiments.
So far, the deal had benefited the school greatly, after my research into anesthetic spells made a splash in the medical community.
Fame begets profit, and profit makes people … agreeable.

>want to hire an illustrator to make a cover
>contact him
>he tells me to check some commission website he's on
>make an account there
>he's not taking commissions until January
>and there's a countdown to when he's accepting them
>and the prices are astronomical
>fine, I'll contact him then
>he opens for commissions
>only three slots
>request commission, put in info
>error: this user is closed to commissions
>all three slots filled up in under 3 minutes
>will open for commissions again... whenever
I fucking hate working with illustrators so goddamn much.

>>25008050
>I fucking hate working with illustrators so goddamn much.
Then why bother? Not even hard covers really need cover art.

>>25008050
You didn't even work with the illustrator

>>25008105
Exactly! Exactly my fucking point.
>find someone with cool art
>do you do commissions?
>no.
>find someone else
>do you do commissions?
>four years later: no reply
>find someone else with cool art
>this user does not accept private messages
>find someone else
>"Hey, I like this illustration you did bacl in 2008. Can I please get your permission to use it? I'll pay you. You dont have to do a thing."
>"lol no."
>etc. Etc. Etc.
My girlfriend is an illustrator and she's also like this.

>>25008119
My illustrator just did what I asked.

>>25007423
What would Spectral Soul do in this situation?

>>25008127
probably ruin existence for everyone

>>25008127
something extremely chinese

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I want to write a story like in another world with my smart phone. would this do well in RR?

>>25008217
is the smartphone owned by a frieren like archmage?

>>25007799
I had a guy fix spelling mistakes, now he is booing the villain and cheering for the hero saying tfc

>>25007703
It's more likely in general that someone watching the lectures would have seen one of the movies than read a book example, even if that wasn't the case for you. They movie examples are also easier to remember and easier for someone using the example to convey. He's not the only person on youtube that does this, there's some youtubers that straight up use clips from the movies.

>>25007320
I can tolerate bad prose if the rest is good and good prose doesn't mean shit if the rest is bad.
Usually I find it far more abhorrent when writers start inserting the usual mainstream publisher shit with token fags and the like everywhere, as if the average reader of an RR book is the minotaur milking crowd.
Prose quality is almost never enough to make me drop or love a book but it may be a qualifier in how tolerant I am of the rest being lacking in some way.

>>25007320
Prose is undeniably important. Nobody reads some incoherent rambling that has you constantly stop to wonder "what the hell did he mean by this?"

>>25007398
6+ years going strong.

If you count outer /lit/, I wonder if there's a longer-spamming shitposter. RIfag and Bakkerfag here on /lit/ have both been going for 6+ years.

>>25008253
The smartphone is not even a smartphone, it's some God-device that can do everything your imagination can.
>>25008217
Only if you remove the loli harem

>>25008382
i'm certain it's the same sperg

>>25008482
I think they are separate entities.
Bakkerfag is a crossboarder from /v/ and normally posts with an array of author images and fanart. Versus RIfag who normally dumps context-less walls of text with no image aside from the cover. I mean, I know it's RIfag when I see a huge wall of text because he's the only nigger to do this across two generals now.
They both take critique and disagreement about as well as you'd expect any newfag to.

>>25008501
cover + that one image of the MC*

By what wrong turn--in life?--did I end up at this autist's symposium. All I want is to fribble away my time reading and writing slop novels. And yet I have to suffer these posters' endless stupidities. By god. And they all accuse each other, round-robin, of being some bugaboo known by various aliases. It's a pathetic waste of time, over and above the waste of time of writing web-novels.

>>25008505
that one image isn't even actually Fang Yuan
most of the images RItards use for "Fan Yuan" are art of an entirely unrelated character from a novel titled something like "rise of the young brewmaster" or something like that

>>25008561
Oh that's amusing. It's basically <generic long-haired twink>.

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>>25008501
I have always responded to critique in a calm and polite manner, also I don't post on /sffg/ anymore because quite frankly those people are hopeless.
Have a nice day.

>>25008630
>also I don't post on /sffg/ anymore because quite frankly those people are hopeless.
what did they do?
i mean specifically. so we can also be rid of you

>>25008418
I thought you were kidding but they're all actually children.

>>25008688
Based

>>25008217
This was slop before slop existed. The great progenitor of slop and culmination of isekai tropes. Only write if you are able to control such power.

>>25007996
That's the main audience on royalroad and webnovel, yeah.
There are big stories that don't do that like wandering inn but they're a smaller niche

>>25008217
isn't this a run of the mill isekai power fantasy where the MC just discovers that for no reason he's the Specialest Boy with the best aptitude for every magic type or whatever
that's like three quarters of the works tagged "litrpg" in rising stars

>>25008902
what do you think

>>25008902
yes, but with unapologetic hate for the chinese

I have an idea for a story about a guy going into a fantasy world being isekaid and he just applied modern moral faggot logic to the world and end ups making everything worse.
like encouraging the immigration of orcs to human lands, and becasue he's op no one can tell him no.
do you think this will hook people?

What would you say is the best crash course for Chinese culture for someone trying to write a cultivation setting? Besides just reading more Chinese stuff, it would help me to see things like face and the reasons for it explained clearly.

>>25008930
what web novel prompted this meltie? genuine question, I want to know

>>25008936
I get ads on tiktok for chinese drama slop that sounds like that sort of shit, maybe look into those

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>>25008936
Have you read Deathblade's book?

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>>25008936
I Shall Seal the Heavens (classics)
A Will Eternal (classics)
Cradle (Series) (Written by a gweilo)
Coiling Dragon (The entry for most people)

Young Masters, Golden Fingers, Jade Beauties, Hidden Masters, MT Tai.

>>25008945
Deathblade wrote a book? is it any good?

>>25008936
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O3xlh-P1Uc&list=PLePGrb0Dfz31452ZGb-MrvPSPgy47WcFF

unironically watching deathblades videos on the subject, he rambles slightly and I'm sure some videos in his playlist are jumbled but it's probably the easiest way to absorb information if you refuse to just read the material.

>>25008959
No clue actually.
Looks like in addition to this one he's written a few original fiction novels and a tabletop RPG(?)

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>>25008936
Journey to the West.

>>25008936
in the same way a realistic and accurate depiction of medieval life/social structures and whatnot isn't appreciated in western fantasy litrpg slop, I doubt realistic depiction of chinese culture matters, i honestly think it would actively harm
read a bunch of their slop and see what they do. then ape it. that's how slop works. it's derivative by nature

>>25009011
smart, you are his grandfather

>>25008945
>>25008954
>>25008981
Will check these out, thank you.

>>25009011
Naturally accurately portraying authentic Chinese culture is going to be impossible for me as someone that has very little real life experience with it, but I'd like to at least try to get a little closer to my ideal rather than portraying Americans with Chinese names.

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Help me decide, I'm struggling to pick whether I should start the story just before the protagonist gains her powers in order to have that come uppence power fantasy part or if thats too cliche and I should start a little after she has her powers and moved to a new city

>>25009051
>She
I don't read femslop.

Alright, just got Scrivener, Grammarly and a new Wooting keyboard. Now, how do I start writing a story? How do I make a compelling plot?

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>>25009057
But they're cute girls, it's made for waifufags not women readers

>>25009051
>if thats too cliche
there is literally no such thing as too cliche in slopcraft. people will read the same exact dungeon delve sys apoc novel written in 100 different ways with the exact same tropes and then ask for recs for the 101st
there's only bad execution.

as for the actual question, start the story when the story begins. get straight into the meat of the book. i don't know what that means for the story you're telling, so either option could be better

>>25009059
You need a better laptop and a new deck to write on and a new coffee maker before you can make a compelling plot

>>25009064
Shan't be waifuing your speshul snarky asexual/lesbian femslop protag.

>>25009078
I will though!

>>25009078
W..well you should!
>>25009065
Thanks, I guess that is a mindset I'll have to get used to, it feels kind of wrong but is also kind of fun to just go with the baser instinct to not overthink stuff and be cliche

>>25009051
No such thing as too cliche. If you're worried about failing to hook readers with a slow prelude you can start in the city and then go back and do the come uppance part as a flashback after the first 3ish chapters

>>25009064
She looks like she exclusively fucks black guys and older men.

>Get a live stream on my fyp
>it's a guy at a book signing
>he's awkwardly sitting there, no one is coming up to him
>Someone in the comments asks "how's the sales going today"
>Guy goes "Oh great, it's great, I actually lost count how many I sold already, like five or something"

I feel bad but it also had me cracking up

>>25009109
i feel so bad for everyone trying to go trad pub. what a shitshow

>>25008937
I just thought it was a good idea.

>>25009100
I will now read your web novel.

i will read stories featuring cute and/or cool girls.

Would a webnovel written in third person narrative with a nameless protagonist work? Or do I need to do (may allah forgive me for even suggesting this) f*rst p*rson

>>25009186
Do you actually have a reason to make them nameless or did you just finish Blood Meridian and it le totally changed your life too?

>>25009183
reading wandering inn

>>25009190
No I've never read reddit meridian. I'm not talking about throwing an alias onto the protagonist, I'm talking about a protagonist with no words to refer to him except third person pronouns. Why are you wasting my time with this pointless question?

>>25009196
>Do you actually have a reason to

>>25009200
>is X possible?
>"JUSTIFY DOING X!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
irrelevant time wasting interjection
go away

xianxia setting but it's greek (byzantine)

>>25009205
Anything is possible, just be yourself

You know what really grinds my gears? When the MC is annoyed/angry at being spectated by a God. He's some higher dimensional being, senpai, why do you care so much?

>>25009205
you asked if it works
it works if you have a good reason for it
what is that reason, dipshit?

>>25009244
Because god hates you and wants to kill you and make you suffer

Defy the heavens

>>25009230
That exists, it even has platonic dual cultivation between bros.

>>25009292
if it doesn't have period accurate male-male intercourse between straight teacher and straight disciple (no homo), im not reading it

>>25009051
Start right before your protagonist does something cool. Like, say, on the day she decides to go out and fight crime with her powers or whatever it is she wants to do. You can flashback later and explain how she got them, or maybe it can come up in a conversation or something

>>25009196
I personally think this would be extremely annoying, and I dare say most people on this planet will agree with me. But I'm also pretty sure this is the least of your problems.

>tfw you have a good idea that then spirals and spawns more good ideas and it all locks together for a great grand picture
actually makes me giddy

>>25009131
even the way you typed it out suggested that the idea pissed you off. why would people be enticed by making that the entire premise of the story?
don't mistake unique ideas for being good ideas, lol

If there weren't prudes up and down this thread I would propound few solid ideas for X-rated wns. But people like to report.

>>25009452
f anon mad his shilling keeps getting reported lololol

>>25009292
that's not greek (byzantine)

>>25009292
>platonic dual cultivation between bros
I knew that shit was ultra gay before I read a single word of it.

>>25009513
It's not that kind of dual cultivation

>>25009548
There's only one kind of dual cultivation

>>25009552
It's just supportive bro energy, Stop making everything about gay sex anon.

>>25008945
wuxia is martial arts, people can jump up a building (boring)
xianxia is high fantasy, the protagonist never surrenders, cultivating immoratality, space battles (after 10-15 you get it)
xuanhuan is a different feeling of gain, or others, unorthodox, remix, it is chinese low fantasy (those, those are interesting)

court drama is its own genre (I read them, the better ones, aimed at women when I was bored, they are fun)

I will now read reverend insanity

>>25009565
> Just a supportive finger up the butt bro
No

Here's some free advice: if you wanna shake the foundations of Royal Road, drop a strategic sex scene in the middle of your fight--maybe the sex intercedes on the fight!--and watch all but the most autistic readers flock to your story. The comment section will be clamorous with calls for more smut-rife chapters. Just wait.

>>25009701
royal road's foundations are truly deep
you cannot shake them

>>25009701
they're fighting and suddenly they tumble and his dick pops out and her panties come down whoops?

>>25009677
why do you keep imagining gay shit

dual yang cultivation is only gay if you actually like it and aren't just doing it for POWER

>>25009716
Well, it requires more ingenuity than that. I can't write the damn thing for you. These are departure points, anon.

>>25009722
>t. Fang Yuan

>>25009722
>>25009733
There is nothing wrong with it as long as you do it in the pursuit of eternal life

the xianxia tards ruined this thread

Saying so or such ruined a thread only degrades it further. How about you try and restore it to its onetime splendor?

>>25009733
ngl the gay orgy chapter in RI really took me out of it, can't believe RIfags look up to a guy like that.

>he's still seething
early, mid, late, peak > levelshit

can't return anything to its splendor when tards are actively smearing shit on the wall, don't kid yourself. it's over

There are too many hall monitors patrolling the thread for imaginary violations and offenses to their putty-soft sensibilities.

if i could replace all xianxia readers in this thread with tina and f anon clones I unironically would

>Lets replace xanxia with shitty harem coomer smut isekai garbage with female protag written by a female author, that will surely make this thread better
No thanks

he's such a newfag and a moron he doesn't spell his own genre right and he also thinks tina is a woman writing isekai harem shit and not a 60 year old male autist who always goes on about airport thriller novels
and yes id still rather have him than you. of course, if I could, I would delete all of you

>>25009800
If you delete all of the annoying personalities literally nothing would be left.

>>25009196
Bruh, BM is fuckin nice. Try it sometime. But your nameless protagonist? That can also be pretty cool. Maximise the effect by describing how mysteriously he does everything, and how badass everyone thinks he is.

>>25009843
>Maximise
the br*tish don't belong here

>>25009847
Amen, brother, they voted to brexit, and brexit they should, buncha badteeth pedoz them English noncez are, it'z true.

I'm not going to reply to your post so it doesn't look like I'm seething. I'm not seething. You're seething.

>>25007278
I have written few chapters of a story, but the progress is slow. I doubt I'll ever complete it, so I just pitched the current outline:
>There is a remote island ruled by a lord
>During one winter, the Daughter of the Lord travels to Town's City with her mother to become a seeress
>There she meets with her friend, the Daughter of the Bailiff
>She is scared of becoming the seeress, because the process makes her blind, but gives ability to tell fortunes
>During her ordination, the Trickster God invades her mind and shows her a vision of all her loved ones dying
>The god then demands she submit to her and accepts the outcome that will happen
>But refuses, the god rejects her and interrupts the ordination
>Because the god rejected her, she still has her vision, but according to tradition, the rejected vessels must be killed because they still have the ability to predict the future
>The priests try to kill the Daughter, but the Bailiff prevents them
>The Daughter tells in her vision that the city was attacked, and they must escape
>But the Mother refuses, and they stay in the city
>The next day, the city is attacked by a band of marauders because a disgruntled constable aided them
>The leader of bandits assaults the house of the Bailiff, kills the Bailiff, and takes the Daughter of the Bailiff captive
>Meanwhile, the Daughter and her mother try to escape from the city, but they come across one of the captains of the bandits
>The guard protecting them loses a fight against the Captain and abandons the women in cowardice
>The Captain rapes the Mother while the Daughter is forced to watch
>The Captain kills the mother after that, and prepares to rape the Daughter, when the Leader of the Band appears
>The Leader is mad about killing a valuable hostage and beheads the Captain
>The Leader is about to take the Daughter hostage when the Trickster God appears to him and tells him to let her go
>The Daughter escapes

So, that's the prologue, think it has enough content for 10K words? Chat GPT says it would be difficult.
The rest of the story is set 10 years later and deals with the Daughter's complicated relationship with her father.

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>>25009930
>so I just pitched the current outline:

>>25009423
Hmm maybe you're right perhaps instead of cautionary tale about people imposing their own moral values on a foreign society , I should have a coming of age story about an edgelord who learns compassion?
people prefer more positive stories?

I've got a WN idea: it turns on a squat, oily-faced 4chan poster with a snot string bungeeing from one nostril. His plan is to become an author but for some reason unknown even to himself he can't begin to work because--and here's the heart of the tale--he's too busy writing inanities about other posters on 4chan. One in particular, a pet figment of his named Tina, he prattles on about as day follows night and his story lies unwritten. Tina consumes him and pretty soon, deranged by obsession, he loads a clip into his father's pistol and fires one clear through his skull. His riddled head hits the keyboard, and a string of consonants appear on his story document, the first "word" to embellish the page since he began.

>>25009933
*so, I will just pitch the current outline

>>25009959
>clip

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>>25009963
>outline

>>25009959
>Tina: Wow you guys are such dorks and no I don't care what you have to say, get a life
>Also Tina: Furiously writes a fanfic about his bullies killing themselves
Jesus Christ that is pathetic

>>25009959
>I've got a WN idea:
>it turns on a squat, oily-faced 4chan poster
I like wns that turn me on.

Has anyone here written WNs for those monthly MAL WN competitions?
They have prize money but I imagine the competition could be stiff given how regular they are. I've also seen shit about getting anime deals for first place winners, which I imagine is a way to scam the author somehow.

Beyond that though, the only real issue seems to be how many guidelines the competitions have. Their current one basically tells you what to write at a conceptual level for both categories.

>>25010070
Sounds like a scam, but I'll admit I don't know much about it. Which is kinda condemning simply because of how deep I am in the WN scene. I know some anon a few months back wrote for the honeyfeed/MAL shit, not sure what happened with him though.
Competent web novelists will earn a shitload more going the standard patreon route, of that I have no doubt. I don't actually think the competition is that stiff because it's clearly preying on newbie authors. And there's no fucking way that shit ends up as an anime: link me one where that happened.

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>>25010089
I imagine it is a scam in a different way- it's backed by Honeyfeed and there's probably a clause with contest submissions, where if your work wins you forfeit some portion of the rights or whatever or need to sign a non-compete if it gets published.
>And there's no fucking way that shit ends up as an anime: link me one where that happened.
That's why I believe in the contract idea being how this works. They've done a few of these where they talk about how the winner will get an anime adaptation by whatever studio, and nothing comes of it- could just be that they would have to forfeit the majority of their ownership or enter into a contract requiring a certain production schedule, or other factors, because this is very vague.
The only allusion to things like this is this though.

>>25009452
>If there weren't prudes up and down this thread
this thread has had active discussion of smut novels many times

>>25010070
I think it usually is just "potential for a manga/anime", not a guaranteed deal
which is another way to say "we'll preemptively take your adaptation rights and if the story is successful enough we'll make some money off of it" but wrapped up as if it were a prize

>>25008123
Your illustrator must be stable diffusion.

>>25010167
My illustrator also just did what I asked. Was expensive though.
I think your issue is that you're probably crawling artstation or other websites and picking random artists that have "business inquires:email" in their description, or something like that. Those business inquiries are for actual businesses. Like game studios looking for dozens of pieces at good rates.
Instead, you need to find someone taking commissions from independents. They'll have an external portfolio website with prices laid out and etc. And they'll respond quickly and professionally once you email them.
They're rare, and you won't have your pick of the litter since maybe 1/30 pro artists do it that way, but you'll get what you asked for, in their style, and in a timely manner. Do some digging.

That's also one of the benefits of going with a publisher - they have connections with top-tier artists who don't do public commissions, since publishers buy regularly. Artists want regular work, and most don't want to deal with the bullshit that comes with random, unprofessional clients. For as much as you make fun of artists, writers are just as shitty to deal with.

>>25007320
I've been reading some stuff from my critique group and the prose is SO BAD. Not only are certain words repeated over and over, not only are the sentences clunky, but it's so bad it's difficult to even tell where the characters are or what they're doing. Characters that were outdoors in a forest are suddenly turning down corridors. Characters that can fly are carrying(?) characters that cant fly, somehow, until suddenly they're all running on rooftops. Characters with dumb names just suddenly appear and it's like, oh always have my back, Mr. Poppins. And I'm like, who the fuck is this clown?

The plot is fine. The characters arent bad. But it is such a chore to read. We're getting to the climax and each chapter is becoming one big clusterfuck of fights after another. I would have dropped these stories ages ago were they not in my critique group.

>>25007320
Define bad prose

If RR likes lesbian female MCs is futa on female accepted?

>>25010207
The phrase bad prose literally doesn't appear in that post. And it's exceedingly clear about the discussion topic.

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>Can't include sex scenes even though they're my forte cause most of the main cast are teenagers
feels bad

>>25010211
Back in the days, RR would accept some smut, but that's changed. It's become extremely anti-sex recently. Don't even try sneaking in a sex-focused story, it won't happen. You can get away with a few scenes at most
You'll need to go to ScribbleHub. Luckily for you though, futa shit is pretty big there I think.

>>25010187
No. That's not my problem. The problem is illustrators are a fucking pain in the ass who turn down jobs and never reply to emails.

>>25010211
RR doesn't like lesbians. They don't like romance at all.

>>25010230
its cause zoomers have an insanely unhealthy relationship with sexuality, they are either hardcore porn addicts or hardcore anti-sex puritans

>>25010242
>The problem is illustrators are a fucking pain in the ass who turn down jobs and never reply to emails.
Seems like you're just here to vent, seeing how you ignored almost everything I said.
You're almost certainly the pain in the ass from their perspective, so only the desperate want to work with you. Hence your bad experiences.

>>25010243
You've been spreading this canard for weeks now. I'm sick of the untruths that are peddled wantonly to raw writers in this thread. Do you have to step on others' heads to get ahead? Shows what store you put by your prose.

>>25010228
Can you really not somehow make the cast adults? You are literally god and can write the rules of your universe, anon

>>25010250
Yeah. I ignored everything you said because I'm not a dumbass and nothing you said applies to me. I'm finding artists who say they're open to commissions. I'm not contacting Banksy or Jasper Johns.

>>25010296
Of all the writers to illustrate your point you chose two incorrigible navel-gazers. Natch.

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>>25010279
Nah the setting and plot is pretty dependent on them being teenagers since the premise is basically "egirls get superpowers from a weird social media app based on their follower count", technically non-egirls get powers too but adults and men who have enough clout to get powers are a lot more rare

>>25010273
>Do you have to step on others' heads to get ahead?
Me making plainly true statements about Royalroad is not stepping on other authors. If the two statements: "Royalroad wants lesbians in their stories" vs "Royalroad does not want lesbians in their stories" were evaluated, the generalization undoubtedly falls in the second camp. It's not even close.
This is not me telling other anons what to write. It's me providing factually true information so that other anons can evaluate their goals vs what the market wants.
I think it's extreme sell-out behavior to simply write what's most popular. Would not respect that kind of author at all, or recommend it, because it's a guaranteed way to fail. You need passion for your writing. Write within the venn diagram of what you like and what sells
But deluding yourself into thinking the website is something it isn't is retarded. There are plenty of niches to explore on Royalroad, and you should write in them if they inspire you. But they are niches. Stop screaming that they aren't. There are some lesfic stories on RR but they're rare and the inclusion of that element limits your appeal.

>>25010316
I'm not going to let you sow your little fictions unchecked. It's high time we as a freemasonry put a curb on your malicious bullshit.

>>25010326
>we as a freemasonry
Since when are we controlled by the jews?

>>25010326
>unreasonable reply to a reasonable reply
Just live in your delusion I guess.

RR only likes litrpg
if you don't have stats you are ngmi

>>25010340
If this is a ghostpost to me, you're just proving my point. Sloppy strawman.
If you disagree you should be able to articulate why. My argument is extremely clear and should be easy to refute if you think there's no merit to it.
Especially if you're a writer.

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>no evidence
claim dismissed

>>25010353
I'm pretty relieved actually because before, I assumed you were a genuine poster, just misguided. But I've come away convinced you're a legitimate troll. I'll stop responding now.

>>25010353
the trvke that broke online debate forever...

This ninny blabbed on for several paragraphs and had the radical gall to term it "reasonable."

>>25010308
Just make them 18? Lol
Nothing you said stops that
Are you underage yourself or some shit, e-girls don't stop existing at 18. The biggest egirls are all adults

>>25010400
Just not part of the vision, and I always thought the 18 cop out was corny in other media I consume so it'd also be hypothetical

>>25010243
Understandable. Romance/harem tag often says that MC is a simp or complete retard. Doesn't sound like a power fantasy to me. On the other hand it's hard to find a male MC in RR's top...

>>25010415
Do what you want but Western media is vehemently anti-pedo, especially in the current climate. Presenting your underage protagonists as waifus who make sex jokes is questionable in the extreme, though maybe not outright poison depending on how you handle it. Better toe that line very carefully, though.
Worry first about getting reader. 99.9% of authors post into the void. It's probably a moot discussion unless you have writing chops

>>25010415
If your threshold is fluid why not make her ten and have done with it. What's ten but eleven minus a day, and what's eleven but twelve minus a day. And so forth. At ten her flower is still in bud, and you can scarcely jam a thumb in there and wiggle it around.

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>>25010422
Yeah I know, and like an anon mentioned earlier there's a balance to doing what the market wants and what you want, there are aspects I concede to the market but at the end of the day I'm mostly doing this just for fun and not expecting a payout so I'm leaning more towards just what I want.
>>25010423
I'm a epheb not an actual pedo

>>25010418
>On the other hand it's hard to find a male MC in RR's top...
Huh?
Romance is very unpopular but male romances and les romances are fairly split from what I know. And what a quick search for both most followed and top rated showed

When did this race of morons spring up who impose rules on others and their hobbies? It's pathetic.
>No romance on RR
Next time hold your peace, lil pup.

Dripping desperation for (You)s

>>25010296
>because I'm not a dumbass
every indicator suggests otherwise

>>25010242
>That's not my problem.
half the problems in your first post were about dming random assholes with evidently no existing commission process asking "do you do commissions" and being surprised when they say no
so it sure sounds like your problem