Fucked it up, previous thread:
>>25041676

>>25049091
wait, so I can get paid to write sloppa?

>>25049098
Yes many of the biggest web sloppa authors are infact getting paid to sloppa, via patreon, book deals, or if you're chinese web sloppa sites negotiate contracts with sloppa makers to produce slop.
but it's not as simple as it seems you gotta actually have fans.

>>25049098
sloppa creators have always in history been who gets paid most, why is this a revelation?

File: Witch and Mercenary Vol. 1.jpg (1.4 MB, 1425x2000)

1.4 MB JPG

Witch and Mercenary Vol.1, JP: Kaeru Chohokiteki (2021/2023) EN: L. Kino (2024)

Let's start with what the author writes in the afterword: "This isn’t a tale of invincible characters, nor is it a satisfying revenge drama. The hero isn’t surrounded by girls who worship him. It’s a somewhat unrefined and matter-of-fact story, but maybe that’s just what entices those who pick up the book into purchasing it...This story ignores all the latest trends, templates, and writing styles."

Zig Crane is a highly competent mercenary in his mid-20s. He's one of 200 men sent to kill one of the last remaining witches. He defeats her, but he's the sole survivor. With his employer dead he has no reason to kill her. Siasha, the 200+ year old witch, offers him employment as her bodyguard. She also wants to taken somewhere where she'll no longer be persecuted. Zig will do just about any job for the right price and this is no exception. On this continent everything supernatural, mystical, or otherwise non-human has been utterly purged. The human nations all war against each other over the slightest difference between them. Their only hope is to make their way to the Unknown Continent. Seafaring has only recently advanced enough to where there's a chance they could make it, though no fleet has yet returned. So, off they go. Their time on their home continent is barely a prologue.

In metanarrative terms this allows the author to have what is functionally a new world where everything is completely different to what they're familiar with. This provides a reason for reader to learn about everything at the same time the characters do. They're strangers in a strange land. It's not isekai, but it fills a lot of the same role.

On this inhabited unknown continent magic is widespread, monsters roam everywhere, adventurers abound, demihumans exist, and war doesn't. The Adventurer's Guild seems to be the heart of their society. Siasha is excited to become an adventurer in a land where she doesn't have to seclude herself from the world. Zig's only ambition seems to be carry out the jobs he's being paid for. He doesn't aspire to be any more than that. That means Siasha is almost entirely pushing the story forward, though it's nearly exclusively told from Zig's perspective.

In terms of content, it's mostly monster extermination quests. There's a lot of fighting with only the two of them, though there's also a raid on a monster nest that has 50+ adventurers. It's something like a combination of Tales of, Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy XIV, and an action-oriented game. There aren't any mechanics though. It's simply a high fantasy story with those as influences. Other than that, it's their daily lives and interactions with people in town, who also give them jobs at times.

Sometimes a simple and straightforward story that does what I enjoy is what I want and for me, this does that well. I'm current on the manga that's what it continues to be.

>>25049116
How many volumes before it turns to romance slop?

File: The Great Conclovince of (...).jpg (2.16 MB, 2484x3509)

2.16 MB JPG

Where can I both write and post drawings I make like pic related? RR won't let me post picters.

>>25049137
scribblehub and ao3 allow pictures

>>25049147
Oh shit, god bless you kind anon!

>>25049137
You can post pictures on RR. But why would you rape peoples eyeballs with this horror?

Is 2k wοrds per chapter really the most effective length to keep slopper attention span?

>>25049153
You can write 50k-word chapters like that one guy if you think you can make it interesting. Most people can't.

>>25049153
It's more about weekly output
It varies a lot
It doesnt make or break anything
It depends on the website
It depends on the niche/genre
But yes, 2000 to 2500 is a good rule of thumb

>>25049157
who?

>>25049132
I don't know if it does. Where I am in the manga it hasn't, but the novel has a bit more hints of it, so I can't say for sure. There's definitely teasing of it from the Witch and some other female characters, but nothing has come of it yet. I'll find out soon enough, at least of what's published in English anyway.

>>25049116
>qt 16-year-old-looking girl (purported age: 200, mental age: 16)
>unironically native isekai
>adventurer guilds, quests
>japanese-inspired elf race
>the usual qt girl archetypes
>story ignores all the latest trends
Yeah, okay.

The MC is absolutely autistic (read: 1 dimensional), without the capacity of thinking or reasoning something beyond "I'm a mercenary on a job", despite the fact that they're clearly just living there.

>>25049162
nta but trailer trash has some pretty long chapters. Also TWI

File: 1740269620247658.png (233 KB, 464x406)

233 KB PNG

>>25049116
Man Zig looks rough for his mid-20s assuming that's him on the cover.
I fear the other anon is right why else put him that young unless it's to keep the option for a sub-romance open.
The author could always just say "well the witch is 300+ years old" but really I'm surprised Zig isn't in his mid thirties, or mid forties.
He cannot even be used to to juxtapose people in the new continent with the old "war is hell" becasue the people in that world basically are thriving due to conflict.

It seems a shame that he's got no agency or purpose outside just wage slaving, but I guess that really was the authors ultimate intention, this is the remarkably unremarkable tale of Zig, who is a normal adventurer who hangs out with a genki witch best friend.
I'll probably read it for that novelty alone.

File: cover.png (2.06 MB, 1014x1536)

2.06 MB PNG

>Hear me out, guys!!!
I don’t want to ruin what that anon did for me, but since I don’t want to change the pic, maybe we can fix the font.
Do you like Art Nouveau?

>>25049191
shouldn't you be working on your next story

>>25049191
does the f stand for fetal alcohol syndrome

>>25049208
It's F-F-Frank Gardner!

>>25049198
It’s the sequel to this book, and to write it I’d need, at least, 200 more showers.

>>25049191
the font itself isn't bad, just a terrible match for the painting

>>25049170
Native Isekai is silly way to put it. Sure, it's more extreme than Europeans going go to The New World, but it's stated that their home continent used to be the same before they wiped out all the monsters and magic. The closest I've personally seen to something that could be called Native Isekai is Log Horizon, since it's never fully resolved what happened, but it seems like the real world was entirely changed.

I'm going to say I fully endorse what the author wrote in the afterword, but I thought it was something interesting that could be included.

I'm glad you provided a gloss for autistic, since otherwise it'd be irrelevant. He does think and reason, but its all towards working. A workaholic doesn't have to be 1 dimensional. They are indeed just clearing living there because there isn't any viable way to get back.

>>25049185
That is him. He looks different in the interior illustrations, but yeah, ages and appearances are often rather dissonant. As note, Zig isn't an adventurer. He refuses to become one.

>>25049191
anons are always saying the cover doesn't match your story but I never read it
what even is your setting?

>>25049244
Whoops, I really should've looked over this once.
*is a silly way
*I'm not going to say
*it's
*That's
*As a note
RIP, I really shouldn't type stuff up while doing other stuff.

>>25049241
It's just the quality. A filter paired with an upscale will do the job.
>>25049245
All and none at the same time.
You ought to read till chapter three to get it.

File: 1754913660008975.png (312 KB, 381x656)

312 KB PNG

>>25049245

>>25049253
>You ought to read till chapter three to get it.
>just punch yourself in the balls for ten minutes straight to get an answer to this simple question

>>25049253
no, I wasn't complaining about the quality (which is also lacking but irrelevant right now)
the painting feels too old world and the font seems like a different genre of old. either match the specific type of oldness or go completely modern rather than this, it feels uncanny

>>25049253
I don't feel like reading it. But from the complaints about your cover I'm guessing it isn't medieval or historical? It's a modern setting?

>>25049254
Absolute unfiltered KINOOOOOOOOO
Love you bro

>>25049265
*as in the painting is one type of old and the text is a different type of old
not sure if that makes sense

>>25049257
It's good.
>>25049271
The setting might be put between Belle Époque and the Roaring Twenties, but it also features modern things like emails and aggregate databases.
It’s just unique.
>>25049265
What about putting rust on the font?

>>25049191
why is it so blurry?

>>25049290
I'm out of home, and I have downloaded it from Royal Road and put the title with a smartphone app.

>>25049244
>Zig isn't an adventurer. He refuses to become one.
That's surprising, I'm guessing instead of a freelance organization, it's a more organized one, with maybe some compulsory conscription clauses?
Otherwise I cannot fathom why someone seemingly as adaptable as Zig would turn down steady work.
I should read this now I'm intrigued.

is all web novel content de factο sci-fi or fantasy? I have an idea for something thats closer to true crime but I don't want to waste the effort

>>25049337
>waste the effort
whether or not it's a waste depends on what you expect to get out of this

>>25049337
true crime is a woman genre

>>25049337
As a concept, web novels can be anything. In practice it depends on what site you're using. ~70% of the stories on Royal Road are self-classified as being in the Fantasy genre.

This is few months outdated and copied from a spreadsheet I made.

Genre # %
Fantasy 71,714 69%
Adventure 62,673 60%
Action 61,549 59%
Romance 20,496 20%
Sci-Fi 19,330 19%
Drama 18,205 18%
Comedy 17,473 17%
Psychological 14,560 14%
Mystery 14,519 14%
Tragedy 10,991 11%
Short Story 9,833 9%
Horror 9,157 9%
Contemporary 5,253 5%
Historical 4,039 4%
Satire 2,252 2%

>>25049424
>Short Story 9,833 9%

>>25049441
Apparently it was renamed from a different term that I don't remember at the moment and doesn't mean "short story" at all.

>>25049424
brainlet here whats the difference between comedy and satire?

>>25049459
Royal Road has definitions for each on their site. Refer to those for site specific definitions. For a general differences do your own research.

>>25049459
Satire isn't necessarily funny and comedy isn't necessarily satirical

File: 1769205317207767.png (632 KB, 640x1024)

632 KB PNG

>>25049459
Comedy is when you write the joke.
Satire is when you write a story that makes you laugh because its logic clash with the archetypes you’ve absorbed through years of media consumption.

>>25049424
what matters isn't what authors are posting but what readers are reading

>>25049337
you can mix true crime with fantasy ezpz

>>25049244
What would Spectral Soul Demon Venerable do in this situation?

slowly watching my story fall further and further out of top 1000.
My fault, really, I fucked it all up, overextended the third book with dumb bullshit, and I've been slow to write the final arc as I flip-flop on a major plot detail because I had a crisis of confidence in my planned ending and I'm 90% sure my new idea is better but I don't want to deviate from the plan.
I also look at the content of the writing and wonder if I've lost my way and let web novels consume my writing style. The level of detail that I had early on is nearly gone entirely and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
I have autism.

>>25049358
>>25049337
this needs to be in an FAQ in OP because I'm sick of obvious webfic outsiders constantly asking some version of this and seeing the same interaction play out every time

>>25049477
dunno why this isn't being addressed...
the distribution of genres doesn't matter if the overwhelming majority of stuff uploaded to RR remains unread

>>25049515
it's the statsfag, don't engage. he knows this already and I think he spams all that useless info just to bait people

>>25049515
Define "unread". Some would say you're doing pretty well if you have 100 readers. Others will think they've failed if they have less than 10,000. Making $1000 a month by writing is a success by any writing metric, and better than what the majority of tradpubbed authors get. Others can't be content if their income doesn't let them quit their day jobs. The only thing that matters is where your goals are.

>>25049510
you really think the people asking these questions read the OP links?

>100 readers is a success
Don't have such low standards. It's how you become the next F-anon

>>25049536
>don't engage
it's a sentiment worth shooting down before tourists think their true crime Own Voices™ LGBTQ mushroom foraging cottagecore short story anthology written in the second person is worth pursuing because, without knowing their single-digit readership, there's somehow a handful of other stories that fit that description.
There should only be two reasons why something is worth developing: it's fun to write and you're just treating this as a hobby or you're writing to market. Those meaningless stats shouldn't factor in at all

>>25049539
and the stats don't account for that and thus are irrelevant at best or outright misleading otherwise in these sorts of discussions

>>25049555
If you just want people to enjoy what you wrote, it is.

>>25049337
>is all web novel content de factο sci-fi or fantasy? I have an idea for something thats closer to true crime but I don't want to waste the effort
I do crime and put it on WN sites. It can do okay, but you have to get some genre's and tags on it to get into the mainstream of things. Its not likely to perform as well as say isekai or harem or litrpg. you're trying to sell champagne at a football game; they want pitchers of beer. If you can combine a detective with some other existing meta trope, then you have something I would suppose.

>>25049555
If money isn't an issue, it's vastly better to have a small following that really understands you, than 10,000 mouthbreathers who are there just for their "MC hit bad guy" dopamine fix.

>>25049399
yeah anon. and those harem novels with all the loli's on the cover. Very butch, dude. very butch.

>>25049559
my fictional crime novels are more along the lines of travis mcGee. A dash of Parker aesthetic. Those are two big influences.

>>25049606
i actually modeled everything in some ways after a pre-McGee novel by the same author. the author. macdonald, was very influential.

>>25049191
did you lose the original .psd file? I can upload it again for you later
personally I also think this typeface is at odds with the painting. if you aren't married to that painting, you could do some very cool stuff if you want to highlight the art nouveau belle epoque stuff

>Humans die for wealth while birds die for food
What does it mean?

File: Gqq_GLWXcAEE1Wd.jpg (514 KB, 1536x2048)

514 KB JPG

>>25049620
Cool, I guess. And yeah, my point is that the painting has to stay, but a little bit of makeup to better fit the Art Nouveau style would be perfectly acceptable.

Also, is it just me, or was Jacques’s elm-smile more visible in the original version?

File: Gustav_Klimt_015.jpg (631 KB, 2024x2678)

631 KB JPG

>>25049645
>the painting has to stay
hmmm it's gonna be difficult to dress it up that way. You couldn't be convinced to try something like pic rel or anything else that might give you art nouveau/belle epoque vibes with some older martial historicity?

>the original version
Dunno, could be lens distortion stretching and shrinking proportions. It was just the clearest picture of the painting in your original cover I could find at the time

>>25049692
Post your .pds file. I’m gonna experiment with it a bit.

can I play with GIMP and the painting image? not like you have to use what I make. you could catbox me the painting image, or tell me where to locate the image.

>>25049709
You’re free to do whatever you want, bro. I used your first image because it was a noticeable improvement, but now I think I need to step things up, and maybe you can help, Mr. Artist.
I chose Art Nouveau because its curves reminded me of the eye-catching titles of many Korean web novels and webtoons.
>you could catbox me the painting image, or tell me where to locate the image.
think this was the photo I took in that church.
>>25049645

>>25049703
sure, the painting is in here too for your convenience. if you don't have/want to use Photoshop, i can recommend the browser-based Photopea.
https://gofile.io/d/Ja3baP

>>25049709
this might help you
also note that while the painting (mural?) itself is very old, it has occurred to me the photograph of the painting may not be in the public domain...

>>25049740
>the photograph of the painting may not be in the public domain...
I've made the photo

>>25049743
i didn't use your photo, fren. it was a higher res image from flickr; all the exif metadata is preserved in what i uploaded to gofile (4chan strips it)

>>25049749
...OH FUCK...
NO ONE CALL THE FBI

File: 1758763603298485.jpg (55 KB, 625x1000)

55 KB JPG

What the fuck happened? it's been shit after Tomb of Ariel arc

>>25049837
>webnovel
there's your answer

>>25049837
it was shit from the snowy military campaigns arc onward

>>25049837
mind wipes and time loops ruin plots

>>25049863
i've never seen it done but a self-contained time loop arc seems really fun actually. i've only ever seen it as the full premise tho

>>25049855
>>25049863
I liked the Tomb arc, even if it had timeloops. After that though, it's like a different person started writing. Where's the exploration? The cool settings? All the struggle? Now there's romance, way too many povs, mini arcs which are 90% fighting and it doesn't feel like there are any stakes of anyone dying

>>25049879
the timeloops were handled masterful but they ruin stakes, longterm plot investment and were essentially wasted timed

meaning that even competent time travel ruins plots