>>25092913
Consent is a dubious thing

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Congratulations to the anon who followed through in making an action scene last thread. You are well on your way to becoming a Slop Master™.

For the rest of us, we've got some more work to do.

/wng/ Thread Quest #4:

Make a rough outline for a story. It does not have to be for something you ever intend to write, nor does it have to be in detail.

Though it is often joked that web novels never end and you would be foolish to do so, you should still have a good idea of where the story is heading. As you do this quest, imagine where you would insert side plots, mini arcs, and more. Thinking about it in advance will improve pacing and keep readers engaged. Master this art, and you'll be able to sprawl a beginning, middle, and end into a multibook series in no time.

Approximately the first half of the story will be a typical progression fantasy. Our hero will ascend to power quickly. He will then attempt to stop a global catastrophe. He will fail at the last second. The remainder of the story will be our hero wandering through the post-cataclysmic world trying to somehow piece back together what is obviously irreparable.

Do you think this is something slop readers could accept? I know they don't handle it well when the protagonists fail or struggle.

>>25092906
>Eventualy
Eventually* sorry I'm a retard

>>25092938
>The remainder of the story will be our hero wandering through the post-cataclysmic world trying to somehow piece back together what is obviously irreparable.
I'd recommend heavily against this, if you must then do a follow-up with a new protagonist

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What did the Wisdom Gu mean by this? (And what dud Verdant Great Sun mean?)

>>25092972
That's a neat little fable
What's the consensus on adding things like that? Things that are don't necessarily add to the story, lore or characters but add a bit of color to the story?

>>25092906
>Sanderson's Writing Lectures 2025:
>2025
Fuck. It just occurred to me that I've been here planning to write for over a year without anything to show for it. Literally an entire year wasted.

>>25093059
Why does Sanderson release the whole book at once instead of dragging it out as a webnovel?

>>25092938
Instantly reminded me of Violence Jack. Could be cool.

what's the most consistently agreed-upon good web novel in this thread? is there any story most people just agree is good?

>>25093324
I don't know. Why are you asking me

>>25093324
Mine.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/119783/fff-class-unlucky-antagonist-villains-origin-story

>>25093324
Reverend Insanity (No, im not the faggot spammer that won't shut up about the novel)
So far nobody ever said anything bad about it besides the main character being morally abhorrent, which is a matter of taste i guess, some people like reading about monster wearing human skin, so i just file it under "Opinion" rather than "Critique"
I guess there's also Lord of Mysteries? I didn't like it but that's just my opinion, im not interested in the fantasy it's trying to sell but i can't say it's bad from what little i read
Craddle too i suppose but i gave up on the first book, i didn't care about that story either

>>25093349
>chinkslop
>chinkslop
>wannabe chinkslop
No.

>>25093324
Regressor's Tale of Cultivation

>>25093356
I won't die on this hill anon, think whatever you want

>>25093324
Mother of Learning, Worm

>>25093349
>what's the least controversial good story
>gives the most controversial by far
>but im not the spammer
are you fucking stupid or something

the answer is mother of learning. its no one's favorite but its inoffensive and alright enough

>>25093385
I saw anon shitting on MoL all the time

>>25093412
I haven't? people call it bland at most

>>25093414
I've seen them say that but also the usual criticism for winnies about bad pacing/nothing happening for x chapters

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I was thinking about a sci-fi web novel that involves a massive MMO, but I'm having trouble making it so that the players (characters) are actually facing significant danger. What do you suggest? I think “if you die in the game, you die in real life” is a bit overused.

Pic related is a sketch I made of one of the character’s avatars. :)

>>25093425
yeah okay? every novel gets mild complaints like that. but most novels also have true, genuine haters like twi and RI
MOL is universally good but not great. which is why its the highest rated fic on RR. its about a lack of controversy

>>25093324
Reverend insanity

>>25093433
even in chink sphere LOTM wins hands down

>>25093324
>what's the most consistently agreed-upon good web novel in this thread? is there any story most people just agree is good?
MLA is the de-facto standard by which one measures "objective success".

>>25093430
The MMO is a foremost a playground for the ultra-wealthy, and a subset of regular people play it simply to populate the game universe. Their real-life value is being a character in the game, and so failing in the game is a loss of value. You die in a boss raid and cause your party leader(one of the rich people) to die? You're evicted and end up on the street.

>>25093438
no one asked about success
an illiterate strikes again

>>25093469
That’s an interesting premise, it kind of reminds me of Westworld in how everything revolves around the ultra-rich.
I’m thinking about leaning more into personal sacrifice, maybe the real cost could be outside the game. Progression could demand so much real-life commitment that it pushes player into signing restrictive contracts, getting into debt, losing jobs, or education.

>>25093474
>no one asked about success
>an illiterate strikes again
good book. Broad appeal IE success, measures that is some fashion. Also, fuck off back to crab island.

>>25093365
This

>>25092932
reroll thread quest desu baka senpai

>>25093430
The MMO's actually simulating a newly discovered planet and players are competing for a chance to help colonize it instead of being trapped as a borderline slave on a polluted dystopic Earth. Dying in the MMO doesn't kill you, but instead resets your progress towards escaping your miserable life.

>>25093430
playing through crusty classic ff7 and the solution is to make everything just comically harder and game mechanics you never would've thought of and could only wonder how gamers 17-20+ years ago could beat any game without a google search away. Make shit NM a la FF11. Basically just impossible to kill. At the very basic essence, think back to SNES games~pre-WOW mmorpgs like FF11 and make everything super tanky or requiring certain cheese tactics you never would've thought of. I guess it hopes if you have the setting at the very least pre-reddit or basically pre-gamefaqs/reddit so the players are can't just look up 17 year old posts in the current year to figure out how out to beat so and so boss or so and so monster.

>>25093430
You could have it so the followed characters are NPCs dealing with the fact that they live in a simulation populated in part by unknowable existences that treat them like toys.

Maybe set it after a system change has allowed them to actually learn they are NPCs and retain memories after being respawned. Worldwide existential horror could be fun.

>>25093535
Cry more or post your story.

>>25093579
Adding onto this, I think stuff like .Hack and SAO just worked because their original material was back in 2002 so the idea of internet or even having a VR overlay to browse the internet on of wasn't heard of back then, and it'd probably benefit the narrative more to make a reader wonder "why didn't they just google it?" and something of that effect. This is just what I would've done if I was doing a SAO/.Hack kind of story. You'd probably have to acknoledge the time period right off the bat somehow, and still it may make the reader who's probably not a 35+ year old boomer who could relate to that kind of experience growing up. Good luck anon. Hope to see this posted and give it a read some day.

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I tried claude and I don't like it.

It focuses hard on unimportant details.
It lacks impact.
Analogies/metaphors are ill fitting.

At best you can generate a complete chapter and cut 2-3 good sentences out of it to use

>>25093605
I used to think Claude was really good but it was way too brutal and overwhelmingly savage so I stopped. It never said a good thing about my writing ever and insulted me at every chance. I used it on my 2nd draft and a few older drafts and just stopped, so I'm just been completely raw-dogging it with just my guts, no ai at all, and knowledge gained from reading boomer grandpa tradpub novels. I like to think it's helping me a lot more, and I put off asking even human critque since even asking anon for advice gave me either nitpicks or give me completely bizarre advice ("outer space is actually white! here's why according to this space nasa mission"), just stopped bothering. Trust yourself; trust your guts. And read a shitton of stuff either wn or tradpub grandpa senior living home novels. Believe in yourself but also read like its presently going out of style.

>>25093612
Claude is good at one thing, software development. But it's really, really good at that.

>>25093627
You would think so, right? It wasn't Claude specificially as far as I remember, but I used chatgpt for coding a part of my neocities where I asked it to make a scrollbar for a side menu with the purpose of being an "update log", and it kept hallucinating code that didn't exist. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and told it it was wrong, it apologized and gave me a version with the error fixed... except it still referenced a part of the code that didn't exist. It finally got it right after a few more tries, but boy I think llms in general are still pretty far from the process of removing the human element entirely. You know, they happened to make a hollywood seriers out of this concept and even a metal gear psp game was about this too, 20-30 years before the thinking machine became a real issue in this day and age. . . . hmmmm . . . . . you know come to think of it there was some guy in the 1870s who warned about ai.... hmmm.....

>>25093643
schizo post

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>>25093646

>>25093599
>why didn't they just google it?
Sharing info on message boards or otherwise just looking shit up is explicitly a thing characters did in .hack. A lot of the story is about in game and out of game investigations. There are literally multiple major characters that moonlight as information brokers or explicitly work as investigators.

Hell, physically accessing the game files via a break in in the real world is the plot of the final part of .hack//Liminality. The shit going on wasn't something you could just datamine.

Also, let's not pretend even in the real world that everything there is to know about games gets put online. I've literally been part of a team that won a contest in an MMO using info we had to run down ourselves in a way that even the company putting on the contest didn't realize could be done. Trion Worlds literally had to redo the announced winner cause they didn't think anyone would do what we did. Who would think that the fastest way to hunt a particular enemy would be to go for the *elite* version using repeatable instances instead of waiting for respawns of the basic version?

>>25093651
>Who would think that the fastest way to hunt a particular enemy would be to go for the *elite* version using repeatable instances instead of waiting for respawns of the basic version?
anyone with a working brain

>>25093643
You can't compare ChatGTP to Claude, not anymore. I haven't written a single line of code this year, I just tell Claude Code what I want. And the recent Claude Agents update is utterly nuts. It's like a damn hive mind.

>>25093434
Lotm is ok but it's not even in the same league as RI

>>25093654
You'd think it, but we were the only entry to try that shit. It helped that this was only true of a single fucking high level instanced dungeon in the whole game and you had to clear the whole thing to force a respawn. And the dungeon wasn't just that fucking enemy. Basically our system was 1 party member waits just outside as a teleport point, 1 hunts the elites, 1 hunts the other mobs, then the 2 inside team up to kill the boss, teleport out, rinse, repeat.

This shit really wasn't obvious. We had to time every fucking place either version of the enemy could spawn across the overworld and every dungeon. 2nd place ended up using a normally respawning location in the overworld.

Winning that shit required in depth game knowledge and a team of 2 high level players working in close coordination with an AFKer.

>>25093718
25m views for RI on webnovel
75m views for lotm
Can't even make the argument lotm is older here, sorry lil bro time ot face the facts. Even if you want to cry about subjective quality at least lotm has an ending, instead of just being axed.

>>25093914
>lotm has an ending
wrong

>>25093721
An elite dungeon version shouldn't even count as the same enemy. Your team basically cheated and rules were bent to allow it, which nobody else could possibly know or expect. That's some fanfic tier bullshit

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>>25093914
Curently 35.3 million views, back in later 2025 it had 34 million views.
The issue is that it's not being actively promoted by official sites like webnovel due to the ban (even discussion of it is discouraged), while lotm is, also because of the anime, it got massive boost in popularity

>>25093938
cope

>>25093432
>MOL is universally good but not great.
It's universally mid. The only reason it got high rating on RR was due to its simple writing being preferred by younger readers (typical RR crowd) and the autism tag.

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>>25093955
>autism tag

>>25093985
It's known to everyone that mol catered to autistic crowd.

>>25094008
What?

>>25093955
retard

>>25094013
Only a spectrum sperg can stomach "le same shit repeats" meme genre

>>25094057
you sound like you have assburgers

>>25094057
What?

>>25094066
No, I'm not obsessed about repeating things nor do I read time loop slop, so I'm quite normal

I've lived through this same 4channel thread 132 times. Every time it archives, I wake up and it repeats.

>>25094076
prove it, what happens 10 minutes from now?

>>25094078
Anon has a bitchfit over some pointless argument
The three chinkslop posters yammer on about gu
FFFanon shills his work without context

>>25094057
Yes the plot and the time loop mechanic (and how it was implemented) was autistic, but the biggest giveaway was the mc himself, anyone with two functioning brain cells could tell he was autistic, it was even mentioned in the novel that he had issues being around people, having conversations, troubles with emotions etc, the author tried to pass it off as some magical thing but in reality those are traits of an autistic person. Not just the mc, the other supporting characters and even antagonists were all nice and unoffensive, suitable for autistic readers.

>>25094133
wait, you said "Only a spectrum sperg can stomach "le same shit repeats" meme genre".
based on this post, you have read the novel.
that means you are autistic because "Only a spectrum sperg can stomach "le same shit repeats" meme genre".

>>25094158
That wasn't me but I have to agree with that anon. Anyone who finished it (and even found it enjoyable) is an autistic person (at least to some degree).
I personally read about 60% of it and dropped it.

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>>25094170
>That wasn't me
yeah, I realized this after posting

Did you guys like the zenith chapter? I don't like the abyleth.

>>25094228
?

>>25094257
Enjoy your 1-star review!

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>>25094257

>>25094257
>Gen α the novel
Sorry, this is not for me.

>>25094257
I'll read it tomorrow

>>25094272

yeah I can't argue against it sounding like that. Having a hard time writing the description since the story has multiple POVs and locations.

>>25094322
Thank you, I appreciate any feedback.

>>25094257
>it's not an isekai slop
Sure I'll give it a try later. The prologue features characters from distinct irl places, takes a while to get used to the variety of names but interesting if curious choice nonetheless

>>25093914
>axed
banned by the CCP is a little different from getting "axed"

>>25093357
RToC is mid. It's extremely repetitive and the characters are flat. Especially the MC.

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>>25093430
Read Hardcore Leveling Warrior. If the MC dies, he gets reset to level 1. Also, the game is his main way of making money, so when he does die in ch1 he basically becomes a debt slave until he can pay it off.

But I don't think you actually need "real life" stakes, especially early on.

>>25094703
Korean honorifics become annoying so early and the translators decided to stick with them full time so seo oppa or whatever gets old real fast

>>25093365
This is the only objective reply (even though i hate mother of snoring / capeslop)

>>25093365
Yeah, can't disagree with those two but I'd add Lord of Mysteries as well. They all have flaws but all three are great examples of webnovels executed well, decently structure story arcs, and all they nailed the endings.

>>25094743
I dont think any foreign stuff is in the running because of how many people in this thread hate translated prose

>>25094258
way to look out for your brother-anon, asshole. AT least give a 3 if you think it has serious issues. we're collectively up against review swapping faggots in writing groups that hang together so they don't hang separately. Show some loyalty or you don't deserve to be here.

>>25094078
yes. we live in a time loop. ain't it grand.

>>25094762
Reading a translated wn should be a required baptism of fire for any new readers. LotM is better than most since the 'offical' translation isn't mtl - it reads better than most.

>>25094773
>LotM is better than most since the 'offical' translation isn't mtl - it reads better than most.
If that's true that's very sad because I tried reading both of the translations and it was garbage
I'll stick to English web novels. That already has too much shitty dialogue and writing but at least it's tolerable

I turned a 15m 28f relationship into a 16m 20f relationship and I don't know how to feel.

>>25092932
>Man gets a system that allows him to copy superpowers temporarily and becomes a hero
>Stomps most encounters
>Gets an archnemesis who can take powers permanently by killing his victims
>Man is eventually forced to kill the archnemesis, only to find he has keeps powers permanently by killing as well
>Archnemesis was a future him coming back to prepare him for a bigger threat
>Fight against the bigger threat
>The end
There you go.

>>25094781
Read Reverend Insanity.

>>25095172
Anyone who was going to take you up on this offer has already done it. At this point you're just irritating people into stubbornly refusing to read it on principle.

just scheduled another 17 chapters. I was down to 3 scheduled, glad I caught it in time.

I hate that millions of people would rather read the same regurgitated isekai slop over and over than my novel: something that actually means something to me and isn't just playing an algorithm or riding trends.

>>25095644
People like something and then want more of it. You will have to find an audience and do some sort of pandering. Figure out a coupls important things you won't compromise on and then be ready to change the rest of the story for pandering..

>>25095644
>something that actually means something to me
I typed out something really mean but deleted it.
Anon, nobody is obligated to suck your dick and thank you for the opportunity.
If you don't adopt a servant mindset and try to serve people, they will not reward you with attention.
You are not the main character.

>In the cover of darkness, a man entered the tent. This thief would pay for the misdeed. Touras tackled the trespasser. He forced him to the ground and was about to break his arm when he noticed a peculiarity. His garb was unusual, even for the great camp. The patterns woven into his tattered robe were rarely seen in this part of the continent. And yet, Touras knew of it. He had always known of it. His late mother had embroidered similar decorations on his tunics. This man was a stranger in a foreign land, far away from home.
>“Not the warm greeting I expected,” the man said in their tongue. A few could speak it in the surrounding steppes. Furthermore, his voice sounded familiar.
>“Half the folks would have cut your tongue by now. In these plains, you don’t enter anyone’s tent uninvited.”
>“And yet, I did.”


How does it flow fine, or is it another instance of clunky?

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>>25095644

>>25095644
Maybe you should query agents and seek tradpubbing where they pay you to be artistic, instead of shunning popularity in a field based on popularity?

>>25095687
>seek tradpubbing where they pay you to be artistic
lol, lmao

>>25095651
I'll do it for you.
>>25095644
Boohoo, nobody wants to read about something that means something to you. Nobody gives a single fuck what your writing means to you, and neither do any of us. If anybody says they do, they're just saying it to be nice.
You are a stranger on the internet competing with all the others out there to draw our attention. Give me a reason to care that isn't some attention whoring sob story. Do you have an engaging plot? Do you have good flow and readability? Do you have a good brand of comedy? Do you scratch a particular power fantasy or niche? Why should I spend on your novel over the tens of thousands of others out there? If I wanted to read some faggot's self-important dribble, I'd look in trad pub.
There's enough mentally ill creatives around already, but they at least make stuff to market. If you are genuine about whatever this is meaning something to you, you wouldn't care what your readership is like. Instead, you're just bitter that the world doesn't bend over backwards to enable your self fellating arrogance.
Get over yourself and accept this as a creative endeavor, or swallow your pride and make something more wide reaching. The pretentious, whiny little bitch market is oversaturated.

>>25095726
I appreciate the brutal honesty. Yes, I am bitter. I just don't get why all these boring generic stories get traction. You ask what my story has to offer, my answer is that it's something different. Counter programming. When I look for something to read, I look for something that stands out, something I haven't seen before. Why aren't webnovel readers the same way?

>>25095666
Fuck the money, I'll write what I want.

>>25095747
Contrarianism isn't some inherent appeal to virtually anyone, execution is everything. I don't want to be subverted constantly, I want to see another world the author paints for me.
Fundamentally speaking, if everyone liked your story and wanted to read it then your story would be 'on-meta'. There are a million isekai stories because there are a billion people who want to read them, and by extention, write them.

>>25095767
That's fine but it's not just about money but readers to. Don't write something nobody want's to read and then complain that nobody is reading it.
Also if you're taking that approach you shouldn't even bother with webslop. Just write novellas or whatever.

>>25095747
Being not like the others isn't a virtue. It's not a vice either.

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today i will remind them

>>25093932
>An elite dungeon version shouldn't even count as the same enemy.
Contest rules just said kill as many of X enemy type in an hour as possible. Didn't say elites wouldn't count. An elite X is still an X.

Also the fanfic tier bullshit was when we won the second contest because nobody else realized the rules didn't prohibit getting help from clanmates which we exploited to find and weaken enemies and then call in our competitor to teleport in for the killshot.

The community actually bitched when it came out we did that shit for what was billed as a solo competition, but then the company came out and said that was actually the intended to be allowed and they didn't tell anyone to see who would figure out the rules didn't prohibit it.

The first competition being pure solo (which I won by the skin of my teeth) primed people to not expect you could game the rules.

English needs another way to say "a wry smile".

Once you start noticing it in web novels, you can't unsee it.

>>25095855
>>25095855
Not a thing in a translated xianxia, also RR webnovels have bigger problems than just "a wry smile"

Weekly chapter reciews

Pale Lights (patreon) : First appearence of Lucifer did not disapoint.
Years of tge Apocalypse (patreon) : end of book 4 and going to book 5 means the scheduled final loop will go to shit. We'll probably get prophet wars v2. The 4th book was more introspective than the previous ones , with the high points being the capital destruction and the moon landing.
100 reigns : ok , fine . It seems like this has become one of my favourites. Season of the Minotaur loop ended this week. Mixed feelings about trying an evil loop to grind levels but we did get lots of lore drops. Also the witch ended up being a rather cute wifu.
Player 0.4 : The fan theory about his mom was correct. Should be interesting.
Apocalypse Reborn : New volume started ok. Loved the TFTD references in the previous volume.

DCC book 8 mini review : Like the previous 2 books this one also has some pacing issues. The first part of the book is very on-rails but the action sequences are the best we've had yet. In typical DCC fashion the later part of the book is an awesome rollercoaster and the ending was once again a surprise (and a funny one at that). 7/10 , I would put it third place in DCC books , below Butcher's Mascurade and Iron Tangle.

>>25095847
Living the life of a LN protagonist. Were your clan members cute girls too?

>chapters where nothing really happens
>lots of excited comments and speculation
>chapters where the plot intensifies
>complete silence
What explains this phenomenon?

>>25095855
For me it's "s/he raised an eyebrow." There are so many ways to show incredulity, doubt, or mild shock, and this is the most trite way to do it. Every conversation by every writer has characters raising their eyebrows over and over, never ever lowering them. Just lifting up, up, up to the stratosphere.

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280 followers.
This ad is GOAT.

>>25095901
shrugging too

>>25095908
Wow! 280 new followers from one ad? That's incredible!

>character smiles
>character uses eyes
why, I would NEVER

Is there anything actually worth reading on scribblehub? I was reading posters saying scribblehub>ao3 but at least I had a few works I really liked on ao3. Genuinely curious if theres any sort of good shit, because i cant seem to find it.

>>25095644
>>25095650
>>25095651
>>25095666
>you have to le prostrate yourself before readerfags!!!!
Cucked. Readcattle get what they deserve.

>>25095901
I use little things to make the occasional "who's talking" tag. After lifting an eyebrow, maybe the next most used is they sigh a lot, lol.

>>25095908
How long has the ad been running and what were you at before?

>>25095930
Cheeky fucker, you made me laugh

>>25095855
guilty. I have two MCs that both share the need to make masks in public. Both have a wry grin as the go to face, lest the blank eyes and face scare regular people. The one though, knows he can frighten people with his real face. When he "drops his face" and smiles its described as a "grinning death mask". Or "Death smiling at you" (I have a million of these for him, stock in trade for a pulp author)

>>25095687
good one. LMAO. lol, even.

>>25096048
He had around 270 followers before, so the ad campaign brought him whopping 10 new readers. Well worth sending money to israel

>>25095910
I have a problem with this and having characters sigh too much

>>25096059
>>25096048
Wrong, I was at 264, and it's running for 2 week by now.

>>25096077
I assumed these ad campaigns entered burnout as fast as a few days in because the way they count impressions as being merely loading the .png rather than someone clicking it. Did you pay for the priciest tier to have them standing up this long or are there that many people using Adblock on RR.

>>25096094
Cheapest one. 350k impressions for 50$ dollars.

>>25096077
So 8 per week after the story is already finished? Not too bad considering. How many ad runs have you done total? I'm hesitant to start another of my own right now but would like to know the stats of other anons.

>>25096193
3 with this. It’s fucking vital if you don’t have a previous story.
I jumped from 10 to 100 with my first ad, then from 100 to 200 with my second.
After that I just grew on inertia, a mistake I’ve been paying for ever since because once the story was finished, the growth halved.

>>25096193
iirc he has only done one so far. Imo it's only worth if you have a big stack of chapters so there is actual reader retention

>>25095938
>I was reading posters saying scribblehub>ao3
they were talking about a specific instance of litrpg smut
ao3 is a thousand times larger than scribblehub (no, literally, maybe more) so of course there's more good stuff there. SH is just hyper niche and thus easy to find an audience if you write in that niche

some decent stories crosspost to SH but there's almost nothing good there that's unique to the site

>>25096203
I see, it's similar to my own experience, but my latest run didn't do too great, only netting about 50 followers. I figured I would let it coast for a while to see how natural growth goes, but I've remained fairly stagnant for a week now.

>>25095767
That post doesn't say anything about money. Only about "making it"
If you actually were based and only cared about expressing yourself (and not getting readers) you wouldn't be making these posts.
Reread >>25095726
>Get over yourself and accept this as a creative endeavor, or swallow your pride and make something more wide reaching. The pretentious, whiny little bitch market is oversaturated.

>>25096094
>or are there that many people using Adblock on RR.
Lots of people turn off adblock for RR
There just aren't that many people there. It's a very small site. It doesn't even have a wikipedia page.
It's normal for the smallest ad package to last more than a month, especially because so many people are buying ads (essentially every story doing well or hoping to hit RS) and the audience is so small.

>>25096203
>It’s fucking vital if you don’t have a previous story.
My first story was 1/3 the length of F-turd, has 3x the followers, and I didn't buy a single fucking ad

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>>25096208
I reckon SH has a more organic community due to the lack of inbuilt metrics, advertising and cross-site partnerships that makes the space discouraging for bottom sloppers compared to the easily marketable RR. SH forums are also 4chan lite so you'll often see people with acid takes on things and others shittalking drama about outer platforms

>>25096241
Your story doesn't exist and you're jealous of me.
Cope.

>>25096243
Unfortunately, the site has no users and you get no readers if you don't write porn

>>25096241
anon probably meant vital for higher levels of success. 3x the followers of F-turd is still not particularly good
if you'd properly launched and ran ads and gotten onto RS you probably would've done pretty decent, seeing how you got to like 700 organically.

>>25096248
I'm trying very hard to come up one enviable thing about you, but simply can't

F-anon got to Rising Stars (Satire list) and most of you didn't.

>>25096252
No, anon didn't mean that. And the story stopped growing when I axed it, not because I didn't buy ads

>>25092932
LitSurvivalCrafting
The MC is a space trucker who crash-lands on a Frazetta-esque fantasy planet. Luckily, his cargo contains a synthesizer capable of crafting almost anything, though he lacks the raw materials to actually use the damn thing. He heads out to explore. Immediately, he runs into local wildlife intent on killing him. When he finally slays a beast, he discovers that its corpse contains the specific resources he needs. This kicks off his core survival loop: explore, mine minerals, hunt aliens, and craft better gear. His ultimate goal is to build a spaceship and get off this alien rock.
Along the way, he encounters the natives, gaining a few allies and a ton of enemies. He gets entangled in one evil scheme after another, typically due to scantily clad damsels in distress.
The story arcs follow a simple formula. First, the MC requires a rare material to build a specific upgrade, so he travels to the region where it is rumored to exist. He quickly finds trouble and enters fight-or-flight mode. After meeting a damsel and uncovering a villain’s plot, things go south. He usually gets beaten up and captured. He has to escape a deathtrap or dungeon, craft a new weapon, rescue the girl, and fight the boss. Finally, he kills the villain, takes the loot, kisses the girl, and walks off into the sunset.
Sometimes, the villains come from the stars. These threats include space pirates, corrupted marshals, and space wizards with god complexes. Forced to fight to protect his newfound friends, the MC watches his dream of building an escape ship slip further and further away.
Eventually, however, he gains a spaceship just as the planet’s core’s about to explode. He and his allies haul ass out of orbit, watching their old home crumble into space dust. Older and wiser, the MC stands with his native wife and several children by his side. He decides that, y’know, returning to space trucking might not be the best career move. Instead, they set out to find a new planet to call home.
The End.

>>25096258
I think you're very limited on growth if you never hit RS. the systems just don't exist to facilitate people finding your story if you don't already have lots of followers and/or a high rating. I would recommend everyone to aim for launching right, and in that case, ads are vital

>>25096256
I'm still there, also mystery one.
>>25096241
The cover and the title. Mine ain't for the masses.

>>25096223
The quality of the ad matters.

>>25096281
>I'm still there, also mystery one.
How did you write a story so good it stays on Rising Stars for more than 6 months? Bad stories like MLA only manage 30 days

>>25096316
If a list only has a tiny sample size to pick from, it's easy to stay in the top 10 when only 9 books have that tag, for example >>25096256

>>25096316
Some genres are emptier than others when it comes to daily uploads

>>25096316
Stop chasing cheap readers.
My readers are few but consistent. Other stories probably suffer from a huge influx followed by a sudden fall.
For example, out of my 38k views, only 4k are from Chapter One, which means there are at least 100 people who have read 300k of my words.

Inshallah royalroad servers are shutting down starting rext week, our Mujahideen fighters shall rain missiles upon the accursed litslopper and its financiers to free this world from its milking claws.

>>25096338
A 100 bots and AI scrapers you mean. That low a number can just be ignored since almost all will not be human.

>>25096256
I did.

>>25096278
No. Every story I've uploaded has been on RS and I haven't bought any ads. Just don't write complete dogshit and post regularly, that's all it takes. That kinoman struggles to reach 300 followers despite multiple ad campaigns isn't a sign of it being hard but that his work really is an off-putting garbage fire

>>25096413
Fake demoralizer.

>>25096472
FFF had to use ads because his story was visibly off-meta, like there are wns with worse prose that got more popular because they dealt with easier slapstick themes instead of distilling a big autism universe worth of lore, so you gotta pay the pachinko machine for ssr readers who synergize with that kind of autistm rather than relying on natural discovery through the median reach

>>25095666
What would Spectral Soul do?

>>25095666
Simpsons memes are so fucking shit.

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>>25096548

>>25096472
On Rising Stars main? How long did it take you to reach it? How did you pick up ~250 followers in 4 weeks with no ads?

>>25096577
About a month. By posting a story readers liked with regular updates.

Is the first volume of LOTM worth it?

>>25096500
What's fake about it? It's true for every single website on the internet. In fact RR would have more but it's a niche site.

>>25096505
>visibly off-meta
Lmao, whatever. Stick your head in the sand. Keep blaming trends and everybody else. You're mentally ill, that's it

>>25096593
Super Supportive posted regularly and didn't hit RS until months later (after hitting Best Rated and having a second surge). Now it has 33,000 followers.
You're being a little dismissive about the reality of the situation. It's not just writing something good and posting regularly

>>25096606
>Story gets huge by being good and posting regularly
>It's not just writing something good and posting regularly
HMM BIG THINKS

>>25096640
SS had best-ever performance and still failed to hit RS. If it wasn't literally one of the best stories to ever hit RR it never would've afterward, but it somehow did many months later because of how highly rated it was.
Smaller stories with a tenth of the success (what anons can only hope to write) but nevertheless still have plenty of potential to take off never would've. Hence: Buy ads. You aren't SS.
Also, stop typing like an annoying faggot

>>25096606
Just because you can't do it doesn't mean we can't, man. Get a grip.

>>25096676
>Get a grip.
Everything I said is very sensible and grounded in reality
People in this thread always swing between extremes.
Yes, you need to write a story people want to read and release regularly. No, you can't expect to succeed just by doing that. In the vast majority of cases you need to run ads or get shout outs. Even SS couldn't organically hit RS, and 33000 followers later we can see that it clearly had legs to run.

>>25096683
>you NEED TO pay the kikes
Jesus, will you give it a rest? The majority don't and somehow still get on the list or find an audience and make money even without getting on the fucking list

>>25096727
I said ads or shout outs. Works on your reading comprehension. I personally find shout outs way gayer so ads are my default.
And no, most of the successes do hit RS and do use one of those strategies.
What agenda are you pushing where you feel the need to lie so insistently?

>>25096736
Odds are anon's running an ad campaign and doesn't want any extra authors slowing his impression rates for Q1 by submitting another ad in line

>>25096041
Yeah. That's a good idea. It's also a good idea to have your character do something more unique. Consider an actor. When talking they may do something with their hands, or shake their head, or shrug, or give a look like "the fuck do you want me to do?" All of these are nore powerful than "he raised an eyebrow."

the only way to read re:trailer trash past like chapter 30 is by skipping like 10 paragraphs every time you can sense some superfluous internal monologue about to happen

>>25096928
At some point it became a comedy for me from how much shit is stuffed into every single day of "real time".

>>25092906
So let's say I use a book about novel structure (story engineering, save the cat writes a novel, snowflake method, etc). Will it help me to do webnovel slop? Should I just add chapters and bloat my novel?

>>25096606
Newfags can only post through dismissive platitudes (i.e., "just write a "good" story!"). Ignore them, like their parents did.

>>25096816
to me, its basically this. The better you are, the more diverse things you have to accomplish the same goal. which here, is just tagging the speaker. If anything gets repetitive, its my job claiming to have any author's ability to find different ways of doing the same thing to keep it from being less monotonous. My vocabulary gets a workout when I see a word getting repeated. I also have my own bad first drafting writing habits to watch out for. The more of them I can cure while first drafting, the more time I have to spend on other stuff during proof and editing reading passes. I guess its like anything else. The more you do it, the more used to it you become and the more you get into your own groove and rules of thumb.

>>25096942
my take on it, is not to deliberately bloat. Write a normal length novel. IE, 80k words or up to around 100k words. make it self standing. that is to say a beginning, a middle, and end and everything a normal paperback would have. Then you make a second paperback in your series, the same way with that plot and story. Why do "sprawl" (over writing, meandering, meaningless characters and side plots that go nowhere, over detailed, etc) when you can write several tight well paced novels in a row. You get the same number of releases for WNing it, and you're set up for KU publishing if you end up there. Example. You can't KU a 1 million word meandering over-written, sprawled mess. But you c-a-n KU ten 100k logically created arcs. What is the classic example here. Think "the Executioner" (Mack Bolan) series. Plus its better writing as well. This is what editors always did for writers, we don't get editors. we have to learn to do this for ourselves.

>post new chapters
>lose followers
>stop posting
>gain followers
I'm killing myself TODAY

>>25097038
you might have a slow-burn on your hands. go back to posting.

>>25097018
>>25097031
What are you on about? I am not reading those walls of text, just write a goodstory!

>>25092932
I am kinda surprised more web novels don't use a more episodic format or mini-arcs that work as stand alone stories.

>>25092932
I'd like to follow the Japanese structure in plotting, which is to have 4 chapters per book, and each chapter is composed of four acts, each numbering around 2K words.
Each act corresponds to kishotenketsu on the microlevel, while every chapter corresponds to kishotenketsu on the macro level.
This means every 3rd act will have a twist, and the largest of them will be in 3rd chapter.

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https://nathankyoung.substack.com/p/a-half-breed

A series of 35 entries
a story, a diary, and a letter to my mother

>>25097199
>4 chapters per book
>each chapter is 4 acts, a total of 16
>each act is around 2k words, a total of 32k
buddy that isn't even a novella

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>>25097203
But it is

>>25097206
huh for some reason i thought 40k was the novella boundary
either way it's way too short

>>25097223
It works for japs because they just slap some anime girls on the cover and sell that 30k word book.

>>25097202
>A series of 35 entries
>a story, a diary, and a letter to my mother
Oh looks interes-
>furry shit
Pass

>>25097176
>What are you on about? I am not reading those walls of text, just write a goodstory!
How about you both don't read it and don't post about what you get filtered by. You're obviously either a reader only anon, or a writer with no craft. The posts me and the other anon were talking in were discussing how to make a "goodstory" as you so eloquently made your own portmanteau word up to describe it. Now just for (you):
>TL;DR the adults were talking

>>25097199
That sounds tedious and just retarded. I get now why japanese literally have no literature.

>>25097192
>I am kinda surprised more web novels don't use a more episodic format or mini-arcs that work as stand alone stories.
the standard thing is, the most common beginning writer problem is not being able to write enough words. Then the second most common problem, is over writing. Lack of focus and pace go with over writing. You obviously agree with me. Why write one over-written meandering 1 million word WN when you could just as easily have written 10 100k arcs in a row. I believe the reason its so prevalent, is because you get to release more 1.5k to 3k chapters which is where exposure gets you more views and readers and engagement. But a million words is a million words. So why not do ten 100k self contained arcs instead, It makes more sense.

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>>25092906
So I wrote this book or short text about Spirituality or basically my perception of what it is back in like 2023. Self-published it as an eBook on Amazon kindle and it's now showing up on goodreeds under another author with the same exact name. But what's odd is it has my description of the book on top of his bio. And his bio WEIRDLY is EXACTLY LIKE MINE. HE LIKES ALL THE SAME SHIT I DO. And this a real person with a twitter account and other published books. I've never even had a goodreads account.

I'm about to upload it on the anarchist library and just make it a free, readable, downloadable text like it should've been and honestly like I wanted it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181093111-the-teachings-of-x

>>25097266
Every time you end an arc you give readers an opportunity to stop reading and forget to come back.
ALWAYS
BE
CLIFFING

>>25097281
HOW DID THEY KNOW I LOVE THE SMITHS LMFAOOO EVEN I FORGOT THAT

>>25097281
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C9D4HJ29/ref=x_gr_bb_kindle?caller=Goodreads&tag=x_gr_bb_kindle-20

>>25097281
Yeah this happens all the time on that dogshit website, they just automatically put authors with the same name together.

>>25097266
The fact that you managed to misuse commas four separate times in a single paragraph makes me doubt any writing opinions you have.

>>25097202
One of the better short stories I've read lately. The passages are either very cute or very sad, Awawawa perfectly encapsulates that Promising character prose. Very impressive.

>>25097281
That's an alternate you're dealing with bro. Your alternate. I would run and hide if I were you, but that'll do little at this point.

>>25097265
well this is the same culture that has the Haiku. An explicit number of words per line, so many lines of so many words, only. The almost autistic structure of some things, is a feature of their culture. Look at tea ceremony, Haiku, other things. Viewed in that light, that they should have a formal definition of a short novel structure makes perfect sense.

>>25097315
>The fact that you managed to misuse commas four separate times in a single paragraph makes me doubt any writing opinions you have.
Ah. The old 4 chins gotcha. I see you made some tiny grammar mistake(s). Now whatever I say is more correct. Never change, four chins. Never change. Of course a less autistic person might think to themselves. Gee. A person might be typing informally and not editing. Whereupon the content is what matters. Seems you have encountered quite the quandary, anon.

>>25097281
couldn't it be plagarized (sp)

>>25097284
>Every time you end an arc you give readers an opportunity to stop reading and forget to come back.
>ALWAYS
>BE
>CLIFFING
well. you ideally end every chap with a cliff. Couldn't the arc still end, though with some big question/cliff to get them into the next arc.

>>25097342
English tea time rituals, french full course meals, sonnet rules, American tipping, etc.
You're mistaking a foreign culture's arbitrary cultural quirks as unique in the world, blind to all other culture's weird quirks.

>>25097363
Yes, that's how you'd want to do it, but then you're blurring the lines between arcs and you need to lay the groundwork for new arcs ahead of time and at that point you're just slopping webnovel chapters where the "offical" plot thread moves at a glacial pace but the author is dropping tons of worldbuilding and setup for later.

At the "10%" mark of a webserial, regular slopping and layering arcs like that are basically identical and the story can only really be judged based on how compelling the premise is and the technical execution on a chapter level.

>>25097350
I can excuse a mistake or two. Four is indefensible. And it's one thing if the grammar is unrelated to the content, but your post was about writing.

>>25097281
Posts like this prove half the anons here are just /wg/ and other general residents hanging out here because their own threads are dead..

Every time a commenter appears with some especially retarded opinions, he has a cartoon fox avatar. Every time. Is there some idiot furfag discord out there that frequents RR, or does having low IQ just naturally lead to an unhealthy fascination with animals?

>>25097256
This is a webnovel thread. If you want to talk about writing try asking /wg/

Almost finished with The Grandmaster Strategist. Gotta say the second part has been a bit of a slog compared to the first.

>>25097689
The first is peak chink kino. The 2nd spent way too long on side characters with barely any protagonist appearance

>make extensive edits to a chapter draft on phone
>someone calls me
>return to chapter after
>page has refreshed
>lost all changes
Don't make the same mistake, anon...

>>25097031
Thanks, I guess I will write at least two or three novels before publishing the chapters in a web novel format.

>>25097673
>"this thread is about writing x"
>"if you want to talk about writing do it somewhere else"

Come one, man. Don't be an illiterate chud.

>>25097256
Like I said, thanks for the advice, and yes I don't read too much.

>>25097673
Lol no you don't. Those idiots don't write. And if they do, the comments are unhelpful

>>25097839
This thread is about reading webnovels.

>>25097856
But only one sperg here reads web novels

>>25097865
NTA, I read lots of them. I just never post about them here unless someone asks for specific recommendations.

>>25097877
>NTA
You ARE that anon

>>25097886
You lie, there are at least two of us!

>>25097673
>This is a webnovel thread.
try reading the OP image much? All things webnovel. This includes writing the damn things, anon.
>If you want to talk about writing try asking /wg/
this general exists specifically because of the character and nature of that general. Which is crab shit. I don't care w-h-a-t you;re writing. You can get beginner to advanced writing tips h-e-r-e without all the bullshit. Yes plenty of shit here but still less than at /wg/ which is basically a crab infested tidal pool.

Toxic positivity niggers whose response to anything even remotely critical is:
>crabsinabucket crabs crabsinabucket haveyoueverheardofcrabs
I thought they quarantined you in /ic/ or discord or something. You don't belong here. Fuck off.

>>25097960
back to /wg/ you go

>>25097406
I'm not engaging you. I don't care how many grammar mistakes you identified. I'm not editing and proofing my informal thread replies, you autistic fuck. You can think of my posts as rough drafts or you can unironically go fuck off back to whatever rock you crawled out from under. You will henceforth be ignored. And when in the future I say comma-fag, you will know I am making fun of (you). Now have a nice day.

>>25097961
I'm here to talk about slop. Not indulge your amateurism.

>>25097380
>and at that point you're just slopping webnovel chapters where the "offical" plot thread moves at a glacial pace but the author is dropping tons of worldbuilding and setup for later.
you are projecting that onto me and putting words in my mouth. And using what you project to deconstruct my basic idea which was sound. "Tons of worldbuilding", you say. When in fact I explicitly said tight and well paced. Dumping gobs of lore in piles is antithetical to that. Dumping is a writing shortcoming. The info dumped needs to be found/absorbed/discovered by being distributed across other things.

>>25097960
>Toxic positivity niggers whose response to anything even remotely critical is:
>>crabsinabucket crabs crabsinabucket haveyoueverheardofcrabs
>I thought they quarantined you in /ic/ or discord or something. You don't belong here. Fuck off.
will you go to /h/ and find something sick to beat off to already. You're annoying.

>>25097877
Recs, now, you favorites in the last week.
Mine: Accidental War Mage, Son of the Dragon, Balthazar Blake
Whoever put regressor instruction manual as their best korean work should be beaten badly.
Read Sky Pride as well but it just kinda canters off, some actually good cultivatorshit would be nice.Liren a shit.

>>25097856
And why there are wiki at the beginning about writing webslop?

>>25097974
>you are projecting that onto me and putting words in my mouth.
Oh boy, the ESL with the broken translator is back. No, that's not what "you" means in that context. Try reading and writing in your own language rather than trying to pollute mine with your autistic misunderstandings and hallucinations.

>>25097995
1% lifesteal uploaded a chapter but only because of a prior shoutout obligation (I guess these things are negotiated months in advance, but it's an amazon link so probably not RR meta). Regular chapters should resume in a month or two as he's building up patreon backlog first.

The rest of my follow list has been dead the last couple weeks. It feels like nobody's uploading right now. I'm almost in the mood to go back and finish Dungeon Diver and Journey to Verasavir and a few other stories I bookmarked months ago.

>>25098020
>1% lifesteal uploaded a chapter
Dang I just saw that and thought he was back.
It doesn't have to be a recent update, just something youve read recently.

>>25098023
I've been catching up on Just Add Mana, Magpie and the Archpage (Magpie Girl Evolution), and Taste of Magic.

JAM finished book 2 and it was pretty good, wrapping up a long standing plotline and giving a lot of info about the world and Cale, the MC. Just a lot of emotional gut punches along the way.
Magpie and Taste I realize now the author's grammar isn't as good as I remember, or they stopped proofreading as much, but the stories are chugging along. The Magpie found a reincarnator friend which adds a bit to the story which had very few characters before, and in Taste the conflict with the Church is escalating now that the romance side of things has mostly resolved (the commoner baker secretly former archmage is in fact going to marry the chad Duke's son, he's planning the proposal and wedding).

Ratings:
JAM 9/10
Magpie 7/10 (might improve depending how the story progresses from where it's at today)
Taste 8/10

>>25097995
>regressor instruction manual
I as told that this is stealth yaoi shit

>>25098045
Its just empty beyond belief, like the outline of a story rather than a story.
The party engages in a life or death struggle with monsters in a dungeon. You are given no description of what the dungeon looks like, what the monsters even resemble, what they are eating despite it being mentioned as an issue, etc.
Its like if someone wrote a story but then everything but dialogue and simplistic internal thoughts was left out. Genuinely confusing how people enjoy this.

>>25098049
Anon you haven't even got out of the prologue. It's a misunderstanding comedy along the lines of overlord and to be a power in the shadow

>>25098061
nta but misunderstand-slop is the worst shit that comes out of KR an JP

>>25098061
Both of those works actually bothered to describe scenes though. I was about 60 chapters in before I just stopped reading. I don't know when its supposed to get funny but having like 5 chapters where he 'reveals' homeless people as assholes is mostly just sad. The only thing I was mildly interested in was hayan but if everything else is a void that the author expects me to fill the blanks then thats kinda shit for a novel.

>>25097995
The most fun webnovel I've read in the last fews week is 'A Young Girl's War Between the Stars'. It's a Youjo Senki (Tanya the Evil) fan-fic set in the Star Wars universe and it's amazingly faithful to both series lore and honestly better written than any of the more standard webnovels I've recently attempted.

I understand what you mean about Sky Pride, but then it's not trying to be your normal cultivator story or have the usual path of progression, and that's what I like about it. I haven't come across any other good cultivatorshit in a long time and I've given up looking for new series, so I can't give any recs for that genre.

>>25093365
I'm STARVING for good time-loop stories. I fully blame MoL for blowing my expectation for such stories to sky-high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oykg2y1KHGg

>>25098136
Infinite regressor kind of ? It's not traditional time loop stories though

>>25098136
Try the cdrama mini-series Reset, that's excellent.

Best ongoing time-loop story is The Years of Apocalypse.

>>25098144
>fem mc
-1 point, but I will read it nonetheless.
The bit about dreaming Elder gods in the synopsis got me in stitches, though.
Why would anyone include that? It doesn't mean anything. Just say she has nightmares.

>>25098148
> Why would anyone include that?
Because without major spoilers it eventually becomes a major plot point. The story starts out much like MoL but then it radically shifts at a certain point once you fully understand the title.

>>25098150
That's a good reason.

>>25098136
I've got a timeloop story, of sorts. Ten Thousand Tragedies over on RR.

>>25098182
>slave protagonist
Good stuff.
>xianxia
>24 hours reset from its death
That's different from what I was expecting, but I will read it.

>>25097995
The Novel's Extra has a pretty fun manhwa, so the source material might be the same. Note, I haven't read the original yet, so I can't vouch for it 100%.

>>25098200
>Novel's Extra
It become shit after it left the academy.

>>25098210
I liked it, and was pleasantly surprised that the author didn't take the easy way out for multiple big moments. The real decline was the tower shit, which felt like a reset so they could write a totally different story with the same characters.

>>25098020
>>you are projecting that onto me and putting words in my mouth.
>Oh boy, the ESL with the broken translator is back. No, that's not what "you" means in that context. Try reading and writing in your own language rather than trying to pollute mine with your autistic misunderstandings and hallucinations.
there you go again. guessing incorrectly. when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me. And that's idiom, anon. Which is utter proof that I'm no ESL translation. Or udder proof, if you're into cow girls.

Bros, what are gu?

>>25098252
>Bros, what are gu?
its a sort of monster in xianxia novels, i think its like a magical parasite/symbiote creature. There's very wide variety of them and it would vary from story to story.

>>25098271
>vary from story to story.
Gu as pokemon was specific to RI and doesn't have anything to do with Xianxia or Chinese culture in general.
Any story with Gu is either intentionally or unintentionally a RI fanfic.

>>25098282
Could you tell us more about Gu? Including outside of Reverend Insanity (or its derived stories)?

>>25098282
Gu are part of chinese culture and xianxia, I have read several xianxia webnovels that had gu sidestories. Renegade Immortal had gu.

Why does that question always get responses?

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>>25098252

>>25098294
Gu as black magic is a folklore thing
Gu as pokemon is derived from RI

>>25098303
Is coffee good for you?

Quick head's up from one of the endless discords I'm in. It's a direct quote so don't shit on me for the wording of this thing.

>Amazon has decided to alter the deal on the audio front. Let us pray they do not alter it further.

>Credits were selling for about $7-9, but Amazon was paying us (Being Royal Guard, and by extension, Mango Media and all of you) around $11-12 per credit. That math wasn't mathing, and Amazon's recently gotten ahold of nearly everyone on that deal and told them 'tough luck, you're getting paid less now'. (...)

>This is going to have a modest ripple effect.

>First: Payments are going to be down about 40%. If you were getting $10k before, you're going to get $6k now.
Second: Clearing the initial investment is going to take longer. Using the above example, if before you were going to get $20k - $5k expenses = $15k, now it'll be $12k-5k = $7k. This is only for initial paybacks, but ouch, it hurts.

>Second: Less immediately obvious to all of you, Royal Guard has said they're going to be more selective with what stories they take. Most of you already have an agreement with them (through us) and are entirely uneffected. One or two of you might get hit by this - we'll talk more.

>Third: We support all of you, and believe in you. Practically, this means we're willing to take on your new stories, even unproven. However, with point 2, we might not be able to automatically take on Audio. We only take rights on stories we can immediately use. If RG is taking a 'wait and see' approach to audio, then we're less likely to grab them. No right squatting from us!

>>25098424
>be lazy and incompetent
>rely on others to do "the simple stuff" for you
>get fucked in the ass without lube
Surprised: none

>>25098424
After reading this three times (fuck you for the lack of context) I can surmise its a publishing agency who said audiobooks are getting lower cuts because amazon policies. Not immediate relevant to us since we work mainly in the written form, but it can mean Bezos is trimming the fat, since the overtly generou$ adoption period is ending and most authors are now stuck in there, so the jig may soon be up for our fellow kindle authors who boast about infinite money hacks.

>>25098484
Audiobooks are apparently actually a pretty good chunk of money for online publishing, though.

>>25098484
Patreonchads remain in their lane, moisturized and unbothered
>Bezos
hasn't been directly involved with Amazon for years

Nobody cares about audio books.

>>25098538
unfortunately audiobooks make up almost half of all royalties for an author who has an audiobook
that is to say if "Thundercock Chronicles" is both on Kindle Unlimited and Audible, half of his royalties can be just Audible. readercattle love to not read.

>>25098538
since webnovels are often times put into audio book form, they are part of the "everything web novel" for this thread. Once again "I don't care about X" is (incorrectly) stated as "no one cares about X". Actually, for a modest fee I have seen sites where you can cut and paste text and you can preview a zillion voices to read the novel. So an enterprising anon could make their own half decent audio book and put it on YT or drop a link on their web page for people to enjoy it.

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>be me
>offer "fellow author" to check out my story
>he agrees
>now i have a retarded nitpicking faggot in my comments that i can't call a retarded nitpicking faggot to maintain good relations

>>25098568
He is nitpickick because the story is bad. Just write a goodstory.

>>25098148
"Haunted by strange dreams of elder gods" sounds more metal.

>>25098568
You invited someone else within the craft to see it. They're almost always going to scrutinize more than a casual reader.

>>25098568
Never accept editorial comments from non-editors. You will wreck your life.

>>25098568
He probably expects you to follow his every advice from now on, while cultivating some weird pupil-professor parasocial relationship and simultaneously flexing in your comment section to appear important than he is.

Nuff said, I hate inconvenient people who don't know how to self-moderate, that's the first thing you should screen for before poking a rando for any vague proposals of partnership. The only way this tone-deaf understands is if you pay in kind by being equally as annoying. At some point the "it's just your opinion" ignore card will be pullable and that's how you get away from them

Are there any xianxia stories that focus on puppets or puppet sects?

Like the wooden/paper/whatever puppets that look like people and cultivators use from far away (like a drone in a sense).

>>25098662
There is that new Gu Zhen Rens novel about puppets, I didn't like it though, it's nothing like RI (I think RI is his magnum opus, anything else he writes is destined to always be subpar).

>>25092906
novelnext/dramanovels doesnt load for me anymore. is that site dead? its where i did most of my reading

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>>25098662
there's Mysteries of the Immortal Puppetmaster, as >>25098676 said
there's also mine, picrel

>>25098560
Personally I wouldn't use an AI voice because I don't think they're good enough. I'm super spoiled from getting autistic about the VA industry and Japan's general VA quality.
Either I'd want the best of the best western VA AND direction, or I wouldn't want it done. I could also do it myself but I hate the sound of my own voice so I'd want some kind of voice changer.

I haven't looked into audible's terms but I've heard (mainly from Sanderson discussion) that they're bad. So I probably would avoid amazon for distribution and just put them on every other site instead.

Take all this opinionating with a grain of salt I'm a poor faggot who can't get even get covers right.

>>25098568
Don'tt sweat it I got one without even inviting him.
On RR you can hide particular user's comments from yourself, if it's really bothering you. I just stopped responding to my personal retard and the longer I go without responding the easier it is to take him less seriously.

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do any of you write your first draft on paper? What benefits do you find it has?

i would sacrifice /sffg/ and /wng/ and the entirety of outer /lit/ for a healthy book discussion platform for all of our descendants

>>25098933
>i would sacrifice completely worthless shit for something valuable
Not how it works bud, you need to give at the very least the equivalent of a foreskin to get something good

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>>25098984
i do believe it would cost more than the price of a foreskin

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>author prefers romantic interest B while readers prefer romantic interest A
I feel I may enter this danger zone soon enough. I've seen this happen so many times. It was inevitable, and postponing the confirmation only made things worse. Pray for my ratings.

>>25099060
This is why you only have one romantic interest or do a harem, don't have a "loser"

>>25099060
Go all in. Don't just have one be the loser, cuck her to death and dab over everyone. Make sure to do this at the very end after you've gotten every last dollar out of your paypigs. Then drop your pseudonym and leave it behind you, getting a chuckle every time it pops into your head.

>>25098988
Hahaha. What the fuck. You can buy an entire human for that price. What a ridiculous markup.

>>25099060
Do what the harem authors do. Just keep the protag on a 5 way teeter-totter of "maaaybe this girl will win! Maaaaaybe that girl will win!" forever.

>>25099121
No one does that anymore, modern MCs fuck them all.

>>25099135
And "harem" has become an instant drop point for most readers for a good reason. Though normal romance isn't much better

rate my main love interest
- Long white hair, pale skin, abnormally symmetrical (typical cultivator-pretty), visibly muscular, black bodysuit
- Prototype bodyhorror-type body cultivator, but you can't tell until she does turns her arm into a bladed whip (this is not normal, most body cultivators show permanent mutations based on method and have to turn into full body battle forms)
- By default an aloof, haughty, and unstressed. you can't tell that she's a bitch by looking at her
- Cold bitch to almost everyone EXCEPT for MC, she finds him cute. If you say something she doesn't like, her first response, with zero hesitation, is to tell you to kill yourself. Not "cartwheel in traffic" or any roundabout way, just "kill yourself."
- Very fucking racist, and very well educated. She can look at you, accurately guess your specific sub-ethnicity, and know what slur to call you. Also very fucking culturally chauvinist. She looks down on all body cultivators with beliefs or customs that don’t line up with or god forbid contravene those of her own sect. These are some of the main reasons she is such a cold bitch to almost everyone, but she’s not exactly nice even to others of her own sect.
- always one small cultivation stage ahead of mc
- purely monogamous and comes onto him very clearly with no will they won't they

>>25098773
Just block uninvited retards. Why are you letting them shit on your lawn for free?

Thankfully, the internal logic of my story is flawless and whenever one of these cocky fuckers shows up to ramble about logic and credibility to me, I point out lines in the story that the retards missed and which utterly demolish their argument, and they usually keep their fucking mouth shut after that.

>>25099164
>Cold bitch to almost everyone EXCEPT for MC,
cringe

>>25099160
Agreed. You can tell the authors grew up watching the tame harem animes, decided they'd write wish fulfilment and have their mcs not be pussies, but rather than romancing all the characters and dealing with all that emotional mess, it's more a case of Pokémon - gotta catch 'em all.

>>25099169
really? that's one of the choices i made based on asking in-thread a while ago. it's grown on me since then, i think readers will like it.

>>25099172
If you build up to it I think it's fine, but having her immediately fall in love and be a shy blushing maiden seems out of character to me

>>25099172
Sounds okay to me, it's a common-ish trope that people don't hate.

>>25099175
Oh, yeah no I don't intend to do that. The way I picture the early scenes is her telling someone random to kill himself and then turning around and just not being mean to MC. That's it, she just isn't actively mean to him, but the contrast will make it obvious.

>>25099179
>then turning around and just not being mean to MC
Well, why?

>>25098596
you be make better english. goodstory no real word.

>>25099192
she thinks he's cute
that's it
i could come up with a specific reason, maybe he smells good as a sign of his superior extra-stable genome, but i think it's better if there's no specific quantifiable reason

Please shut the hell up, retard

>>25098771
I hear you anon. hey, we do what we can do. I'm no cover champ but I did improve some. I have zero experience with AI voicing but I did get bored and click a few links one night. One or two voices sounded decent at this one site. Like doing your own covers and titling is never going to be like having a professional, I figure a voiced novel would go the same. I might try it one day if I get bored enough. But with writing and editing and trying to make covers, its hard to be bored. Hey it keeps me out of the bars.

>>25099198
You should probably come up with a specific reason, "he's kind" is a meme in the anime community for a reason. Maybe just have him aura farm in front of her or something and he looks cool and competent unlike most people she deals with.

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>>25092906

Rate my secondary love interest with no chance to win:

>She is an Elf-GF.
>The richest woman in the entire world.
>Doll-like features, with porcelain skin and amethyst eyes that almost seem unreal.
>Her hair color is never stable. It shifts from yellow, orange, and red, meaning every day it feels like she has a different look.
>She can burn you alive with a snap of her finger, or keep you warm under the sheets.
>Heir to a Valkyrie, blessed with seemingly infinite stamina on the battlefield…and elsewhere.
>Once she takes a vow, she remains loyal till the bitter end.

>>25099210
time really is a flat circle

They call me 007
0 new chapters
0 words written
7 breaks notice

How long should action sequences be? I find that written form is not great for action, so they should be brief.

>>25099267
what a retarded question

>>25099267
I saw a review for a story on RR say it had a fight scene go on for over 60 chapters. I didn't read the story but maybe not that long. Even sloppers seem to start complaining then

>>25099290
I'm thinking max 200 words

>>25099267
Honestly, the shorter the better. Especially the less experience a writer has. Some of the best fights I've ever read are just descriptions of people dying. No blocks or parries. Just people losing heads and arms and horses getting horribly maimed. Some of the wost fights I've read? Block. Block. Block. Block. Dodge. Block. Dodge. Block. Block. Run. Block. Run. Dodge. Block. But with horrible run on sentences.

>>25099087
That sounds evil and hot

>>25099221
What do you mean?

>>25099267
You should never write any scene unless it's for a purpose, and when that purpose is satisfied then the scene should end. That also applies to fight scenes.

>>25099164
Physical description fits your setting well. Aloof and haughty sounds good to me but the part about her explicitly telling people to off themselves and using slurs could get grating after a while unless you feel very confident in your ability to write that. You could turn it into a character arc where MC helps her chill the fuck out over time though. I'm assuming that Mc's cultivation path is on her short list of acceptable paths or else the romance wouldn't make sense with how she is. If your going to have her always one step ahead, then I'd expect some point in the story where MC finally breaks ahead of her and she gets pissed off about it which could be a fun scene/mini arc. Pure monogamy without the fucking games sounds like a breath of fresh air honestly. Overall, I like the concept but a tad worried about the bitchiness.

>>25099207
yes. have him act like a narcissistic ass, and the girl can go... "I like bad boys. tee hee!" I mean, so original and daring. Why not dare to be different. He impresses her? By being n-o-t like everyone else trying to impress her. The strong silent type. A quiet hard ass. Old school. Mouthy pricks? Nothing rattles them so much as a man that's calm and even when faced with trouble. You know, a real man. Not just some tall boy. And that, is what *intrigues* her.

>>25099407
thanks for the answer chatgpt but the adults are talking

>>25099403
Yeah I wouldn't have her slinging slurs and expletives left and right, it would skew the tone too far towards "haha no no word le funny" territory. I can't be sure how the idea of her being racist as fuck will turn out in writing, but I'll try to have her do a "you're from Laotia aren't you" type thing at least once to someone.

The kill yourself part, I admit, is rooted in my own taste. Same thing as above, I can't know how it will turn out in writing until I get around to writing it. If it doesn't feel right on read-over, I just won't do it.

As for MC's cultivation path, it's one of the most orthodox out there. I think she would be at worst neutral towards it since it's not a body cultivation path, so her going "I like you, you're going to practice my sect's method so you don't get your pretty face ruined with grasshopper antennae" could be all the explanation I need. There's also a possible "you have an item of interest to me, so you are of interest to me" angle of attack on why she would be interested.

No point in circlejerking about it here, I'd best get to work so I can reach her introduction point in a reasonable amount of time

>>25099421
>it would skew the tone too far towards "haha no no word le funny" territory
That's exactly what I was worried about so hearing you say you want to avoid that makes me less concerned. Sounds like our views on the issue align pretty well then.
Ah, so she's only picky about body mod stuff. That actually makes more sense with her thinking he's cute and not wanting him to fuck up his look.
I assume the flash of white hair from the last chapter was her? Looking forward to seeing where you go with that.

>>25099403
>>25099407
>>25099421
>>25099438
samefag

>actual story has almost nothing to do with the story blurb or the thumbnail

I hate you , authors. I hate you for wasting my time. Take your 1 star review and be happy.

>>25099060
Just make A a cuckquean or make A and B bi for each other. Problem solved.

>>25099160
>And "harem" has become an instant drop point for most readers for a good reason
Yeah, the reason being the genre is so fucking popular that people are starting to act like hipster contrarians about it.

>>25099170
100 Girlfriends is one of the most popular harem series out right now and it's literally entirely about dealing with the complexities of having a bunch of girlfriends. I won't say the collect em all shit isn't a thing, but that's mostly relegated to Japanese web novels that can't even manage to get a light novel publication and 1k+ chapter Chinese bullshit written by committee. Actual romance and complex character interactions is very much a thriving part of the modern harem genre.

Also, if you want unfun infighting harems there's like a billion imperial harem stories.

>>25099566
>write a summary that accurately represents the story
>get 1-star ratings whining the story is not something else
Nobody reads blurbs

>>25099662
Cope

People who leave 0.5-1-star reviews are generally unhinged and if only you politely pm to ask their reasoning, they go ballistic and get themselves deleted. It's just such a boring chore

reading the years of the apocalypse and the worldbuilding is literally
>evil europe colonized the browns except the browns aren't savages but actually enlightened and educated and the only reason they were subjugated is because they were too focused on noble pursuits like farming instead of evil europe
>oh but also black people are exclusively discriminated against for some reason despite them being no different to the other races who are treated normally
are we 4 reel

>>25099170
>>25099635
Harem isn't that unrealistic if you think about it. Imagine some billionaire woman comes along who wants to marry you, but she has other husbands. You gotta entertain her for a few weeks in a year, the rest of the time you can spend however you want. Everything you want in life is basically handed to you too.

Because that's what a lot of these Chinese harems end up with when the MC is super OP.

>>25099210
Why didn't MC just not marry both? Then he can have threesomes.

>>25099793
'Cause polygamy is illegal.

>>25099797
sounds like grounds for an insurrection

>>25099799
The 'World's End Messiah' will punish humanity for its sins.

>>25099780
Most of humanity has entirely wrong beliefs about how reality works and how history went down. It makes sense that that would be reflected in literature.

>>25099780
>>25099820
whats the issue?

>>25099831
I don't think that anon cares whether its realistic or not. 'Woe is black people' is just tiresome for many people, even if fiction is many times about how you wish things were instead of how they are.

>>25099780
I don't remember that at all. What are you talking about? The 'browns' lost because they were infighting. The 'black people' appear like savage druids to outsiders and the mild discrimination is due to superficial theological reasons and the isolated nature of their island.

Erotic scenes prove that a story is written by a human instead of AI. The more niche and depraved, while still being coherent, the more likely they were written by a human. Harem and smut authors are going to outlast everyone.