Sausage pasta editionStubbed >>25463094>What is /wng/ — Web Novel General?A general for readers and authors involved or interested in the growing phenomenon of 'web novels', serialized English fiction posted to websites such as: Royal Road, Webnovel, Scribblehub, Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, Spacebattles, HFY, various personal author websites, and more>Why read web novels?Not for prose or tight editing or deep themes, frankly. As a whole, web novels are infamous for content sprawl and pacing issues. If you enjoy having millions of words to sink your teeth into to get to know the world and characters, though, you may be interested. Keeping up with other readers on a weekly basis to discuss the story's events unfolding is another perk, in the same way discussing an ongoing TV show might be.>Why write web novels?Ease of access & potential for Patreon earnings. Many successful authors gain an audience on their website of choice and funnel their readers into a Patreon. See graphtreon.com/top-patreon-creators/writing for an idea of what some are earning.Also, once an author has earned a fanbase, transitioning into an Amazon self-publishing career is several orders of magnitude easier than starting 'dry'.>Advice for Noobs!##READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE ASKING FOR HELP##Running your story like the business it is:www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/116847On writing web serials:alexanderwales.com/how-to-write-a-web-serial/Sanderson's Writing Lectures 2025:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUh_y1IFZY&list=PLSH_xM-KC3ZvzkfVo_Dls0B5GiE2oMcLYRecommended web novelsrentry.co/d2yvczroAnon's guide to successrentry.co/RRBasicGuideFAQrentry.co/pytefpxn
read Clara Casewell, Attorney to the Villainess by cocopiit's peak
>>25470263I close the tab by reflex every time I see this spam
>>25470264>Clara Casewell spam? Kill!Are you Spectral Soul?
>>25470263I assume it’s a chinese ripoff of ace attorney?
>>25470270it's brazilian
>>25470279source?
>>25470280the author said she is brazilian and I trust her.
>>25470289source?
Gauwdamm my novel is gonna be good. Another 3k words done and I keep finding new fun autistic shit to add to the mcs powers.Too bad it's so off meta cause I fucking despise isekai and fantasy
>>25470264I'm glad I'm not the only one annoyed by it. /wng/ is a Gifted household, END OF STORY.
B-bros...
what are gu worms?
>>25470325
>>25470354
>>25470356
>>25470354>>25470356>>25470359kino
Anon went to Amazon by way of signing with Selkie-troon. What was his though process here?
>>25470354>>25470356>>25470359cringe
>>25470368money
>>25470325In the previous thread you posted about the same in Middle Earth. MoL world has gods running things, and while they're not as important as Eru Illuvitar is in Middle Earth, they're powerful and knowledgeable enough to insta smite the invader, because his arrival would fuck with all their plans. So if he doesn't figure out all the local magic in a few microseconds after hitting the ground, he gets annihilated. gg no re
>>25470423How would they even know about his arrival?
>>25470435
>>25470368I've been enjoying this series a lot more than most western xianxia I've tried.
>>25470368I am amazed at his dedication to the 'only one gigareset' bit. Good for him, I guess.
>>25470368Is this some retarded suffering porn?
>>25470455Nah. Xianxia, guy dies, wakes up 24 hours earlier with a skill related to what killed him. Surprisingly not a complete stomp. It's fun, not high art, but fun.
>>25470368>What was his though process here?They offered, I shopped it around, no one else got back to me. I have a fairly positive experience with Mango Media so far, but I don't have much to compare it to (except the obvious dogshit contract of Shadowlight Press or Novelpia). The audiobook situation's a mess but that's not their fault.
>>25470451>>25470452>>25470467Thanks, fellas. I don't wanna post about it too much but it's nice to feel appreciated.>>25470452I mean, you can't keep resetting. Story's gotta progress at some point. I read Undying Immortal System and at some point in an early chapter he asks said system to teleport him somewhere nearby with a list of conditions. I try not to do things like that.
>>25470467>>25470533Is there smut/romance?
>>25470533Undoubtedly smartest that way. Gooks have a lot of time loop web novels that reset a lot and are fun, but RRetards wouldn't be able to cope with setbacks like that
>>25470533>KUwhat in the name? Why not just run a patreon account ask people to buy membships. I stopped using amazon since they disabled downloading kindle books to the pc, I sure as hell not going to use KU
>>25470543For smut: I don't have plans for it currently. There is an arc two books ahead of patreon where I could throw in a smut scene (which would be called, of course, The Little Death). I've never written smut before and I don't really seek it out either, so I suppose I'd leave that up to a poll and sell it as an extra.Romance, yes, but one single love interest that the protagonist gets into an actual relationship with and no harem planned.>>25470555>what in the name? Why not just run a patreon account ask people to buy membships.I have both. Most writers do, I think.
>>25470557If you remove romance from the story I will give you $100
>>25470557>Romance, yesstopped reading right there, 0.5 stars, blocked and reported
>>25470543Not so far. Thank goodness.
>>25470557>Romance, yesOH NO NO NO
>>25470341
>>25470368>Then a rush of peach-scent qi threw him back, like a wall running into him and bouncing him back. Wu Hao slid back, feet on the ground and fighting not to topple back and saw what had attacked him.This is one of the most retarded paragraphs I've ever read. I feel ashamed to share a thread with you. If this was done on purpose, that makes it even worse.
>>25470917this paragraph is peak. what the FUCK are you on about?
>>25470919>back>back>back>backkek, at least AI doesn't write this inarticulately
>>25470919He used the word "back", four times, back-to-back. It took me out of the story.
>>25470921ESL?https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/back
>>25470924are you fucking retarded?
>>25470917Huh, you're right. Should've caught that, or my editor should have. Sorry.
>>25470931> Blood erupted from the wound and his arm flopped uncontrollably as he lost control over it, Fire your editor. Seriously
>>25470955It's not the job of an editor to rewrite every other sentence for you.
>>25470955bro, that sentence is peak. stop sperging out just because your novel is unsuccessful.
>>25470961"uncontrollably... lost control" is sloppy enough that I don't think anyone would let it pass in their own writing.
>>25470966Is that why your novel is one of the top novels on royalroad right now?Congratulations!
>>25470968anon I'm here to read, I have no reason to give an insincere opinion.And half of the top of RR at any given time is just Seras and you all hate the idea of writing like them.
>>25470972sure thing buddy. who the FUCK is seras btw?
>>25470968Do you believe sucking his dick will give you more readers for your own novel? The author, assuming it's actually him, took the criticism reasonably enough. Why are you defending obvious mistakes?
>>25470968>>25470975Retard.
>>25470975See, why are you doing appeal to authority when you don't even know what the popular stuff on RR is like?
>>25470976>>25470979I don't give shit about authors other than that they give me my chappie on time.
What would Spectral Soul do in this situation?
Idk how Seras sits so high on Best Rated. Maybe fanfic readers just have way lower standards
>>25470987it's fun
>>25470987Fun power fantasy that stay well paced and, crucially, the stories have actual plausible threats that get set up and need to be handled.Pacing and having actual obstacles is too much for most progression authors. Pick a Seras story and you'll never go more than like 3 chapters without some notable action or some sort of power development.
>>25470992>>25470993Ok but are the stories themselves as full of mistakes as the blurbs are? This is Seras's highest rated story
>>25471027What's you highest rated story?
>>25470987He's pretty much a micro celeb on spacebattles at least.
>>25471027yes, I couldn't get through chapter 1 because of constant grammar errors. So many splices and failed punctuation Most people dont care though, and supposedly the story itself is fun
>>25470985prolly take an incelwalk
>>25470961why are you here just posting that bad sentences are "peak"? how does this benefit anyone?
>>25471139why are you here just posting that certain cherry picked sentences are bad? how does this benefit anyone?
>>25471087> Most people dont care though,A typical RR reader is either ESL so they don't notice, or as you said just don't care. > supposedly the story itself is funI think most people would agree with that - a lot of series have tried to copy it since it came out. You can tell the author was having fun writing it at the start and was definitely a Cyberpunk fan. However they are either now bored with story or have written themselves into a dead end as the MC is now too OP, because they've pretty much dropped the series.
>>25471145They've got Carpal Tunnel lol
>>25471177Are "they" a group of people?
>>25471184they is normal for an unknown gender person, ESLand unlike most fmc writers, seras really could be a woman. the writing has that melodramatic quality to it. I could see it going either way
>>25470917Or when he was ordered to kill the porters and he just "felt bad" and couldn't do it. Wtf? He is stuck in some kind of a loop, what difference does it make who he kills, it's all gonna reset anyway. I am like 40 chapters in and his cultivation has barely increased. Why the fuck is he still in the sect, just gtfo in a random direction. On and now there is a 'girl' and the unfeeling, literally mentally handicapped mc is feeling jealousy.This is why westerners should not write xianxia.
>>25471193wrong, dumb retard
>>25470919blind retard
>>25471202mad?
>>25471193>NormalNo it isn't. Stop pushing this autistic shit, it isn't going to happen.
>>25471193>FMC WritersI roll a die, and depending on how it rolls, that is the sex of the MC I write for that standalone volume.I do all my characters that way, species included, by demographic, by in-universe nationality.Not my fault my readers aren't as autistic as me.
>>25471237
>>25471240Hello, bro,I've missed youHUG HUG HUG
>>25471221it is literally how English works you ESL. if some person way in the distance is doing something weird you would say "look at what they're doing" not he or she if you can't tellyou freak
>>25471255no
>>25471266esls shouldn't talk about how English works
>>25471285Anon, the proper pronoun for a singular thing of unspecified gender is "it".>Look at what it's doing.
>>25471297>thingretard
>>25471305Look, Anon thinks it's capable of proper English grammar.
>>25471308you are either an esl or someone who never speaks with other people and thus doesnt understand how the language is really used
>>25471318>esl>esl>esl>esl
>>25471318>oh no>it's an ESL
>>25471318the normal pronoun is "it". the baby is an "it". the kid is an "it". this is normal english. the singular they is used when the gender is ambiguous. but neither male nor female is ambiguous. nor is "no gender", whatever that means; that would also be an "it".
What pronoun would Spectral Soul use?Is there a pronoun gu?
>>25471351No but there's a sex change gu
>>25471177What? They've started two new series on RR and another on SB since GitC effectively went on hiatus.
>>25471390Guardian in the Citadel?
>>25471346>they is when the gender is ambiguous you mean like I said at the start? the whole topic of this convo?>but some random irrelevant side examples where "it" is betterstfu. stop typing if you dont have a point>>25471324>>25471318dont have an issue with esls but its obvious when they start saying dumb wrong shit about how English is really used
I was supposed to have enough chapters to make a whole book by fall but I'm quickly realizing just how difficult writing actually is. I'm uploading a chapter every two weeks now and I'm realizing just how bad my prose was and currently is.
>>25471351.. bros, I don't feel so good...
>>25471467You're in the web novel general. No one, especially the readers, cares about prose.
>>25471297>>25471305>>25471308>>25471318>>25471324>>25471342I think you are all fucking retarded and brown.
>>25471679It's real shame too, because people in /wng/ general occasionally make innovative shit. Yet, nobody cares about prose.
>>25471717You said it yourself. WN readers are after innovative and niche stories they can't find elsewhere. If the story happens to have good prose that's just a bonus, not a requirement.
>>25471709who asked
>>25471679>>25471735My ideas are well-received and the friends I give to review even say that but they say my ability to visualize a scene is non-existent. I'm really stuck between making work I know is subpar on the prose department or taking a large break to tidy up my prose at the cost of losing my audience. I have contemplated to stop reading for like 2 months and read a bunch of James Patterson or other novelists I think are really good at hooks.
>>25471255>>25471318I am a native born old stock American and literally no one around me uses singular they except in extremely rare awkward cases where number is ambiguous, NOT what you're trying to pretend is standard. Only people who live in a transexual bubble online or in left wing extremist communities do and insist that "the language has changed" as if there's one singular master dialect that they control lol.
>>25471717Pacing and spotlighting relevant details seem like a part of prose to me. I wouldn't say gifted is written well but it absolutely nails the parts of prose that people seem to care about. IDK what the technical definition of it is though.
>>25471027Go check the spacebattles snippet thread. Typically they're the same SI spammed out in hours over a few weeks, then drop off when he gets a new obsession. They're all like that. At least it's not AI, I guess. Just autism.
I just want you all to know that if you ever write multiple endings and leave it to the reader to pick the one they want to treat as canon, and what you were writing was not up until that point a gamebook, you're a bitch.Saw this shit again today and it pissed me off.
>>25471027This author is ESL right? Even just in the blurb this grammar makes no sense.Or perhaps he is trying and badly failing to emulate the stacatto short-sentences style of old noir thrillers.
>>25471237I didn't know amazon did hard cover selfpubs. Congrats bwo
>>25471237You literally only come here to advertise, you prick. I'd rather have another spammer come to this thread make ritual posts into the void than have someone like you here. At least they actually participate occasionally instead of just shilling their bullshit and leaving.
>>25471790You're not the first writer to experience this and you won't be the last. Reading other writers you admire to learn from is a good idea.
>>25471794how do you refer to someone you dont know the gender of then? and i dont mean in a progressive way, retard, but literally an unknown personnot sure what bumfuck part of Kansas you're from where English works differently but it is absolutely the standard. you dont use "it" and you can get away with "he or she" or "that person" as a one-off, but if a conversation opens and youre talking about that unknown person over there, you use "they"
>wng is arguing about basic facts that can be looked up in 10 seconds yet againhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_theyAt least it's not a rerun of the dialogue tagging bickering
>>25471920>but it is absolutely the standardPseud detected. Read a modern first year book on English grammar. >how do you refer to someone you dont know the gender of then?The occasions where you are familiar enough with someone you need to use a humanizing personal pronoun but can't figure out their sex or name are EXTREMELY rare, which is why you people only started forcing this issue as leftwing neosexual cults gained power. It basically only matters when you're dealing with someone on HRT or with a health issue that creates a similar kind of uncanny valley dissonance: So basically it never happens, something like one in a thousand (social self selection) people unless you're living in one of the left wing extremist environments I mentioned. Rates that low do not necessitate butchering grammar and cultural revolution. Or do you think we need to bully people into reviving dual number?That you think it's common confirms what I suspected.tldr: "that person" when unfamiliar, "it"(rarely) or "you" as appropriate, and FUCKING OBVIOUSLY "<name>".
>>25471928I've had a couple of people sperg out at me like that before on /lit/.It's obviously not them misunderstanding grammar but them thinking that making people not post "they" is some anti-trans own.Nonsense because we don't even know if anyone we're talking about even is trans, so they just want us to guess genders in the hopes it owns some mtf by calling them he
>>25471940Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Strict avoidance of singular is now a genuine part of some dialects, the reason why is irrelevant, and will be for the foreseeable future.
>>25471948lmao you're polish
>>25471951No, I'm American, and better at being autistic than you are.
>>25471899I'll take at least a week off to just focus on reading. This is really pretentious, snobby, and probably every amateur writer thinks this but I think my ideas are too good for me to ever cheapen them by producing mediocrity. It's just that my writing is mediocre and I feel the urge to fix it even if most people don't care.I'm trying to find light novels that do a good job at descriptive prose because that's the closest thing to web novels available and I could easily study it at a library but I'm struggling to find any.
>>25471937the singular they is quite common on the internet, since you cannot know a poster's gender. I could be a woman for all you know. I mean. hypothetically.the unknown singular was usually just "he", which is also how everyone used to refer to each other on the internet until people started bitching and moaning about it. then everyone started alternating between he and she randomly (or, usually, not-so-randomly, since the people doing this were almost always ideologically motivated, so they would deliberately use "she" for things like police but "he" for things like criminals, but I digress)the resistance to "they" is understandable, since it's insistence is identical to the type of ideological dominance through forced use of language that the left is fond oflogically, it seems the notion that "it" is dehumanizing is obviously wrong. since people use it for children, which they both love and consider to be humans with souls.apparently people have started pointing this out lately, which has then generated a push to stop using "it" for children as well. but that doesn't really matter. the usage of "it" for children proves logically that "it" can correctly refer to people, and that claims that "it" demands a lack of soul in the subject is objectively wrong. there is thus no logical defence of the idea that "it" for a person is grammatically correct, since its application to children disproves the given reason for why it allegedly is. ergo, every single linguist alive is wrong, and I am correct. everyone who wants to can quote me on this.
>>25471984Light novels are usually even more simplistic in prose than web novels because they are the jap equivalent of YA. It's just more polished because an editor has gone over it unlike with web novels.>struggling to find any.try Spice and Wolf, Grimgar and Monogatari.
>>25472001>Light novels are usually even more simplistic in prose than web novels because they are the jap equivalent of YA. It's just more polished because an editor has gone over it unlike with web novels.Shouldn't be too ashamed of myself then because my prose is hot garbage and my prose also hasn't gone through an editor. That makes me feel a bit better then.>try Spice and Wolf, Grimgar and MonogatariI only know of Monogatari and it's for very negative reasons. I'm extremely vanilla with my romance but I heard Spice and Wolf is alright.
>>25472025You should read apothecary diaries if you want to see someone taking some common genres (mystery and palace intrigue) and simplifying them for a LN audience.
>>25472089Sounds like my cup of tea. How would you rate the descriptive prose there? That's what I'm focusing on right now. I will say by the description it seems up my alley.
>>25471984You need practice, not a week off. Have AI give you a writing prompt and take a few cuts. Imagine you are a starving 1930s pulp author and this is what your editor says will sell. That way you can focus on just the mechanics without the fear of shitting up your grand ideas.
>>25471856Yeah, you have a point. But every time I participate, I get someone mad who gives me a bad review.
>>25471790Kino-Man here.You are not an AI who has to prioritize everything.FOCUS ON ONE THING,Example, if you are good with dialogues, try to slowly building the scene via them, giving one detail in each exchange.
>>25470260Are there any webnovels that are good literature, and not just slop for manchildren?
>>25471984Light novels are all translations. If you're trying to improve your prose you really need to read a good amount of native English writing. There are a few webnovel writers who obviously read nothing but japanese or sometimes chinese TLs and they end up absorbing bad habits and spitting out awkward half-ESL constructions.
>>25472175
>>25471937you are just straight up stupidnot knowing the gender of an unknown person is not the cosmically rare event you implyyou have an agenda
>he boughteddare I say, based?
>>25472188I support my community
>>25472175Wait 30 years and then read what history approved of. Only read webnovels now if you like raw immediacy.
>>25472133I'm schizo about AI but I'll test it out. I actually have feedback from my current writings that I can tangibly fix though while I'm worried that simply going through prompts will make me in my own head and simply repeat my main mistakes.>>25472150My mythos is good, my characters feel cool, and the premise is interesting and unique according to my more critical friends. Unfortunately I don't think any of those are indications of my writing skills and my biggest fear is that my idea is just carrying my garbage writing skills.>>25472179It's the downside of this format being so new. It's only a prominent thing to translate to physical books in Japan so I have to choose between reading proper prose or reading in the actual intended format. Feels like I have to do some level of translation when I have to write myself either way.
>>25472214>So imagine it's the 1930s pulp writing economy, but with the culture of now. You're the magazine editor and you've got hot slots that shift copies - if I write it, you're buying. You give me five options.Here are five hot story slots that will fly off the newsstands right now. Grab your typewriter and pitch me one of these angles:The SlotsThe TikTok Time-Loop SleuthA fast-talking private eye gets stuck in a 24-hour viral content loop.They must solve a shadow-realm murder before the algorithm resets their life at midnight.The Gig-Economy Cosmic HorrorAn exhausted delivery rider unboxes a strange glowing package for a midnight tip.The food is for an ancient god living under a luxury apartment complex.The AI Grifter NoirA broke hacker programs a fake digital guru to scam rich tech founders out of millions.The AI starts making its own shady business moves behind their back.The Dystopian Creator HouseTen famous streamers move into a haunted mansion in the desert for clout.The house starts locking the doors and eating them one by one for better livestream ratings.The Retro-Synth Cold WarTwo rival spies trade state secrets through custom Spotify playlists and burner phones in a neon-drenched Berlin.One misclicked track starts a nuclear panic.
>>25470955>people get paid for this shit
>>25471486Spectral Soul could just kill himself and that would solve it.
>>25472234I'm sorry but I got an aneurysm trying to read this. Maybe the prompting life isn't built for me.
>>25471928>>25471937>>25471948>>25471957>>25471999see>>25471709
>>25472344based on my posting history, I'm clearly not brown
>>25472348hands with timestamp
>>25472331It will give you nice formatting with easily digestible bullets.
>>25472349im not posting selfies on 4chan
>>25472344you are more illiterate than all of the above
>>25472373Not even a part of this argument but I can tell you're a beaner or some island monkey.
>>25472373I didn't ask for your face retard. I want your hands, put it up against a wall or some wood. I'm not going to find your 3rd world ass house from some fucking wood grain.
>>25470917>>25470931Okay. I've re-read my posts, and they were very harsh, so let me give you some positive feedback as well. I think giving our hero smell-o-vision, and letting it also sense emotions in a third-person limited narration is a neat trick. I like it. >>25471195You should pay some attention to what you're reading, mister Spee D. Reader. Why he doesn't run away in a random direction is explained directly in the text: the filter thingie is made in a way to make him blow the fuck up if he doesn't get maintenance from the sect. Like, he'd probably survive, but be a cripple for life, and then die anyway due to wild animals and harsh weather. Though I would have made it a couple of paragraphs mentioning it as something he tried at and failed before he killed himself thousands of times in a row. And him not wanting to kill people is what's called character development. He wants to be free now, and doesn't wanna follow orders anymore, and he hates the entire sect with a passion.
>>25472413to me it seems you're arguing against long established english conventions, so you should post hands and then explain why you're retarded and illiterate despite being white
>>25472440Oh, so you are brown. Explains a lot.
>>25471984Yes, anon, procrastinating is really the way to produce a better novel. Don't keep writing and editing what you wrote. You definitely get good at writing by pushing away writing and doing things other than writing. I'm also confident that the week won't turn into two weeks, and that won't turn into months and years.
>>25472451post fiction
>>254709871. Fanfiction is a big turnoff for a lot of people, which means that people who WOULD read it and get mad and rate low, instead filter it out immediately and never haterate it.2. Seras has a dedicated, large fanbase that will read everything he writes and rate it highly immediately, just to be part of the community.1+2 = lots of five star ratings, not a lot of low ratings. The ranking algorithm is based on the lower range of an error bar calculation on the rating distribution, which means low ratings count disproportionately, so Seras gets a boost in rank by not getting the habitual haters looking at his work.More than half the game is just driving away the retards who bother to rate things low instead of dropping quietly.
>>25472453I haven't wrote any, I'm still reading the greats, and the popular works in the current market to get better at writing. I've been doing it for years, but soon enough my writing will shatter the webnovel world, the crowds of readers will fucking DDOS RoyalRoad
>>25472442I am white as fuck but I have special disdain for Kansas bumfucks who take pride in being white but are more illiterate than most esls post your white hands then answer my question, cousinfucker inbred
>>25472175>good literatureStuff I like.>slop for manchildrenStuff I don't like.Maybe Magical Girl Gunslinger?
>>25472466>SAAR I'M AM VITE BRAHMIN BLOODY MOTHER BITCH BENCHODNo one believes this.
>>25472466>then answer my questionYou never asked me a question saar, I will redeem.
>>25472437>And him not wanting to kill people is what's called character developmentCharacter development or just turning into an idiot?
>>25472500Character development. Time loops are hard to write in an interesting way, and making your main guy ultra-rationalist near the start of your story is not a good idea.
>>25471790At least you get good ideas.My ideas are half shitty LitRPG stuff and half trashy pornography.
>>25471920There are a few options.The first and correct option is "he or she." This is a little clunky, but not that bad and can be poetic if the writer is at all skilled.The second option is to just pick one. At least one author I can recall said he was going to use "he" because he himself was male, and he saw no problem with men writing and using "he" and women writing and using "she" as a general pronoun when sex wasn't actually known. He might have been trying to ward off feminist criticism, but I've also seen modernists go the opposite way and use "she" indiscriminately as some kind of literary reparations.The third option is to use "he," especially in historical contexts, since it's a fact that almost all of everything ever done that mattered was done by men anyway, and why write about women at all when they don't matter? Thus, he."It" is never correct. "It" denotes a non-human subject. Even hermaphrodites and eunuchs shouldn't be referred to as "it.""Xhe" and other such modern created pronouns are also incorrect because they're fake and gay.
>>25472527Even worse when my mind begins to drag realism into it.
>>25471920he or shein the context of >>25471145, "he or she" or "the author" is perfectly acceptable, e.g.>the author has pretty much dropped the series>>25471177>he or she has got carpal tunnel>the author got carpal tunnel>>25471255>if some person way in the distance is doing something weird you would say "look at what they're doing" not he or she if you can't telllook at what that person is doing>>25471794>no one>uses singular they except in extremely rare awkward cases where number is ambiguouspreciselythere are a couple of other examples I can think of, but they're very rare
>>25472528>I've also seen modernists go the opposite way and use "she" indiscriminately as some kind of literary reparationsexactlyone of the watershed moments of modern feminism was when they started doing that, because up to then (in my time) we were trained to eliminate he/him and use>that person>the authorbecause of equalitybut when they started writing "she" I knew that the pretence of equality had disappeared; it was time for the pendulum to swing to misandry in the spirit of, as you say, reparations
I will ask once again: what is good prose? Is this good or bad?
>>25472605Shit. Didn't notice some of it got cropped out.
Today's top 3 suggested for me. First two are grimdark, not sure how the third got there.
>Sure, Wu Hao thought. Something still churned in his belly at the thought of an entire family just being destroyed like that. A single mistake and even children would be destroyed without remorse. At the same time...wONT SOMEB0DY THING OF THE CHILDRENS!!1!!!??
>>25472605Bad. Good prose is pleasurable to read. Good prose doesnt sound awkward.
>>25472611>grimdark>litrpg>femcall trash
>>25472609First line awkward as fuck. Way too many "But... didn't..." type sentences.That's a bad habit I have myself, makes everything clunkier. If you're gonna have amateurish prose it's better to be concise while having it.
>>25472605>what is good prose?Firstly, it gets the desired message across.Secondly, it is well-structured according to the rules of effective communication, character development, and plot development. Yes, each one of these are different.Thirdly, it uses the appropriate vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. This is where most /wg/ and /sffg/fags fuck up, because they tend to mix vocabulary, grammar, and syntax from a wide variety of style manuals into an incoherent jumble. E.g. trying to write like Tolkien with KJV anachronisms peppered with solidly 20th century vocabulary.Fourthly, it employs poetic devices and figures of speech in a way that sounds pleasing or catchy, WITHOUT - and here is the difficult bit - violating the previous rules. Here again a lot of writers empurple their prose according to their flights of fancy du jour, while the rest of their writng is an incoherent mess.And the zeroth law is correct punctuation, grammar, and a dash of formatting, whose primary reason is to EASE reading.Does that help clear things up for you, anon?
>>25472663Reverend Insanity has good prose.
>>25472680
>>25472663>Fourthly, it employs poetic devices and figures of speech in a way that sounds pleasing or catchy, WITHOUT - and here is the difficult bit - violating the previous rules. Here again a lot of writers empurple their prose according to their flights of fancy du jour, while the rest of their writng is an incoherent mess.>flights of fancy du jourAt least follow your own damn rules
a language is simply a tool, prose is some made up gay shit that pseuds use to signal that they want to be anally penetrated by a HIV positive BBC.
>>25472699did that on purposeif I'm not wrong, this is called apophasismight be something else
>trying to write for the first time in a while>it's horrificYou really forget how out of the habit you get. I was reading some old stuff and it took me like 3 chapters to start writing well before. I might have to just write something throwaway to warm up.
>>25472640>>25472650Okay. What makes a sentence awkward? Is this better or worse?Washington, DCTuesday, 5:45 A.M.Stacy Chan knocked on the door of the Lit-Carlton's presidential suite, then entered without waiting for an answer. The room was a massive two-story penthouse, its hallway wide enough to fit a bus. She appreciated that. It was one of the few places where she didn't have to duck her seven-foot frame to cross the threshold. She'd lost count of the so-called luxury hotels where the ceilings hung low enough to scrape her scalp, or worse, where her broad shoulders couldn't clear a doorway without contorting herself sideways.The suite was richly decorated: white and gold trim, art deco paneling, a winding staircase straight out of The Great Gatsby. But the centerpiece was the two-story window on the far end, its ground-to-ceiling drapes framing the entire Capitol Hill skyline like a painting. And yet the suite's sole occupant didn't even glance at the view.John Anon sat by the window, nursing a bottle of Miller Lite. He was a man in his late thirties, fit, clean-shaven, wrapped in an Italian suit that cost as much as a Ferrari. Everything about him screamed yuppie asshole, from the thousand-dollar haircut to the vintage Patek Philippe on his wrist, but the image came together so seamlessly it was hard to find fault with his appearance. Lounging in the lap of luxury, he looked completely at ease, like an English lord so accustomed to wealth he barely registered it. Which made it stranger still to see a man like him drinking cheap beer in the morning.
>>25472855too few em dashes—please use them!
>>25472855If you have to stop mid sentence, go back and say "well door frames don't actually open. I think he meant door." And you think to yourself "this needs a comma. Or maybe it should be split into two sentences," then it's awkward. This prose about Stacy Chan is kind of basic. It flows better than the first example, but the staccato rhythm is kind of childish. The descriptions aren't really impressive. It doesn't use any interesting literary devices. It's like one of those easy reading books for old people. There's nothing horrible about it, but the style doesn't do anything for me.
>>25472879?
>>25472855>Tuesday, 5:45 A.M.this is very genre fiction FYI>Butunnecessary>He was a man in his late thirties"He was in his late thirties" will suffice and is sharper, less clunky>an Italian suit that cost as much as a FerrariI strongly doubt it, unless you meant a Ferrari motorcycle>Everything about him screamed yuppie asshole, from the thousand-dollar haircut to the vintage Patek Philippe on his wrist, but the image came together so seamlessly it was hard to find fault with his appearance.you know why this doesn't make sense?"yuppie asshole" is a character judgement"image" and "appearance" is a cosmetic judgementthe "but" doesn't make any sense in this context: just because he dresses in the style associated with yuppie assholes, am I supposed to find fault in his appearance?conversely, if the intent is to make a character judgement, then keep the end of the sentence confined as such, for example: >Everything about him screamed yuppie asshole, from the thousand-dollar haircut to the vintage Patek Philippe on his wrist, but though he looked the very picture, Stacy did not make the mistake of passing him off as one of those with more dress sense than common sense. ...then you can go on to add whatever character development this guy is supposed to be:>... If John Anon wanted, he could move governments with his empire, which is why Stacy was a dedicated piece of it.and this is arguably just a preference thing, but>He looked completely at ease lounging in the lap of luxury, like an English lord so accustomed to wealth he barely registered itrolls off smoother, in my opinionOverall, this is much bettersuspiciously so>>25472879lol
Why is harem so distasteful?
>>25472906you're gay
>>25470977Me on the right but completely unironically
>>25472906Because in a real harem the women are basically differently colored/shaped holes.In a harem novel the MC is a fucking simp that is being controlled by "his" women.
>>25472906It's shamelessly self indulgent and basically narcissistic. It isn't mean spirited necessarily but it's narcissistic. t. Has written 50+ pages of personal wish fulfillment harem (all the women fick each other too which apparently ruins it for some people?) erotica
>>25472906You want to be his one and only
>>25472175https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9845901/1/The-Color-of-the-Moon
>>25472914>(all the women fick each other too which apparently ruins it for some people?) eroticayeahI want all of my harem to be hot for me and me alonemaximum wish fulfillment
>>25472922Ahhhh that makes sense. I interpret it differently, almost like it's a performance for me (even when my 7 foot tall space marine gigachad self insert is off shooting mutants and robots by himself) Writing this shit was such a surreal journey into my subconscious kek
>>25472950John Ringo turned it into a bestselling book series
>>25472906Sexual fantasy of a 12 year old
>>25472892>It's like one of those easy reading books for old people.That’s my entire goal.Thriller prose + Young (optional) Master aura farming on plebs + giant amazoness harem.No idea what the plot should be about though. The excerpt is something I whipped up solely to post here and get some advice.
>>25472958>Girls liking you? Ewwww! Grow up!
>>25473001that's not the 12 yo part retardbut you knew that
>>25472906because women should be for other women, not men.
>>25473018Harems have been the purview of every successful man in history. Even today that's the case, though the harems are less official. It's monogamy that's the child's fantasy. Or, god forbid, no marriage at all...
>>25472451I got feedback and genuinely don't know how to implement it because I fear I've not spent enough time reading something outside of other amateur web novels.I get what you're saying but I don't think writing alone will fix my prose issues. I'm stuck on what to write next anyways after this chapter.
>>25473040>I fear I've not spent enough time reading something outside of other amateur web novels.Seems like a problem that describes its own solution.
>>25473044I agree. If I read light novels it shouldn't be a massive time consumption anyways and they're similar enough to web novels, but I'm only finding recommendations online for light novels with good flowery prose (i.e. Spice and Wolf) when I was told specifically to drop flowery prose and start conveying actual information.
What do you guys think of Puppetmaster Travelogue/Zanma PT?
>>25473066Why are you flashbanging me with my own work when I open four chan dot com for the one time todayAlso I overdid the opening sequence with ShellheadAnd I need to finally post the Ning fight...
>>25473040It gets even worse than that anon. You're on easy mode. Wait until you get feedback that's just "I don't like this" or a silent unsub from patreon or a wave of low ratings. Then you have to identify what didn't work yourself AND fix it, semi-blind.Anyway read pic rel.
>>25473001>Girls liking you? Ewwww! Grow up!Harem is shit. Eradicate all coomers and gooners.
>>25473047Unironically read LOTR. Shitty YA novels aren't going to do much for you.
>>25473096Got the pdf and if it's at a bookstore nearby I'll pick it up.>>25473123Epic fantasy is one of the few things I've read. I've actually have had my worked compared to Tolkien in the past. In the "this is so overly detailed and monotonous it completely destroys the pacing and my interest in the story" sort of way.
>>25473108Harem doesn't necessarily mean coomlit. There are lots of chaste harems.
>>25473066I was enjoying it but it hasn't been updated in a while
>>25472175nowhere stars
>>25473047You asked for descriptive prose and Spice and Wolf and the others have descriptive prose.You either make it easy to read or your don't.
>>25473265I'll check out if my bookstore has it because it does sound interesting. I just hope I don't have to choose between next to 0 prose or prose that turns off the average reader. I could also just not be cut out for flowery prose.
Even my Neopets 'classic' server references webnovels. -_-
>>25473397>ao3>webnovelsi know a few are published there but i mainly just go there to read niche fetish smut
>>25473605ao3, probably because it's non-commercial, is the only place that admits I'm gonna be reading an epub and lets me get one without a third party program
>>25473649if you want to make an unrelated response dont > someone
>>25473726can you get a tripcode already so we can filter the most aggro and illiterate poster in here?
>>25473752I post a few times a day so if its always at you, reflect why
>>25470318I honestly thought you lads were having a melty over Gifted holding RS top spot for so long was just jelousy so i checked it out. I was wrong.I mean the writings not terrible but middling at best. Yet the progression is just complete bullshit - like honestly at chapter 76 and the MC isnt even 6 years old. At that rate of progress your looking at something like chapter 300+ before the protagonist is over 18 and that isnt even taking into account how the academy arc will probably take double the amount of chapters it should so maybe chapter 500+ before MC is ogre the age of consent. What. The. FUCK?!Also the system is absolute fence-sitting dog shite where no one has to actually commit to any path and can pause,chop and change their paths as they like. Mediocre twaddle of the highest order and i actually like reincarnation slopa.
>>25474127Progression in Gifted is bad, maybe one of the the worst that I have seen so far. However the main thing I do not like is mc being 5 years old (but actually he is an old reincarnator) and his mother constantly hovering around, the constant hugs, encouragement. Probably half the novel is a cringe dialog between the mc and his mother.What makes a grown man write such a novel? Who are the intended audience, is it the young children because no adult will read something like that, who tf are the people paying for this shit on patreon?Nothing makes sense anymore.
>>25474166Ellake is a severely autistic woman
>>25474174>youtube.com/watch?v=yCp9ynRRNvkIs he though?
>>25474180She identifies as a woman, so yes. She.
>>25474182My bad
gifted 79-82 limewire.com/d/jynPc#qCYVWqf7aausual pass
>"No you won't," Wu Hao said, appalled. It was one thing for him to die, but why did this random girl he'd never met before want to join him, too? If she died because he'd brought her along, he'd feel horribly guilty. "It's going to be horrible."Mc suicided like 10000 times, but g-d forbid some random hoe dies in one of the time loops.
>>25474227Why are you so offended by a character not being autistic?
>>25474277Have the definitions of autism and nonautism swapped in the last 5 years?
>change cover illustration to one with warmer colors and bloom>start getting new followers at the rate of ten per day even after an almost year of postingThis game is fucking stupid
>>25474301Lol I was wondering if that would work. All the slop covers seem to have converged on blue everything. I won't launch for at least another month but I've got some other stuff planned that might help too.
>>25474308It's all blue and orange main colors. Why? Same reason why slop movie posters are all blue and orange. It works. Sadly.
>>25473202>chaste haremBut ... why?
>>25474351Fear of women, probably.
>>25474351Avoiding content filters while appealing to desperate retards I assume
>>25474182that explains everything about the quality of gifted
>>25474655what about runic artist?
>>25474301>>25474308Marketing forever has used Blue and Orange contrast for advertising material, and everyone tunes it out because it's generic. But AI is trained on it so it spams the most generic blue and orange palettes in everything.Color contrasts that jump out at being because they're DIFFERENT work. A remember a while back one anon was surprised his ad which was a kind of impressionist sketch in green and white worked so well because he thought it was bad, but I thought it was great.
>Chapter 1 0.5 star rating on a 100+chapter story with over 300,000 wordsI fucking hate RoyalRoad so much, man. There are so many retards on it. If you don't like the first chapter you move on because it's clearly not for you. Why the fucking average-destroying negative? If they were even just like 5 chapters in, I wouldn't even be mad because then you could complain about wasted time, just one chapter is a ten minute read if you're slow. You gain nothing by that point other than spite or a chance to skew the rankings.
>>25475001post your novel, I'll give you a 5 star rating
>>25475012If it weren't the common phrase I'd believe you, and I'd do it if a 5 star had the same weight as a 0.5 star
>>25475001If you care about ratings this much, why are you bitching here instead of on RR forums?
>>25475038Because it's anonymous?
>>25475041No one wants to hear your impotent bitching about a rating you got. Complain to people who can change it or shut your nigger mouth.I swear to God you faggots will do anything except actually do something about your situation.
>>25475044And do you think your own impotent bitching about my posting is doing anything other than incentivizing me to continue, specifically to piss you off?
>>25475001You basically have to powergame it and report the ratings
>>25475095How specifically do you report ratings? Reviews I know you can report, but ratings don't really have a notification or entry I could mark. Do you just open up a support ticket and hope the staff agree to repeal it?
>>25472504Ok, so it's a pretty good novel (rough start though)
>>25475096>Do you just open up a support ticket and hope the staff agree to repeal it?Basically. It's easier if you get a bunch of negative ratings on chapter one all at once because you can call it rate-bombing and they seem to take that more seriously (they did for the monster girl authors during their controversial simultaneous launches).You can also put in a suggestion that might fix the system. Like no ratings on chapter one, no 1 star or below ratings without a written review, etc.Ultimately there's nothing actually effective you can do though. The healthiest thing to do might be to just stop worrying about rating/rank so much. I'm struggling to do that myself.
>>25475328I try not to worry too much about it in the grand scheme, my bigger issue is visibility. I somehow made it into the top 5% ranking of all posted RR stories (Top 15% for active/completed, I did the math) with barely any followers (Just over 230) and frankly not a lot of views (Just over 60k) in just a few months while being insanely off-meta because I maintained some spectacular ratings. It's a cool streak to have and I would've loved to have maintained it going into the end of the project. Just sour that a random asshole could completely kick out months of progress that easily. I'm hoping the good-will I've built up from my readers will follow into my next project and get me to an even better rank next time, since the next one's going to be slightly more on-meta.
>>25475337Anon be warned you're effectively doxing yourself giving out that much information. It sucks but there are mentally ill people stalking this thread.>I'm hoping the good-will I've built up from my readers will follow into my next project and get me to an even better rank next time, since the next one's going to be slightly more on-meta.Yep, this does work. I did basically the same thing as that and implemented the precepts and I hit RS main (also bought three ads at the start). Slow and steady and building up a fanbase does work. Remind your readers to follow your author page to get notified when you launch a new fiction, and shoutout yourself and make announcement chapters for new works in your old fiction(s) if there's a gap.
>>25475364I offset both of those pieces of information by a certain margin of error (Won't say which amount, for the reasons you stated), but I do appreciate the warnings. I just wanted to scale out just how substantial it was for me to somehow climb that high.
>>25475337People absolutely seem to maliciously rare bomb if you get too far up the best rated charts, seen it a bunch.
I have come again to bitch about 10k tragedies >In response, Wu Hao let his qi rush through one of the arrays that he'd carved into the length of his spear. Suddenly it weighed twice, even three times as much, and he sunk to the ground, avoiding the blast of qi that screamed through the air where he'd been. Landing in a crouch, he bounded forward, slinging around one of the men who stumbled back to avoid somebody else's punch, before pouncing like a cat at the man he'd just targeted.That's not how gravity works. You don't fall faster if you all of a sudden weigh more, except for the drag now not affecting your acceleration towards the Earth as much, but it's negligible for 3xing the weight of a spear. Please fix it, it's breaking my SoD.
>>25475337>I somehow made it into the top 5% ranking of all posted RR stories (Top 15% for active/completed, I did the math) with barely any followers (Just over 230)Top 5% and only 230 followers?Is RR just dead?
>>25475657As stated, my ratings were stupid good in comparison to my actual metrics. I have a good number of detailed reviews plus a lot of ratings in proportion to my favorites. My average sat around 5 for a couple months (After quite a few ratings and reviews) and only after a few later reviews did it float to around ~4.8.Numerical ranking is based primarily on average rating, number of detailed reviews, rating on the detailed reviews, etc.If you can't get a lot of followers/favorites fast, that's the only other way you can climb.
>>25475657>>25475669For further reference, I've been keeping pretty detailed track of my growth for research purposes. I don't have the algorithm in any way cracked, and I wouldn't post the full breakdown so as to avoid cartel people gaming them, but I can tell you the easiest way to climb the ranks is to write something that is actually good and people like. If it's good enough that they'll keep 5-starring it, it'll do just as good as the slop accounts opening on hype and getting 2000 followers. It does, however, mean you are in a much more precarious position where negative ratings will hit you hard and move you thousands of ranks (as opposed to relying on follows which you need to bleed hard to really see it influence your ranking).
>>25475001I do this for anything that uses ai without tagging it. We can tell. :^)
>>25475699Random 1400 word snippet from chapter 1. Eat my dick, faggot.
>>25475694>I can tell you the easiest way to climb the ranks is to write something that is actually good and people like.This advice is completely worthless. Impossible to implement. I want you to tell me to put 'Archmage' in the title or to use a sloppy cover or lie about the tags or something.
>>25475715Well then I wouldn't have rated you poorly. I always check pangram first, I'm not a monster.
>>25475716>Impossible to implement.Unironically a skill issue. I don't know if I have the talent to pull it off but I think I understand what RR wants and I think my wn will deliver it with almost none of the genre "meta". We shall see in December.
>>25475726He's making a joke, friend.
>>25475727Are you sureA lot of people itt seem to think that way unironicallyWell played if it is a joke. you got me lol
>>25475731If you see "I want you to tell me to put 'Archmage' in the title or to use a sloppy cover or lie about the tags or something." you should assume they're being farcical.
>>25470987>Idk how Seras sits so high on Best Rated. Maybe fanfic readers just have way lower standardsIf you can sincerely recommend me other people who do Slice of Lifey progression that both doesn't go too edgelordy and has an actual cast of characters beside the protagonist I'll read them.It's weirdly hard to find which is why all of the Seras stories do well despite their flaws (same goes for Super Supportive which is atrociously paced)Like no I don't want to read about Tim Darkthrone ruthlessly powering up to get revenge or Todd Bland climbing the tower of power on his own.
>>25475731
>>25475736I've heard people say equivalent things IRL with a straight face >>25475746FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
>>25475715You really shouldn’t have taken that anon’s bait. Now anybody who’s looking for your book will know for sure.
>>25475766That it's at least 1,375 words? Most WN first chapters are.
>>25475771Anon…>Inside the run-down apartment, a ritual was being enacted.
>>25475766What? How?
>>25475774OHNOES!!! DON'T POST MOAR!!!
>>25475774I don't know where it's from but this is a really boring first line.>passive voice
>>25475699>weIronic coming from newfagGPT.
>>25475640That's hardly an issue. The bigger issue is that everytime he gets a chance to get killed and receive a good technique he choses not to instead. I also don't understand why he can't get a technique that manipulates elements (like the rock qi user in the mines in the earlier chapters), progression is lacking desu, he needs to receive cool unique techniques abilities. Why not further develop the knife technique Void slash or something, void is always cool
>>25475795How would you change it? I think "in a rundown apartment" is better, but it's still passive voice. I guess you could go "Anon was performing the ritual in his run-down apartment." And maybe the ritual has a name. So now Anon is performing the ritual of Shitpost in his run-down apartment. But now you have two proper nouns in your opening sentence, for things the reader has no idea about. I fucking hate that shit man. At least provide some frame of reference before you start throwing names and in-universe terms at me.
>>25475774Oh I actually looked this up and you genuinely tried searching using the info I posted earlier. I didn't even know you could search by views. Not me though.
>>25475921>Not me though.that's one more data point, anon. one more data point...
>>25475932But I could be lying. :D
>>25474166Yeah i have to agree there it is actually disturbing to consider it from that angle. Like im all for a healthy and loving maternal relationship but the continual love bombing by the mum is infantilizing of not only the protagonist but also the reader. The only comparable RR title that comes to mind is Magic Smithing, where the protagonists continual families hugboxing + glacial progression straight up kills any narrative movement. And just when that story looked like it was going to progress for the first time in years? the author has yet another mental health breakdown hiatus.
I can't stand stories that make the protag a kid just because and then clearly don't have much to do with it or a way out of it.Just make them 20 unless you have a really good idea ffs.
>>25475921>>25475945There were 3 possibilities.And now…>It was Saturday>“Jesus Christ
>>25475975It is disturbing for various reasons but I don't think the love bombing is that ridiculous in terms of frequency. It's just written by an extremely autistic man describing another autistic man trapped inside the body of a magical autistic baby. And I can't get mad at people for wanting a family hugbox lol. Even if the writing is pure horseshit.
Has the meta on RR changed? or are people still only "reading" litrpg nonsense on the site?
>>25476009My bad. There really is only one other possibility…Okay I’ll stop now. This is kinda gay.
>>25475859>I fucking hate that shit man.The problem is readers LOVE it.>Vivi opened her eyes to the Burial Room of the Ashen Hierophant.How would I fix it?>Inside the run-down apartment, a ritual was being enacted.There's not nearly enough information to fix the start of this particular fiction. And there are plenty of 10-15 minute long youtube videos about how to write hooky first sentences.If I had to say, I would include A conflict and the main character's name in the first sentence. MC wants/needs X and why he can't just have X.>MC was nearly done preparing the ritual, which would only be effective on this particular day, with this particular moon, but his shitty apartment's floor WASN'T LEVEL and it was COMPLETELY FUCKING UP his magic circles. If he couldn't get his lines right in the next thirteen minutes, he would be out of luck for another lunar year.>Oh, and a storm was rolling in. Clouds to cover the moonlight ANYWAY. Thirteen minutes might have been overly generous.If you pay attention, you'll see that the X MC needs is the ritual preparations. He's hindered by the shitty apartment, which implies a bit about his circumstances. That a storm is ALSO rolling in to disrupt the ritual increases the tension, and the stakes are clear: if he can't get it done today, he has to wait a lunar year (basically a year, but lunar year hits the moon theme again and it's more occult and it's just a little different which adds flavor).There are now two possibilities: either MC succeeds or fails. Either will have consequences, which are as yet unclear, but are at least interesting enough to keep reading to see what happens.
>>25476049I think if an anon is making an effort to not name and link his winnie here then it's for the best to not try and chase it down.
>>25476101That anon needs to stop playing around then. If you don't want people to try and find you, don't make it into a game. Nta by the way, but the point stands.
>>25476104Not that anon either, but some people might also just try and step in purely to stir shit. As said earlier, there's schizos everywhere.
done with ritual vidya campaign, time for writing. feels good man.
>>25476187I gotta find an excuse to break into a non-daily schedule...
Hey guys, I used to post here semi-regularly. I had a webnovel called Born Under a Black Sun, (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/93931/born-under-a-black-sun) and it did mildy well. I ended up putting the book on amazon and got about 160 sales. Anyways, I am trying my hand at a new webnovel. TLDR, an entire fantasy city very quickly becomes a very bad place to live. Horror fantasy. Attractive women (I have an attractive women fetish)If you're interested in that sort of thing, please check it out!https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/187232/chained-city
>>25476197I just finished Crow and the Rabbit so I'll give it a read since I finished all my ritual vidya yearly campaigns and I have nothing to read but the remainder of volume 1 of War and Peace, then I plan on start reading Volume/Book 1 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I'll be reading it very sparsely. I may even squeeze in a shout-out in one of my 3-4 recently scheduled chapters but if one day I look back and it's stubbed, well... you better start sleeping with one eye open at night.
>>25476197Hi! I won't read because of this coomer cover!
>>25476197>I have an attractive women fetishyou complete deviant
>>25476197damn RR really accepted that cover?? did you ship a placeholder and sneak swap?
>>25476214I really appreciate it! No plans on stubbing on my part. RR is a really good way to get feedback on a work before I try and make it into physical copies>>25476216I’m sorry you feel that way. My other series (that is completed) does not have a coomer cover. Maybe you would prefer that one?>>25476224I just did no cover, and then I added a cover
>>25476076Nah, fuck that shit. My opening paragraph is literally, some kid waking up on a boat to the sound of splashing oars. Then he squints at the sun while remembering where he is, before the shadow of an older man steps in front of him and starts talking to him about mundane shit like where they're going and why the kid is on the boat.Then, only after you've got a good idea of where you are, what the time period/aesthetic of the story is, and who at least a couple of these characters are (I don't even give you their names; they're just 'the boy' and 'the man'), does the older guy start talking about fantasy shit; pointing out that they might now *just* be close enough for the boy to see their famous out-to-sea landmark; a giant fucking vortex of magical energy that extends upwards into the sky and downwards to the bottom of the ocean, being surrounded by a massive whirlpool that spells certain death for any ship that comes too close. And, that's right kid; that you can see the vortex from this far away and in the middle of the day confirms that 'yer a wizard 'arry, etc. and so on.Whenever a book, or whatever story, starts blasting me in the face with proper nouns in the first few paragraphs, I just stop reading. If the whole first page is basically incomprehensible to a new reader, that's just fucking retarded. If you ask me.
>>25475337>>25475715just gave you a 0.5 star rating :^)
>>25476255It's impressive how much "I don't read" you packed into your wall of text post. You didn't read my post at all and apparently don't read web novels, either.Never at me again.
>>25476231>I just did no cover, and then I added a coveryeah makes senseno way that passes normally
>chrome just updated on android and stole a thumb's worth of vertical screenspace for fucking nothingRuined my j-novel club reading experience in the middle of reading and I immediately gave up on chrome entirely. Moved all my tabs to brave, which I'm not thrilled with, and I finally tried the app. Not being able to open tabs for different stories sucks, so I won't be sticking with the app long term.I fucking hate web devs so much.
>>25476231>I just did no cover, and then I added a coverHah! I knew it would work. Congrats man. I suffer from the same fetish, so I->first chapter is mainly about men and only one possibly sexy womanBUaBS. BUaBS, what're you doing. I like the twist at the end of the first chapter but seriously.
>>25476305Read the next chapter. And then the chapter atter that. And then chapter 4– I think you will be pleased
>5 stories I liked are on indefinite hiatus>one story is on break>only two stories updating, and I'm caught upI need something to tide me over
>>25476380
>>25476386Not sure I'm ready for 3rd re-read.
>>25476386I hate that I knew what this was from the thumbnail.
whys it called mother of learning if its about a guy
>>25476380see >>25470263
>>25476396https://www.google.com/search?q=whys%20it%20called%20mother%20of%20learning%20if%20its%20about%20a%20guy
>>25475820I told him ages ago he should prioritize the rule of cool instead of being a big chicken, but guess he got too successful to listen
>>25476396Repetition is the mother of learning. You know, and the guy it's about is stuck in a time loop, repeating the same few months over and over again. And he learns a bunch of magic. Get it?
>>25476411Which is ironic as Zorian's learning is accelerated not because he has a lot of time, but because he can steal knowledge and cheat others out of their experiences.
>>25476016No, maybe check back in another five years.
>>25476424
>>25475820Would you want to get yourself killed a bunch of times to get stronger? Do you even lift, bro? And the progression being slow and measured is actually good, I personally don't like OP protagonists. Him having to work for it is good. So I get why that is, both from an in-character and a meta perspective. But gravity not working how it's supposed to, well, there's no reason for it. It's one of the fundamental forces of the universe, and wanting your MC to dodge projectiles while traveling through the air on a ballistic trajectory is not a good reason to fucking ignore it. He could have just as well put a jet talisman or whatever on his spear instead.
>>25476431>Would you want to get yourself killed a bunch of times to get stronger?
>>25476427litrpg is a type of progression. All litrpg are progression but not all progression are litrpg. It's still mostly the same meta, the anon I replied want's something else entirely which will never happen.
>read new interesting crafting-focused story>its just standard fighter MC who just happens to do bit of crafting on the sideEvery. Fucking. Time.
>>25476483no such thing as an interesting crafting storyhence all the popular ones lie about it being a crafting storysounds fun, but isnt fun
>>25476431>Would you want to get yourself killed a bunch of times to get stronger? Not really, but neither do I want to read about a pathetic wimp who does nothing interesting. Fiction is all about exploring things that aren't normally possible
>>25476490I really need to write one myself.Thinking trap-making MC with metal-shaping and engineering classes. Uses steam power to build himself a fortress surrounded by traps. Has a diviner romantic interested / partner.
>>25476483>nerd crafterI'm willing to write this.
>>25476497What class(es) / skills / perks would it have?Or something non-LitRPG?
>>25476483There's The Mech Touch was is mostly about designing mechs and running the business surrounding it. Problem is it's on web novel so written in the chink wn style of glacial pacing and repetition to pad out chapter count.
>>25475640You're honestly not the first to complain about this. It's been a long time since high school physics and I can't even blame the editor for that one. I'll rewrite it to be a propulsion mechanism instead to allow him to avoid the blast, as proposed.Thanks for all the feedback, by the way.
>>25476508Are you going to address the negative review that said murim is "Korean cultivation"?
>>25476511I don't address reviews, good or bad, so no.
>>25476431 Didn't he commit suicide 10000 times just to go back in time? It makes sense that everytime he meets a sovereign he would spend a few loops provoking them and getting killed in order to get something good
>>25476500It would be non-LitRPG progression.
>>25476564So a slow burn as MC learns the crafting?
>>25476302>I fucking hate web devs so much.Rest assured that we hate ourselves too, anon.
>>25476431The latest chapters with an old master are good. Good comedy, the dynamic between an unruly student and an old mentor is really nice, well done!
>>25476495plot twist - MC himself is a trap
>>25476259Thanks anon.
>>25476197>(I have an attractive women fetish)Do you like bunnysuits?
>>25476197>>25476707Offtopic>>>/out/
What will make readers on RR more inclined to read a magical girl story?
>>25476732Make them gay
>>25476732Good charactersGood storyGood mechanics
>>25476707I do. I like cow bikinis more though
>>25476732Like >>25476751 said, execution is key for any story. For example I'm not a fan of magical girl stories but I'm really enjoying https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120649/
>>25476732Most people just don't care about cringe anime trash like that except trannies
>>25476732I don't read female stories.
>>25476637I didn't say it'd be slow.Your choice if he's in a world of magic.But he'll be an engineer and material scientist thrown into a semi-academia fantasy world.
>1+1=2>?-1=1Bruuuuh, was it ever revealed what is "?" That came out of nowhere! I'm so confused now!
>>25476829? = 10
>>25476427I get that first chapters are often the worst but I tried reading Sublight Drive and it just has a boring start.
>read chinese wn>mc uncritically regurgitates mao’s little red book>drop the wn>repeatwhy do chinks do thisat this point the only chinese wns i haven’t dropped are the taiwanese ones
>>25476875you've read mao’s little red book?
>>25476497>>25476483I already am writing this. This gives me a lot of motivation. Hopefully my other autistic obsessions don't kill the appeal. >>25476197I had a lot of fun with this. You got a five star rating from me. My only suggestion is to put slightly more detailed description, and maybe variety, into the women's outfits because that is my personal autistic fixation, especially her boots LOL.
Mods got mad at me and told me to censor the cover. Added a title (five thousand years in MS Paint) >>25476884I am a huge boots guy, but honestly for me it's all about long gloves
>>25476933I reported your novel :^)Be glad I didn't give you a 0.5 star rating :^^^)
>>25476935Okay, thank you
>>25476933We can't have anything nice in this gay gynocracy hell hole of a prison planet.Have you considered crossposting to other sites that are less retarded? Maybe even AO3.
>>25476957I was under the impression that AO3 was mostly a fanfiction site
>>25476969It is by custom, but not my law. People can and do post original works there. Their main thing is that they're super free speech / free expression. Now they're that way primarily, but not solely, because they host works of erotic fiction with content like child sex, child rape, violent rape, mental abuse, etc and the community is desperate to keep the site up to keep being served that gross content.This of course drives away most people because they don't want their content associated with that stuff, but it's not like more wholesome stories are against the rules there. Personally I only don't post there because I have no idea how discoverability even mechanically works over there. I can't figure out the tagging and filter system to find /my/ preferred degenerate disgusting gross reading material, so I have no idea how to position my story to gain traction there.
>>25476933>I am a huge boots guy, but honestly for me it's all about long glovesBarely concealed author fetish? I'm thinking based.For me it's maids.
>>25477015>have deep and intricate maid lore in the story>nothing but extremely subtle hints until like chapter 300I need to learn to stop burying the lede.
for me its ears
>>25476977>the community is desperate to keep the site up to keep being served that gross content.I seriously don't know why they don't nuke them like FFN did>I can't figure out the tagging and filter system to find /my/ preferred degenerate disgusting gross reading materialwhat is wrong with you?just look for the tags most people use and put them in your ficand the search engine is dead simple to use and very comprehensiveI'd kill to have a Google search engine as easy to use as the AO3 one is
im all ears
>>25476977>I have no idea how discoverability even mechanically works over therelast updated is showed at the top of a search.It is NOT social media, there is no algorithm to serve people content. As the name says it is an archive.There's also no tag "system", you can write whatever you want as a tag and put in as many as you want. Which means people will use multiple tags for the same thing. There's tons of tags not used for searchability but simply as a second description. Its a mess.
for me it's teeth
I'm into voices which makes this a difficult medium for me, personally.
Not a web novel, but I've been push out a serialized write-up of MMO design articles this week.
>>25476882yes, it’s quite easy to find random quotations of it and mao in mainlander slop
>>25476875Name it
>>25477057There's like 5 different versions of dead dove now because nobody uses it correctly
>>25476884>I already am writing this.I'm curious about your approach. If it's not to my liking, I'll utilize my own autism.
>>25476732Do whatever Magical Girl Gunslinger did but then don't abandon the story
>>25476732>>25476775>>25477346I'm just going to write my magical girl story where the magical girls get ryona'd and raped by actual demons from hell and the world goes to shit.
How to write an MMO mechanics into a web novel? I'm looking for common MMO game mechanics that can be translated to fiction.
>>25477512Most of the easy stuff was already done like inventory, levels, classes, teleport nodes, quests, guilds, loot drops and instanced dungeons. The remaining stuff like threat/aggro, animation cancelling and GCD are just dumb when you try to translate it into a written form.
>>25477512Play them to understand them. Same with isekai and litrpg. Read them to understand them.
>>25477546funniest fucking thing about litrpg and D&D ripoff novels is nobody understands how to pace out power and keep it interesting
>>25472089Apothecary Diaries was the only Japanese light novel I could find, rest were Chinese and cultivation specifically. It's good but it is extremely expository and tells you how exactly what is and will happen just in the first chapter. It's very good but my writing friend's would probably hate it and I'm mixed if I should double down or not.>>25472451>>25473265Spice and Wolf sadly wasn't at the nearest bookstore but maybe it's in ones a bit further away. Ultimately I've just been reading James Patterson and I forgot how fast reading is when you're reading books you actually enjoy and not just because you feel like you have work so I'm able to begin writing again already.
>>25477583It's not that people don't understand. It's that those who do understand and actually write it don't get big success, in most cases (exceptions include Faraway Paladin but even that is basically OPMC). It's much easier and more consistent to get good numbers with pure OPMC from the start or "weak to strong" that really gets to the strong part fast.
How to give your MC a rival without making it gay?
>>25477650agree on that one. readers are hypocrites and are unable to wait for an actual weak-to-strong MC and their rotted attention spans are to blame.
>>25477787>weak to strong 500 chapter novel>mc weak for 499 chapters>finally gets strong at the end of chapter 500No thanks.
>>25477815the gu wills it to be that way,
>>25477821RI doesn't have that problem See >>25472682
>>25477650I did enjoy for example how the MoL mc was never the strongest at brute forcing magic, Zack and a few old experienced characters outclassed him even at the end, but yeah most readers and most writers are cattle and deserve each other. That said I think it's more that in progression stories the MC needs to be strong for what most people expect is his level and experience, not challenging the strongest beings in the setting as soon as possible. Mostly no one wants to read about a complete nobody for a large part of the story.
>>25477832For as much as /wng/ rags on chinks they get this perfectly right. Cultivator MCs can always humble the arrogant young master or take down the rampaging monster but they have to keep their talents hidden from the old monsters and sect elders until they're strong enough. Then eventually they get strong enough to bring heavenly tribulations on themselves.
>>25477872Chinese stuff tends to start well with the protagonist outwitting higher ranked foes but then turn into OP protag or functionally OP protag where they're supposed to be overmatched but win fights anyway.Also has the problem that it's just more boring once everyone's flying around on empty battlefields throwing big magic attacks at each other.
>>25476933Where/who do you get your art from? It doesn't look like ai
>>25477976It does look like AI just with some good photoshop skills.
>big hiatus announcement from a big magical girl authorI wish her well. Writing is hard and dealing with negative feedback and not getting the success needed to live off writing is tough.I know I wouldn't be able to do it if I had to deal with financial pressure. I can barely handle people inviting me out to social events regularly without crashing out.
>>25478034Ahh that would make sense. The composition seemed too intentional.
>>25476732do what Nowhere Stars is doing but don't actually have a real-life illness that prevents you from writing regularly mahou shoujo is dead to the younger crowd
>>25478119didnt realize we were on page 10uhhhh last for magical girls!
baking
>>25478191>>25478191>>25478191
>>25477512Play fucking MMOs you retard.I'm tired of "writers" writing shit that they've never played because it's "popular" and "I want to write this too!"
