[a / b / c / d / e / f / g / gif / h / hr / k / m / o / p / s / t / u / v / vg / vm / vmg / vr / vrpg / vst / w / wg] [i / ic] [r9k / s4s / vip] [cm / hm / lgbt / y] [3 / aco / adv / an / bant / biz / cgl / ck / co / diy / fa / fit / gd / hc / his / int / jp / lit / mlp / mu / n / news / out / po / pol / pw / qst / sci / soc / sp / tg / toy / trv / tv / vp / vt / wsg / wsr / x / xs] [Settings] [Search] [Mobile] [Home]
Board
Settings Mobile Home
/lit/ - Literature


Thread archived.
You cannot reply anymore.


[Advertise on 4chan]


Slopper's Forbidden Precepts Edition

Stubbed >>25526063

>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/116847

On 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_Dls0B5GiE2oMcLY

Recommended web novels
rentry.co/d2yvczro

Anon's guide to success
rentry.co/RRBasicGuide

FAQ
rentry.co/pytefpxn
>>
File: IMG_6741.jpg (94 KB, 400x600)
94 KB JPG
Am I the only person that didn't find this funny?
>>
>>25534464
i didn't read it
>>
>>25534464
you're the only person in this thread who read it
>>
>>25534464
you're the only person in this thread
>>
>>25534464
embarrassing that these ads actually work on "people"
>>
>>25534491
>ads
That's the actual cover of volume one
>>
>>25534490
No, that's me.
>>
>>25534414
>>Why write web novels?
The correct answer is because you enjoy writing them. Unless you live in some extreme low COL country, your chance of making even minimum wage is miniscule. Plus, catering your wn to popular tropes and the meta is miserable.
The only conceivable way of making real money through wns is buy mass spamming them using AI. I have seen some smut wns on scribblehub with over 20 patreon subscribers that are so AI-generated that they didn't even bother to change the names. (Elara? Ava Bennett? Elena Voss? Castanellos?) If you do that on multiple accounts you could make a living, but at that point you're not really writing WNs are you?
>>
>>25534618
>The correct answer is because you enjoy writing them.
eh, yes, but that's the reason you write in general
the reason you write web novels in particular is ease of access and that it's probably the best way for someone who isn't super experienced to pick up readers and an audience. tradpub is brutal
>The only conceivable way of making real money through wns is buy mass spamming them using AI.
it's pretty bleak these days but i wouldn't go this far.
>>
>>25534618
>Plus, catering your wn to popular tropes and the meta is miserable.
Idk. Some of them are fun if you keep an open mind and embrace your inner autistic 13 year old. I actually like litrpg if it's done well.

Also the seethe from normie writoids who want RR money but hate the audience is hilarious.
>>
>>25534643
>if it's done well.
No shit, you donkey.
>>
File: 1755624598092243.jpg (78 KB, 736x483)
78 KB JPG
>>25521133
>is it progression?
No
>is it some boring shit?
Maybe
>multi-pov?
Nope
>cuck mc?
Weirdly specific to ask, but no
>boring scifi?
Fantasy
>romance slop?
Only women write those
>is it good?
I hope so
>describe it
MC gets tricked into entering a labyrinth and the story follows his journey there, meeting its eccentric inhabitants, fighting some and looking for the exit to take revenge on the man who trapped him there. (Sorry if I'm being vague, I don't want the local schizo to add my story to his list)
>>
>>25534823
post your novel in this thread and I'll give it 0.5 stars
>>
>>25534823
>MC gets tricked into entering a labyrinth and the story follows his journey there, meeting its eccentric inhabitants, fighting some and looking for the exit to take revenge on the man who trapped him there. (Sorry if I'm being vague, I don't want the local schizo to add my story to his list)
ok well does it have David Bowie
>>
Ever notice how yuropoor hours are all off topic threads, bait, and video games
>>
>>25534843
So which one are you?
>>
>>25534843
wrong
>>
Another thing yuropoors do is make low effort lazy replies to misleadingly string conversation along. It's a dead continent full of lonely dying people.
>>
Nigga how do you counteract feeling like you're actually becoming worse?
>>
>>25534871
By reminding yourself that feelings are just that, feelings. Looking back on past work with objectivity will either make you feel better about how far you've come or make you think of something you can improve. If you wrote at a higher level once, you can do it again. The only thing you should ever fear is mindless stagnation.
>>
>MC gets isekai'd and creates a harem from slavegirls.
Why isn't this premise done?
>>
>>25534871
You don't. You trust the fucking process and keep going and then re-read a week or more later and realize "oh, it's not that bad". I have absolutely hated writing something that, upon re-read, turns out to be among the best stuff I've written. On the same vein, sometimes I get really into a scene and when I go back to check on it later it's a barely comprehensible mess of ideas of an overinspired mind understanding itself too well to properly translate into a page.
>>
>>25534942
Because the only cultures that are into this kind of thing feel the need to either launder it through half assed "he frees them and they stay" BS or tack on mind control.
Straight played slavery is shockingly rare.
>>
Is magic academy and/or OP mage sloppa still meta or have things moved on?
>>
>>25534942
Who told you it hasn't been done?
>>
>reading Sky Pride
>let's have a chapter that focuses on Liren receiving some caligraphy training from another female daoist and Tian gets butthurt, causing another wave of crashing PTSD
ok

y'know, this is six books in but I was hoping Tian would have been a much more ruthless hard-boiled character given his origin.
>>
>>25535166
"character development" in these novels is a lot more about becoming a cuddlebug than it is about becoming ruthless
>>
>>25535166
>read sky gay
>everything is fucking gay
who could've seen this coming
>>
>>25535166
what's with the fucking effeminate obsession with PTSD, trauma and therapy. Is this an American thing? I don't think even the majority of participants in frequent high-exposure combat scenarios get PTSD.
>>
>>25535202
This may be shocking to hear anon but some people experience unfortunate poor upbringings and/or are born into complete misfortune. At the moment, suicide rates among the youth are the highest they have been since 1994.
>>
>>25535219
I miss the days when we dealth with PTSD by writing fictional characters engaging in self-destructive habits
>>
>>25535202
>Is this an American thing?
it's an Anglo thing
>I don't think even the majority of participants in frequent high-exposure combat scenarios get PTSD.
George Macdonald Fraser was very dismissive of the notion

and if you read what vets actually had to say, if anything, they got more PTSD from returning to their countries and realising that their sacrifices are unappreciated, or indeed, hated
one of the most common complaints vets made was that the people back home would argue over the pettiest bullshit, and the vets felt that this diminished the actual conflict they experienced
this is spun in the psych literature (which is overwhelmingly leftist) as being "disconnected from the world around them", which is simply their way of saying "it's not me, it's you"
all the femoids you see out there talking about muh PTSD muh therapy, especially with regard to Vietnam War and Iraq 2.0 vets, conveniently ignore the fact that much of the actual emotional trauma was caused by them and their leftist anti-war heroes calling those vets "baby killers" and "fighting for oil and profits" and unpersoning them socially in the best of Marxist tradition

unrelated to combat PTSD,
>trauma and therapy
are the excuses that 21st century women are trotting out to excuse their terrible behaviour and inability to cope with reality
which is that much of the "trauma" they cite is borne with less complaint by men, and by all the far stronger women of the past before them

and as for therapy, most of it is either drugging their brains rather than fixing their problems, which would require actually changing themselves; or basically paid emotional support from a rented individual who can play friend or family or father figure - you know, the kind of relationship that 21st century feminists cut off from their lives and suddenly find themselves missing.
in effect, much of modern therapy is emotional prostitution and medically-approved drug abuse.

hence you can see intuitively that it benefits them greatly to hype up the magnitude of their "trauma", because it gives them more excuses; and to hype up the benefits of "therapy", because they need to paint their patronage of emotional support prostitutes in the best possible light.
the alternative is admitting they are weak, and wrong for disdaining family and friends
>>
>>25535219
Unfortunate poor upbringings and complete misfortune don't cause suicide.
>>
>>25535260
>people suffering from poor upbringings and complete misfortune do not kill themselves
I see.
>>
>>25535253
>>25535202
p.s. hence the importance of the "men will do anything rather than go to therapy" meme; they MUST mock the ability of men to function and overcome their emotional problems and improve themselves by other means, because not doing so would shine a spotlight on why those women cannot function without "therapy" because of their "trauma"
>>
>>25535202
> Around 70% of people globally will experience a potentially traumatic event during their lifetime (1), But only a minority (5.6%) will go on to develop PTSD (2). An estimated 3.9% of the world population has experienced PTSD at some point in their lives (2). The likelihood of developing PTSD varies depending on the type of traumatic event experienced. For example, rates of PTSD are more than three times (15.3%) higher among people exposed to violent conflict or war (3). PTSD rates are especially high following sexual violence (1).
> Up to 40% of people with PTSD recover within one year (1).
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/post-traumatic-stress-disorder
>>
>>25535242
Meet John Isekai. An SSS Rank barbarian betrayed by his guide and left for dead. Now he's back, and XP isn't the only thing he's got an axe to grind.
They took everything from him. His level. His loot. And most importantly, his mount.
"Every night, I close my eyes and hear them laughing over the corpse of my horse."
"This time, I'll be the only one laughing."
>>
>>25535289
>There has been too much violence. Too much pain. None here are without sin. But I have an honourable compromise. Just walk away. Give me your farm, the oats, the hay, the whole compound, and I will spare your lives. Just walk away. I will give you safe passage in the wasteland. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror.
>Jittery John: Equus Expressway
>>
Reading any good WN or LN recently? Any good translated Japanese light novels? I was thinking to read Ryogoh Narita’s books, Durarara, Baccano, etc., but I learned all of them are incomplete stories.
>>
>>25535310
I am reading the audiobook of Bog Standard Isekai currently. 4 stars.
I am also reading Are You Even Human. The female author is kind of annoying, but it's 4 stars so far.
>>
>>25535310
I've been reading Path of the Deathless. I'm gonna have to collect my thoughts in a broader review, I think. It's not bad, necessarily, but it's got a bunch of problems that by all rights should have turned me off. I appreciate some of the things it's doing, though.
>>
File: img-2026-09-16-16-01-10.png (101 KB, 2100x680)
101 KB PNG
>>25535325
it's shit
>>
>>25535219
>>but some people experience unfortunate poor upbringings and/or are born into complete misfortune
>some people's life are hell
Yeah, but people are pathologically OBSESSED with it, projecting it unto everything. You could have any other or classical approach to an issue or harrowing experience but we're at the point where stubbing your toe brings out that a character must cope with this immense trauma and subsequent PTSD experience with therapy. Me yuropoor cannot afford these types of medical expenses so do not want to read about this cuck fetish.

>>25535253
At this point I can almost believe this anglo/american brainwashing to be the cause along with women being more anxiety prone, ie. trauma, PTSD and therapy.

>>25535268
>"men will do anything rather than go to therapy" meme; they MUST mock the ability of men to function and overcome their emotional problems and improve themselves by other means, because not doing so would shine a spotlight on why those women cannot function without "therapy" because of their "trauma"
>ability of men to function and overcome their emotional problems and improve themselves by other means
See this is actually more interesting to read about.

>>25535286
>>70% of people globally will experience a potentially traumatic event during their lifetime
>during their LIFETIME
This is what I mean, they are obsessed by something that does not occupy huge mental bandwidth of a normal person.
>For example, rates of PTSD are more than three times (15.3%) higher among people exposed to violent conflict or war (3)
So not even average Joe in /wn/ wouldn't get PTSD unless you have a cuck fetish.
>> Up to 40% of people with PTSD recover within one year (1).
Wew

>>25535242
>I miss the days when we dealth with PTSD by writing fictional characters engaging in self-destructive habits
This is honestly more interesting to read about than therapy coping. You could choose any other coping mechanism or way of dealing with the problem over therapy-shit which usually as written does very little to tackle the actual reality of the problem. Hell even just carrying the burden and sometimes getting shit wasted and waxing poetic is more interesting.
>>
so much bitching about psychiatry in this thread it's like I'm at a scientology convention
>>
>>25535340
good goys should shut up and be grateful that they were born into the loosh farm amirite
>>
>>25535340
>you can't just criticise psychiatry BECAUSE YOU JUST CAN'T OKAY
>>
>>25535334
forgot pic related
>>25535253
also forgot to say I appreciate the effort post
>>
>>25535202
>Is this an American thing?
Yes. It's hilariously absurd. Reading online comments, whatever the story, the first thing these people are interested in is "what is this character's trauma?" Everything the fictional people do is explained through some kind of psychological disorder, as if they were real to begin with. Everyone is by default treated as a victim who needs to be helped and healed, whatever their reasons and motivations. But what can you expect from people who have been fed fluoride and meds all their lives and had their dicks mutilated as a baby?
>>
>>25534414
>Running your story like the business it is:
www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/116847
Has anyone ever read this guys story ? I am going through his first "book" and it fucking sucks
>>
>>25535379
>had their dicks mutilated as a baby
kek, this might explain the trauma
>>
>>25535388
You are correct there and that is an entirely separate RABBIt hole should you choose to go down it. ;)
>>
>>25535289
absolute cinema
>>
>>25535385
if it fucking sucks and he still made it, then he must be really good at making money then
>>
>>25535385
that his books suck and he makes so much money is proof of his strategy
>>
>>25535392
>>25535397
we're twins
>>
>>25535385
keep seething
>>
>>25535397
He's the WN version of that guy who became a millionaire by writing a book How to Become a Millionaire
>>
>>25535402
uh not at all? weird as hell comparison. that's a free forum post anon
he made millions through his fiction not that forum post
>>
>>25535405
And his forum post being shared everywhere on the internet harder than the bible never directed any traffic to his work, no sir
>>
>>25535411
you are delusional buddy, only authors care about that shit and 99.9% of readers are not authors
it has 70k total views. he made it AFTER blowing up
what even is this cope? one of the craziest I've ever seen
>>
>>25535415
You're a fucking idiot
>>
>>25535417
I can't believe people like you exist lol
>>
>unsuccessful author whines about successful author
many such cases
>>
>>25535411
The forum post being shared in all web novel communities is because he's such a major name in the web novel community. You have the cause and effect backwards
>>
More things about Sky Pride book 6:
This city war with the shamans and spirits and shieeeet seems mostly outta nowhere, as if the author outlined an entire book as "I want to slice of life and worldbuild!" While I am thinking about it, there is some irony about how the book teaches daoists to not "breathe the mortal air" and get caught up in mortal affairs but now I'm supposed to care about a book-long arc involving a mortal city.
Other anon was right about MC's femininity. Now I'm noticing the absurd emphasis on being a yin man. I don't care for all the tea either. Or the not-funny MC pretending to be a wise senior with the way he stands and talks to juniors.
Mayhaps I'll go back to my fantasy novel for now although I'm at the part with Tian and Liren chucking rocks at birds so things may move soon.
>>
>>25535417
You were raped by him
>>
>>25535417
concession accepted
>>
To the cultivators: hello!
>>
why did /wg/ get deleted? usually that's happening to us not them
>>
>>25535202
>PTSD
People are soft these days and writing anything interesting requires they deal with hard things. PTSD can be expected.
>Trauma
Well I personally HAVE trauma and it's going to come out whether I mean it to or not. Deal with it. At least my characters overcome their traumas, eventually.
>therapy
lmao that shit's gay won't find it in my stories. At most a mentor will come in and do some face slapping and make people sack up.

>what about everyone else though
(Western) Colleges propagate it like a social contagion.
>>
>>25535450
I can only imagine that /wg/'s OP got nuked for some unrelated sperging and the /wg/ was just collateral
>>
>>25535109
Not a harem
>>25535041
I guess that's true. That means there's a gap in the market!
>>
>>25535456
what was the OP?
>>
Brandon Sanderson's college lectures made him famous
So did Stephen King's book on writing
The takeaway is to write a guide on web novels and rake in free millions
>>
>>25535468
OP is raking in $8k/month reposting his starter link collection
>>
>>25535202
Modern westerners think that therapy solves all problems because it makes them feel good.
They also think that anyone going through a traumatic situation will suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.
>>
>>25535462
I meant, the anon who posted the OP might have gone sperging somewhere and gotten all his posts nuked
>>
>>25535482
Oh very likely then, the OP over there is a nutcase. I'm surprised it hasn't happened more
>>
>>25535402
I mean, the Rich Dad Poor Dad guy recently declared bankruptcy.
>>
>>25535490
Kiyosaki was always a lying hack
for years he claimed that his Dads were real people and he was describing entirely real transactions
then someone actually looked up his claims and did the phenomenal research involved in finding out, from the timeframes, descriptions, and transactions in his book, who the Rich Dad could be, and found none, of course
it was all made up
then Kiyosaki changed his claims to say that he was describing the "spirit" of certain people and what they did. but he never apologised for the early claims.

good riddance.
>>
>>25535427
>Other anon was right about MC's femininity.
>Now I'm noticing the absurd emphasis on being a yin man.
Did someone specifically say it in a previous thread or did you mean my deduction of
>Mention PTSD, trauma or therapy? Dropped.
Do you have any specific example of his femininity? Tea doesn't really have to be effeminate, but it does go hand in hand with Anglos.
>>
File: Spoiler Image (64 KB, 736x755)
64 KB
64 KB JPG
all webnovels can be made a lot better by having yuri in them
>>
>>25535454
Trauma is just one of the horsemen here, I do not really care about it either way. Someone getting shell shocked from a harrowing experience? Could be great. Doing full on overbearing arcs about dealing with Trauma? Fuck outta here. We want some interesting flavor not forced drama where character hold the idiot ball to force plot points.
>At most a mentor will come in and do some face slapping and make people sack up.
Yes and after we might see the issue portrayed by flavoring not full force driver of cuck drama.
>>
>>25535602
<3
>>
>>25535253
Mental retardation
>>
>>25535479
>Modern westerners think that therapy solves all problems because it makes them feel good.
>They also think that anyone going through a traumatic situation will suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.
Yes, it is such an incredibly shallow view of life and even more incredibly dull to read about.
I can't understand their fascination with speculating about this shit in the comments on web novels either and as you mentioned any minor trauma is immediately associated with now it must be PTSD. What the fuck are they smoking.
>>
>>25535468
During a gold rush, the man who sells shovels if the one that gets rich.
>>
>>25535620
They're the same people who go around to all manga sites out there, leaving comments like "she looks like a child omg!" and "She's his step-mother's second cousin, that's incest eww!" but still read every chapter
>>
>>25535652
Will Pajeets save us all from the eternal Anglo?
>>
>>25535650
Especially the ones selling free shovels!
>>
>>25535590
>Did someone specifically say it in a previous thread
Yes lol someone replied to a post of mine talking about Sky Pride and effeminate male main character is the author's thinly veiled fetish.
>>25520748
>>
Adding a russian guy in my WN just so I can tag it for having yuri in it and tripling my readerbase
>>
>Shiv had experience with these people. They were the ones who were never satisfied, the ones who were addicted to rage and strife of a social variety, the ones who wanted to tear another down to bleed them publicly and ruin them financially.

>Unknown to these wolves, Shiv had plenty of vicarious experience watching Georges deal with such cretins, and he'd participated in some of those experiences as well. After cordially accepting and deeply apologizing to the orcs in public, he returned to the kitchen, infused a new batch of upgraded ingredients with a set of echoes, and made a specially prepared version of the Manifold Orc Meatballs for the orcish food critics.

>At first, the new echoes resented Shiv for infusing them in his shit, but when he explained to them what he wanted to do, they suddenly went from outraged to overly enthusiastic. They cooked themselves as best they could, hardening into little pellets and hiding within the meatballs. They were spread out enough that it would take more than a few chews for the offending guest to realize what was condensing around their gums. The critics failed to realize they were nursing their lips on fecal matter, and their demands grew more and more outrageous. They requested additional meaningful meatballs delivered then, promptly, and for free, even though the orcs were already eating for free anyway. Then they started complaining about the marrow tasting like marrow, the gristle being too stringy, and the lean meats being too lean and buttery.

>That was also when the orc snob who'd started it finally realized there was an added aspect to his meal. He inhaled a mouthful of shit, and he began choking and gagging.

>Shiv immediately accused the orcs of ruining their own palate due to their shit-chewing skills, and he took the offensive as his Sage of the Enkindled Heart guided him. The beautiful thing about slander was that it had little to do with truthfulness or rhetorical genius; it had everything to do with aggression and static statements. The more one explained, the poorer one was at slander. The more one explained, the worse one was at defending themselves.

>As the various critics began gagging and retching from all the shit they'd had consumed, Shiv decided to strike the initiative. He continued accusing them of being saboteurs at his business. He told them that the other orcs had clean mouths, that they were without shit between their teeth, and that these orcs must have had some kind of sick fetish to indulge in scat-play so publicly.

why do I do this to myself
>>
>>25535778
>>Shiv had experience with these people. They were the ones who were never satisfied
This is the point where you should stop reading but I'll continue just for you anon.
>the ones who were addicted to rage and strife of a social variety, the ones who wanted to tear another down to bleed them publicly and ruin them financially.
Women?
>Unknown to these wolves, Shiv had plenty of vicarious experience watching Georges deal with such cretins, and he'd participated in some of those experiences as well.
Yep
>After cordially accepting and deeply apologizing to the orcs in public, he returned to the kitchen, infused a new batch of upgraded ingredients with a set of echoes, and made a specially prepared version of the Manifold Orc Meatballs for the orcish food critics.
What the fuck am I reading.

>At first, the new echoes resented Shiv for infusing them in his shit, but when he explained to them what he wanted to do, they suddenly went from outraged to overly enthusiastic. They cooked themselves as best they could, hardening into little pellets and hiding within the meatballs.
What the fuck kinda gay shit are you reading anon?
>>
does no one here write halfway decently and non-insane shit?
>>
>>25535602
Nah. Even the best mahou shoujo on RR has no yuri.
>>
>>25535253
based post, anglos hate hearing truths though
>>
What are gu??
>>
>>25535791
>What the fuck kinda gay shit are you reading anon?
>https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/122502/path-of-the-deathless-book-3-stubbed/chapter/3109700/304-i-to-break-a-curse-i
I will remind you that this has nearly 10k followers. He makes around €3.8k / $4.4k a month.
>>
>>25535871
>https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/122502/path-of-the-deathless-book-3-stubbed/chapter/3109700/304-i-to-break-a-curse-i
Story alone is proof that the only thing holding anons back is a lack of any real dedication. Even if the most upvoted comments are all low stars, you can't beat the hoard of powerslop enjoyers
>>
>>25535871
>https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/122502/path-of-the-deathless-book-3-stubbed/chapter/3109700/304-i-to-break-a-curse-i
>stubbed
dropped
>But that's ultimately a good thing for Shiv, because where most find the end of their stories in death, he will discover only power. After all, how scary is a dangerous world when death is so nutritional?
is this the (de)evolution of time-loop/regression?
>>
>>25535804
Yeah but when they post it they get hit with 5+ 0.5 star ratings in about an hour
>>
>>25535804
One of the hardest things in the world is writing normally.
There's something about a blank document that makes people think they're a poet.
I suppose that's why 90% of the writing advice out there is telling people what NOT to write.
>>
>>25534464
The first part of it is decent and doesn't overstay, but the reboot is absolute cringe.
>>
>>25535884
>stubbed
>dropped
is such a funny comment when the author literally moved his work offsite. he doesn't care about the nonpaypiggies like you

>sees price tag
>you're not getting my business then!
...?
>>
>>25535809
>mahou shoujo
>no yuri
lol. lmao
>>
>>25535043
Mushrooms is the new meta. Sporemageddon is top tier.
>>
>>25535929
>is such a funny comment when the author literally moved his work offsite. he doesn't care about the nonpaypiggies like you
so?
I don't care to bother with the series beyond seeing the title, reducing the opportunity for discussion here. I don't care about the thing and the author does not care about me. There were never any business to be had beyond me paying with attention.
>>
Would you tag a story "weak to strong" if the MC starts out weak, but pretty quickly becomes strong? The majority of the story the MC is going to be strong.
>>
>>25536024
probably not
or if yes, make it "Fast Weak to Strong"
>>
>>25536024
Of course. If it takes a while, you have to add "slow burn" warning
>>
>>25536024
The only metric that matters is how long it feels for the reader.

Ballparking but I don't really have a feel for it:
If its sub 10 chapters then just use strong mc.
If it starts approaching 50 chapters then probably weak to strong. But if you can use >>25536025 then do it.
>>
>>25536018
yeah you missed the point
>>
>>25536030
same
>>
>>25535924
You're correct but the reboot being so bad and such a transparent attempt at getting pay piggies is itself fucking hilarious and topical
>>
>>25536030
I'll >>25536032 elucidate my point with a genre as a filter mechanism instead
>author writes cuck shit
>anon shares it in a discussion forum, shows us how shit it is
>cuck shit? dropped, 0.5 stars
>new anon: this is so funny as the author doesn't care about you not liking cuck shit
???
glad you've contributed your funny point
>>
>>25535863
I am gu.
>>
Quick question for RR enjoyers. From the last thread, I was directed to a certain author's work, with the open question being, why is he a rising star? Reading the authors name, I realized that I was listening to a different series by him on audio so I thought duh, he broke out in a different series and so his new one gets a boost. Not so fast. Old series has only four pages of comments. First book of that series has only 32 reviews on Amazon. But Podium signed him and did an audio release. Is this normal? Is the bottom of the barrel THAT competitive, that someone invests thousands on nothing proven? I know nothing about this, if you know how it works, please just lay it out.
>>
Why are so many MCs emotionless robots? Why is it so common?
Is the only way to avoid MCs like this to only read stories with the "romance" or "harem" tag?
Even MLA has the "MC's face is expressionless" quirk that clearly makes the story less interesting.
>>
>>25535332
>>25535325
Are multiple characters quipping or is it just one? People (like myself) make jokes during bad situation all the time as a shield.
For example, I remember my friend being stunned when I made a particularly bad taste joke about my Grandma shortly after her death. It was just my way of dealing with the pain I felt.
>>
>>25536116
I think he's clearly referring to the issue being time sensitive and "standing around quipping" does not read like trying to tackle the problem while quipping
>>
>>25536092
Audio has grown massively in the last few years, especially with the change in Amazon Audible from monthly credits to a unlimited listening and revenue sharing model a la KU. Making an audiobook only costs, as you say, a couple thousand dollars and then it's there on Amazon for the next almost two hundred years making money. It's an excellent value proposition for audible users, especially super users who listen to books at higher speeds just to consume more content.

Like half of all "book" revenue now comes from audiobooks. Turns out humans still like stories they just never really liked all that text on two-dimensional surface bullshit.

The other maybe quarter of the explanation is connections. Publishers ARE kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel, or there are small publishers (Mango Media, etc) who target webnovels explicitly. If you're in the club (the right discords), that's where publishers go first to find new content to license.
>>
>>25536152
Google's AI cleared me up on this, at least partly. Apparently RR's comments are tied to chapters, so when the author stubs them out they disappear. So Podium could have bought into a much bigger user base than is apparent from what is left on the site. Again, not an RR regular, so maybe this is obvious to loyalists.
>>
>>25536158
Yeah, for stubbed series look at average views rather than total views, and followers instead of number of comments. Total number of ratings can also be significant.

It really is just an easy time to get a licensing deal as an independent author. Print on Demand and KU and Audible are just too powerful, and Amazon is doing a fantastic (I think it's horrible) job monopolizing the market of readers.
>>
File: catsipp.gif (359 KB, 140x183)
359 KB GIF
Are weeb stories strictly web novel territory? I have no idea if I wrote a web novel or a real novel. I put too much effort into the prose/plot/etc but under all the fluff its still at its core just a weeb fetish powerscaling story
>>
>>25536161
You would think RR would lean more heavily into being the select rookie league and puff those who have achieved Dao Venerable status with more than a "stubbed" tag. Stubbed is more quiet embarrassed than legitimately prideful.
>>
>>25536180
Web novels are real novels.

>>25536181
Where on earth did you get that impression? Stub has nothing to do with a work's quality. It's a requirement for participation in the KU program. KU requires exclusivity for the content quarter to quarter (so if you go on KU, you have to take down free versions of the story everywhere else for at least an entire three month period).

RR the website is run by complete amateurs who barely know what they're doing. They've spent something like a decade "working on" a native payment method for readers to pay authors without going to paypal or patreon. Please don't read any kind of intentionality into how the site is run.
>>
>>25536180
yes but not really
>>25536181
>Stubbed is more quiet embarrassed than legitimately prideful.
and it should stay that way.
>>
>>25536180
>at its core just a weeb fetish powerscaling story
then yes, it goes on RR
>>
>>25536185
Yes, and that's the rookies writer's progression: RR -> KU -> Audible -> Mainstream
>>
>>25536186
Why? If your sect levels you out of chud tier, shouldn't you and they both get a little boost?
>>
>>25536190
>>25536194
The throghline being - writers, write here and you might be the next x, y or z! Celebrating that rather than taking an L with every stub.
>>
>>25536180
Did somebody say...
WEE-A-BOO!
WEE-A-BOO!
WEE-A-BOO!
>>
>>25536181
>Stubbed is more quiet embarrassed than legitimately prideful.
stubbed is neither that's just your personal baggage
stubbed just mean's it's not all available on the platform anymore
honestly assigning either a positive or negative connotation to that is equally weird. it's a neutral term meaning a neutral thing
>>
>>25535346
>>25535350
Okay, but the fuck does it have to do with webnovels?
>>
whats a good free textpad?
>use onlyoffice
>like to use -- dashes sometimes
>autocorrects these into em dashes
grrr!
i could crack msword again I GUESS but it sure is annoying to have to do it every so often I tell you HWAT
>>
>>25536280
google docs
>>
>>25536280
Hello cutie may I interest you in some free and open source software

https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/emacs/emacs.html
>>
Which setting out of these three do you anons like better:

Cozy standard fantasy
WW1 Lovecraftian grimdark
Cyberpunk
>>
>>25535871
>>25535881
I skimmed some latest Godclads chapters because of this and there's a whole mix of italics and bold and normal, and the fucking Demiurge is fighting someone.
Genuinely a weird series. In a good way, you don't see much like it.
>>25535931
I know, right? femMC doesn't even consider girls and gets flustered when the token hot yaoi boy character talks to her.
>>
>>25536202
That's dumb as hell. Writers are cattle that should be bowing and scraping before readerchads. Expecting us to pay THREE US DOLLARS for their slop deserves to be shamed.
>>
>>25536294
Cyberpunk but purely because it's the lesser evil.
>>
>>25535809
Go read some shitty tradpub romantasy if you want het FMC
>>
>>25536305
I didn't say that in a bad way. I'll keep reading my RR mahou shoujo with a het MC and no romance thanks. Because she's fucking dying.
>>
>>25536294
There's a place for all of them. Personally it would depend on what mood I'm in.
>>
>>25536306
>I'll keep reading my RR mahou shoujo with a het MC
Unironically faggy
>>
>>25536310
>pretend the rest of the post doesn't exist
Faggy.
>>
>>25536294
Cozy Cyberpunk Lovecraftian Grimdark
>>
>>25536294
>>25536314
(You) are a normal human bean.
You live in an apartment complex with comedic human simulacrums of Old Gods.
>>
>>25536317
>>25536314
Kek
>>
>>25536294
Cyberpunk + LitRPG is the perfect combination.
>>
>>25536313
All of your post was faggy, I just highlighted the faggiest part.
>>
File: Haiyore! Nyaruko-san.jpg (76 KB, 736x620)
76 KB JPG
>>25536317
>comedic human simulacrums of Old Gods
It's been done
>>
>>25536327
There's nothing faggy about it, doorknob.
>>
>>25536275
stop putting your characters through muh trauma and therapy in your webnovels, it's foid and gay
>>
>>25536365
is trauma cool without the therapy? just full grimdark torture porn is cool, right guys? suffering builds character
>>
>>25536343
>reading a series with an MC attracted to men
Gay no matter what
>>
>>25536365
Gets in the way of aura farming?
>>
>>25536378
>has terminal illness and lives in hospital
>first boy she ever met who talked to her
>why is this (magical) handsome boy being nice to me?
that was the most that happened.
they later fought and she kicked his ass, making him feel like he was vomiting his intestines.
>>
>>25536373
try not thinking solely in black-and-white fallacies, your personal life would be much better for it.
>>
>>25536396
huh? i was just asking a question
>>
>>25536408
He must be mentally ill
>>
>>25536112
For some reason, people like coolheaded, unfeeling, calculating types. I don't get it.
>>
>>25536229
Anon no one even knows what that refers to anymore.
We are ancient...
>>
>>25536365
You know what's even more gay? When Selkie did it in BTDEM
>oh whoa guys I'm developing trauma!
>I'm suppressing it SO HARD
>this is gonna be bad!
>oh hey someone told me to go to therapy, so I did!
>offscreen!
>I'm getting better guys!
>whoaaaa here's a scene with the therapist and I cried!
>whoaaaa here's another scene of me all better now, except I acknowledge I will still need a therapist basically forever, and you have to be sad I'm losing this relationship that was depicted exactly once!
>it basically never comes up again!
>this is a world with magic btw

To be honest I don't even know what you're complaining about, since nothing I read has therapy nonsense in it. What're you reading, The Wandering Inn? Disgusting. Get some taste.
>>
>raid cannibal's den
>see red more and more as you progress through cave
>killing everybody
>find big bad
>zone the fuck out and torture him to death for so long that your waifu and a band of others sent to find you find you
>lose your waifu
is this trauma?
>>
>>25536112
Because they are shit writers.
>>25536497
The only reason a reader wants or would ever read this is to get away from the usual variety of effeminate MCs, except 12 year old edgelords or asians.
>>
>>25535388
>>25535389
Soil.
>>
>>25536517
I could've sworn you were describing Ward until you mentioned magic.
>>
>>25536549
>>25536517
that's exactly how therapy is portrayed, and not just in webnovels, but also in tradpub romantasy and romance
>>
>>25536551
Is your point that this >>25536517 sounds like an interesting story you would like to read? Then again and again in all it's trashier varieties when done by amateurs as web novels?
>>
>>25536557
sorry, I wasn't clear
my point is that this >25536517 sounds
>foid and gay
>stop putting your characters through muh trauma and therapy in your webnovels
and also don't put it in tradpub, or selfpub, or anything
>>
The fetishization of therapy and mental health in stories is an instant turn off for me. They (Therapy and mental health) are basically buzzwords that tell you something was written by a redditor. You can have people get traumatized and others help them through it, that's fine. The moment a therapist unironically comes up in escapist media like this, bail. An author who does this won't care about immersion or write it well and is just doing it for virtue signal points.
>>
>read webnovel
>mentally ill femc
>author keeps trauma dumping in author notes
>>
>>25536686
Name?
>>
>>25536247
>stubbed just means the author is a greedy kike who suddenly thinks his story is too good to give away for free and locked it away for some extra pennies
fixed
>>
>>25536721
You sound poor and brown.
>>
>>25536733
Is that your best cope, piggie?
>>
>>25536078
What gu are you?
>>
I don’t care about prologues. I don’t care about contexts, backstories, or build ups.
If a book doesn’t showcase the cool stuff that it promises on the cover/title within the first five paragraphs, then I’m not going to read it. Simple as.
And it can’t be one of those in medias res sequence before a lengthy flashback either. Because, again, who gives a shit about generic isekai protag #5743’s cookie cutter backstory?
>>
>>25536497
i too wonder why people dislike emotional simps
>>
>>25536693
the crow and the rabbit
>>
>>25536686
>>25536771
Bioshifter is like that too.
>>
>>25536759
So what do you expect the first few chapters of a book to be?
>>
>>25536759
Five paragraphs is too little. First 5k works is more like it.
>>
>not a single capeshit in the rising stars

Is it dead?
>>
>>25536894
Always had been.
>>
>>25536894
The ends of Invincible and Boku no Hero Academia kind of sated everyone's appetite for dIfFErEnT intErPRetAtIonS of the genre
>>
what the FUCK is a boku?
>>
>>25536956
no pico
>>
>>25536956
Desu~
>>
>>25536956
a MALE baka
>>
>>25536956
it is I
>>
>>25536842
>>25536862
Five paragraphs is already generous. It should be from line one.
Let's say the book is called My New Life in the Sect. The first line should be:
"This will be your home from now on," Master Gu said once we arrived at his mountain.
>My New Life as a Detective
Knock, knock.
"Can I help you?"
"Dead Man's residence? Bruce Sherlock. Private detective."
"Yes… right this way."
>My New Life as a Whore
I eyed the hooded female orc across the room whorishly. More specifically, I eyed the massive bulge in her pants and licked my lips.
"This will be fun."
>>
>>25537101
What are gu?
>>
>>25537101
>My New Life as a Whore
Kek. This has to be a thing already.
>>
>>25537107
It is, it's a manga actually.
>>
>>25537101
While this is true for people with a weak grasp of English prose, I think that for authors with good prose and a sense for poetry, longer introductions that are pleasant to read for the sheer language used to ease the reader into the story. Lord of the Rings, for instance. Tolkein was a really good crafter of sentences. Ditto for most classical authors.

While first sentence hitting the substance and themes of a story is better when you're skimming through twenty open tabs of new novels (or you're reading submitted manuscripts in a publishing house), I think a more fair measure is first chapter in its entirety, within a reasonable length for a first chapter.
>>
File: gay.jpg (73 KB, 1650x93)
73 KB JPG
>>25537105
>>
File: gay.jpg (73 KB, 1650x93)
73 KB JPG
>>25535863
>>
>>25537206
It’s funny how people always go back to Tolkien. Because he really was the only one who pulled it off.
Pick up any pulpy book from the 20s to the 50s, when the plebs actually read for fun, and most of them have faster pacing than books coming out today.
>but muh Lovecraft, muh Clark Ashton Smith
Obscure writers from one obscure magazine that was never that popular before they went public domain and every printing press rushed to reprint their stories for cheap.
Even then, they weren’t actually that slow once you’re used to the wordy sentences. And they definitely didn’t delay getting to the premise.
>The Nameless City
>When I drew nigh the nameless city I knew it was accursed. I was travelling in a parched and terrible valley under the moon, and afar I saw it protruding uncannily above the sands as parts of a corpse may protrude from an ill-made grave. Fear spoke from the age-worn stones of this hoary survivor of the deluge, this great-grandmother of the eldest pyramid; and a viewless aura repelled me and bade me retreat from antique and sinister secrets that no man should see, and no man else had ever dared to see.
>>
File: 1634370731588.gif (521 KB, 500x329)
521 KB GIF
My scheduled drafts this week were such dogshit, fixing them took all my time and I couldn't write any new chapters. Sucks
>>
>tolkien is the only fantasy anybody should read
it's like i'm really on /sffg/!
>>
>>25537295
you're supposed to be writing, George
>>
>>25536280
Obsidian
>>
>>25537300
whom'st've?
>>
>>25536539
Where can I read this?
>>
>>25537107
There's a Japanese WN. It's pretty dumb.
>>
>>25537303
bloated with completely unnecessary "features"
>>
>>25537310
StoryLine plugin is fucking sick. Your missing out.
>>
>>25537310
Not in my experience unless you start grabbing the community plugins. You can also disable most of the core plugins if you like as well. It's literally just a nice visual overlay on your markdown files.
>>
File: IMG_3642.jpg (280 KB, 1125x1030)
280 KB JPG
>>25536280
I don’t use onlyoffice but it took me five seconds to find out how to turn off the auto emdash.
You’re just looking for an excuse to kill time instead of writing, aren’t you?
>>
>>25537312
If you spent the time you waste planning your story and playing with these plugins actually writing, maybe you'd actually get somewhere
>>
>>25537295
Who are you quoting?
>>
>>25537295
Tolkien and Gene Wolfe yeah. MAYBE Brandon Sanderson if you're Mormon.
>>
>>25537368
For years Tolkien was and still is the only fantasy people read, and everyone took the wrong lessons from him.
>>
>>25537360
>>25537286
>>
>>25537286
>When I drew nigh the nameless city I knew it was accursed.
lol
>>
talk about *web* novels, you fucking retards.
authors need to FUCK OFF into their containment thread, nobody wants to hear you whine about how their novel is actually better than the latest #1 trending novel on royalroad.
>>
>>25537413
nobody wants to hear you sperging out either but we're all stuck with each other unfortunately
honestly im way more interested in authors chatting with each other than the banal "omg bugfucking in wandering inn" or "this web novel is cuckshit don't read it" posts
99% of reader posts are just annoying whining
>>
>>25537413
It will be. Once I get around to writing it. Just you wait!
>>
>>25537413
BASED ALERT
AUTHORPIGGIES NEED TO STAY IN THEIR STY
>>
>>25537417
Authors need to stop YAPPING and start WRITING.
We reader expect **DAILY** chappies from now on.
>>
>>25537423
this is a really weird attempt at bait. your posting style makes me uncomfortable
>>
>>25537429
I'm not baiting. Look at royalroad's rising stars, at least half of them are LLM generated. Winnie reader do not give a FUCK about the prose, we only care about daily chappies.
>>
>>25537430
"muh ai covers and meh prose mean le ai writing" retard
>>
>>25537430
RR's rising stars has always been full of total slop. Now its AI slop. Doesn't change much to me desu.
The actual big time successes are still human and that's what I care about.
>>
>>25537431
Put them into pangram and see for yourself

>>25537433
Yeah. That hulking Eldritch knight one is an awesome idea and story (in the big picture sense) but holy fuck is the writing bad. Almost as bad as my own. I gave it 4.5 stars but I couldn't keep reading it.
>>
>>25537441
AI writing generators are universally dogshit, because AI is trained on human writing, so it only really detects what real human style the AI is mimicking.
>>
>>25537444
cope
>>
File: smiling idiot.png (1.35 MB, 848x1200)
1.35 MB PNG
>>25536771
i didn't know I wasn't supposed to do that
>>
>>25537444
You mean detectors? Pangram has an extremely low false positive rate and Slopmongers don't even try to hide what they're doing most of the time.
>>
>>25537446
yes, you sperging about how everything on RS is le heckin AI is a cope
because you're too shit to ever get on RS, you imagine it must be impossible for anyone who isn't extremely fortunate, or has an existing large fanbase, or is using AI for writing
>>
>>25537459
I'm not the AI sperg, I'm the LLM sperg.
Also, I have absolutely no desire to write, I just read.
>>
>>25537459
NTA but I sperg about it because I'm tired of thirdie writoids trying to trick me into writing their low effort incoherent garbage. I haven't written a wn.
>>
>>25537462
*Into reading
>>
>>25537429
>makes me uncomfortable
kys tranny
>>
>>25537318
Why not both? I find codex part quite useful.
>>
File: 1789289512163238.jpg (536 KB, 1399x2048)
536 KB JPG
>>25537374
>have to destroy the central artifact
>tasked with never using the central artifact
>central artifact is in the story from day one
>the superpower of the protagonist is being normal
If LOTR came out today it would be considered a deconstruction.
>>
>>25537475
no u
>>
File: Spoiler Image (42 KB, 312x500)
42 KB
42 KB JPG
>>25537305
https://annas-archive.gl/md5/920276266edae3c2e2be7d09bed4866a?&check=1
the events do happen within book one.
>>
File: 15689579579.jpg (16 KB, 248x216)
16 KB JPG
read a chapter that was so boring I actually fell asleep
can't remember which but it was in Circle of Inevitability
>>
What would Spectral Soul do in this situation?
>>
Ok, fine.

I'll post an extract.

https://pastebin.com/mHfYbaDC
>>
File: kill.png (359 KB, 1056x2036)
359 KB PNG
>>25537684
>>
>>25537688
You're less likely to get useful feedback if you don't explain what kind of feedback you want
>>
>>25537724
I don't really expect to get useful feedback anymore so I'm just posting an extract. I have no reason to do this, I am in actual writing servers. But I posted an extract anyway. Because I am a fool, just like Braun.
>>
>>25536539
kek
>>
Stop writing "arched eyebrows" and all its insipid variations. It's far more grating than "looked skeptically" or whatever if it's all you have. And don't get me started on "quirked".
>>
>>25537734
No, I will continue using those. The alternatives are clunky or conspicuous when they shouldn't be.
>>
>>25537206
Maybe that works for books where you actually went through the trouble of buying it or checking it out of the library and you now hold it in your hand. You'll give it a fair shake and read a few chapters in.
Online and particularly with phone readers if you don't get them interested from the first chapter they'll just back out and look at something else.
>>
>>25537688
The writing is decent but flows a bit odd, you're not managing to catch my interest at all. The dialogue is a bit odd as well. The story in the snippet itself feels lackluster. If you had the same thing but minor enemies 'til he reaches Braun compared to post-battle might have been more interesting. I'd like some more variation in the characterization. You light be doing a little bit too much telling or describing rather than 'moving'/showing. I cant find a better way to express it. Tired as shit so I might be more coherent tomorrow. Ill add thar visually the first paragraph looks a bit big for the absolute start.
>>
With the recent rise in baby regression stories, how do you think the early stage should be handled?
It's almost impossible to not get caught in the trap of the impossibly smart 8 year old and it's currently ruining all of those stories.
>>
File: autism communication.jpg (36 KB, 622x447)
36 KB JPG
>>25537763
I probably should've been at least clear on that this is an interlude in a fight between the actual MC ("the Shape") and an antagonist. I think to an extent the telling is at least a little necessary because I need to get readers (derogatory) to understand the most basic ideas of the cultivation system, and this is about as minimal as I could get it.

The main idea of the sequence is "the idea of faith in a figure leading to power." The thing is, the setting does not allow for actual living people to benefit from faith. Even manifested deities/deified objects ("kami") take a long while to develop any staying-power.
The Shape is not even a "real person" but a half-real avatar (not real "yet") so she isn't even an actual cultivator, she has "brute-force, characterless imitations of a cultivator's powers." But Braun's breakthrough is legitimate and based on his experience of being involved with the Shape, albeit indirectly. The scene is supposed to show that even if something is "fake" it can "become real" in some way, so to speak.
>>
>>25537766
Very quickly. I fucking hate it. If the series then is shit ive wasted god knows how long on pure shit. I canr imagine anybody wanting to follow a series as its being posted when the MC is a kid for any longer amount of chapters/days. Xianxia gets around this somewhat by every sitter being a genius and them needing to prove themselves by dumb ass challenges so it feels like something is happening rather than my pedo slow life series where I'm gonna rape my mom any day now.
>>
>>25537774
autists are merely crippled by language which prevents any human from transmitting their personalized experience (otherwise known as qualia) to another human
>>
>>25537746
0.5 stars
>>
>>25537774
Hmm, yes but youre adding very little to catch the interest of the reader so they become invested in any minutia. I do not find myself bothering to invest my energy and emphatize with the person of faith.

I forgot to mention but you also had a bit of white room writing, you began by describing the place but it felt like he then walked through the aether to reach Braun. It might have been some odd flow bringing me out as well.

If we read your post I'm replying to I can see you have a grwat many ideas but have some issue in writing it in an interesting way. Its not really flowing. I do understand its just a random post but i think the actual writing has some of the same flow issue but in another way. Im not a writer though so what do I know.
>>
>>25537776
Yeah but it's the how that matters. If you just zoom through it the fundamental wish fulfillment is ruined.
>>
>>25537778
<spoiler> qualia </spoiler> is the word for the actually experiences that can't be transmitted by any means including language
>>
>>25537790
Tell me the basic premise? But I can't imagine wanting to read or write this shit. Most of the time you're just going to be doing quirky shit or "protecting" your young komrades against random mundane shit or "bandits". If you have an interesting character you can actually carry them through pretty much any plot without it being too much of a drag. One of the issues being other children will mostly limit character interactions. But you can have the setting putting pressure on them all. One of the reasons street rats and orphanages are popular.
>>
>>25537691
Is this a prologue? Don't do prologues
>>
>>25537796
i am glad you understood my post
>>
>>25537798
meant for >>25537688
fucking ritual poster got in the way
>>
>>25537798
not a prologue
this is an interlude around 10k words in
see>>25537774
>>
>>25537766
Gets poisoned and placed into an N year coma
>>
>>25537750
Yeah, I agree with you. I was being more prescriptive than descriptive.

Anyone who wants to be successful should start as close to in medias res as possible, hitting on the plot and main character in the very first sentence, and almost all the biggest themes of the entire webnovel should be present in the first chapter. It should be immediately entertaining and demand very little of the reader's focused attention.
>>
>>25537766
>It's almost impossible to not get caught in the trap of the impossibly smart 8 year old and it's currently ruining all of those stories.
You just play it straight. Japanese WNs are illustrative here. (Also what do you mean by ruining?)

Mushoku Tensei: genius baby, parents think he's weird, get him a tutor. Then they send him away to other people to get better education, and the story yanks the MC across the world into the wilderness where being a weirdly smart kid is more important for survival than fitting in socially is.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: not a baby, but like five when she gets otherworldly memories. Parents think she's weird from the fever, but just happy she's healthier. Her friend and accomplice figures out something's wrong, and she has to admit what happened. The friend agrees to help her. Then, plot happens and the story yanks MC away from her home and family and thrusts her into a situation where being a weirdly smart kid is more important for survival (although fitting in socially is very important, so she is forced to learn quickly how to wear an appropriate mask).

I can't think of any other baby regression stories. Didn't I say to make my Abilities Average is close, as Mile gets her memories back young, but she's school age and she doesn't come off as weird for being too smart (generally).

So the solution from these two good examples seems to be to have the plot yank the MC out of their home and comfort zone and thrust them into the wilderness too young, but fortunately smart and wise enough to act correctly and transition from surviving to thriving. This should take a few years (maybe include a timeskip) and then when they come out of it they're more worldly and they're just a precocious pre/teen ready to act as an adult only a few years early, rather than almost a decade early.
>>
Okay okay check this one out
Baby regression but baby only speaks in baby ("goo goo", "gah gah"s, and other nonverbal noises) but each is accompanied by an overtly long Translator's Note
>>
>>25537863
Only if its dialogue heavy
Otherwise the reader and writer should be suffering through all this >>25537853
>>
>>25537870
That could be difficult to sustain long term. Maybe there's a lot of background worldbuilding that occurs within the baby's auditory or visual vicinity during the baby arc of the story. Otherwise, what would you get but a bunch of SoL, depending on the baby's secret intelligence? Ex:
>Mom guides the spoon toward my mouth, making loud whooshing noises.
>"Open up for the airplaaaane~ to fly through!" she commanded me through an artificial cheerful tone.
><italics>Is my mother an absolute fool? She spends all day speaking to me using an infantile tone
ok this is too much for me
>>
>>25537893
No youre thinking about it wrong. You go deeper make it into a full schizo-arc from the mc being bored out of his freaking mind and starts to fill out reality with dilerium, training his mind and imagination unknowingly for becoming an archmage (virgin @30)
>>
>>25537907
You make his dilerium shounen-esque with a mixture of random high poetry and/or grand titles. He could draw inspiration from epics or the classics for spewing random shit.
>Baby archmages grand reincarnation
>>
>>25537928
In a World Worth Protecting, the MC has a mantra he sometimes can spam and repeat that causes immense higher-realm pressure and is basically a get-out-of-jail card (newfag power fantasy).
I can see Baby using this to get out of things he doesn't like (poor tasting food, baths, whichever parent he dislikes the most trying to give him affection, etc.) Maybe he internally meditates on some popular poem or epic scripture lulz
>>
Oh I just remembered I'm reading Imperial Reincarnation, another baby start. He is a puppet emperor and pretends to be retarded and corrupt to survive until he's getting crowned, then he slaughters the advisors who were bankrupting the empire and finishes crowning by doing it himself. The people love it.

Basically I think the "problems" are overhyped and probably related more to the one or two of these stories one or two anons are reading and vagueposting about instead of just being honest that they read slop.
>>
Usecase for Scribblehub?
>>
File: miquella smug ehe.jpg (87 KB, 566x342)
87 KB JPG
I wrote 2k words today
How much have you written today anon?
>>
>>25537946
like 1k
>>
>>25537938
Exactly, he fully goes for dissociation training. When reaching a higher realm he might even conjure Tulpas to help him on his journey
>>
>>25537946
About the same but it turned into an info dump conversation and I feel bad about it. I might do some heavy edits tomorrow instead of writing a new full chapter.

The info dump KIND of makes sense for where I'm at in the story but I may want to make it explicit why the infodumping character is choosing to do so so it doesn't come off as transparent exposition.

I may also change the conclusion of the conversation from the MC being forbidden from doing what he wants, to just being strongly cautioned about it and then he does it anyway. What he wants to do is cool and would be interesting to readers, so I don't want to cuck them out of that.
>>
I've never read any non Japanese/Korean/Chinese web novels. Are they even worth it? Are they soulless neuroslop?
>>
File: 1783828856529574.png (1 KB, 111x21)
1 KB PNG
>>25537946
I did alright today, I think. And yes this is after multiple editing passes.
>>
>>25537967
They have some interesting ideas and storytelling here and there. There are some decent ones worth reading. The major issue is always bad translations making you want to kill yourself. MTL slop will ruin your linguistics abilities.

For Japanese I think light novels are more commonly translated well more than web novels.

For a specific recommendation I'd just go with chinese xianxia er gens "I shall Seal The Heavens" translation by deathblade.
>>
>>25537944
RR but allows porn
>>
>>25537976
Thanks, bud. But I think you might want to reread my post.
>>
>>25537967
Huh, I missed that you wrote "non-".
English ones are usually better at dialogue and writing pleasant prose.

Woke/reddit/effeminate traits is a problem when sorting through all the shit however. There are some commonly recommended series you can find in the thread and probably OP but say
>Mother of Learning
>Worm
Can't actually recall any good ones at the moment, brain destroyed by too much slop
>>
>>25537946
1k of slop unrelated to seriously written fiction, edited 1800 from yesterday, and I'm going to write another 1k later. I'm trying to get back up to 3k net edited work a day. I was doing 6-7k a day for a while but the quality was pretty shit and I got a little burnt out.
>>
>>25537946
About 1200 on the main one, In a very roundabout way. I was seriously stuck on the scene and accidentally 4k on a retarded slop idea to get going.
I really hate having ideas.
>>
>>25537967
I’m so used to the light novel’s writing and short paragraphs that I can’t get into western WNs.
BUT the western audiobooks are leagues better, it’s not even close. Maybe try those. There’s useful for travels.
>>
>>25537993
I just listen to everything through TTS.

But if reading I hate (bad) korean short sentences (2-5 words) that are also usually a full paragraph. Mostly stopped trying Korean slop because it is so prevalent. I dont even think its necessarily LLM slop.

Normal Light Novel paragraphing is nice however. But I quickly get re-used to dense style text from tradpub when picking up a normal book.

Are english WNs really that different in paragraph density?
>>
Isekai with your own body or take over sometime else's body? Which do you prefer?
>>
>>25538020
i think the proper choice is neither: a true second chance would be a new body. Ideally you spawn in somewhere between 17-24 years old, ready to fight and fuck as hard and as often as you want, with all your previous knowledge yet none of your previous mistakes.
>>
>>25538020
Does not matter, the only thing that matters is that the character is not fat nor hideous. I'm not looking for author SI
>>
>>25538020
Own body. Somebody else's body only if the ensuing deception and evil is in character.
>>
>>25538035
The ideal start is always as a newborn baby with the same mind. Well, unless your parents kill you anyway. But the however many years before 17-24 are just that much extra time to gain bullshitop isekai powers. And you can still fuck women as a kid, you're an isekai protagonist, they don't care.
>>
File: Feng_Shen_Ji_ch016_p24.jpg (472 KB, 963x1400)
472 KB JPG
>>25538020
you're a noble and you put a peasant's eye out then your town is fucked and you reincarnate into the peasant's body
>>
>>25538065
>you can still fuck women as a kid, you're an isekai protagonist, they don't care.
The amount of people that bitch about Mushoku Tensei makes me think otherwise
>>
>>25538071
I figure that's about the protagonist himself wanting to fuck little kids.
>>
>>25538065
i don't want to read about an adult mind trapped in a child's body.
>>
>>25538020
Isekai with new body, but they've technically had that body from birth and only remembered their past life after becoming a teen/young adult.
>>
>>25538065
Do you get a little babby boner while nursing?
>>
I picked up a story called Courting Death. It is tagged as "wuxia" and "strong lead".

The first chapter is about MC's Earth life as a nurse. The prose feels a bit too flowery at times. Multiple things happen that seem irrelevant to the promise made in the title and description (where's the wuxia?). The chapter culminates in the MC dying and meeting Death, who is a woman named Thanara.

Clever. I did not expect it to be a story about romancing Death. But that's also a problem - I was expecting to read a wuxia story and there's been no wuxia. If anything I feel like I've been bait & switched. Either I misunderstood the premise or the author is just meandering. 4000 words ought to be enough to at least touch on the premise of the story.

All the comments and reviews are praising it though. It makes me feel quite disconnected from the RR audience because in my mind this was a terrible first chapter. My assumption based on just this chapter is that the story is abandoned. A quick check tells me I'm right - the author dropped it on chapter 26. I can very well understand why. I don't think people looking for a wuxia story are going to get past chapter 1. Yet everyone's praising it in the comments and reviews.

I was thoroughly disappointed.
>>
>>25538282
I think RR is a bad place to go for real cultivation/wuxia
It's only good if you want westernized cultivation a la sky pride, which most eastern readers don't
very different audiences
>>
>>25538282
My experience was the same, though I don't read comments.
>>
>>25538282
>no wuxia in the first chapter WTF
like other anon mentioned sky pride; it has no xianxia for the first six or seven chapters but that's fucking huge on RR
>>
>>25538283
I can't stand that there are almost no character interactions in Chinese wuxia/xianxia stories. They only happen at the start or when MC meets a new character.
>>
>reading Godclads book 2
>chapter 46
>50%
>9 more hours
LONG BOOK IS LONG. And the author likes to use a lot of custom terminology so it's difficult to keep track (for me at least) of what the fuck he's trying to describe at times.
>>
>>25538290
nta but having setup that's clearly taking place within a xanxia story without literally having xanxia in it and a setup that doesn't resemble the genre at all are obviously two different things
>>
>>25538291
That would be an issue for me too, though I don't read them because I can't read translated stuff
>>
>>25538295
i skimmed through and the VERY FIRST SCENE in chapter one involves an Elder administering a fight between an Outer Sect and an Inner Sect Disciple. "cultivator" shows up 3 times in the first chapter.

fuck you lying ass
>>
>>25538290
>sky pride; it has no xianxia for the first six or seven chapters
Isn't literally the first major thing that happens in Sky Pride is MCs family is wiped out and he's brutally wounded? A classic xianxia intro.
>>
>>25538305
Maybe try reading the correct fiction you gargantuan retard.
>>
>>25538312
you're talking to a xianxia reader, you can't expect much
>>
>>25538291
fortunately I don't read wuxia/xianxia, they're ridiculous power fantasies for children
>t. chinese
>>
I thought Gifted would fall off patreon-wise after the initial burst but it's holding steady.
It's really just a $30,000+/m story? That's like top 5 on the site and it happened in one month. Wtf
>>
>>25538325
I'm not someone who usually reads ahead on patreon but even I went on pawchive and read through to the end of the first book since it was 60 chapters ahead.
That said after reading the first book and realising he was going to stay as a 6 year old I lost interest in reading ahead.
I'm guessing it's just a delayed drop because of how far ahead the chapters are, but even so I'd expect it to stay high.
>>
>>25537979
I thought they aggressively started purging that.
>>
>>25538397
are you stupid
>>
>>25538414
Don't be rude
>>
>>25538331
>pawchive
>Kemono
what's with furries work ethic
>>
>>25538430
Furries overachieve because they're proactively regressed.
I.e
They're stuck in the middle school mindset of being really curious and eager and thinking that doing shit for the sake of it is awesome
Weebs are more romantic which means they're more jaded.
When you're an unfuckable autist being mentally 11 makes you significantly less prone to rotting than being mentally sixteen.
>>
File: 7361-pepe-the-frog-3.png (62 KB, 512x512)
62 KB PNG
>>25538325
>people throw banks at a toddler slowburn
>meanwhile my patrons unsub immediately if there's a calm part and I'm not cliffing them
it is what it is but damn
>>
>>25538564
see >>25537423
>>
>>25537853
>she doesn't come off as weird for being too smart (generally).
Because everyone is a lobotomized NPC and just goes "well gee" when the MC pulls some godlike stunt out of her ass
>>
File: 1789716253456051.jpg (66 KB, 640x627)
66 KB JPG
>THEY'RE ONLY SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE THEY USE AI
Okay why aren't you successfully using AI if it's that easy?
>>
>>25538566
But that's because the series doesn't take itself seriously
>>
>>25538594
I don't like the default AI writing style. I'll use it once it can stick to my specific style guide without reverting to factory settings after a handful of responses.
>>
It's funny how RR authors, when they utterly fail and/or get no comments, they always blame
>low visibility
>bad release strategy
>no shoutouts, networking
>not doing 'meta'
but never ever have I seen the reflection that their writing is shit, or they simply aren't entertaining
>>
>>25538623
So don't bring it up as a serious example
>>
>>25537684
Ask Popeye to look over his manuscript, only to get annoyed when the one-eyed sailor still manages to notice he made it with AI.
>>
>>25537376
That's not what he said
>>
>>25538634
Dogshit rises to the top of RR all the time, so I don't think quality of writing has much of anything to do with it.
>>
>>25538727
see >>25537413
>>
Chappies make readers happie
>>
>>25538634
>but never ever have I seen the reflection that their writing is shit, or they simply aren't entertaining
yeah, people with self-awareness (read: sentience) don't go to discussion spaces to whine endlessly about cabals and AI. they improve their writing and eventually get readers and leave behind the retards. the retards then live in an echo chamber and believe they're right by consensus (somehow failing to recognize that nobody successful is agreeing with them, and everyone agreeing with them sucks ass)
it's a pretty funny phenomenon and it would've happened to /wng/ too if it wasn't free to call people retards. that's reputation damaging on places with usernames so it doesn't happen much
>>
>>25538856
Chappie chappie make the reader happie
>>
>>25538634
I tell people their writing is shit and unentertaining in /wng/ all the time and people hate hearing it.

>>25538897
And that's why I don't act that way on the RR forums with my author account. Or even my alt to be honest. Critical comments is as far as I go with the alt. I don't even hate rate.

What it comes down to is not throwing pearls before swine. Sure there are swine here in /wng/ as well but there are also a few decent authors and some noobs with the potential to improve. And there's no reputational cost for my username "Anonymous."
>>
>>25534464
I liked it up until around the MC became trans
>>
>>25538634
The problem isn't writing, it's that people try to write at all. Pure, incomprehensible gibberish gets on RS.Tags are everything. Your story has to include the popular concepts and the right tropes need to be played at the right time, exactly the way people expect them to. Writing is the least important thing in the whole equation. In fact, your whole story should be just a list of keywords for the best effect. We're on the way there already. You see more and more fictions written with just one sentence of at most 5-6 words per line and the consoomers love that shit
>>
>>25539162
>t. one of the authors I was speaking about
>>
>>25535809
Last I checked nearly all of Scribblehub's trending was girl's love
>>
>>25539187
he said RR
but also, what's big on SH is small compared to RR. the top magical girl stories on RR mogs all of SH on followers and views
>>
*feels your protags aura*
>>
One thing I like about scribblehub is that the writing style there is a lot closer to the asian novels. Some of them read exactly like stuff you'd find on syosetu.
But because of that, it gives a clear example that the LN's prose style, with its super short paragraphs and anime tropes, don't really appeal to the average westerner. At least not to readers with disposable income.
You have to make the paragraphs at least a bit longer and the tropes a bit more westernized, regardless of what people like >>25539162 like to say.
>>
now you can make progress writing without writing
https://authorsjourney.quest/ (it's some random writing-themed idle game i found)
>>
So. This might be my OCD speaking or it might just be me overthinking shit that doesn't really matter, but I want to ask. I've got a fantasy story with a party of five. Two are already established; The protagonist (male), and an elf mage (female). Soon, I'll be adding three more to the party; A healer, an elf rogue, and a barbarian.

For some reason, the thing I'm caught up on is which of the new members to make female. My autism wants a 3/2 split to be as close to even as possible, possibly add a 6th character later on to make it fully even. The problem is in the smaller splits; If it's the cleric, all the magic users are women, which some annoying elements may complain about. If it's the rogue, all the elves are women and that might give a gooner impression. The barbarian could be female, but I'm sure the predominantly male demographic of RR would prefer the designated Strong One to be a guy, save for gooner typed that like muscle women.

Very stupid thing to be stuck on, I know. However it's a mental gremlin that's been bothering me all day and I'm fed up enough to ask for advice despite the petty nature of the problem. What do anons think, beyond "roll a die and quit worrying about it"?
>>
>>25539549
anon stop being autistic none of those issues are real issues, at all
saying "I know I'm being autistic" doesnt absolve you
>>
>>25539549
make the healer a tomboy
make the rogue a girly girl who doesn't like to get in close and get dirty but has to do it anyway
do both or neither

personally, i never take barbarian women seriously
>>
>>25539549
Each character should serve a purpose to the plot, rather than filling an arbitrary quota. I think you should think of it from a different angle to defeat your quota autism.
>The Bold who pushes the plot forward
>The empathetic love interest
>The cunning
>The angsty one
>etc

And even the ratio should fulfill a dynamic.
If there's one woman, the men will fight over her.
If its even, it can be harmonious.
If its female lopsided, well, that's a harem.

So look deep into your heart and soul, and ask yourself: Will cuckoldry improve my story? The answer might surprise you.
>>
>>25539549
Protip: if you don't have a compelling reason to make a character a man or a woman, default to your own sex. You'll have an easier time modelling their thinking and portraying natural behavior.

So my recommendation, knowing nothing else, is to make them all male.
>>
>>25539549
make as many female as possible and don't forget to make them hot
>>
>>25539549
1 non-binary and 2 trans (mtf and ftm).
How about some representation for once???
>>
>>25539662
Trying to always write characters as close to you in personality/behavior as possible is a great way to make fiction boring as hell
Defensible advice for an MC, genuinely horrendous otherwise
>>
>>25539724
what if I'm a murderous psychopath
>>
>>25539682
And the trans ones can switch every chapter.
>>
>>25534633
>tradpub is brutal
this
I'm trying to westernize an isekai, make it with the sensibilities of a western fantasy adventure novel.
>>
>>25534827
>post your novel in this thread and I'll give it 0.5 stars
you're a real credit to the human race, anon. thanks for nuttin'.
>>
>>25539549
if gender is literally just set dressing in your story (which, if your character's gender can be changed without changing the character, it absolutely is), then you should make them all dudes. or all chicks, to appeal to the people who don't care about authenticity. I mean, the whole thing is just retarded at this point anyway, since you've created a sexless world full of robots wearing human faces rather than people. so your story and characters is always going to be shit and retarded. so who cares? just do what makes you peepee happy while you write it or whatever. or just do the obvious woke thing and make the barbarian female.
>>
is there anything new and exciting in webnovel land? is the scene still growing in the west?
>>
>>25539875
>is there anything new and exciting in webnovel land?
i guess the answer is "Gifted" but I haven't read it, this thread doesn't seem to like it much (but they also hate everything it feels like)
>is the scene still growing in the west?
slowly and steadily, trad pubbers have been sniffing around. stuff like The Wandering Inn getting major tradpub deals following the success of DCC, Aethon spearheading a lot of smaller wns into print runs too. debatable whether that's truly webnovels though. Personally I do count it, the pipeline in Japan is what makes WNs so big there, if NA gets a true pipeline then it grows into the mainstream as a consequence too

the interesting question (for me) is if they ever start getting animations. it feels like western animations have been growing in popularity, but web novels getting adaptations seems at least 5-10 years out if it ever happens
>>
>>25539889
>western animation
Lol.
Lmao.
>>
>>25539890
>>25539890
>>25539890
New thread
>>
>>25539871
>or all chicks, to appeal to the people who don't care about authenticity. I mean, the whole thing is just retarded at this point anyway, since you've created a sexless world full of robots wearing human faces rather than people. so your story and characters is always going to be shit and retarded.
This post highlights just how long we'll take until we're back to a semblance of intelligent discourse. Everything is just so dominated by paranoia, spite, hurt pride, unaddressed grief and people being way too far in their own heads.
>>
File: 1302219387158.jpg (135 KB, 910x720)
135 KB JPG
>>25539724
>Trying to always write characters as close to you in personality/behavior as possible
Good thing that wasn't my recomendation!



[Advertise on 4chan]

Delete Post: [File Only] Style:
[Disable Mobile View / Use Desktop Site]

[Enable Mobile View / Use Mobile Site]

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective parties. Images uploaded are the responsibility of the Poster. Comments are owned by the Poster.