Fucked it up, previous thread:
>>25041676

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

>>25049137
scribblehub and ao3 allow pictures

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

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

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

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

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

>>25049157
who?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

>>25049191
does the f stand for fetal alcohol syndrome

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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>>25049245

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

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

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

>>25049254
Absolute unfiltered KINOOOOOOOOO
Love you bro

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

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

>>25049191
why is it so blurry?

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

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

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

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

>>25049337
true crime is a woman genre

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

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

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

>>25049424
>Short Story 9,833 9%

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

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

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

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

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

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

>>25049337
you can mix true crime with fantasy ezpz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

>>25049837
>webnovel
there's your answer

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

>>25049837
mind wipes and time loops ruin plots

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

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

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

meaning that even competent time travel ruins plots

>>25049882
time loops don't inherently ruin stakes lol. you can introduce souldeath or whatever, or a million other solutions as long as you're an ounce bit creative. there's nothing inherently locking away longterm plot development either
it just wasn't done well it sounds like

RI is the only novel that got time loops right.

>>25049890
don't put time travel in non time travel plots

>>25049898
what about mother of learning and perfect run?

>>25049906
point to where I suggested putting time travel in non time travel plots is a good idea
stop inventing random bullshit you want to respond to but nobody actually said or implied

>>25049913
perfect run is simply written too badly

>>25049922
...compared to what?

>>25049913
Don't know about perfect run but the way mol used it was low iq and just retarded.

>>25049922
I think quicksave should have been called savestate other than that.
I liked the book even if I didn't like the main character.
The power system was cool, the timeloop had stakes due to how the powersystem worked and mental attacks, he suffers real loss despite being in a time loop and most importantly
the author doesn't give him his communist GF he fails
now granted lin is a bitch so he dodged a bullet but still.
>>25049928
It's a super hero themed time loop story probably 2nd most popular time loop story on RR. You should check it out, warning the protagonists is written in a way where you could very well hate him.
Why didn't you like how MoL handled the loop? what did it do to disappoint you?

>>25049932
Like all strong abilities it should sparingly and its usage should come at a cost. Mol literally just spams time looping, it's the time loop spam the novel.

>>25049913
Perfect run was kind of boring desu. Years of the Apocalypse is probably my favorite timeloop story, if I'm not counting Flower that Bloomed Nowhere.
In SS the timeloop was a small arc on an island, well there was also a bigger timeloop but the story only showed the last loop

>>25049935
abusing the timeloop is the entire point of timeloop stories

>>25049939
Entire point is to have a plot that integrates fantasy/magic well. Spamming strong magic non stop is just dumb regardless if it's a timeloop mechanics or something else.

>>25049951
But zorian being a weakling and slowly becoming competent is the entire point of the loop.
it's a not something he casts or has any control over, he's trapped.

>>25049170
None of those are the latest trends or even trends from the past two decade.

>>25049337
I wasn't paying much attention before I responded. The actual answer is, no, there isn't because Royal Road's rules disallow writing about real people and events. I'm not looking at it right now, but I'm almost sure that's the case. I don't know about elsewhere.

>>25049510
Write an FAQ yourself then.

>>25049477
>>25049515
That's true. It's just a proxy. Looking at the total view distribution for the entire site would be more reflective, even with the many 10s of millions of views gone from stubbed series, but it's a lot more effort. Looking at only what the genres of the very top series is another method. It'd probably be considerably even more skewed.

>>25049559
It's their own fault if they don't look into it more. The question was whether there's a place. The response wasn't there wasn't really, which was the wrong answer as I note in earlier in this post.

>>25049837
>write good story, gets popular on the platform
>sign with the platform but you have to produce x chappies in y timeframe according to the contract
>writing suffers for it
This is why having patreon pigs is the superior path.

>>25049958
The entire premise of mol is low iq, it's braindead. It comparable to chinese slop of mc defeating one young master only to offend another young master (rinse and repeat 9999 times) while getting stronger in the process.

>>25049977
Courting death!

well, I acted as an ambassador of goodwill recently. Some chick-lit published author was on the site I was on, and... it didn't go well. I logged in and she was going off on everyone, trying to tell everyone how to do everything writing. I mean, its a WN site, get real. But then she started with the "you spell that word like this" snarky shit on a friend of a friend there, and I went off on a controlled and measured long format Dennis Miller rant on her. I mean, she's bragging about being in print and its chicklit smut? Please. Probably the only time I'll get within ten steps of a published author but it was a moral imperative. But fuck her, she ain't staff there. Just another member. She needed a green frog shoved up her ass anyways. I must say, 15 years of /pol/ was an excellent primer for handling myself. I invoked two logical fallacies before gratuitously insulting chicklit smut as low brow. I guess you can take the anon out of the chans but you can't take the chans out of the anon.

>>25049991
this reads more like two villains than the hero triumphing over the villain
also name and shame her, coward. and is she just published or published and sells well? because being published means very little, basically all mid-level successes on royalroad have publishers scouting them

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>>25049991
based
>>25049994
Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight

>>25049968
That's a good point, he's forced to write daily chapters. Weren't patreopiggies already a thing in 2021/2022 when it started? Why did he go with webnovel?

>>25049879
Feels like cast bloat, but the romance was honestly a long time coming. Like what was the point of his choice in the tomb if he doesnt go for it? As for stakes, honestly i think after a point you realize the author isnt actually going to kill anyone no matter how much sense it would make for them to die. I'm not sure where youre at exactly but PoVs seem to disperse after a 'mini-arc' as the authors new and exciting version of downtime is 'heres what happened while you were trapped in the chessboard, Aiko being a jew for 10 chapters'.

>>25049991
Thank you for your service. Minotaur Miliking Billionaires will never recover.

How many web novels do you need to read to know how to write a web novel?

>>25050008
he accurately surmised that his audience was more on webnovel than RR

>>25050008
>>25050013
isn't it simply because he's russian and wouldn't be able to get the funds from patreon?

>>25050012
67

>>25050013
He made a horrible mistake. Webnovel lies.

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>>25050012
One.

>>25050009
I don't mind that the romance happened, it was just too fast. There was so much shit crammed into the sovereign arc that after finishing it I can't help but feel that it was extremely disappointing. The chessboard arc was even more boring. I would have rather read 1000 chapters of Rain cultivating without the spell

>>25049994
she wasn't on RR, a lesser WN site.
hey, at least i engaged the enemy, lol. counts for something. hold on, I'll see what I can drag up on her dusty twat. Her claim, "all you have to do is type *my* name into google? and you'll see, who I am." All, girlboss triumphantly. She was a real piece of work. lemme grab a coffee and google her cat lady ass.

>>25050016
i don't think he did. he does great on webnovel but i don't think RR would have received him well. shadow slave is an extremely WN-coded novel, it's usually talked about in the same breath as other xianxiasloppa for a reason

>>25050016
He's honestly better off with the east payment processors than the western ones if he's a ruskie.

>>25050023
>Too fast
>It took 2700 chapters
>Too fast

Nigger what.

>>25050023
>I don't mind that the romance happened, it was just too fast
My brother in christ theyve been mooning at each other for some 1500 chapters at that point, how much slower could they possibly go.
>There was so much shit crammed into the sovereign arc that after finishing it I can't help but feel that it was extremely disappointing
Honestly yeah, it felt rushed to me but at the same time, thats how nephis and company were supposed to feel, a tempo that more or less gets carried over in their actions post supremacy as well. Enlightenment in the face of the enemy should really only take you so far and everything that was happening at bastion 'who cares, nothing is changing'.
>The chessboard arc was even more boring.
i liked the chessboard just for puppeteer and general supernatural violence, at least over the noir arc. But the eternal city was a far more interesting arc overall where the gains to the human domain go beyond 'maybe we can use it as a training ground one day'.

do web nοvel websites give a shit if you've posted your work elsewhere prior? like a blog or some sort?

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>>25050000
https://sofurry.com/u/ookami-kasumi
^^^
that's her. ookamu is a word for "wolf" and I forget what the last fake name is. anyways, you click and go to her page there? You can see she's an open cunt. She says to ask for writing advice? But adds a snarky disclaimer. "PIC RELATED". I lost the last shred of not even guilt I had retained now. She deserved it.

>>25050039
>>25050041
They knew each other for like 2 months, are you forgetting that his identity was wiped from the world?

>>25050048
Not unless they're trying to get you into an exclusively contract, I don't think people signed to WEBNOVEL for example can post elsewhere, but otherwise I don't think it matters.

>>25050051
>>25050048
Yeah and most people judiciously crosspost
There's stories that are on RR, SB, Ao3, Fanfic, QuestionableQuesting and a personal site all at once.

>>25050048
I know scribblehub doesn't care.

>>25050050
Are you forgetting that cassie was going insane from the strangeness of the mindwipe? The author beats you over the head with how they didnt truly forget him completely and still retain their feelings of trust towards him. You even get a nephis pov where she rationalizes the whole thing as 'research into passion', and sunny is the one who makes the first move while cassie manipulates neph from the background. Genuinely brother, did you want them to just totally commit to the mindwipe and we have to retread these relationships all over again?

>>25050050
Did you even read it? Nephis knows they've known each other for longer, as does pretty much everyone else except Kai. They just can't acknowledge it too much or they forget what they were talking about.
Cassie even left reminders for herself because she knew it was going to happen.

>>25050057
>>25050058
I mean they danced around it for 1500+ chapters and then there's like 20 chapters total on the subject, though spread out a bit, and it's over. I guess that's what I'm complaining about

>>25050064
They danced around being explicit about it but even all the way back at the forgotten shore when sunny was being a hobo she was pinning her hopes on him above all others. I just think its odd you say 'its over' when what happened was they started their new life together instead of dancing around it. Also asterion arc ramping up to be kinda ass again, my guess is they borrow the power of the bird to get rid of him somehow.

>>25050049
but what's her tradpub name

>>25050070
I suppose you're right. It's just when I read it it felt like the whole thing was something he tried to get through fast to get to other things
Another complaint I have is that Mordret SUCKS! Finally a chance for that character to get some actual development in the mirror arc, but instead absolutely nothing changes

>>25050085
Yeah the noir city was fucking ass, i thought they would get normal mordret to kill angry mordret and therefore acquire 'functional human bean' mordret. Instead he gets everything he wants again and leaves sunny holding the bags. Like what happened to being unreasonable? Kill the fucking retard, hes given you no real actionable information about asterion, and wont. instead he'll just dangle information that may or may not exist over your head while ontinuing to throw wrenches in everything. Redemption or death, i was in thesame boat expecting something to change with the conclusion of noir but man that was a let down.

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I think this one can work.

>>25050088
>>25050085
Here I was thinking of giving ShaSla a go but i've been convinced out of it. Half by this thead, half by the constant bitching I've seen about it going downhill everywhere else.

>>25050115
Even if you take our takes as gospel with it 'going downhill' were talking about events literally over 2400 chapters in. Youll still reap far more enjoyment out of the lions share of the novel by just reading until you get bored, and im still not bored despite my complaints about how some things have been handled. I dont know what would turn you off the series but anything as popular as shadow slave is gonna have detractors aftera point, no matter how flawlessly its executed.

>>25050115
the works that actually get talked about are infinitely more interesting than the ones that never get talked about
unless you have some enormous TBR list of better options, read shadow slave. and i didn't even like it that much. but it's better than all the oceans of shit that didn't catch my attention to begin with

How many of you have read A Dragon Gnawing Its Tail? How many of you even remember it? Whatever happened to it?

>>25050083
https://x.com/ookamikasumi

same avatar as I saw. I already found another site like the one I already listed. Looked like it the same site done over, first was a trial run. Now, the x link here? Seems she's going by that name professionally. But a tidbit. She bragged to google her, we'll see how what she's done! Well, here's the link. It says other than artist (hobby) she's a FAN FIC author and "visual novel creator". I mean, she's cool she's published and all, but... fan fic? Get real. She was bragging about her "snappy dialogue" and "great plot" skills. With fan fic, it means someone *else* created the plot and characters and she just leeches, lol. What, she's a patreon success then for fanfic, right? I mean that's cool, but... we got guys come *here* that are patreon heroes. She's not half as special as she thinks she is. Hell, as much of a scrub as I am, I rub elbows here with guys that are as successful as her. More so even, they made their own stuff, not fanficced it. but yeah, this link is her. I wonder how entertaining her "fanfic" is. Another twilight clone, I bet. Our own MLA stacks up against her. She literally brags about being a cunt, too. She thinks its funny she lade a "NYT bestselling author cry" because she wouldn;t take back her criticism of trhe other chick's writing she didn't think was done correct (grammar nazi). she claimed that lady's editor said cunt was right, in public so she won. tea leaves tell me, miss bestseller was more successful and she grammar nazi'd her. What a class act.

>>25050261
>Our own MLA stacks up against her.
KEK

>>25050261
>she's cool she's published
is she??? I'm starting to think you hallucinated or misunderstood everything because there is no indication this person is professionally published whatsoever
what is her amazon/goodreads name? what are her book titles? who published her?
this is some literal noname smut writer from everything I can tell

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>>25050261
pay dirt, being autistic about it... she might have doxxed her own pen name:
OokamiKasumi
LOL! Ookami (wolf) Kasumi (mist/hidden), is a vague reference of my SCA* name: Morgan Faolin. Faolin meaning Wolf in Irish, and Morgan an Irish goddess of War, whic is a reference to my author name: Morgan Hawke.

On facebook I'm: Morgan Feylin
*****************
oh my, little miss cuntboss, has a typo! she *literally* thinks because she catches you in a typo, it renders your argument invalid, LMAO
well, lets just see what Morgan Hawke trolls up...
bingo. a small pond publisher, with a naughty novel division...

https://www.extasybooks.com/morgan-hawke

company blurb about her...

Morgan Hawke

"For me, writing is more than a passion it’s an obsession.”

Morgan Hawke has been writing erotic fiction since 1998. She has lived in seven states of the US and spent two years in England. She has been an auto mechanic, a security guard, a waitress, a groom in a horse-stable, in the military, a copywriter, a magazine editor, a professional tarot reader, a belly dancer and a stripper. Her personal area of expertise is the strange and unusual.

Ms. Hawke maintains a close and personal relationship with her computer and her cat

here's a picture... and she looks gay as fuck. (worked in a barn? mechanic? bulldyke!)
PIC RELATED

>>25050277
also, her tag line that she said on the site, was the same as "morgan hawke" said on her part of the book site. Its her.

Why the fuck is Django Wexler posting on RR, they have multiple series with real publishers. Fuck off and let the amateurs have some exposure on RS lol

>>25050277
she was bragging about her snappy dialogue and awesome plots. Uhhh... in the one pic, you can see some of these literary masterpieces. Yah, I'm sure "Hard Candy" and "Sexy Beast III" all have scintillating plot lines, LMAO, and a yaoi (gay) erotica? Yah, snappy dialogue, I'm certain of it.

>>25050304
>Morgan Hawke
this is a noname. i guess 50 amazon ratings is more than lots of true nonames but putting this WHO in the same category as local thread celebrity ArcaneCadence is insanity. MLA makes $25,000 a month, this person makes $50 a month to be extremely generous

>>25050327
seeing how his serial is a total flop I'm not sure what problem you have. he's not even on the front page yet
it's funny to have more confirmation that even well done trad stuff doesn't work on RR, though. web serials are their own beast and everyone who says "good writing succeeds no matter what" needs to look at this and ponder

>>25050327
I've seen a handful of "real authors" taking a shot on RR and basically none of them hit it big, most were flops or modest successes at best. There's also the one guy that keeps repeating that he worked on WoW as his main draw.

What’s the prose style I should aim for when it comes to RR? Is something like this alright?

Saturday morning.
I’d just gotten home from work and collapsed onto the bed when—
Bang, bang, bang!
Someone hammered on my apartment door.
God, what now?
I groaned and pulled a pillow over my head, but the knocking only grew more insistent.
“Anon, I know you’re in there. Open up.”
Ugh. So annoying.
Grumbling, I dragged myself out of bed and shuffled toward the door. It was rattling so violently it looked like the hinges were about to snap.
Heat rushed to my face. If this wasn’t important…
“What?” I yanked the door open.
“Took you long enough.”
The stranger was so tall the doorframe cut off his face. A white overcoat, white gloves—and the barrel of a gun.
Bang!
A sharp impact bloomed in my chest. I fell backward.
“You’ve been naughty, Anon-kun,” the stranger said. “You clocked out two minutes early today. That messed up my schedule. Which is a shame, because I’m never late. Never.”
He removed his hat, revealing a white, and impossibly square, face. It was strange… yet familiar.
Yes, I knew him.
Subaru Sambar.
A Japanese light truck.
“Happy isekai, buddy.”
“No, wait…” I tried to raise my hand, but it was useless.
Bang!
With that, my first life came to an end.

>>25050372
Yeah that can work for a fast paced style. Feels more LN-esque with how sparse it is

can we talk about some winnies instead of this grifter shit

>>25050379
ironically they drown out discussion because they spend a lot more time not writing than readers spend not reading

this is why this should have been an author only thread

>>25050385
There's like 3 actual authors active in here and only antagonist-kun is open about it

>>25050384
>drown out discussion
>10 posts an hour
My man, you aren't on a fast board or a fast thread. there is no such thing here

>>25050390
i post 2-3 times per thread about my writing troubles, it just isn't that interesting to talk about. I don't know if I'm one of the three you are talking about though.

>>25050390
I can name more than 3 namefag authors much less anons
>F-anon
>Tina
>Crow and Rabbit-anon
>Akaso
And then non namefags
>Glass Cannon who deleted their account
>the mech anon
>the german anon
>ArcaneCadence
>(me)
and more but i won't bother
Reader-onlys are a minority here

>>25050402
you got to one before listing someone who doesn't actually write

>>25050404
All four of those have lots of work posted, what do you mean?

>>25050402
>namefags
I try to avoid bringing attention to myself.

What would a high level paladin of the fertility goddess do? What tasks and missions?

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>>25050390
>There's like 3 actual authors active in here and only antagonist-kun is open about it
not true. Resident schizo Tina-anon dropped covers and links to completed stuff before hosted on a site. Tina's open about it or we wouldn't know the pen name. Unless by author you mean actually successful.

>>25050454
>Unless by author you mean actually successful.
he wouldn't have included F-anon if so

>>25050443
Aid with droughts or drops in fertility perhaps due to curses?

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>>25050458
pretty sure f-anon nuked his project once to reset. edited and posted as he edited, bought ads, made rising stars for a bit there. Perhaps not MLA level of success yet still something.

>>25050443
Stand sentry at the temple, vanquish general evil when someone else doesnt claim governmental or divine jurisdiction.
Realistically it would depend on your setting i guess, if you genuinely cant come up with some sort of legitimate task for him to go about... then he probably shouldnt exist. Or perhaps he went from a lower ranked knight and moved on top represent them at perhaps an organization with representatives of all gods(their task probably being vanquishing evil). You could come up with some sort of everpresent plant menace that the fertility goddess' followers are responsible for eliminating(for some reason).

I will become an author after I read enough web novels.

>>25050402
It's not that reader-only anons are in a minority it's just that write-fags blogpost so much that read-only anons 'read only' and can't be fugged to blogpost back.

>>25050497
unsurprisingly consumers post less than posters

>>25050462
>High level paladin of Fertility walks past a brothel
>Disaster

>>25050470
I obviously have ideas, I want to know what others think.

>Divine mission: buy out all the condoms before a big festival

>>25050497
Its just not fun to participate in threads where 4/5ths of the posts are retards slapfighting about things vaguely possibly /lit/ related much less an actual webnovel. Fate of all generals i guess, prolific posters make the whole thing a shitshow.

>>25050506
Could lean hard into cupid, to steal your format
>Divine mission: get the prince and princess from differing countries married
Officiating marraiges seems like it would have alot of potential overall, depending on setting of course.

>>25049991
>>25050049
>>25050261
>>25050304
>>25050345
TINA why are you posting this? Stop sperging out

>>25050390
I just haven't been in the writing mood lately. Been reading and halfway through Rendezvous with Rama. Recently caved and started playing msgv for the first time, and having fun but also frustrated by the gameplay.

>>25050513
That's a cool idea

>>25050497
I don't like posting and a reader, the write fags have taken a lot of effort to analyse small minutia and I just don't have anything clever or good to add honestly.
I wish I had insight or input worth chiming in with but I don't so I just read.

The beginning of Years of Apocalypse is amateurish to the point of being unreadable. I can't even make it to the first loop. Also seems to be a complete ripoff of MoL.

>>25049150
Because I enjoy drawing as much as I love writing. Also because I'm insane, lol.

Just submitted to RR. Hopefully it gets approved.

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>>25050597
:D

>>25050591
can i hear about something you enjoyed instead

>>25050591
I just don't really have the patience to read about cringe lesbians. I don't know why that's so popular but web fiction has made me hate lesbians more than any other possible sexuality.

>literally about to launch
>have an epiphany
>wake up in the middle of the night
>realize my story sucks
>start heavy revisions on 50k words I had backlogged
>been fucked up sleep for two days now
I don't know what happened. Two fictions flowed like water from a pipe, no issues. I try to write something "good" and immediately shit the bed. It's improving but damn this is actually work.

>>25050466
Never nuked my project, I've just changed the original cover.

>>25050516
aw, I was venting a writer was being a flaming bitch on my WN site. Just one little fun sperg, all out of my system now. plus its like a morgue in here tonight. last night was slow too.

>>25050597
It looks like you enjoy it as much as being boiled alive in salted water

>>25050352
>"good writing succeeds no matter what" needs to look at this and ponder

>some literally who author who has to shill his own work on /lit/
>good writing
what are you talking about lol

well since you know tina is here no sense lurking. I finally started to snag a couple readers for a couple things. And I only have a couple of my projects even up there. once i get them all up and I have a few readers anyways, I might be able to one of them might catch a slow burn or somethjng. One guy read like 2/3rds of my way too big first section of my smut project.

>>25050734
some bottom feeder chicklit lady that brags about how *established* of a writer she is? Was being a flaming cunt on one of my WN sites. she claimed if we looked her up "we'd see how successful she is". Well? Looked her ass up, and she ain't shit. Turns out, she was making fun of all the WebNovelists, and we got one here puts her to shame. We were making fun of her.

>>25050734
and the other referenced post in that link, was a reaffirmation how unique webnoveling knowledge is. A published author was on RR and even he had limited success. So just write anything good and you can do well" isn't the only answer. Its obvious that tropes, meta, tags all that is necessary, Heck, on my site, that lady is probably jacked off she had a print career and is not making huge bank on a WN site, and she's one of them "I'm a real published writer" types. Trying to tell everyone what to do. WN is its own skill set.

>>25049091
Telling vs showing.
>A red car drove away from the parking lot.

>Thick dust consumed the venerable motor graveyard as a tomato-shade Jaguar exited.

So, the point is force the reader infer things instead of telling what is happening directly.
In the latter, the reader has to infer that:
>car is being driven
>motor graveyard = parking lot
>tomato-shade = red
>Jaguar = car
Is it better?

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>>25050733
I actually do. I wrote over 6k pages of fiction, or 3.9 million English words. And drew over 1k illustrations in Photoshop, since 2015. :D
But I had nowhere to post my stuff.

Obviously I'm going to remove all the N-words, K-words, F-words and other racial stuff from it so it won't get removed.
Other than that, yeah, I'm genuinely having a lot of fun :DDDD.

https://files.catbox.moe/p52k4o.pdf

>>25050757
I still don't understand why you think being a published author automatically makes the person's writing "good" or even entertaining. Are you another one of the resident schizos? Is there a single sane person left in here?

>>25050779
>Responding to Tinashit

Lads, I've an idea for an urban fantasy series. Here's the premise of the first book:
>Only mortals can procreate. Immortals can't because no dying means no creating life either.
>Hence immortal women and men who want children are essentially forced to open up their marriage
>Enter the plucky protagonist, who gets randomly selected as Oberon's ew bull for Titania so as to produce a new Princess of the Fae
>Why should there be a new one? Because the old one got killed, and he's been tasked with finding out why if he wants his own kid to survive as well.
How's that?

>>25050798
Why would Oberon have to click himself if he could just sleep around with mortal woman instead?

>>25050805
Different jurisdictions. He's in charge of the wild fairies, Titania is in charge of the ordered fairies. An exact balance must be kept for the higher ranks, and any offspring of Oberon will be a wild fairy as well.

Or some shit.

>>25050761
no, it isn't better.
like most writing advice, "show don't tell" is overprescribed + often misunderstood + often misapplied. I have thoughts on this but I won't give unsolicited advice

>>25050779
but there has to be some base level mechanical writing skill there. But even if not, the other guy not like I know him, but the other anon here did. He's not killing it at RR the other anon said. His exact thng was, a successful published author, bastards trying to come and whore off of us. Greedy. But the whole thrust was, even professional published authgors can;t just whip out a WN and they wish they could. They're trying. Everyone decided, its one more case to be made for "get good" isn't the answer. Hell. That lady? Was trying to pull the whole, I'm a real writer, you have to... and her main point was, she wants the one/two sentence paragraphs gone. She was like a *shill* trying everything and the kitchen sink, to get it going. She finally lost her shit. Now, think. WN are a different animal. If you normalize regular paragraphs again, who benefits. Only established writers, lol. That's their strong suit. The only thing preserving the 1-2 sentence rule, is readers preferring it on their phones. LIke a shill, she tried saying if *only* it would happen, why, agents were on all the WN sites. WN people could get "real" books sold. No one budged, everyone argued with her. The readers like it? It stays like that. That's when she got nasty and started her tantrums. s I analyze it, the industry is pissed, There this little niche they can't grab up and send regular writers to do it. Why else, would she care.

>>25050817
I like the reformed sentence better. But I'd have went with veritable instead of venerable. Better fit by definition and flow/feel.

>>25050781
you know, I'm not even in the mood to do the dance. But seriously. Just because you tell me I''m stupid? Doesn't make it so. And I think its funny you think you can order or cajole people not to talk back to me, even when were bored? Like its 5th grade. Its fucking funny, is what it is.

>>25050761
That isn’t what “show, don’t tell” means.
In writing, telling is summarizing events or information for the reader, while showing is presenting concrete details like action and dialogue so the reader can infer what’s happening themselves.
Tell: Jack and Jill talked about the weather.
Show:
“Nasty smog today, isn’t it?” Jack said.
“Yeah. I’ve been coughing all morning,” Jill said. “God, I sure hope it rains soon.”

>>25050831
For me storytelling is about dramatization and making the prose juicy.
>Bob ate an apple.
It is a utilitarian sentence, an oatmeal. It tells nothing more than it is.
Personally, I believe most sentences should be loaded with subtext and contain spice. Sentences can communicate tone, characterize actors, foreshadow, and be fun to read.

I guess I'm an outlier; most people want their oatmeal prose. But I would rather continue perfecting my spice, so one day it might be something worthwhile.

>>25050700
Wait, does years of apocalypse have a dyke mc? Wasn't labeled as such.

>>25050894
No, she's bi and it's more a fuck and forget after the loop than anything serious.

she arc on my mage till I OP MC my new life in a litrpg consul isekai! seclusion cultivating wandering accidental BAKERY silent old first thereturning paladin healr manabound wagie reincarnated macigless accidental VRMMO time capsule dungin delving hackers STORY DRRIVEVENFESFBSDGHSDGHS

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you guys ever seen your story in one of these?

I bought author premium last month and the analytics tell me that this shit is putting me in front of WAY more eyeballs than anything else. I have thus devised the following FORBIDDEN STRAT: Make a few alts, follow and fav the same 10 alright-performing stories on each (not rising stars or actually popular, too many alts) and then become famous or something.

>>25050931
>make alts
A dangerous game to play for questionable gains. The admins aren't completely retarded and allegedly have systems in place that alert them of manipulation attempts. Getting all your accounts banned is some embarrassing end for your story.

Maybe I'm just a filthy centrist but I think there's a time and place for both telling and showing. One isn't inherently better than the other in all cases. They're both useful tools.

>>25050866
I agree that your Bob sentence is pedestrian and could improved with more spice.
But in other cases, showing when telling would suffice often results in writing that goes beyond juicy and into fruity territory.

>>25050846
As ever, I did not ask and I do not care.

>>25050937
Yeah, but, assuming you aren't retarded and obfuscate your identity like a normal person, if you follow and fav your own story as well as 10 others they won't know which real account to whack.

>>25050965
One guy made like a dozen alts to rate bomb my story, but the mods somehow identified and removed all of them after I reported just one. He tried to make a few more but they were able to link those to him too and deleted them within hours.

>>25050965
A normal person has real friends to vote him

>>25050973
kek what was his problem

>>25050973
He was probably not like me (smart) and was instead the opposite of me (dumb)

>>25050981
He seemed like a normal, sensible reader before, already a follower since my previous work. But one plot development triggered him and he insisted I have to change it. I said I don't do rewrites just because one guy asks and he can drop the story if he doesn't like it. The dude flipped his shit and wrote a mile-long rant review. But it broke the rules, so I reported it. Soon after, a whole bunch of commenters and well over ten ratings disappeared at once. A mod told me these were all accounts linked to that same sperg. Pretty funny.

>>25050973
He probably wasn't hiding his IP address I'll just use a VPN.

>>25051011
damn what kinda web fiction masterpiece are you writing to get a rabid fan meltdown like this

>want to start writing again
>have to read what I wrote before first to make sure I haven't forgotten anything
ahhh

>>25051061
me too
also
>notice what I have written before is shit
>start rewriting it
>run out of steam
>repeat

>>25051011
The mistake you made was interacting with these sorts of readers in the first place.

>>25051070
You're right that it's a bad idea, usually, but since RR's dumb system also calculates the number and frequency of comments, even melties can benefit you on the way to RS, as long as you don't let them turn the general opinion against you.

>>25051011
>But one plot development triggered him
I'm impressed but also very curious.

>>25051061
just wait until you run into the problem of your new stuff being much worse than your old stuff

>>25051114
NTA but I experience an even worse version of this
My new work isn't worse per se, but it is very noticeably different
At least if it was just worse I could go "oh my prose is rusty I'll just polish up, or my plotting needs work"
but no it's just different and i don't know how to change back

>>25049091
>rentry.co/RRBasicGuide
Does such a guide exist for indie game development?

I am reading RI. What are the gu?

>>25051164
What?

>>25051170
Gu are the essence of Heaven and Earth
(Man is the spirit of all living beings)

>>25051164
why are you asking about game dev in the web novel thread

>>25051172
>>25051186
it's just such a good, no nonsense guide and my main hobby is game dev, not web novel writing

>>25051164
Have you tried looking at the indie game and similar generals on the relevant boards?

>>25051189
i only know a tiny bit about game dev, but from what i understand a guide like that can exist for RoyalRoad because of both how niche the site is and how simplistic their algorithms are. There is a very straightforward (and relatively consistent, compared to any other art) path to becoming successful on RoyalRoad. I don't think equivalents exist in other markets, much less a market as massive as indie game dev.

An Agdg anon-fren wrote this pitch for my game, back when I used to work on Mongol 2.
Now I'm using it as a pitch on RR.

I still can't fucking believe how great it is.

"You are food. You've always been food. You came onto this world to be consumed, to be devoured by your primordial creators. How unfortunate that you learnt about it at the end of the times, the Ante-Diotoromus. But not all is lost. as I, Agrippa, have taken the task of preserving humanity, and by dozens upon dozens of torturous iterations of building and reconfiguring your flesh, I've become fond of you, Mongol. Now the ardurous task of preserving the humanity within this reality is not completely lost, and in my infinite wisdom I have posessed the ancient knowledge to grasp other realities. I am your God now!"

Compared to my dogshit writing, this is fucking amazing.

Just a few more hours for it to be approved.

>>25051235
Dirk anon is a fucking beast s all I'm gonna say.

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>>25049091
The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary Vol. 2 - Mine

This was considerably worse than the first volume and had me know in no uncertain terms that I was giving it too much leeway. The first book was a horde of goblins in ruins and not much more story than that. This one is a horde of undead during an escort mission and nothing more than that. If the third volume is another horde of monsters without any story or much in the way of characters I'm dropping it immediately.

The combat leaned even harder into basic stuff directly ripped from D&D mechanics without alteration and it made me groan. The Valkyrie Profile incantations were amusing though. Most of the rest was just bad rips of stuff as well. I barely tolerate what Ys tends to do with Adol at the beginning and end of each game, which means I have zero tolerance for it here.

There's so much recycled content and this is only the second volume and both volumes aren't all that much longer than a novella in word count. It's ridiculous.

---
I've looked up more about the series now and how the following volumes go, and I'm astounded by how brazenly the author rips off so many series so blatantly. It doesn't stop there either though, the illustrations are even more brazen in using characters from other series.

>>25051263
have you read infinite regressor yet?

>>25051263
>I barely tolerate what Ys tends to do with Adol at the beginning and end of each game, which means I have zero tolerance for it here.
Crash lands in a new place with none of the skills and gear he had in the previous adventure and then just up and leaves all his newfound comrades at the end?

>>25051281
No. I haven't read any Korean webnovels. My experience with Korean media goes, in order of amount: manhwa, movies, tv, games, music, webtoons. Something like that, it's not much overall in general.

>>25051287
Yeah, that, but it's not quite that bad here. Everything I post here is on a delay since I'm only doing one per day. I was more upset than I was now, but I don't see any reason to change it.

>>25051296
try it, its very unique. probably my favourite webnovel of 2025. its kinda hard to describe but the reviews here are pretty spot on on what to expect

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/im-an-infinite-regressor-but-ive-got-stories-to-tell/

i had vague interest in game dev so i went to check out /agdg/ since an anon mentioned it, and it was like 95% spam posting slurs, complaining about trannies, AI discourse, and talking about the same namefag local thread celebrities (or so I could surmise, maybe they're youtubers or something)
this thread is shockingly normal by comparison and i forgot how blessed we are. give me tina and f-anon over that garbage any day of the week

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>>25051355
^^^ PIC REL
you asked for it

>>25051342
>what
nta but thanks, im liking it so far, unique indeed, love me some tragedy

>>25051385
I know you guys think your efforts are in vain (with me). Rest assured. I take advice. That cover, I actually enjoy reading it. As if its 1995 again, and I found a little series I like. The only problem is the slow start. Book is all 1st person through male MC eyes. So I created a short little preface, in 3rd person. Its all just the MCs younger war history, and I just show a day at the office how bad it was. Its got that gut wrenching war imagery, the kick you in the guts holy shit ending. Short and bitter. Then? *poof* Its a gear change to hit 1st person, and the slow start can begin. But now, you *know* what the quiet intelligent MC is capable of. You're willing to tolerate the time it takes for the investigation to gain traction and ramp up to the big conflict. Cake icing.
> (see, its me. lol)
I'm actually picking up a clicks and views and a few readers now, people are following me (not RS). I consider this a simulation, and its working. I dumped eight chapters and now I'm one a day and the trickle keeps coming. I can now? *fix* the other two in this series that both suffer from the slow start, the same way. The series will always open this way. Another little peek into a bad war image 3rd person, then *poof* gear change into the now tolerated slow start. I could have triple my trickle, with three of them at once. I could have that much more of trhat triple? doing it on RR as I perfect my technique. I could *maybe* justify an ad, for the little series, too. Earlier "sprawl" works? after finishing the little series, hey, there's two giant origin stories for each of the two main MCs. Will it make for MLA success? no and hell no. But, it would make for a small limited pool of readers. I also have some smut projects, and this might let me try KU. Its a plan. Its something. and i am enjoying watching my "simulation" working.

It's starting to take real effort to dig out the effort posts from this flood of mentally ill rambling

>>25051610
yeah the informational content of his posts being conveyed is consistently negligible, maybe not even 5% of the total words used contribute to the point being made

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It's bait. Don't respond to it, don't comment on it, don't interact with it at all. Report it when it's off-topic or clearly trolling and let the mods deal with it. Use the hide post function in the meantime.

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The next is Unlucky Antagonist.

>>25051801
After seeing what was done to LOTR, The wheel of time, and GOT.
I hope not they'd just fuck every up, when jaqcues mentions wagies he'll turn to the camera do a thumbs up and say
WHY UNCLE I LOVE BEING PART OF THE BACKBONE OF OUR SOCIETY

>>25051801
No longer interested after witcher, LOTR and GOT

only the chinese do good adaptations

>click on wn
>second chapter is just a prolonged flashback going on about how the MC got enslaved and tortured in the past, really driving in the heckin tragic backstory shit
This type of shit just instantly makes me lose all interest, I can't take it seriously. This despite the fact I generally like MCs getting fucked up and struggling throughout conflicts in the present. It's arbitrary but consistent I think. But I'll drop anything that feels like veering into miseryporn. I'm not smart enough to describe the line it needs to cross, but I think it's consistent. Just a know it when I see it thing. Like John Wick getting fucked up six ways to sunday isn't miseryporn.

>>25051671
that's funny. your bait image? Is the actual bait. and I'm not falling for it.

>>25051876
Rmji the novel is kind of meh but the animation and the live action were excelent.

>>25051831
>WHY UNCLE I LOVE BEING PART OF THE BACKBONE OF OUR SOCIETY
This aligns with Senator Dreux's media strategy.

>>25051876
lol

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>>25051876
You aren't wrong.

>>25051904
It's worth thinking about where that line is. Probably it has to do with having a sense of progression with the plot along with the misery. Some video I watched, maybe it was the Sanderson lectures, talked about how in Count of Monte Cristo even though the MC is trapped in prison for a long time, he's planning shit and preparing for when he gets a chance to act. So it doesn't feel like suffering for no reason.

>>25052106
It feels self indulgent. I think you get one suffering coupon in the first 1-3 chapters that was it and that for half a page.

>>25052106
>>25052176
The more suffering the protagonists faces, the more evil shit he can get away with for revenge.
Whenever I see someone torturing their MC in an Xianxia I just know, that's it.
Nine generations are getting killed, Several female cultivators will be raped, some ancient elder is going to get turned into someone elses cultivation.
If there is no torture kino, I know it's just face slapping and maybe someones cultivation being crippled.
But I guess the joy of Xianxia is knowing they believe in karma.
I return both evil and good tenfold

A big portion of RR readers use phones to read. Is that why they can't handle giant paragraphs?

>>25052193
Power ups also feel more earned when a character suffers, even if the events aren't causally linked. It's an emotional thing, probably based in the human instinct for fairness.

>>25052199
why would those correlate? text adjusts to your screen

A human weighs about 4 million times as much as a fly.

If every leap in cultivation increased your power by 10x, then a fly would have to cultivate to the Immortal level just to be able to match the power of a human.

>>25052212
NTA but you got it right. That's why. A smaller paragraph gets squished and becomes "longer" on a phone screen.

>>25052233
Foolish fool of the fool sect. You are only as strong as your weakest link. A fly only need become strong enough to puncture your eye.

>>25052212
reading something with no linebreaks on phone is ass
funny because reading RR in a desktop browser is awful

>>25052247
Why am I now imagining a 1000-year-old bee slicing throats at Mach 10?

>>25052255
Because that would be fucking sick and could make a really good speedster fight, and the mystery leading up to "the invisible humming slasher" could be dragged out for a good twenty chapters.

Incidentally Beware of Chicken is doing setting up a bee vs hornet cultivation fight as of last RR chapter. Coincidence? Probably not.

Having finally actually read Tanya the Evil it's fascinating how vast of a gap there is between the actual original work and how fanfiction characterises its characters.
Kinda like how worm has loads of fanfiction by people who've never read it.

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>>25052268
My brother in Christ why are you reading fanfiction? Have some standards, please.

>>25052271
fanfic on RR has a slightly better avg quality than original fic
mostly because having half of the work done for them is like training wheels for writers

Once again I am reminded of how incredibly weak my antagonist writing is. The best it got was a vegeta-type villain-become-rival with a "I will kill MC, but ONLY I am allowed to kill MC" complex.

I just keep doing that Metal Gear Rising thing where the villain appears maybe once or twice, establishes character and motive, and then appears for the fight proper, and everything around the villain is from pure MC POV.

I just don't have it in me to write an antagonist constantly fucking with MC. Like not I can't bring myself to it, it just doesn't come to me when I'm actually writing.

Blogpost out of the way, pick one:
>Judge Holden but a body cultivator (villain by way of vile acts AND coincidental opposition to MC's goals)
>Talented Protagonist who is salty about not being picked by MC's master, believing himself more worthy due to superior talent (villain by way of opposition to MC via grudge)
>Jeetpaki Rapegang leader mafioso with multiple bodies (villain by way of vile acts, rather than opposition to MC)

>>25052278
>The best it got was a vegeta-type villain-become-rival with a "I will kill MC, but ONLY I am allowed to kill MC" complex.
Won't help you for a villain but fun tip, this is the easiest way to write a good romance.

>>25052278
You need an antagonist whose interest is in maintaining and advancing the status quo, which the protagonist seeks to overthrow/change. So he's interested in stopping the protagonist when he's actually making change, and uninterested/distracted otherwise. Think demon king and hero. The demon king's goal is subjugating some territory he just conquered so he's in there fucking with people, killing resisters, etc. When the hero shows up to stop him, he goes to try to kill the hero. When the hero retreats, the demon king's problem is gone and now he can enslave more humans for the goop mines or some shit.

>"I will kill MC, but ONLY I am allowed to kill MC" complex.
That's not even a villain, that's a rival. A villain is "I'm trying to kill everyone over there and the hero is in the way so they gotta go first." A rival is like "damn get out the way you squishie potential victims you're blocking me from getting to the hero!"

Typing that all out actually helped me realize why Horikoshi's vilains are all so weak and gay.

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>>25052278
just write this guy but if he was a xianxia protagonist.

>>25052278
Just tell me what the aim or concept of your protagonist is. Then we design a person with a motivation that is inverse concept or principle so that they naturally ideological clash.

>>25052306
The boorish huntsman is only the right antagonist for the intellectual beast.

>>25052307
A traveling cultivator on a journey to a hidden realm to advance his cultivation (on the journey) and create his natal artifact (at the hidden realm). Note that the hidden realm is known but inaccessible without special inheritance knowledge passed down to MC from his master AND specific skills that MC has. MC's talent is unremarkable, he's neither talented nor untalented, he lacks in immediate explosive force but has very good endurance, and uses some special techniques to somewhat get around the lack of explosive force limitation.

MC's character is supposed to be calm and even-headed, but he has a strong moral compass. He's self-righteous as in seeing wrongdoing would offend him the way a pile of trash on the roadside would. He's somewhat Frieren-ish in that his specific subset of cultivation is the lynchpin of his personality because he's been focused on that one thing since getting recruited by his master at age 8 (he's 19).

TLDR: John Cultivator Doesn't Have a Golden Finger But Everyone Thinks He Does Because He's Just That GoodTM
Also "I decided to just stick with best practices and train up my Thunder Palm and now everyone thinks I'm a hidden genius"
Basically for once MC doesn't do wacky out there shit all the time to try and skip the line and it works out for him

>>25052260
Like, imagine this. Warriors are going down left and right; the only warning is a brief buzzing before a man falls over dead. The MC focuses their senses and is barely able to make out a small black and yellow object flying around before someone dies. They step out into the open and deflect the moment the projectile comes for them. They take that chance to run in the direction it came from, only to find nothing. Confused, they are nearly caught off guard when another one flies in from the direction they just came from. This goes on for a bit before they perfectly time a strike to stop the projectile's momentum outright. And that's when they realize, it isn't some throwing knife or ranged technique, but an accended bee.

>>25052319
It is xianxia so the enemy is either a young master, a holy son, a corrupt elder, a clan elder or a sect master.

>>25052325
It's western xianxia, and I generally don't write xianxia. I enjoy the systems and cosmology but I'm not writing true xianxia, I'm writing "progression fantasy with xianxia characteristics".

>>25052331
you got a goodie two shoes character in a xianxia world, then the perfect villain for you is a straight forward I well never bow to the heaves only to my ancestors grave murder hobo orthodox xianxia character (the path not taken kind of hero/antagonist)

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>>25052331
You can write western Xianxia and have those villainous archetypes. The guy writing cradle uses them except maybe sect master? it's been awhile since I read the books.
His idea of a western Xianxia what just one where you cannot rape people as a battle tactic.

>>25052388
I would still create a main rival if I was him.

"I WILL ONLY BOW TO MY ANCESTORS GRAVE NOT THE HEAVEN!"
"Take my resources? Of our heavenly sword sect?"
"I was here first, we can split it fairly."
"Let us duel."

"I refuse."

silence

"The winner shall take it."

"Why not split it fair in the middle."

"Then the essence of heaven and earth will evaporate."

>oooh ahhh im finna boutta write [genre] but super original and good, not like all the other lowly sloppers!
>never read a single work of [genre] in my life btw

>>25052365
I don't want to do that as a straight up antagonist. As >>25052405 said maybe as a rival, but even then I'm hesitant... Because I've seen it done a bunch of times already on RR. The most recent one I can think of, "Surprisingly Enough(NOT), Common Sense Is Overpowered in Cliché Cultivation World" has protag as a side character.

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>>25052415
>oooh ahhh im finna boutta write isekai but super original and good
>oh fug this is actually hard

>oooh ahhh im finna boutta write fantasy-slop but super derivative and mediocre
>lmao this is so easy and it turned out lowkey good?!

The lesson to learn from this is don't try to do hard things. Try to do easy things.

>>25052419
>Surprisingly Enough(NOT), Common Sense Is Overpowered in Cliché Cultivation World
I saw that last week, is it worth reading?

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I dont like keeping milimetrically precise track of everything my characters do on a spreadshet at all times. I want to include LitRPG elements to my story to have a chance at Patreon revenue, but I'd like to keep numeralia to a minimum. What do you recommend? And how do you deal with this in your own stories?

For reference, I consider Primal Hunter to be an example of highly numeric writing, and Max Level Archmage an example of ONLY ENOUGH numbers to be LitRPG without becoming a constant stats dump/spreadsheeting.

>>25052441
Letter ratings. Plusses and minuses for variance between letters. A+++ and so on. For progression, use perks, not stat increases.

>>25052440
It's alright. It hasn't irritated me in my time reading it, which is more than many popular novels can say.

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>>25052437
Fuck that's too relatable. It feels like the secret to satisfying both the writer and the audience, write something derivative and change it slightly.

>>25052441
there are many hugely popular litrpgs that are light on the numbers and just use it as set dressing. you named one. TWI is another. Super Supportive is one that's just an actual fraud about it and even deleted the tag several times (but then added it back because sheesh the stat boost is nice)

so just do it too. what even is the question here. you don't like stat-heavy so don't be stat-heavy. autist hunting action litrpgs like PH isn't the only successful niche and you clearly already know it

>>25052419
>protag as a side character.
This sounds like fucking kino? Does he make fun of how autsitic all the xianxia guys act?

>>25052454
sorta
he also complains about the actual MC attracting bad luck constantly (and naturally does a bit of skimming off the top for luck)

>>25052449
It's crazy. I slopped all last year and felt almost zero stress even when I was getting negative feedback (deserved and I improved). Now I'm trying to do everything write and all the beginner mistakes I avoided are smacking me in the face and somehow I wrote my own trauma into the MC so he turned out to be a giant passive faggot. Now I'm taking it out and it's cost me tens of thousands of words of backlog.

I'm sure I'll feel better once the launch is done and I find a new audience but it's stressful for now.

>>25052441
I tried to keep all that to a minimum and readers tracked it autistically and caught me out on a few errors despite being really obscure. Do no underestimate their autism. HOWEVER, posting a new chapter is like jingling keys in front of them. After acknowledging the error and promising to fix it (and never actually doing so oops), they forgot about it entirely.

Anyway it's not that big a deal. I will say it's better to track that yourself as you're writing because if you have to go back and make numbers work for a plot reason, it's a giant pain the ass to go back and reread half a book multiple times compared to just having chapter notes attached to each chapter. For instance, don't ever make money a big part of the plot where the difference of a dollar a day's earnings matters to a plot event. Better to just have some event happen (they found X money, a bandit stole Y money) and then set the money level where it needs to be for the plot to happen.

>>25052464
>Now I'm trying to do everything write
Minor spelling error, -500 izzat for Gryffindor

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>>25052467

number based stories are nice because you don't have to write a plot and good characters
why play on hard mode

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>>25052467
IT KEEPS HAPPENING OMG

>>25052478
the numbers are my hardmode because i can't keep them straight

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After a two day crashout and an hour reading the tos and privacy policy I have finally bought myself a month of midjourney. Honestly it's pretty cool so far in the first twenty minutes. I was able to nail down the aesthetic I want and my first babby prompt edit went pretty well. I'll probably wind up generating characters in the poses/clothing I want then merge them together into a book cover myself in GIMP and figure out my own title typography.

>>25052554
Why didn't you just run local stable diffusion?

>>25052470
I learned about izzat the other day. Thank you kiwifarms for international understanding.

It is like chutzpah but without friendly fire protection.

>>25052554
for what it's worth midjourney is a decent deal if you don't want to bother setting shit up on your end with comfyui and that sort of stuff

>>25052569
nta but it takes a lot of time, and hardware; the price of midjourney (or grok) is easily worth the opportunity cost for most

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>>25052569
Cannot say I blame him for not wanting to try and figure out Comfyui.
I think Midjourney also has the benefit of have a suite of styles you can easily apply, whereas local means he'd have to find checkpoints and loras himself.
I like messing around with AI but I can see that being a major pain in the neck for people who just wanted to use it for a specific thing.

>>25052611
Yeah fuck Comfy, even I can't bother to learn that, but Forge is pretty retardproof.

asking for advice is pointless, so give me YOUR villains
not literally, just tell me about them
what do you do with your antagonists that you think is interesting or unique?

>>25052569
Stupidity and impatience, self-admittedly. I really want to reserve mental capacity for writing rather than tech or visual art as much as possible.

When I get a cover together it's going to be jank as fuck on an art level but hopefully by following uncle /wng/'s cover advice I'll catch eyes on launch.

Carry on

310

Western cultivation… hmm…
It’s funny how I can spend months trying to come up with a concept, yet a single phrase can trigger my creative juices.

Immortal Soul Cultivation
Priests grow stronger by cultivating their immortal souls through Faith Points, gained from believers. The more faith a priest controls, the stronger their soul becomes. Knights rely on priests for blessings and faith‑infused weapons.

Setting:
After reclaiming the Holy Land, the Crusaders united under one banner and spread Christianity worldwide, erasing borders and rival religions. For centuries, the Vatican ruled as both religious and political authority.
Corruption eventually took root within the Church. In that weakness, Hell attacked.
A hellgate opened in the center of the Vatican, destroying the city and unleashing demons. Half of Europe fell in one night. Humanity survived only because Heaven granted holy power to devoted followers. Priests and knights pushed back the invasion, containing the hellgate and establishing an uneasy balance.
Afterward, the Church fractured into rival sects. Faith Points became both spiritual currency and political power, and priests now compete openly for followers. Meanwhile, satanic churches spread, offering fast power and pleasure, tempting even priests.

The Protagonist:
The protagonist was once the spoiled son of a famous bishop. Exiled to a remote post, he accepted a demon’s contract and lost his soul to Hell.
His body should have become a demon slave, but his fiancée sacrificed her life to restore its awareness. What remained was a soulless body with the priest’s memories, but none of his desires.
He now walks the earth to slay demons and reclaim what he had lost.
Unable to cultivate an immortal soul, he survives by killing demons and consuming their essence. He still needs Faith Points to keep his fiancée’s lingering soul from fading and hides the fact that he is undead.
Cold and immune to temptation, he is initially despised by other priests for his past. But over time, his relentless demon hunting and unwavering discipline earns him the reputation as being a reliable, if frightening, zealot.

Powers:
Demonic powers disguised as holy power.
Weapons crafted from the body of powerful demons.
Certain items can grant him new abilities.

Goals:
Recover his stolen soul from Hell and make it up to the woman who had sacrificed everything for him.

Tone: The Hero Wants to Live rip‑off.

Now, if only I could write as well as Jee Gab Song.