Thread 24732394

Xianxia Medicine Edition

Stubbed >>24725258

>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

ACCOUNTABILITY CHECK!

Post how many words you've written the past week!

I'll start. 3000 words but half at worldbuilding since I forgot about my power system (soft magic for the most part )

Have any of you considered how hard it would be to actually fight a rat with a sword?
>>24732417
127

If I want to start posting a new fiction, do I delete all my negative reviews of other fictions, or do I just make a new account?

Is this actually good despite the AI or is the average web novel reader fine with literally anything?

>>24732491
make a new account

>>24732394 (OP)
Does this general cover Chinese web novels, specifically xianxia?

do people actually appreciate good quality (in prose, plot, characters, etc.) or are webnovel just fast food and people only care about it being "good enough"?

>>24732498
Read it and make up your own goddamn mind.

It's trash

>>24732489
I'd probably fight it with a sword because I don't want their filthy blood on my gloves, even if it's harder to do it that way.

>>24732558
Nobody has any fucking clue what is "good quality." As if you could just print gold on demand. Do the best you can and it might just be "good enough." Probably not.

>>24732543
No one ever got banned from talking about it

>>24732543
Yes.

>>24732498
It's not very good, no.

>>24732491
>>24732510
Why?

>>24732730
retaliatory bad reviews for one
it's just smart as a general principle to separate your author account and your personal account imo

>>24732779
I misread his post. I thought he meant "If my other works are badly reviewed, do I make a new account?"

>>24732498
I would say if you're going to use slop, use it to create a "vibe" rather than definitive characters, like the obscuring his face with shadows, make the surroundings more detailed as to not call too much attention to the design itself, etc.

>>24732868
am I vibeslopping?

>>24732583
You get banned for being off topic? Is this a new thing? I've never seen that happen on 4chan.

>>24732417
I wrote 5100 words today and damn if that last chapter wasn't the best one yet. I got so hyped writing it I had to get up and walk around to burn off nervous energy, and then once done I immediately re-read it.
Royal Road's going to fucking love it in February. (My backlog is too big)

In the future I have to make sure I don't backload all my hypest scenes.

>>24733095
female "roland" gunslinger.

>>24732417
At 32k words total. I feel like I'm just slowing down. I could get 2k out daily, but now it's slipping.

I am turning my free verse into prose for the readers ;-; The first three chapters have broken free... goodbye!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/128737

>>24732498
He looks like a supporting character
Proompt him a pot helm and a more dynamic pose

>>24732558
It's mostly just power fantasy stuff.
Readers will forgive things like the mc being liked for no reason but you could still do better if you wanted.

>>24733143
better send link someday or else...
>>24733245
32k words in a week is crazy. I'd be burnt out doing that so props to you. 2k a day is my goal so I hope I can reach that one day.

pic rel is a character in my story and keeps me going to get better at writing so I can give her justice.

>>24733378
Anon...

>>24733100
only place I know that has power-tripping moderators are /gif/ and /tv/. those guys are megalomaniacs on a good day.

>>24733533
In my defense I haven't look at the site in forever

>>24732417
Eight thousand this week

>>24733550
It's not your bad. I know you shouldn't just a book by it's cover but fuck.

Do people not like space ship based stories?

>>24733599
for some fucktarded reason no
it can have a lot of spaceship stuff but the "main world" has to be a planet or something like that

>>24733602
Damn that is stupid, a ship could be large enough for the mc and all his allies to live on but I guess people have some psychological hang up about it.
Damn landlubbers

>>24733599
I really wanted to pen a WN about a generation ship en-route to a planet, and each book was gonna jump 100 years to new characters. But it seems like yeah, no one fucking likes ship stories.

>reads a litRPG
>self edits out every paragraph containing a numeral
maybe this genre isnt so bad

>>24733599
Spaceship implies scifi, that's fine but every spaceship story I can think of has been about the drama between the crew members and had little to do with actual scifi. Might aswell save money on special effects and props and just make a drama about friends sharing an apartment in new york or some shit.

>>24733630
You never watch Star Trek? It's mostly about sci-fi and philosophical scenarios and crew interpersonal relationships are usually just side plots or comic relief.
Besides I want to write adventure not slice of life. However it's awkward if readers expect to go back to some home planet constantly.

>>24733638
That's why you give them a taste of that to start and get them hooked, then you give them the Voyager treatment when they're comfortable. Make them just as surprised as the crew.

>>24733638
I never liked it. It was about social issues, dumb politics and philosophy, the so called comic relief was cringe af. In fact I am not against shows that cover those topics but it's just not true scifi.

>>24733670
Hey that's a good idea
>>24733687
I liked the Voyager episode about the fast spinning planet and time dilation, it was nice change from the typical time travel episodes since they often contradicted each other over how time travel would work. But yeah I guess they didn't really cover actual sci-fi concepts like that very often.

>>24733618
Maybe set it on a mobile planetoid with world engines like in Shadow Raiders/War Planets
That way you could have it slowly chug through space to its destination but it would still technically be a planet and not a ship

I gotta say I always thought Star Trek was cringe, even in middle school when a teacher put one of the movies on tv on the last day of class
>setting is gay space communism messing around with unenlightened aliens for no good reason
>problems are always bullshit caused by the space communists being retarded
>in the end space communists win because they're space communists and enlightened and naturally superior, morally and technologically
>oh and they all have hundreds of episodes of lore and backstory and it's all gay bullshit
It's just masturbation fantasies for ivory tower intellectuals who would never ever ever go to the frontier of anything, but imagine that if they did, they would be heroic. This is what I thought when I was thirteen.

>>24733599
>>24733611
>>24733618
There's plenty of fiction set on actual sailing ships, and it did okay. The problem isn't the setting or premise it's that nobody's written a good one recently.

Hell, didn't Interstellar take place predominantly in space on a space ship? That was well received. It just requires more skill than writing "OP MC numbers go up pseudo-harem strong to stronger."

>>24732417
16,930 words

>>24733599
It's hard to say, you have Phantom Star which is explosively popular on both SH and RR but pretty much every other story including my mine just eats massive shit.

>>24733739
>pretty much every other story including my mine just eats massive shit.
Just sounds like another day on RR.

It's technically not a spaceship story if it's a fuckhueg megastructure that spans the entire galaxy :^)

Just like this technically isn't a shill post because the story isn't being serialized yet

There's no way I'll be able to do 2,500 words a day... I'll never make it. I started September 1rst and have managed 14 chapters...

>>24733739
What would you say is the primary theme of your space story?

Peak webnovel writing

>>24733754
Korean.

>>24733754
sauce? asking for a friend (my right hand)

>>24733754
>not reincarnated as a boy who loves mommy
The west has fallen

>>24733754
10/10 psychosexual horror introduction, won't read.

>>24733748
One day at a time man. The writing muscle grows the more you use it.

>>24733746
>that fucking cover
Dude, if your cover makes me think that fucking much between the typesetting and the weird as fuck anatomy and poses and perspective I will actively avoid your book out of spite until I see it with a properly legible cover.
I'm looking at it on a fuckhuge vertical screen and it took me 20 seconds to even register what I was looking at and read the title.

>>24733746
Wait, I remember you. How long has it been? Months? A year?
And you haven't started serialization yet?

>>24733766
I started playing around with this thing around April and started considering actually pushing it to serialization... Last month maybe?
this started as a side project for the ideas I couldn't fit into Cherno, keep in mind

>>24733764
it's supposed to look cool and stand out at thumbnail size, readability is secondary (because the title will be next to/above it in plaintext)

>>24733754
>Peak webnovel writing
You weren't lying, lmao

>>24733749
Exploring the failings of democracy and autocracy and could happen when people start following a person and not a government or ideology.

>>24733760
The Academy's School Nurse Wants to Rest

>>24733768
for the ideas I couldn't fit into my other work*
it's late, i can feel myself becoming stupid and making too many assumptions, I'm going to bed, end of blogpost

>>24733775
>checks the tags
jfc, this is actually unhinged for korean standards

>>24733771
Not bad, pretty good for a contained setting in a hostile environment and how things can spiral out of control. What's the hook?

>>24733768
At thumbnail size it's even worse.
ZANMA
PT
Some kind weird grey blob that doesn't resolve as anything visually until you squint and realize oh, it's two characters, one of which looks ridiculous because of the pose and perspective.
ZANMA doesn't mean anything and isn't compelling on its own, so then the eye is drawn to the vertical text to figure out what the fuck is going on, and after effort the viewer gets "Puppetmaster Travelogue," which explains exactly nothing about ZANMA, which may be a name, an acronym, a title, who knows!

By this point the cover has lost all goodwill from me as someone who found it on a website or on the front of a book in a store.

You do you I'm just saying, it really turned me off.

>>24733813
Asteroid fortress threatens planet's defense satellite, and the mc is sorting to stop it before it's too late.

>>24733775
jej

>>24733851
>"Sex with someone that's not my dad?"
>"Disgusting!"
>t. middle aged man reincarnated as a girl

>>24733838
Okay, sounds pretty good. All you need is an AI cover with a hot young woman on the front, maybe some fashy vibes for your autocrat leader, it should work fine. RR is predominantly fantasy but if you just push peoples' buttons for them I bet it will do okay.

Kinda like how Code Geass was. Hot chicks plus authoritarianism and a bit of rebellion but actually the autocrats have everything well in hand, it's great.

>>24733851
>lose fight to sword saint mom
>she teabags and twerks on you
Koreans I kneel

>>24733851
>it's never brought up again
Honestly, 0.5 stars justified. Why have a hook and just abandon it like that? Rude to the readers.

>>24733618
Do it, someone needs to start the colony ship trend eventually so I can bandwagon on it.

>>24733945
Maybe in January. I'm working on a story I hate rn, but I promised myself I'd complete it and not start a new one.

>>24732417
Just been editing and drafting this week so basically fucking nothinng

>>24733929
Just run it through an ai and tell it to continue

>>24733768
Akasofag, aren't you worried people are going to find out you use 4chinz?

>>24733974
Excuse you please don't call me a retard.
I only read hand-crafted webnovel libro.

If writing a web novel is so easy to make money with how come none of you are?

>>24734031
anon you just wanted to jerk off to incest, don't act high and mighty now
Though now that I think about it an ai wouldn't be able to replicate that schizo writing style and would just produce regular smut.

>>24734032
I'm a misunderstood genius.

>>24734032
Nowhere does it say that, the links in the op even say the opposite afaik

>>24734032
>writing a web novel is so easy to make money with
Retard-kun

>>24734046
>>24734069
Then why are you doing this?

>>24734080
Because publishing is dead. They're all broke and the best you'll get from it is an Instagram post with 20 likes. Unless your name is Sally Rooney

>>24732417
around 4,000 words but mostly notes to myself to keep my work internally plausible along with outlining, so as to craft the illusion of grand history, etc.

>>24734080
I DO IT FOR FUN!!!!

>>24734080
I dunno about these other dingdongs but I already got paid for writing so I figure I'm just taking it to a larger scale this time.

My grammar is fucking awful and I have trouble expressing my thoughts in writing in a clear and concise manner. My natural style drifts towards comma splices and comma abuse, even when my comma usage is right, I often abuse it, until my prose feels long-winded and a pain to read. Its fine when I keep my writing short, but the longer I go on, the more stilted, awkward, and exhausting it is to read my writing. With this in mind, where should I start to fix my prose?

>>24734032
it fulfills the same calling in my blood for gambling, but i don’t have to pay any money

>>24732543
read lord of the mysteries
even though it's not xianxia

>>24734164
Don't be afraid to punch down that full stop.

>>24734164
Practice. If you keep writing a specific way enough times then eventually it will stick. AI can be good for this. You write something and ask AI to critique what you think are pain points. The AI will point out your issues and how it would rewrite it.

Initially you just want to type out the same thing the AI generated. The best way to do it is to read what the AI wrote and then type out the same thing from memory. This engages your brain more. Do this enough times and you'll start seeing where the AI sucks and how you can improve upon it yourself. Do that enough times and it will slowly change your writing style.

At least that's what I would do in your situation. AI isn't necessary, but it provides quicker feedback than anything else barring a real life tutor. Just don't overdo it with the AI.

>>24734186
>AI can be good for this. You write something and ask AI to critique
Fucking kill yourself, retard

>>24734186
you would learn infinitely quicker by starting with the greeks

>>24734186
>Initially you just want to type out the same thing the AI generated. The best way to do it is to read what the AI wrote and then type out the same thing from memory.
okay looking past the whole premise being retarded...
how is rote repetition and copying lines supposed to help your grammar skills

>>24734212
His problem is his natural writing style. The only way to change that is too deliberately keep doing things differently until they stick.

If you were a mouth breather and wanted to breathe through your nose then the only thing you could do is to deliberately keep breathing through your nose until it becomes natural. Repetition is how we internalize any skill. You think math textbooks make you do the same exercise using the same formulas with different numbers over and over again by accident? That's what builds up your intuition.

any web novels where mc gets the tomboy girl?
I was reading one where bro reincarned and there were two girls who i thought would be a sort of harem(but i dont mind if it isnt) but i got spoiled that the tomboy red haired girl gets with the male side character while he gets the 'uguuuuu cute!' basic bitch ass girl.
I WANT TOMBOY, please help.

>>24734213
Should spend a bit of time on what the enchantments are. I read it twice and I realized I forgot about them right away.

>>24734220
My novel is about a guy who has never and will never have sex because he swore not to and he gets in a party with two girls who are also warriors and he struggles with that because he is a knight and should never ever interact with women

>>24734232
Why did he swear to not have sex?

Is this too meandering?

>>24734234
yeah too many commas
web novels are like sunday strips and you're drawing a graphic novel, if that makes sense

are there any WNs where the MC enforces his 21st century modern day ethics and ideas upon the native people, and judges them by such, but do so unapologetically? a NATO cultural imperialist who sneers at the medieval fantasy world native for adhering to barbaric and backwards practices; a man of Francis Fukuyama’s End of History; the successor of the Imperial Western nations of the 19th and 20th centuries?

>>24734245
>are there any WNs where the MC enforces his 21st century modern day ethics and ideas upon the native people
yeah fuckloads really
>do so unapologetically
nah
doing anything unapologetically isn't really within 21st century ethics I'm afraid

>>24734234
ignore him, i love detaled narration in my web novels.

Any popular eldritch/cosmic horror novels on RR? I wonder how viable it would be with a weak protagonist.

>>24734245
Isn't this like every fucking web novel?
>fantasy world has had slavery for thousands of years
>MC has been in fantasy world for 5 minutes
>undoes slavery immediately because it's morally wrong
>it always works without issues

>>24734285
most JP webnovels are like "slavery is fine actually" and chinese/korean isekais are roughly 50% "the previous owner of this body was a weak babby bitch and I'll prove I'm better than him by brutalizing every servant who doesn't deepthroat my dong"

>>24734233
He is part of an order of Scholar-Knights who swear a bunch of things to become members of the order, he was raised by them so did so because it's all he knew and he never actually interacted with any women before. I thought it'd be fun to have some tension between him and one of the women in the group because he's between two things, his loyalty to his order and the fact he's a young man who has never actually been in this situation or without supervision

>>24734232
this is a baalbuddy comic
in fact it's several

>>24734032
Success has more to do with being a manipulative paychopath than being a genius.

>>24734164
Try writing a second draft. You know what the problem is. Just fix it.

>>24734291
Ok, you catched my attention. I like it.
You putting your work anywhere bro?
You planning on making him fall or you gonna make him a volcel till the end?

>>24734317
>catched
so this is the average RR reader I've heard so much about

>>24734319
Sorry i am a esl so i sometimes makes mistakes when i am not paying attention cause it makes sense in my language and its a direct translation.
I guess i should've used 'you got my attention', sorry about that bro...

>>24734301
sincerely hoping bro has a character inspired on this cutiepatootie on his work.

>>24734322
Hey, no worries. We all make mistakes. Just kill yourself and we won't mention it again, ESLbro.

ESLs always leave the best comments on my fiction. They're either crying their hearts out over emotional moments or seething over something retarded.

>>24734322
You buoyed any good books this week, saar?

>>24734317
I'm not uploading it anywhere yet. I'm a really inconsistent writer so I don't think it would be good for me to post until I've finished at least the first book. Not that I plan for it to go longer than two books. The story is supposed to be a low-medieval isekai into Wuxia China where members of this Order find themselves in this not so historical China and have to figure out what the hell is going on. They split up and it all goes to shit for the MC until he's being chased with three others (including the two women) who he has no idea about.
>You planning on making him fall or you gonna make him a volcel till the end?
He will fall, and it will eat at him from the inside. I don't know how I will do his brothers reactions yet, but I think it has to be meaningful, at least to the MC.

>>24734345
Nice, please keep us updated. Specially if you decide on a name.

Does anyone else fking hate when the mc is a beta? i hate that sht. too many fic with pussy mc. fk.

>>24734245
I am writing a webnovel with that premise right now, the story starts with the isekai'd guy killing the king who summoned him for being a pedophile (his wife is 17)

>>24733821
I knew full well that it might turn some people off when I made the choice to not go for a generic cover and typesetting layout, so this isn't a big shock.

However, two things:

a) Keep in mind this cover will always be next to the novel's written out title, which is "ZANMA PT: Puppetmaster Travelogue [obligatory tags in brackets describing the story]". In print, its title will also be printed on the spine. Personally I think it's not much of a leap in logic that the one proper noun on the cover refers to the character that the cover depicts, but that's just me. For that reason...

b) Pic related. It's the cover art without the text. Go on, mock up what you would prefer the typesetting to be like. The main character's name is Zanma, he's a psionic traveling puppetmaster, and the setting at large is called the Soltern, it's a megastructure. That should be enough info, I think.

>>24734396
I also want to make it clear that I don't mean b) as a gotcha "hurhur i'd like to see you do better," I mean it completely genuinely. Default windows fonts should work fine.

>>24734341
I can tell a commenter is ESL because their comments actually sound like they're trying to say something about the novel

>>24733821
I could pretty clearly tell the gray blob was some sort of mecha. It looks a lot better without the text >>24734396

>>24734234
Considering it is AI generated, not too much.

Do you guys ever use art you see to inspire your characters or world?

>>24734522
Maps

>>24734380
Please tell me he yells "SHE'S SEVENTEEN YOU SICK FUCK!" as he beheads the king. Then I promise to read it

>>24734418
They always ask fucking dumb questions that are answered directly in the story, miss details explained many times, and are annoyed by things that bother nobody else. My writing isn't even complex. There should be some kind of esl-test before you're allowed to comment

>>24733746
Oh boy, I love Zanma PT ufpetmaster rauelogue.

In all seriousness, >>24733764 is right. This typesetting is painful to look at. Though I think the art is fine. Personally, I had no issue understanding what I was looking at. As for how it could be better, do you really need the entirety of the title on the front? Just Puppet Master would be fine. Wanting everything communicated in the title is retarded, that's what your blurb is for. The title page should just be eye-catching and readable.

>>24734223
The Great Enchantments are complex magical machines that improve life to a somewhat similar style to what an industrial society has. Magic that makes food grow bigger and faster, lighting, washing machines, ovens etc. Not as advanced as modern society, but something like that. I'm not sure how to add that in there without evoking modern society, because it's not quite our modern society, more like late 19th century modern.

>>24734350
Everyone hates it, because betas are not proactive. People keep writing them for muh character progression.

>>24734234
>be me
>write something
>people call my writing AI
Is this good or bad?

>>24734546
Meant for this
>>24734503

>>24734286
Even the JP web novels will say they dislike it, but JP MCs are usually too beta to do anything about it. Or they are self-aware enough to realize they can't topple society on their own.
Isekai MCs overwhelmingly push modern western values onto the other world.

>>24734528
>Saurotopia
Don't use this name, it's bad. Sounds like a cartoon.
>Rolandish Empire
I don't like this one either, but it might be up to taste. If you must have the name Roland in it then keep it. Or use something like Imperium Rolandar, Rolandheim or something.
>Jugosootia
People will think of Yugoslavia when they read it.
>Popular Peasant Republic
>The Swampies
I hope these names are works in progress. The Swampies could work as slang, but shouldn't be the "official" name on the map.
>Hyperborea
Probably better to give it another name.
>Königsberg
Why is the city name in German?
>Jankeelands
Is that where the Americans live?
>Hydroway
is stupid. River to Heaven sounds better.
>Miraval's City
Just call it Miraval. The locals can call it "the City".

>>24734546
It is AI though.

>>24734590
How so?

>>24734535
I made it like this BECAUSE it felt more eye-catching.
I went through a bunch of variations and eventually settled on that one.

ex. picrel mockup

>>24734597
another one
the reason I'm currently sitting on the first one I posted is that, considering feedback received from a number of people in different servers, it seemed to be the best balance of readability and visual impact

>>24734234
>>24734596
AI generating a work, then "rewriting" it in its entirety, and keeping "the parts that sound good" do not prevent it from being AI generated writing.

>>24734032
Who the fuck said it was easy?

>>24734164
Keep your sentences as short as possible. If something isn't necessary to the paragraph, cut it. Even down to the word. I used to love being an idiot who would interject stuff like
>"He picked up the smooth, flat stone. It passed from his palm to the ocean spanning just beyond the man's feet. His eyes traced the minute waves each skip induced."
and what the fuck did it ever actually add to my narrative, motives, plot?

>>24734620
>Dangerous.
>AI generated

>>24734581
It's just fucking funny that all your complains are canon in my story.

>Wake up
>Feel like shit
>Don't want to write today
>Open the document and read my latest chapter
>Expect to cringe
>Actually enjoying it, seeing a nice flow, only needs some tweaking
>Energized like I just ate a good meal

Met a slump with my huge main story, unsure how to continue, so I'm taking a break from it to write something different and lighter. For at least one weekend, I want to explore without worrying if it has any appeal or hooks.

>>24734651
It's the highlighted portion dumbass. It specifically excludes "Dangerous.".

>>24734699
LOL

>>24734675
How I treat my weekly DMing. It's nice to get a pat on the back from friends.

>>24732417
~3k words this week. Lots of editing of stuff that escaped the initial edits.

>>24734709
Clearly Nasu didn’t use AI

>>24734654
Maybe it's because I secretly read it?

>>24734620
Imagine believing "AI detectors". You know that these websites and companies are scams, right? You can't reliably detect whether something is or isn't AI.

People do have a need to figure out whether don't text was AI generated or not, so they pay these companies. But they don't pay them to figure out whether something is AI, they pay them to be able to say that they made a good effort at figuring it out. Now all the responsibility rests on the AI detector company. They will fake it as long as they can.

Eventually some scandal will catch up with them and the entire thing will be revealed to be a sham. But that's okay, because people have already made a ton of money from it. Soon a new company emerges, offering the same service, but they use these super special new techniques that totally work, unlike the old scammy company. And the cycle repeats.

>>24734635
>and what the fuck did it ever actually add to my narrative, motives, plot?
This is pretty midwit advice. Plot does not matter for webnovels: capturing audience attention is all that matters. A web serial is not a book, you can keep it going for as long as needed. The only planning you need to do is chapter by chapter, anyone still sperging about “plot” is a tard who thinks they’re writing a novel.

>>24734913
>wanted to dispute and argue that plot doesn't matter
>checked my own work and only 90k words for a complete story
>check royalroad top novels and they span 100k+ words minimum and still ongoing

I can't imagine writing 2k words a day minimum...

Are there ways to pad word count easily?

>>24734926
Just read one of those 800 chapter stories. Not the entire thing but read like, chapter 30 and then go to 500 and so on, and see how little it changes.

>>24734926
You need to just write filler in a way that makes readers think there’s something coming up. People read this shit for the dopamine spikes, not because they give a shit about the story actually progressing.

Have the protagonist beat up some semi-powerful guy that is HINTED to be related to the main narrative. Or get the characters ensnared in some minor mystery that spans for chapters and chapters that has a payoff…that leads to a cliffhanger.

Just delay things, but make it seem like incremental progress is being made so your readers still feel like they should still stay invested. After all, things DID change, and they may as well see this through since they’ve already read a billion pages.

Just don’t make it too obvious or you’ll get ESLs in your comments whining about how it never ends. Which it won’t end. Not until you’ve made some money.

>>24734934
Don't you feel disgusted with yourself? Instead of even trying to be a little creative, you just tell people how to fake it and scam your readers?

>>24734946
He's just trying to help Anons get paid. If you want to write a novel, write a novel. Web Novels are a different beast.

>>24734950
Why are you acting like producing a long-running serial with an engaging, constantly developing storyline is completely impossible, and you're somehow doing it wrong unless you lie and hack it? Because that's complete bullshit

>>24734965
Cus Anon asked how to pad out his word count?

>>24734934
I read for the characters anyway. I don't really care if the main plot doesn't move much as long as the right characters are kicking ass.

Did you think I watched House or Sherlock Holmes for the plot?

>>24734970
Once again, it's possible to write content without deliberately wasting people's time with bullshit that isn't even mean to lead anywhere. How is this so hard for you to process, you fakeass clown?

>>24734977
>>24734926
>Are there ways to pad word count easily?
>Pad out
>"If you pad out a speech or piece of writing, you add unnecessary words or information to make it longer or to hide the fact that you are not saying anything very important."
Anon is literally getting what he asked for. Of course you can just write well.

>>24734946
>>24734977
You’re retarded. Look at the top trending serials on RR. Billion-word shitfests with no end in sight.

People like: >>24734972 obviously read for the character interactions. Plot does not matter to them if the dopamine keeps spiking. And the best shit for interactions is filler, as long as it’s disguised as “furthering the plot” so readers don’t feel as bad about reading five pages about the characters fucking around in a castle.

This entire genre is just lonely faggots living vicariously through power fantasies. “Compelling stories” are an afterthought, and if you’re still hooked on that lie then you’ll never make it. Cope harder faggot.

>>24734858
cope

How I begin and end every fucking chapter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZ-bJcSTh4

>>24734930
I'll try reading some. Got any recommendations for regression or system stories?
>>24734934
I'd feel guilty for padding out but it does seem to be the only way for you to make a living if you can get a readership.

Connecting villains to each other in a way is gonna be fun since I'm more used to writing antagonists as individualists rather than working under a single banner.
>>24734989
I get what you mean by writing well but don't readers hate slice of life chapters that don't progress the main plot anyhow?

Is the only fix to padding really just making an interesting character to want to root for and see how they go about in random situations that somewhat progresses the mc in someway no matter how small?

>>24735121
I treat my WNs like World of Warcraft. The big asshole is always backed by a bigger asshole. It works for me because the protagonist starts as a nobody and slowly grows and acquired friends.

>First antagonist is a thug
>Then it's his boss
>Then it's the boss' information broker
>Then it's the guy who hired the information broker
>Then it's the courtier who arranged stuff
>Then it's the prince he was working on behalf of
>Then it's the king
>Then it's the emperor
>Then it's GOD
>Then it's the guy who made God

There's my 800 chapters.

>>24735154
thanks for explaining your approach to it. Never played WoW so it's amusing to me that it's boss or villain tree is similar to JRPGs.

I guess it all just ends up with saving a cat -> Defeating God's God. Familiar to most readers but at the same time varying enough that they want to see what you come up with.

>>24735121
>I get what you mean by writing well but don't readers hate slice of life chapters that don't progress the main plot anyhow?
you fuckers really need to stop saying 'readers' as if there's some monolith culture. there are obviously some readers who will like slice of life and some readers who won't. and even within the SOL subgenre, there are limits to how much a given reader will accept endless SOL

Can you guys list the names of your stories?
I try to only read good stories and I want to avoid mid shit that try to game the system.

>>24735189
>Can you guys list the names of your stories?
>I try to only read good stories
What makes you think a thread full of random amateurs on 4chan is somewhere to look for good fiction?

>>24735197
He's saying the other thing.

>>24735189
my story is called Second Life as a Soldier

This is your future.

>>24733746
>Zanma
is that a reference to Demonbane?
Anyways I feel like this text layout looks visually very cool but it probably needs some extra hints for the reading direction to stop people getting lost the first time they try to parse it, like putting the words puppetmaster & travelogue in a different shade of red or something

>>24735056
it's not cope, all those automated detectors are dogshit. experienced humans can do it better with the power of I Know It When I See it but automated slop detection just doesn't work.

>>24734032
lmao skill issue
I make $50/month.

>>24735179
chill out, I wasn't trying to trigger you with the term 'readers.'

But I get your point, just balance out the SOL or else you lose your novel's SOUL.

>>24735257
>chill out, I wasn't trying to trigger you with the term 'readers.'
well people in this thread keep saying 'readers like x' 'readers don't like y' as if there isn't a huge variety even inside the meta. it's very useless discourse and muddies the water.
you can have as much or as little slice of life as you want, there are massively successful stories of both extremes

>>24735249
I didn't actually expect someone to pick up on it. I have a whole scene about the two-symbol name meaning and why he's the one that got picked to be the traveling disciple of his school. The old man master that literally never shows up in narrative is Taisei (as in "great saint", his entire character is being "The Old Man that creates protagonists" and he's infamous for shitting out geniuses with overly strong moral compasses every couple decades) and the naturalborn genius that got picked to be the live-in direct disciple is Houkou (extremely powerful but his psionics have a tendency of going apeshit so he has to be kept under watch until he gets a handle on them).

I'll consider what I could do to further improve the readability without compromising the style. Maybe modify the font a bit to create a downward arrow effect or something.

>>24734675
Why don't they just drink orange juice. Fucking dumbasses

>>24734709
>Humanize Text
>Make your text Human with Undetectable AI
>on service that advertises the ability to detect AI
Oh so it is a scam

NEW FFF-CLASS 'UNLUCKY ANTAGONIST' IS OUT!!!
THIS CHAPTER IS A STANDALONE, so you can technically read it without any of the story’s previous chapters. And also, World War starts in this chapter.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/119783/fff-class-unlucky-antagonist-villains-origin-story/chapter/2613565/sinful-blade-part-one-stand-alone

>The blue sun was high in the sky, its rays painting violet the red sand plastered on the thousands of tents now in bloom in the valley that maps labeled with the word ’death.’
Aww fuck, I accidentally contributed to this.
That's it, never helping anyone on 4chan ever again.

>>24735396
Thanks, bro.

>>24735379
I admire your spirit desu. Good work ethic and outflow even if it's not my kind of thing.

>>24735189
The Dragon and The Author. Beginning chapters are a bit rough and will be getting brought in line with the rest when I'm outlining the final volume.

>>24735275
You’re a histrionic tard who can’t come to terms with reality. Keep coping.

>>24732394 (OP)
Royal Road Ongoing Originals Statistics Summary
September 19th 2025

Followers
0 25%
1-10 41%
11-1,000 28%
1,001+ 6%

Views
0 0%
1-1,000 51%
1,001-10,000 26%
10,000+ 23%

Rating
No Ratings 47%
0.50-3.99 7%
4.00-4.99 32%
5.00-5.00 15%

Pages
000-100 48%
101-500 33%
501-1,000 10%
1,001+ 9%

Release Date
2025 81%
2024 11%
Older 8%

Last Updated
Day 24%
Week 30%
Five Weeks 10%

Warning
AI Assisted 19%
AI Generated 3%

Genre/Tags
Roughly the same based on a few, so I didn't do them again

Far More Details Than This Summary
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT4RMb3KvSVCJ6PUPqn-JNqATcKqWwwEBC5HuAsJCT-VRn_wk66cMPbvCY0FlN0dBk8Wrr8eLrUhGfu/pubhtml

>>24735619
>Release Date
>2025 81%
>2024 11%
>Older 8%
jesus what

>>24735619
Does this mean that 81% of things on RR are from this year, 11% are from last year, and 8% are from all previous years? Talk about acceleration

>>24735635
>>24735637
No, I posted stats for everything overall in the previous thread. As it says
>Royal Road Ongoing Originals Statistics Summary
This is only for the ongoing originals.

>>24735613
how are you having a meltie over this

>>24735665
Projecting your disordered mind onto others is funny. Not effective, but funny. People step away from you, they realize you’re sick before you open your mouth.

>>24735676
wtf? what did I even say to make you sperg out like this

>>24735687
Again, more projection. Your rapid replies are more concerning than anything else. Keep seething lmao

oh it's him
You really need to get a life dude

>>24735676
Take your meds sis

>>24735707
>>24735714
Your samefagging is obvious. If calling you histrionic is enough to get you this riled up, you need to go outside.

Is there a place for a normal web novel instead of a series on RR? Or should I look for another platform?

>>24735747
what

I find it sad and funny that since magazines have all but died that many don't consider them at all, even though they were what popularized serialized fiction.

>>24735752
you know, normal novel length: 200k words, 20-30 chapters

>>24735778
Mine's probably going to be about 70-90k words and 30-40ish chapters desu. But I'm still toiling away on its backlog desu. Release at this rate probably not until January or February lmao.

>>24735774
kek nobody will even remember pulp mags in a few decades. There will be a bunch of old who all think it came from Japanese phone apps or something

>>24735788
Magazines still exist for all serialized fiction, literary and genre. I didn't say anything specifically about pulps. There are phone novels, yes. Written on and read on phones. There are even text messages books.

>>24735778
you can find decent success with shorter completed stories
https://www.royalroad.com/fictions/search?globalFilters=false&maxPages=1002&status=COMPLETED&orderBy=followers
it's more about what you're actually writing (genres and tropes) that matters

>>24735841
Short tag is improperly used for whatever reason. If you lower it to at least 100 pages max you'll get a better idea.
>tfw my fic is buried deep in the pages
feels bad man.

>>24735859
100 pages? that's barely a novella

>>24735861
Misread the question my bad.

Are the ppl that were following TWI still around
I need to hear some non echo chamber (non TWI discord server) opinions
This last volume has been absolute dogshit, no??
Putting aside the abysmal Palace of Fate arc, I find myself enjoying almost all character POVs less and less
Feels like everyone is getting GIGA flanderized and there's just no care for progression or cohesion. Legit feels like some of my old TTRPG campaigns
A player recently watched a noir movie and now they NEED to make their character to fit into every stereotype and act in ways that are completely at odds with the setting
Someone read a vewy sad and deep story and now their albino donutsteel OC acts as the most wise and mighty person in the room at all times, having lived through their death, the universes' and having personally saved and killed ten gorillion people :^)
I'm just gonna drop the series for now and maybe try to come back later and ask some LLM for a summary of each skipped chapter because I don't think I'll ever be bothered to read for the seventh time about one of the groups first experiences in the New Lands or some Erin ship bait

>>24735865
I haven't read since the Palace of Fate arc, and I doubt I ever will

>>24734199
He's not wrong, though.

>>24735798
Literally NOBODY reads zines. NOBODY.
Okay, maybe a few boomers, but that's all. No new readers coming in.

>>24735865
>TWI is STILL GOING
yeah no wonder it's gone to shit

>>24735889
Zines and magazines are two separate types. Even /lit/ has had multiple zines.

>>24735933
and nobody read those either
it's like academic papers, the only people who read them are those involved with their creation and publication, and MAYBE the friends and/or relatives of those people

>>24734597
This one was the best desu, you just needed to adjust the travelogue part
I like the mecha, but the legs on the chick look weird and it also seems she has negro lips, you need to fix this ASAP

>>24735942
it's just how the artist draws characters, i wouldn't have commissioned him if i wasn't fine with the character coming out like that
also that's a dude

adjust the travelogue part how, exactly? i'm not opposed to it but i can't read your mind, what is your suggestion?

>>24733630
"What's the deal with dilithium crystals? They power the warp drive, they power my lightsaber, they're crystals..."
"Jerry, you can't sleep with a woman who hasn't stockpiled her own supply of dilithium crystals, she'll suck the minichlorioms out of you. Happened to my cousin."
"Next thing you know, BAM! Your dilithium crystals and your minichlorions, both gone! Just like my dead fiancee!"
"Yeah, I only date guys who have a stash of dilithium crystals, did you think I was sleeping with that guy from the Jupiter Mining Corporation for his minichlorials?"

Huh, (You) may be onto something, here. Cheap sitcoms can be made even cheaper by setting them on a cheaply made spaceship set, and that's why Star Trek hasn't been good since George Lucas died on the set of the third Ewok movie.

>>24735997
progfant but written like seinfeld or frasier, cut print send, infinity money
is this perhaps the true golden median that could appeal both to the reddit slop slurpers and based chads?

>>24736003
frasier mentioned swell with frasierpill

>>24735935
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/
has relatively decent traffic for an online sff magazine.

Bros, do you like my ad for royal road?

>>24735997
>>24736003
Crazy how if you just write something entertaining and fun to read the setting doesn't matter at all.

>>24736010
Now show him The Mighty Duck movies.

>>24735747
You can just upload a whole story and mark it as completed but you miss out on the growth in interest over time. Maybe Wattpad is more appropriate for that though I don't know.

>>24736027
no

>>24736027
decent, i've seen much worse ads from actual big authors

>>24735970
Is that nigga a porn illustrator?
>also that's a dude
Why does he look so feminine then? Are you trying to go for the femboy audience? It won't surprised me desu, you were the guy who tried to get the Amazonian audience right?
>adjusted it how?
Center the text

>>24736027
I'd assume this is some kind of SCP/Men in Black type story because of the eye censor bar.

>>24736229
nta but the long hair is also reminiscent of the demonbane mc, there aren't many other standout details so that's the only thing to base the gender on.

>>24735865
I'm still reading, sunk cost after the Palace. I figured I just got through the worst arc with the worst villain, I never thought anyone could beat Belavierr and the worst climax and the individual worst scene in the novel Kevin Vs the Goblin King, so I might as well read to see if it improves.

But yeah, most of the ongoing plot arcs are really doing anything for me:
>Mother of Graves
Too tied to the palace, got powerscaled into irrelevance

>Erin & Co
Least interesting Baleros party

>Rabbit & Co
Hasn't it been like a year since they went into the body snatcher tunnels?

>Nerry & Co
At least 1/3rd of their party is interesting, probably the most engaged with of the PoV's

>Horns
I'm sure the plot will get back to them eventually

>Lyonette & co
Does anyone care about her

>New Lands groups
Honestly, once they stop just sending new parties and have the characters there start interacting it could be really nice, right now it's just isolated groups doing nothing. I want the Toren and Ylawes rematch

>Various villain groups
Rhir is ineffectual and Erin already knows the "Would you kindly" code that triggers their soldiers brainwashing. Roshal is a crippled strawman, and that last kingdom is another victim of powerscaling. After the PoF why feel threatened by a king famous for wrestling fat hogs.

But yeah, overall volume 9 had it's ups and down, mostly downs, but 10 is consistently down with a couple ups.

>>24736098
>You can just upload a whole story and mark it as completed but you miss out on the growth in interest over time. Maybe Wattpad is more appropriate for that though I don't know.
I can address this very issue. Stuck a not-very-WN book on Wattpd. It was in my experimental period. Other than dumping it all at once I knew nothing about doing it right. Like 10 reads, they came in a few little bursts. This WN thing, is where all the popularity seems to be. I feel as if I shuoldn't just post to Amazon with no nothing behind me.RR has a no erotica rule. Wattpad didn't seem to have any erotica issues

>>24735778
>you know, normal novel length: 200k words, 20-30 chapters
80k words is near universally accepted as the "standard" full length novel. Undr80k then is a short novel until you hit whatever specific criteria define short story or novella. As you rise over 80k the novel gains ground to becoming a big novel.

>>24736254
>that's the only thing to base the gender on.
What about the clothes and the legs?

>commenter who was complaining about the setup came back next chapter soft begging for faster releases
Ahhhhh feels good man. I wish I had been writing this good at the beginning, and I hadn't rushed out volume one for comic con now. Oh well, I'll just make sure volumes 2 and 3 are polished as fuck and I'll update volume 1 when I put together the omnibus. Only took me 200k words down before I finally got gud...

>>24736513
>clothing
mech bodysuits are unisex.
I guess the earrings read as female.
>leg
don't look explicitly female to me

>>24736563
not that anon but i don't think it's possible to make that character clearly masculine when the highest-fidelity characteristic and focal point of the whole art piece is bright red long hair. it's way too iconically a fem centerpiece
i definitely thought he was female too

>>24736563
>mech bodysuits are unisex
He's using a mesh shirt and long gloves

>>24734597
Those are some premium dick sucking lips.

>>24736234
yeah, special agent of the Miami Police Department.

What's the fotm these days? No femc slop

>>24736572
I'm going to chime in and say I thought it was a dude because of the posture, thickness of the arms and size of the feet. Looks like a character form some martial arts manga.

>>24736750
space opera macho men Renaissance soon, and waifus with fat asses and tits. just wait until my big beautiful backlog is completed. you'll see

>>24736750
I finished reading through the revised volumes of Dragon Raja after getting hooked on the anime, feels batman having no idea when the next volume will be announced.

>>24736750
femc

>>24736758
princess of the void is a space opera with a shortstack waifu focus

>>24736858
Does the author still go all meta and have the narrator start using a bunch of modern slang while addressing the reader directly? That killed my interest in his previous book within 2 chapters.

I hate time loop stories but here I'm somehow writing a time loop story. I don't know how my brain works.

>>24736867
Not in the narration, no.

>>24736229
>Why does he look so feminine then?
Because I like the character design and I think it's "the right character design" for this character specifically. "Androgynous technical specialist" also appears to just be one of the character archetypes I gravitate towards, I have a similar character in Retribution Engine.
>Are you trying to go for the femboy audience?
Not really, at least not aiming for it. The book won't have any romance or explicit scenes, at least not planned.
>It won't surprised me desu, you were the guy who tried to get the Amazonian audience right?
I uh
I just like those, that's just my preference
by pure coincidence a lot of other people also like them
picrel is supporting character who, after receiving feedback from here, I will try to write as being a bitch to everyone other than MC, and being a helpful tomboy to him specifically. she'll be a recurring ally who shows up here and there as MC travels and eventually teaches him her body cultivation method. I don't plan for romance but it might turn out the dynamic works well enough.

>>24736617
it's a solid bodysuit same as the chick in this >>24737004
his bodysuit just doesn't cover the arms completely

>>24737011
or rather i should say his bodysuit is sleeveless so he also wears those gloves

Somebody recommend me something like Max Level Archmage or The Storm King. I'm caught up on both and I'm going insane with waiting for new chapters.

>>24732394 (OP)
Gongshitters still shitting out their slop.

>>24736750
well-written stories as usual.

>>24737064
burgerchangs are somehow the worst even compared to non chang westoid xianxia authors and regular chang authors

Someone reposted my story without my consent. How can I get it taken down?
https://novels2.com/novel/infierno-a-series-of-horror-stories-87998/ed-at-colonus-2657212

>>24737282
Oh, anon. If someone's reposted your story that means it'll be on fifty different sites before the day is out. Take it as a compliment and move on.

>>24737291
So I can't self publish it now. Great.

>>24737294
You can, it's fine.

Kek. Good luck posting on an Israeli webnovel site.
>Welcome to the Royal Road platform, which is owned and operated by Not Yet Media Ltd., a private company incorporated in Israel, company no. 516138310 (“Royal Road”, “we”, “us” or “our”), with registered place of business at 6094/7, Nazareth, Israel.

>>24737310
where else are you gonna post though

>>24737328
Trad pub

I remember this one being pretty awesome, like genuinely well written with great combat, and some serious stakes.
I kinda want to read it again because I don't think I ever finished it but I am afraid it won't hold up (like many other things I read a long time ago). Has anyone read this recently, what do you think?

>>24737341
trad pub is more Jewish than Israel

Anyone reads Wandering Inn here?

I'm approaching the last stretch of book 1. This isn't bad at all but even then I'm not sure about going through 17 books with 50 hours of reading each.
Is there a moment that the series peaks?

>>24737364
TWI feels like a story that was intended to be written forever, even moreso than normal web novels. Viewpoints keep getting added and the big climax fight scenes keep getting messier and more controversial. That's what makes it hard to determine one peak, since even the biggest climaxes and moments will be ignoring 80% of the ongoing plots and characters.

I'm more familiar with the WN volumes, so I'll use those over the Amazon volumes, but overall I'd say the start of the series consistently improves 3>2>1. The middle parts of volumes 4-7 are generally equal. Some arcs are better than others, but outside of the Witches arc there's nothing I'd call bad. I guess the climax of book 5 is the closest thing to the end of the "Early story". After that point the books only get longer and longer, WN volumes 1-5 are 9 books on Amazon, WN volume 6 is 5 books by itself. 8 takes a hard swerve in tone and focus, which only gets worse in 9 and 10, so I'd say 8>9>10. You probably read the people earlier in the thread talking about the Palace of Fates arc and how it finally got them to drop the story 60,000 pages in.

It's a story you read until you decide "That's enough, I'm full" or it's a story you read forever.

>>24737349
It's good. Straightforward no bullshit harem ending with a lot of epilogue chapters and side stories. Pretty satisfying read

>>24737360
Wanna extrapolate on that?

>>24737550
That's a relief. I am probably going to get on to reading it again then since I remember quite fondly what little I actually remember.
It's a shame the prequel to this, memorize, hasn't gotten a proper translation but from what little I got from the very shitty MTL of it years ago it wasn't half as good as this despite the protagonist being a lot more enjoyable.

>Worrying over how to tie an old character back into the plot
>Spending all night thinking about it while I write
>In the morning I'm painting my stairs
>The idea finally sinks in perfectly, it even contributes a new hook with lots of potential
>Immediately overwhelmed by relief, and my brain feels like it's been squeezed, then released
Such a good sensation. Post your last good writing feel.

what are some of the Kaiju plots you have come across in web novels

>>24737645
>not smart so I can't write some explanations that hang on being realistic on why ugly people are evil or how certain looks denote certain personalities etc.
>see physiognomy or face reading pseudoscience as I browse the net
>basically bullshit my way with this as an explanation
ngl it is fun to write lies as truths in fiction.

I'll be using it to explain how hooked noses may be bad people...

>>24737041
"Saving the school would have been easier as a cafeteria worker"

>>24737838
Thanks, I'll take a look.

>>24737759
physiognomy is unironically true but it's a "soft" effect
people who persistently have evil thoughts will come to resemble their inner selves, you can just see it in their faces

>>24738113
Reminds me of this quote.

>>24737645
Outlining my plot and having a new antagonist show up that perfectly fits my genre and lets me focus on a bit of worldbuilding I was having a hard time figuring out.

Writing a fanfic via chatgpt just to see how it's done. What are (you)r thoughts?

>>24737645
>Writing a fight
>Constantly getting new ideas on how to make it more dynamic
>The way I'm going through it allows the protagonist to get the same ideas in a natural way and look smart while also being realistic

>>24738336
Claude is much better with prose.

>>24738376
would claude be better at writing pokemon fanfics than he is at beating pokemon red?