Thread 24828846

Omniscient Slopper's Viewpoint Edition

Stubbed >>24825158

>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'.

>/wng/ authors.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSNZali-jIk2MASsAWVf8N7A8BlSyzPbAFV_BhsA5Ip3SWfMPWKxaXf8Pdb7f0TgFyWis31BzirtPeR/pubhtml


>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

Reverend insanity.

>>24828850
Naming rare exceptions when discussing site trends is low iq. Why do people keep doing it?

>>24828856
Every single time you call something a "rare exception" it seems to be one of the most popular webnovels out there.

Do RR readers expect a PDF or html or .txt text?

Because what I want is to make a light novel with anime girl drawings and some basic song, that reads like a PDF with a song.

>>24828856
goalpost status -> moved

>>24828856
What's the point in discussing anything if everything that isn't the majority is an exception?

The majority of webnovels will always be solo male power fantasies because it's the path of least resistance for juvenile writers to take.

>>24828867
not sure who you think you're talking to, schizo. i wasn't the original anon, just chiming in to call you out for the 'tardation
>pale lights is one of the most popular web serials
fucking kek it doesn't even make the top 100 most-followed list. and was made by one of the OG serial authors who could pull his huge prior audience in. it's the literal fucking definition of an exception to general site trends

>>24828870
The RR input form allows HTML. That's what you're gonna have to put in.

>>24828856
Everybody already knows those posters have low iq, there is no point in hiding it.

>>24828874
>What's the point in discussing anything if everything that isn't the majority is an exception?
to understand what the general shape of the market is.
if you want to just do what you want and hope you find success anyway, by all means. but if the context of the discussion is 'what generally works'? then Pale Lights is a horrific example to pull to support any sort of argument

>muh market
shut the fuck up you worthless grifter

>>24828867
When there is exactly 1 (one) successful webnovel of a certain genre and 1000 failures, then yes, it is a rare exception. And if it succeeded, it's because it is significantly better written than its similarly ranked neighbours that follow meta.

>>24828884
can you please stop having a melty over this ad fucking nauseam?
it's implied that if you just want to write for fun or whatever, you should do that. but if someone asks 'does X work' it very obviously means 'does X usually work, and is it advisable if I want readers?'
stop sperging out about it every goddamn time. and stop giving shit advice (if that was you)

>>24828896
>bro how do i get the money bro muh money gotta get rich quick man what about da market sir???
kill yourself

>>24828897
>let me twist your standpoint into something you've specifically, repeatedly rejected so my meltie seems more reasonable
pathetic. stop trolling this thread all day you fag

>>24828825
>Do RR readers already drop at the sight of male and female main duo, or does there also need to be clear signs that it's heading towards romance?
Some do, but they're not but any means the majority

Eastern-slop readers just can't get their heads around RR and the western audience.

Apparently Sarah Lin is Cognosticon.

>>24828902
>Eastern-slop readers just can't get their heads around Western-slop
>Western-slop readers just can't get their heads around Eastern-slop

>>24828931
interesting, hadn't heard of that pen name, but 7k followers isn't too bad. how did she perform on Amazon when she moved with Depthless Hunger? It looks like it was taken down to be reuploaded with the name Sarah Lin, so I assume not great. wonder why

>>24828931
She is also Sierra Lee (of The Last Sovereign fame)

>>24828919
>Eastern-slop readers just can't get their heads around Western-slop
>Western-slop readers just can't get their heads around Eastern-slop

I feel I'm relying on genes too much as an explanation. If I need the protag to be special. I just put an ancestor with that special gene high up in the family tree. If I need an entire race to awaken from humans or something I just say oh that race bred with some humans some thousands years ago and their genes were simply asleep until now enabling magic and shit.

What do you do to make your MC special? Or why a specific ingroup of people in your setting has superpowers?

>>24828931
seems like a silly decision if so.
I actually bought the weirkey books specifically because I like her as a writer.
No chance I'm finding her again on a >kai story by chance

>>24828931
>Check out Cognosticon novels
>Kai
I'd never heard of "Kai" being a name used until anons started talking about the name yesterday and now its everywhere

>>24828979
it's the new Jason

>>24828954
Going by genetics is a good way if you want to have a large group of people be special.
Another one is to have an ancestor discover a special application of magic that becomes a legacy technique of the clan.
In my setting I have a convoluted system based on Plato's theory of forms, and how that shapes the Soul and the Astral Body. Some people have special souls that are more in tune with some concepts and that makes them special.

>>24828954
I just do it. No explanation needed. Some people are special and others aren't. Real life doesn't give you reasons for why Jordan was so good at ball. He just was.

>>24829015
Mark Twain: "The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible."

>>24828954
the MC stumbled upon the lost legacy of an ancient and powerful being
the MC is just a genius, completely built different at doing whatever thing they're supposed to be good at
the MC is just that much more motivated than everyone else, and this insane drive + intelligence + ruthlessness has allowed them to claw their way to the front of the pack

etc.

>>24828870
html for text
you can embed images from links

>>24829020
This. And Jordan is fiction. He's good at ball because he's tall and strong and not retarded and he practiced ball like he wanted to make a succesful career of it. He's also old and tired and broke because he never got treatment for his gambling addiction and largely forgotten by current ball fans because younger guys with more rap personae have become models for the advertisers who sponsor professional ball and the fans of ball are soulless sub85s who think the ads tell them the path to greatness. But that's not credible to a public conditioned to believe inheriting a billion dollars constitutes earning it and that anyone who's rich must be smarter and more moral than anyone who isn't.
Go with magic genes, if you want genetically magical characters. The shrieking harpies embittered that the fascism and genocide and atrocities are being committed by members of the wrong team when it should be their Queen demolishing the White House for fun and profit will call you a racist and a sexist and a nazi no matter what you write, or even if you don't write at all.

>>24828954
My MC is from a special bloodline, but not that special. More like a family of weirdos. My MC is rather stupid actually, and this entire backstory is withheld from the text. It exists only in my mind and by implication.

Future stories will have "special" MCs only in that they are more autistically obsessed or determined than everyone else, and therefore work harder and more consistently towards their goals.

>>24828954
Just say they have godsblood and different people have the blood of different gods.
Worked for the Greeks

>>24829085
>But that's not credible to a public conditioned to believe inheriting a billion dollars constitutes earning it and that anyone who's rich must be smarter and more moral than anyone who isn't.
Nobody actually thinks this. That's a strawman parroted by socialists. Chill out. Touch grass. Seriously, it's not normal to sperg out and include that in your post where it's not relevant.

>Nobody actually thinks this.
do we tell him?

>>24829091
retard

>>24829094
It's not that excessive wealth is perceived as earned, it's that broke losers deserve to be broke losers because they refuse to apply themselves.
Nobody thinks inheriting wealth is earning it, or that being wealthy means you're smarter than anyone else. People recognize luck is a factor. But they also recognize that losers complaining often deserve to be losers. It's not a structure issue, it's a behavior and personality issue.

>>24829085
>because he's tall and strong and not retarded and he practiced ball like he wanted to make a succesful career of it.
So did hundreds of other college stars and NBA benchwarmers. So why was he better? He wasn't taller or faster than them, and while he might have practiced harder than some, he likely didn't practice harder than every one of them. But he was magical on the court, and they were mediocre.
Some people are just talented.

are there any WNs where race wars, racial supremacy, and race focused ideologies are core to the setting that aren’t chinkslop xianxia?

>>24829114
Yes but they're all either asian or russian
westoids are too cucked to write that and westoid platforms are too cucked to not ban it
you might find some westoid-written ones on webnovel.com i guess

>>24828954
Karma/fate threads. Great destinies float through the aether waiting for a host, or an unusually large amount of individual small threads all fit into one host at the same time. The "hero phenomenon" occurs when each thread improves the host's compatibility with other threads, snowballing to create a world-shaking destiny.

My extremely racist webnovel of choice? Why of course it's The Human Emperor.

Princess sisters it's over. Sovereign-chads can't stop winning.

>>24829129
This is a perfect example of the clear vs muddy thumbnail we were talking about last thread

>>24829122
The Human Emperor mentioned.

>>24829188
It's just Han-slop where they seethe about Tibetans and getting invaded by Mongols.
It actually contradicts CCP ultranationalists since they just claim Tibetans and Mongols as Chinese.

>>24829129
FeMC chads stay winning

typin out a banger chapter rn ong

Are long paragraphs bad? I put my shit through chatgpt and it's splitting everything into 1-2 sentence paragraphs.

Also, anyone else having problems posting/captcha?

quick question, is it a better marketing move to just make my mc a woman at this point? why do rr fags love femc so much? is it agp or something?

>>24829122
>>24829237

Supposedly Otherwordly Evil Monarch is a racist novel (towards Japanese), I read up it upto chapter 500 and it was alright.

>>24829254
>Are long paragraphs bad?
No
>Problems with posting/captcha?
Nyes, kind of
>>24829259
I don't think woman mc's are more or less marketable than male mcs desu.
The only problem with FMCs are the retards that go
>I dont read ANY stories with a Female MC because I have to self insert like a retard.

>at the very end of the previous thread we had a prosefag having a melty
>at the beginning of this one we have a integrityfag having a melty
Its all so tiresome

>>24829264
>I dont read ANY stories with a Female MC because I have to self insert like a retard.
It's fine then, I didn't want them to read my shit anyway.

>>24829259
>He fell for the man with tits meme

>>24829264
>The only problem with FMCs are the retards that go
>>I dont read ANY stories with a Female MC because I have to self insert like a retard.
It similar to how retard authors want to make money but then refuse to write self insert male mc stories that everybody wants.

>>24829274
why do you people keep trying to push this retarded idea that femc doesn't pass when we can literally just look at the charts to prove you wrong?

is this some low virtualization factor cope, where you can't help but self-insert so you get insecure and feel gay and sperg about feMCs in books like WoW retards sperg about people playing female toons?

Didn't we just have the femc vs mc melty like 4 or 5 threads ago.
Can you tards keep it to once a month at least?

>>24829259
>why do rr fags love femc so much?
for me, mostly because it signals that the story will be more thoughtful and emotional. i don't like stuff like azarinth healer for example.
>better marketing move?
on royalroad gender is pretty irrelevant, they perform the same. on amazon, male mc does much better

>>24829254
>are long paragraphs bad?
honestly I think they are. but it depends on what you mean by long. and what kind of story you're writing. if it's litrpg action sloppa you really should be spamming enter pretty often

>>24829285
Those numbers are pathetic, male mc have typically have 20 times more readers than feMC, more readers more views, more followers, more subscribers, more money.

>>24829247
I hit the pre-climax of my book today, climax is tomorrow, and man it felt good to break 5k words again.
I wasn't sure if I could finish the rest of my book before Monday afternoon but I think I might even finish it tomorrow. Maybe just an epilogue on Monday morning. That'll give me a few days to prep for Writathon (opening a new fiction, finalizing the blurb, genning up a cover, final outlining polish, etc).

It kinda sucks because I have now three books worth of editing to do, one of which needs major structural edits, and I'm going to go into december with FOUR books to finalize. I'll be lucky to get one done before Christmas.

>>24829287
>male mc does much better
Does that really have anything to do inherently with the MC, or are the best stories just those with male MCs? I think it's the latter. Where's the FeMC story with DCC's quality? And I say that as a FeMC enjoyer.

If you don't want to bang your mc why did you create them

>>24829321
Where are the male MC stories with DCC's quality, that isn't DCC?

Be honest.

Why can't I use an uncensored LLM llama model to write my draft based on my prompts and then rewrite it to fix issues?

>>24829336
That also illustrates the problem: there's a pareto distribution of success in literature. The top stories are massively more popular than the median, and the #1 is significantly ahead of #2, which is significantly ahead of #3, all the way down.

It's really hard to disentangle what's just skill and success from a confounding factor like the sex of the main character.

>>24829335
Bangability is a metric better suited for side characters.

>>24829349
You can. You're just a bad person if you do.

>>24829350
you just have to look at the midlisters and set the outliers aside.
a simple scan of amazon's current best sellers in litrpg shows that mmc is significantly more common. i would be surprised if there's more than 2 or 3 fmcs in the top 50, though I haven't gone and checked

>>24829349
The good readers will see that it's an LLM instantly and drop it, the bad readers will praise you for the uncommonly seen good grammar and will interpret the purple prose to be indicative of your excellent command of the language, and praise you for it.

Is there a point in talking about amazon when no anons here are even close to having follower counts to justify a publisher coming after them?
As far as RR goes, fmc is arguably a buff. Ratio wise, they're overrepresented on top lists compared to how few of them are created overall.
It's close enough that you should really just choose what you want though. It's not like the Multiple Lead Characters tag from earlier where you're shooting yourself in the foot

>>24829129
Demon Princess is pretty bad. Clunky opening and then it's the most regurgitated Overlord knockoff setup ever.
I don't like Overlord much but there's already been so many clones if you're familiar with light novels.

>>24829391
It really is crazy how many front-page mimics have gotten so big just because of the wave the leviathan left in its wake
Is there any other example of this happening? Did Super Supportive spawn a bunch of knockoffs too? Or that demonic tree one?

William Oh seems solid enough but after 10ish chapters there's nothing to really motivate me to keep going. He doesn't have much of a character and the teleporting from a high stakes situation to town to another high stakes one actually makes everything feel kinda flat.

>>24829380
It's really not a matter of feMC being a big debuff and more a matter of sheer volume
since there are way more maleMCs being released, naturally more of those are successful

something as superficial as maleMC or feMC doesn't actually matter, what matters is whether the story is male-coded or female-coded, and that's what readers can detect, if it smells like YA smutslop men won't read it

>>24829423
There's like three fucking times in this thread where someone has confused the percentage makeup of popular novels mostly mirroring the percentage makeup of what gets written for meaningful insight.
Driving me nuts.

>>24829390
>Multiple Lead Characters tag from earlier where you're shooting yourself in the foot
proof?

>>24829432
Honestly one would probably need a full on literature research paper to analyze the quality of webfictions based on MC sex and whether or not it's a causal factor in popularity/success. It's not something that can be determined in just a 4chan post.

>>24829447
I hate to agree with this but it's true.
To be clear this doesn't mean you should only have your MC and random NPCs. It means you shouldn't do what Wandering Inn does. Keep the POV mostly constrained to your MC.

>>24829456
Show some actual proof or shut up. FFS your example of a webnovel doing this supposedly terrible thing is one of the most popular ones.

>>24829460
Wandering Inn is an exception among exceptions.

Multiple POV gets confusing quickly. Especially with retarded web novel names. And the short chapter length.

>>24829456
What about Spice and Wolf? It's arguably dual protagonist since Horo is so central to the entire story.

>>24829464
If the only evidence anyone can produce is evidence you have to tell them to ignore why should we listen to you?

>>24829460
proof: royalroad.com

>>24829469
I'd say two protagonists is fine, RR readers only start sperging if you jump between 3 or more MCs. I definitely encounter dual protagonist the most often out of "multi-protag".

>>24829470
what kind of evidence are you expecting? is the wild rarity of successful Multiple Leads stories not enough? Is the common sentiment expressed in litrpg spaces that they hate multiple leads not enough?
No, I dont have a research paper, but anyone who knows RR knows its true. Do it if you want man I couldn't give less of a shit, but you are cutting your readership massively

>>24829488
If it's actually something that hurts stories enough for you to speak on it from a position of authority you should at the very least be able to produce several multi-pov stories that have failed despite being as well written and promoted as single pov ones.

Otherwise you're just talking out of your ass obviously.

>>24829492
I would argue Pale Lights is your proof.

>>24829335
HE'S A GUY (he'd have to force me into it and I'll give in no homo)

>>24829496
Then you're an idiot if #5 in Best Ongoing is what you have as evidence of failure.
Like seriously do you not have any actual examples for what you keep making all these confident posts about?
They're making £60k a year on patreon when it's only 2-3 weeks (and chapters) ahead.

>>24829492
the multiple leads tag is applied to about 20% of all royalroad fictions but shows up in 6 of the top 100 most followed.
there. I did your research for you.

>>24829502
The point is Pale Lights is massively underperforming relative to its sheer quality. And its because it's off meta as a multiple lead fantasy epic.

>>24829502
>#5 in Best Ongoing
best ongoing tracks rating, anon...

Anons arguing about obvious shit anyone who actually uses and reads on Royalroad would know, yet again
Like what the hell is this newfaggotry?

>>24829519
Ah the classic wait a couple of minutes and pretend to be a third party post

>>24829521
Hello samefag schizo anon

oh hes the ghost poster too
damn this guy is like 70% of the personalities I hate in this thread

Just write what you love and the readers will come. Love will always be the best salesman.

Just write what you want and readers will cum.

Just cum in your readers' mouths

>>24829492
>that have failed despite being as well written and promoted as single pov ones.
To be honest I don't think people ITT could name a single genuinely well written story that put some effort into promotion and set up patreon properly and still failed to make anything.

>>24829245
what if I make ai-assisted content and just don't tell you

>>24829537
Then allow me to be the first who will claim that lofty honor.

>>24829467
I do multi-pov and I just try to make it clear from the first sentence of a chapter who it will be following. I haven't gotten any complaints, and even got told in a review that there were no problems telling whose PoV was being used.

Aren't we due for a Reverend Insanity screenshot?

>>24829533
>>24829534
>>24829536
NOOOO YOU HAVE TO STUDY THE HECKING MARKET

>>24829529
Real answer: write better.
There's a hard point in my writing where the writing improved dramatically and since that portion of the story started getting posted (backlog too big) I've doubled my paid subscribers on patreon, and my followers bumped up about 22% on RR. And I'm not even at the REALLY good part yet (although that's the end so eh, not going to be a big patreon mover).

Just write good. Easy to say hard to do.

>>24828954
>What do you do to make your MC special?
Just thinking outside the box makes for an interesting read
This is just one example but Curse Magic could be retooled to produce a benefit instead of killing or debuffing the target, maybe its capeable of doing things that Blessing Magic can't, it all depends on intent and how knowledgeable is the user

Man, this sperg is extra mindbroken today.

green hat

don't shit your pants too hard now. it's an anonymous thread but it's small enough we remember who you are

>>24829550
Actually, the trick to GUARANTEED Rising Stars placement is to have all characters use a sword.

>>24829560
cute daughterwife

>>24829565
>My MC only uses martial arts
It's over...

Hollow palm technique...

>>24829570
That's a huge mistake. You will never make it big this way.

Seriously, each sword featuring in the story correlates to a roughly 0.3% gain in patreon contributions. But only swords no longer than 4 feet. Swords over 4 feet have been found to actually DECREASE your marketshare by 0.05% for every inch after 4 feet.

>>24829421
>He doesn't have much of a character
this has never stopped any litrpg mc before

>>24829578
>Small swords are better for patreon conversion
Newfag detected. It's obvious that big swords do better

>>24829421
I thought it was gonna lean into the tall tales like you first hear the ridiculous lie about William and then see what really happened but instead you just hear about him being OTT cool and then he's just regular competent and OP in the actual passage.
So the whole frame is kinda pointless.

>>24829602
see >>24829521

only jobber characters use swords in my story
all the powerful characters use their fists

>>24829533
I wish I could say I remember when I believed that, but even I was never that blissfully ignorant

Sell me on your stories. Why should I read what you've written over others? FFFs need not apply.

>>24829616
someone who I erp'd with once praised my writing

>>24829616
I don't want anons reading my stuff. They're either stupid, mean, or at the very least not my intended audience

>>24829616
You shouldn't. I don't want your kind associated with my work.

Peak is back

>>24829616
It's the most literarily ambitious fiction on RR except for the wheel and wing story with the disabled harpy that was a poem at first, that shit is beyond me holy crap. So second most ambitious fiction.

/wng/ read alongs when?

Anyone know of a litrpg with guns and slow/no cheat earned progression?
Basically I read stray cat strut and liked exactly 10% of the setting/setup

>>24829631
Already doing that, it's in the Max Level Archmage patreon comments. See you there!

god, reverend insanity is so PEAK

>>24829640
Make sure to sub to the patreon btw

>>24829637
>https://www.scribblehub.com/series/402410/reincarnation-of-the-gun-swap-goddess/
it's dropped tho

>>24829637
ghost in the city is the closest I've come to finding one of these but she gets OP way too quick. I'd look for knockoffs of that.

I want to read either Reverend Insanity or Max Level Archmage, which should I?

>>24829637
what the fuck kind of preference is this
Do you want a story where you can gun harder by gaining XP?

>>24829637
Ghost in the City
Neon Dragons & The Allbright System (same author, slow, almost glacial progression)

>>24829656
Is Neon Dragons the cyberpunk one that was blatantly reworded by AI (Every chapter is super purple prosey) or am I thinking of something else?

>>24829651
Go with Reverend Insanity. Fang Yuan is the superior protagonist and has to actually earn his power. His meridians become purer the more men he rapes. Seeing the thought process of how he plans on ravaging lesser cultivators is kino of the highest caliber.

>>24829658
> (Every chapter is super purple prosey) or am I thinking of something else?
That's quite possible, but that just seems to be how that author writes. They seem to be autistic about world building and info-dumping, they also aren't producing chapters at AI generated speeds.

>>24829637
Deadman Walking was in my reading backlog but it got stubbed

>>24829651
YOU WILL READ REVEREND INSANITY AND YOU WILL LIKE IT

>>24829662
no fuck off

>>24829658
nta but just skimmed a few chapters and didn't get that impression, you might be thinking of something else

>>24829616
Fuck no
I don't want you schizos associated with my pen name

>>24829616
It's not any of the meta genres.

>>24829616
I suck balls at selling via text blurbs

>>24829651
>“I like the footless bird, do you know why?”
>He smiled, but the sight was horrifying.
>“Why?”
>“Because it has no legs, only wings, thus it has no choice but to fly. When it lands, that signifies its destruction."
reverend kinosanity

>>24829706
PEAK
E
A
K

>>24829616
An actual power gamer lives in a litrpg. Someone that actually understands how to get ahead in games, rather than the typical MC that is claimed to be the number one gamer in the world, but never makes decisions like a power gamer.

Pardon my crossthread...just thinking with my thought head
...
In address as categorical imperative, and rote desire...

>>24829707

Fuck off AIjeet, you and your ilk are not welcome here

>>24829719
>>>/lit/wg/

>>24829719
Interesting but you really shouldn't have started off with porn magazines as an example. Many are going to ignore the content of your post because of this.

>>24829776
p-peak?

>>24829616
>FFFs need not apply.
WHY?

>>24829776
Torn.
It's shit but it's also more imaginative than half of RR

Been posting for 7.5 weeks.

Am I cooked? Keep going?

>>24829807
It's over bro. Crash out on twitter and delete everything.

>>24829807
400 times more followers than me and he complains.

>>24829807
Scummy humble bragging. Die. Explode. Get hit by a pajeet on the highway.

>>24829807
>7.5 weeks
>I've been posting for almost a year and he's got more than a hundred followers more than me
What'd you do? Go heavy on ads? Shoutouts? Not fuck up your beginning?

>>24829807
Think of your next story and give this one a dignified ending, don't drag it for 1k chapters and use the audience to shill the next story

>>24829822
>>24829816
Honestly was not being a dick. I joined that Discord group full of RR writers and everyone’s advice has been if you don’t make Rising Stars after 1 month, you missed the boat. I was just genuinely trying to commiserate with some /lit/bros.

>>24829825
Did Ads and Shoutouts. One ad had kind of decent CTR. Other two were duds. A few of my shout out swaps made it to the middle of Rising Stars list but honestly saw more conversion on stories whose tone just matched mine better.

>>24829830
>Honestly was not being a dick.
And yet you haven't favorited FFF-Class Unlucky Antagonist. Curious.

>>24829807
That's pretty good. Keep going.

>>24829840
Thanks, brother. First person to tell me that outside of one really nice review.

>>24829830
450 followers in 7 weeks didn't make rising stars? That's surprising. Are you close?

>>24829776
ORC CITY

>>24829864
Highest I got was #3 on Horror. Not even close now.

But I started posting when all those Evolution Girl stories were dominating. And I can’t get more reviews to save my life. So I think that killed my chances.

>>24829872
RIP

>>24829872
I did think at the time that the coordinated spam was an attempt to kill off new authors.
They've got another one with deckbuilders planned for January too, right when anyone who didn't want to debut during writeathon will try to put out their stuff.

>>24829807
I found you, enjoy your 1-star review!

>>24829876
I hate it so much man. When I was on the horror list that Rat Girl Evolution story was sitting on top of me the whole time. And that guy hasn’t posted a new chapter in 3 weeks. It was never a good faith attempt at coordinated storytelling and was always a way to game the system. That the mods allowed it just means it’s gonna keep happening.

>>24829883
Thanks, brother.

>>24829876
>>24829885
There was enough pushback that the mods had to pin a cope thread in the forums. They may accept it now, but that was only like twelve or so stories. When these coordinated launches become even more overwhelming, they're going to have to budge.
And I'm sorry you got fucked over, anon. I knew it was going to happen to someone. I just didn't expect for it to happen to anyone from here.

I put it off for far too long. New Chapter of Born Under a Black Sun/Raised Under Dark Waves is out! Expect more frequent updates now that I have book 2 planned out

>>24829616
I worked hard on it and it means a lot to me when people read it

>>24829920
Honestly I don’t know how much that really played a part in me not hitting RS. Maybe a little, but my story wasn’t a crazy hit either. There are definitely stories more successful than mine that got screwed though.

>>24829807
Should I add this to the /wng/ author spreadsheet?
I haven't thought to do this, since it isn't saying what it is. I could go back through the threads to see if there's authors, but I don't know if it's worth the effort.

By using this, anyone who posts stats can be easily found. There was literally only a single result when I searched it.
https://stepan.chizhov.com/author-tools/book-search/

He's already posted it publicly before without hiding it:
https://warosu.org/lit/thread/24743874#p24777486
I guess I'll do a search again sometime to find those posting outside of /wng/

>>24829939
Well, I assuming he posted that while pretending to be someone else, unless somehow someone else was posting it by chance.

>>24829939
If you want, brother.

Is there a reason why your main character has plot armor?

...no?

>>24829975
he is aryan

>start reading Londoner to Lord
>baron's manor described as built entirely with wood
>"leather armor"
>extremely vague descriptions of food and clothing
>really just vague everything with no sense of place or time period
>people live in vague shacks and huts
>currency is 1 gold = 10 silver = 100 copper

>>24829975
he spend his money on the "Pay to Win" DLC

>>24829975
He has somebody literally telling him the future.

>>24829975
The ending of the book is known literally from the title.
Which actually caused a bit of a problem because the first half of the fiction is kind of horror, looking back on it. It's horror because the reader has to watch as the author tortures the MC and they simply dread how far it's going to go before something happens and the MC survives an impossible situation (because it is known he will, fate even).

The story improved drastically once I got that out of my system and wrote him aura farming and being a normal RR protagonist.

>>24829978
I was going to start reading that, especially given the massive patreon and tons of ads, until I saw the rating and read the reviews. No thanks. There's already a bunch of LNs I'm behind on or haven't started yet that I KNOW do it better (Realist Hero, for instance).

>>24829975
He is the Antichrist

>>24829978
>the author doesn’t know the pound sterling has existed in England since the early middle ages

>>24830012
Who's besties with Christ, why? Is he stupid?

>>24830021
it's pretty clearly not set in "fantasy not-england" but it's still vaguely medieval with swords and shit so there's no real excuse, it's just lazy

Just redownloaded something and discovered I'd read 100 chapters of it despite barely remembering it.

Are there any webnovels set in japan that is shamelessly weeb as fuck, but not complete trash?
>Just read narou/translated japanese LNs bro
Missing the point, I want to see if it's possible for western authors to make something good that has a japanese setting

>>24830024
Why shouldn’t you be friends with Christ? Work and private life should be kept separate.

>>24830000
>no isekai where the MC is a political scientist who subscribes to an unhinged school of thought ala the Fehlinger Doctrine

I was trying to get my AI wizard friend to generate me some material for an ad but it kept making the character roided so I told him to just tell the AI to generate a flat chested girl and that worked

>>24830042
homo

>>24830052
a psychic powers having puppet user should be delicate in build and vaguely androgynous, i don't make the rules

>>24830053
The puppet master should be tall and ripped. He should also wear a smiling mask.

>>24829975
He doesn't.

>>24830074
best i can do is abshaving bodyhorror cultivator tomboy who is a bitch to everyone except mc

>>24830032
Sounds like a real banger

>>24830035
just read KRshit set in japan

>>24830038
There are tons of well documented socialist authoritarians' biographies and the histories of their shenanigans. People want fantasy: monarchy, feudalism, swords, magic, 1 gold = 10 silver = 100 copper.

>>24830038
Release That Witch is explicitly Dengist

>>24830113
*vomits*

>>24828870
"expect a pdf"
you cannot even upload pdf to royalroad. It is totally unsuited to a serially published work anyway and would be really annoying to download separate files for each chapter.
and it also sux for mobile which is where a lot of webfic readers are

>>24829640
Eh I tried to but I had to bail. The writing is ok but there is about 30% repeated information per chapter, I mean sure it's not the 50% repition that cultivation novels Powell level fappery induces but it's too much for me. Also I found myself skipping huge swathes of the pov change chapters and still getting the salient dot points from the last couple of sentences. But the real clincher for me was that she is supposed to be stuck in an MMO like world but the game she's stuck in just doesn't sense. Like yeah I get how a habitual user can build up a stockpile of cool loot and event items and shit but it's like the world law only revolves around her party and no one else which makes it a morphic co-op rpg at best but certainly not an MMO. The log horizon vibes were kind of nice but I just couldn't maintain living in the database goggles sorry.

>>24829245
you forgot to filter out litrpg

>>24829596
The tall tales part becomes more relevant later on, it's not just a goof. But yeah I also expected them to be more literal and was kinda confused when i picked up the novel and he was just a random weak orphan kid.

>>24830169
MMOs have main characters too
if you have to ask, you’re not one of them

>>24829560
There's an actual talking green hat in ISSTH btw

>>24829618
based. a strong recommendation.

>>24829718
Name of this Korean madman?

>>24830169
>it's like the world law only revolves around her party and no one else
As far as I can tell it cribs from WoW and similar MMOs, where in lore there's one nameless hero and no one else is really commented on. Then you have raids where the raid is acknowledged (sort of) but again, outside of that, no one else effectively exists
>Eh I tried to but I had to bail.
Around what chapter/arc did you end up bailing, if you don't mind me asking? Sounds like after she hit Meridian?

>>24830024
christ is actually a pretty cool guy this time though

>>24830042
i'd click

>>24830188
>where in lore there's one nameless hero and no one else is really commented on
When you're playing playing you might be the "Hero of Westfall" after doing all the the quests in that zone but the Lore never makes mention of any specific player hero.

>>24830188
nta but i quit reading around when she got to her old guild house and immediately retardedly picked a fight with the head combat maid for no reason except that the author wanted her to aura farm. just broke my suspension of disbelief because it seemed both stupid and out of character

So am I right in thinking it's a bad idea to debut something right now, with this writing contest thing just around the corner? I don't really want to wait, but I also don't want to screw myself for no reason.

>>24830223
can't you simply participate in the righting contest circleshill and collect your free RS

>>24830224
My story is already written. I'm just doing some last minute editing. So that would be breaking the rules, unfortunately.

>>24830228
Fuck dem rules, how would they even know?
Though sure, if you don't want to break the spirit of it then hold off.

>>24830237
If we break the rules just to get ahead, then we're no better than our enemies. I don't want to achieve my goals through some underhanded scheme. I want to take the world of writing head-on and prove I'm the number one author.

>>24830243
ngmi

>>24829616
my mc ends up with 7 wives. his wife, his robot wife, his mom's friend, his mom's teacher, his wife's doctor, his princess wife, and his tomboy wife.

is king arthur stuff ok on royal road or no interest in it there

>>24830256
probably not, but I'll read it since I like arthurian references and def not because of FGO.

the worst part about reading a chunk of Londoner to Lord is that I now have a thirst for an actually good version of "modern man isekai'd/transmigrated as lord of bumblefuck nowhere" with realistic engineering and at least semi-historical elements

>>24830185
I haven't fully decided yet. I want to do the Writeathon though.

>>24830228
>>24830243
>The challenge operates on an honor-based system, and as long as you uphold the challenge's spirit, you may tailor it to your specific needs. /.../ Or if you maintain a backlog and intend to release them while concurrently building a new backlog, then that's allowed. However, you must remain true to the spirit of the challenge, meaning you must publish 55,555 words and write 55,555 for the same story, even if the content published and written is not the same but for future chapters.
Pic related
>>24830254
Nice

was thinking about a horizontal + vertical progression system but realized it would not translate well into engaging narrative with steadily rising stakes.

I've been seeing Candle pop up in all sorts of recommended lists for progression fantasy, so I've finally given it a try. It's surprisingly mid.
I feel like the pacing of the plot is decent enough, but the characters feel flat, and the setting flatter still. Despite the author proclaiming on every step how dangerous and cutthroat this world is, I don't feel any danger to the main character or his buddies, and most problems are resolved as soon as they're introduced. I think this is mainly because the first big obstacle is resolved via deus ex machina, and, well, most of the following problems are, too. A good example of this is that time the MC gets captured for the mines. It's a good opportunity to have our main guy in some actual danger, and bad vibes. However, his predicament lasts for like four pages, and nobody we actually care about gets hurt in the process. Then he's free, and grinding for his level up or whatever.
Also, the setting is even worse. It doesn't feel like a living, breathing world: something that even motherfucking slopper extraordinaire, Brando Sando, can achieve most of the time. It feels like a backdrop for an ARPG that you skip-skip-skip to get to the next progression node in the character build that you've copied from some youtube video. Another thing that grinds my gears about the setting is that characters keep on and on about "sacred artists", the local flavor of cultivators. Them "sacred artists", they sure value honor above all else. Ah, those "sacred artists", they will kill you if you look at them wrong, they will. As opposed to who? You didn't put any civvies in your setting, you fucking retard. Everyone in this setting is a cultivator, every peasant, every baker, candlestick maker and so on. Why would the characters in the world have a distinction between "human" and "cultivator" in such case? Do you realize how retarded that sounds? Oh yes, those oxygen breathers sure are immoral cunts. Those water drinkers, god damn are they assholes. Fuck you.
4/10. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

>>24830042
Akasofag?

>>24830315
Your ramble about sacreed artists is simply because the character is experiencing a tremendous degree of culture shock where even civilians are leagues above his clans topmost experts in power. He cannot distinguish between a martial expert and a shopkeeper because he has been a frog in a well his entire life.
The lack of civilians present in the second book is because it is explicitly a Martial expedition to a dangerous ruin. They are in a revetment while an investigation is conducted, not a town.

You should drop the series if even basic stuff like that is going to go over your head.

>>24830361
What does that have to do with anything? That's not what I'm talking about. That would be a valid retort if the MC was the only character who thinks in those terms, but most PoV characters do. I get what the author was going for, I simply don't like the execution.

I'm almost at the halfway point of my first book after months of going through it. I won't be done till the end of the year at least but I'm happy about how much I've done since I've never actually committed to something more than 5 chapters long. One day you niggas will be reading my slop on royal road, but I doubt I'll drop it all until I've finished the story.

>>24830035
Magical Girl Gunslinger, but it is shit and I do not understand its popularity in the rankings, and it's on indefinite hiatus.

>>24830169
What annoys me is how she talks about the world (or the narration does) as though she was just as 'inside' the game before the isekai--the familiarity with the lore and magic, etc.

>>24830425
The Isekai is just dressing for RR, the exact same story could be told as native fantasy but a character was just frozen in time for 100 years like Aang

If you have contempt and disdain for your readers, how can you be successful?

>>24830457
how could you not, if you know what you write is shit, and they gobble it up

>>24830457
Plenty of authors hate not just their readers but also the characters they've made a franchise off of. Agatha Christie despised Poirot near the end, and Arthur Conan Doyle tried to be rid of Sherlock Holmes as well before popular demand brought him back.