23 FAQ Part 4
Author: Yang Chen (314)
1. I'm a newcomer author who doesn't have many readers. Recently, a reader pointed out to me that my story isn't that interesting. Should I break from my original planned story and redo my story's plot?
Answer: This is something you must analyze by yourself to determine if your story is interesting or not. You shouldn't blindly listen to others. If you end up agreeing with the reader, then can you change your story successfully? Do you think that you can make obvious improvements after changing your story's plot? If you believe so, then I would recommend you to do so.
2. Will starting my main character out as a no-good garbage in an Eastern Fantasy story make my readers bored of clichés?
Answer: It won't. That's because your main character can only be garbage, ordinary, or a genius. No matter how much you change things, there's only these few types. It's all in the details. What the readers are bored of isn't the fact that your main character is trash, but the fact that your main character being trash is exactly like what they've read in another novel. If every detail is the same, then readers will of course get bored of reading it.
3. Let's say that the female lead of my story gets into a forced or arranged marriage to someone she doesn't love in order to save the male lead. In the end, she's saved from this marriage by either the male lead or his friends. Does this count as an element that readers will dislike?
Answer: Readers will indeed dislike this. That's because no matter what the ending of your plotline is, readers still have to read it word by word. Some readers will be displeased and abandon your story and plotline only at the halfway point. That's why you need to avoid destructive elements that readers commonly dislike.
4. Every time after writing a new novel for a few hundred thousand words or so, I lose interest. I keep having new ideas and wanting to write a completely new novel. I always feel like my next novel will be better, so my mind is always filled with new novel settings and plotlines. This makes me not want to write anything about my old novel. I'm stuck in a "vicious cycle" of always wanting to write new novels instead. How should I break free?
Answer: This means that you have a rather lively imagination. From a certain angle, this is actually a good thing. Of course, if you lose interest in your original novel, there's nothing that I can do for you. But, I can help to at least alleviate this situation. First, you must have thought about your book carefully before writing it, and you must pick a topic that you yourself love. And after you start publishing your chapters, you should interact with your readers as much as possible and utilize their support to motivate yourself to continue writing as your readers increase. And if this still isn't enough, I recommend a topic where the setting often changes, such as a leveling story or dimensional traveling story. Of course, this all depends on your own persistence.
5. Competition novels, such as a novel focused on League of Legends, usually have the main character remain undefeated. There's almost no losses whatsoever, as it's all about wins. Of course, this can be fun to read about, but only winning can also lead to reader fatigue. That's why I wrote a stronger rival and made it so that my main character will lose a competition. My way of thinking is that the next time my main character meets the rival again, my main character will be equal to the rival, or perhaps even stronger. However, I talked to my editor about this, and he told me that writing like this will easily break a taboo in that the readers will dislike reading about my main character losing. Is this really true?
Answer: No matter what type of novel it is, the main character losing is something that easily causes readers to dislike your story. This doesn't mean that you can't write about losing, but rather you need to deal with it through certain techniques. For instance, make it so that two of the main character's teammates missed the competition for whatever reason, so the team could only make do with two substitute players, which was why they lost the competition. This will make it easier for the readers to accept.
6. I separate my chapters by plotlines. But, some of my plotlines are really short, and there's not enough words in the chapter. What should I do?
Answer: A chapter doesn't necessarily need to contain a complete small plotline. Actually, sometimes, it's even better to cut the plotline in half and end the chapter at a critical point in your plotline. Whenever you finish a small plotline, readers will actually have less desire to read the next chapter.
7. I heard about how you said that the beginning of the story should move along swiftly, introducing the cheat, danger, and a small climax. Do all these elements need to be expressed within the first chapter?
Answer: On principle, it should be as quick as possible. It would be best if it's all showcased in the first chapter. When actually telling your story, however, it depends more on your specific type of story as well as your writing abilities. If your story is sufficiently amazing enough to attract readers without these elements, then there's no problem even if you introduce these elements later.
