The Three Core Elements of Webnovels

by : 314 (Yang Chen)

Ever since the beginning of webnovels' development, there have been quite a few critical elements to webnovels that leave rather deep impressions upon everyone. But, there's only three core elements related to creating a webnovel, which are directly related to the quality of the webnovel. These three elements are as follows –self-fulfillment, cheats, and being able to self-substitute.

None of these three elements appear very "grand", nor are any of these elements difficult to comprehend. However, these three elements represent the core of why webnovels are so thrilling. It could be said that as long as you truly understand these three concepts, you'll have a master key to unlocking the world of webnovels. You'll become successful no matter if you want to create your own webnovel or research about the business. Literally everything about webnovels is born from these three elements.

Since this article is aimed at beginner level authors, allow me to briefly introduce the meaning behind these three core elements and the basic important points about them. More detailed content shall be introduced in intermediate level articles.

I: Self-fulfillment

When webnovels were first born, people jokingly referred to them as "novels to fulfill one's desires." While this may be a rather vulgar way to refer to them, in a way, it really was an accurate reflection of how webnovel stories were at that time. And so, the general population quickly gained an acceptance and understanding of webnovels as such novels.

Of course, as webnovels began developing and growing, the meaning behind them started to change. Still, webnovels were still called "novels to fulfill one's desires."

In that case, what exactly does "self-fulfillment" mean?

To give a more specific definition, it means "To satisfy people's mental needs for a wonderful life." Simply speaking, something fun, pleasing, comforting, or even simpler, just "enjoyable."

Self-fulfillment could be said to be the most important and critical factor of all webnovels. Any successful webnovel must have factors that can satisfy people's fantasies. Any novel that doesn't do this is doomed to failure.

As for how to specifically do this, it's quite easy to imagine as well. What does an ordinary person want out of their real life? What dreams and goals would they have?

Of course, that would be getting a job promotion, getting a pay raise, getting rich, being healthy, having a long life, having a wonderful and loving family, winning the lottery, being praised and respected by others, no conflicts at work, no disasters or catastrophes… These are what most people want out of life. Or at the very least, I'm confident that nobody dislikes having such things.

If we categorize all these things, we can notice that all of these desires can be summed up with one word: "Obtain"—we want to obtain material wealth, higher social status, a comfortable life, others' praise, or self-satisfaction… In summary, we want to obtain everything good there is to have, both materially and mentally.

Everything that we can obtain are shown in stories as well. They can be summed up in six common types of storyline factors. Of course, all of these should be happening around the main character.

1. Leveling up

Leveling up is a process by which the main character grows stronger.

To give a narrow definition, this refers to the main character practicing martial arts or something similar in order to improve his cultivation or physical strength, while a general definition would include a lot more other than physical strength. Perhaps leveling can refer to certain skills, receiving job promotions, improving your equipment, or even expanding your faction's power and influence. All of this can be categorized under leveling up.

It should be noted that the pleasure brought about from leveling is in two parts. The first part is that leveling in and of itself can give people pleasure, while the second part is to show the benefits gained after leveling up. The most direct example of all would be that an enemy that the main character couldn't defeat before has now been defeated after the main character leveled up.

The pleasure gained from these two parts is inseparable. From a certain standpoint, the second part has a greater impact. If you're a newcomer author, you should pay extra attention to this and remember the impact that the second part of leveling can have.

2. Miracles

Miracles specifically refer to giving the main character some sort of extra good luck that gives him some great benefits.

Miracles can be tangible benefits. For example, the main character falls off a cliff but miraculously survives, and even finds a wondrously powerful sword. Miracles can also bring about intangible benefits. Using the same example of the main character falling off a cliff, perhaps he'll get to miraculously meet a hermit who's one of the most powerful individuals in the land…

Miracles fulfill people's fantasies by fulfilling their desires to obtain something great without having to work hard for it. Precisely because miracles are instantly obtained without hard work, most people's natural reactions would be to doubt whether the miracle is real.

And so, this is exactly why authors need to consider how to give the main character a miracle. It needs to be natural and not feel too forced. It needs to be reasonable according to the storyline, so that the readers won't feel that it's just the author giving too much plot armor. That way, the readers won't doubt the miracle, and can instead enjoy the pleasure of the miracle together with the main character.

3. Treasure

Something that's usually interconnected with miracles is obtaining treasure. This scenario focuses more on obtaining something tangible.

There's so many types of treasure that one can obtain. Powerful divine weapons, a hoard of silver, gold, or gems, a wondrous martial arts technique, a precious medicine, or even houses and property… Anything valuable or precious to the main character could be termed as treasure.

There's also so many methods by which the main character can obtain treasure. Accidentally discovering treasure through a miracle is only one type of finding treasure. Another example of how the main character can find treasure is to go through lots of trials and difficulties, perhaps even having a bloody fight at the end before finally obtaining the treasure.

Actually, for storylines focusing on finding some treasure, the process of obtaining it isn't actually the most important part. The most important part is how important and valuable the treasure is to the main character, as well as the main character's reaction of joy after obtaining the treasure.

If the treasure was super valuable, and the main character just happened to obtain it when his finances were in a pinch, his overwhelming joy that caused him to be unable to sleep well for three consecutive days and nights is an example of a good storyline involving having obtained some treasure. This is a good fantasy about obtaining treasure.

4. Love

Naturally, love refers to the main character trying to get a beautiful woman or handsome man to fall in love with him/her, and finally succeeding in the end. I'm confident that I don't need to explain too much about this.

Still, what needs to be noted is that how successful a storyline about obtaining love becomes mostly depends on two points.

The first point is how successful the author is at describing the love interest. Is she a proud, icy, and untouchable goddess? Or is she an elegant and intelligent school beauty? She might even be a delicate, empty-headed girl with nothing but looks, or even a random female passerby who isn't described in vivid detail. I think I don't even need to mention which type of love interest would be more appealing.

The second point is how much the main character values and likes their love interest. If the main character isn't even moved, no matter how beautiful the woman is, or how successful he was in obtaining her love, that would still greatly decrease the fulfillment factor for the readers. In a way, obtaining love could be counted as a special sub-type of obtaining treasure—obtaining a beautiful woman.

Of course, there's more varieties to obtaining love than just the above. For some people, beautiful women are just like treasure: the more the better. So, it's fine to also write about a beautiful woman interested in your main character instead, or even writing about a harem. It's just that these scenarios aren't too realistic and mostly only exist in fiction, so I prefer to categorize such plots into the sixth category, status.

5. Fighting enemies

Of course, this refers to fighting and defeating one's enemies.

Naturally, there's so many types of enemies you can write about. You could write about some vicious beasts in the wild, some bandits you meet when it's dark, or an opponent for a tournament…

There's two main points to watch out for when writing such scenarios.

The first is how terrible or evil the enemy is. Another way of putting it is, how justified is the main character in fighting? Only when the enemy is loathed by everyone will the readers really enjoy it when the main character defeats his enemy. And if the enemy was viciously taunting and bullying the main character beforehand, the reader will feel much fulfilled when the enemy is finally defeated.

The second point is how powerful the enemy is. If the main character casually steps on an ant, this wouldn't make anyone feel anything at all. However, if the main character manages to toss an elephant with one hand, anyone would probably feel that would be glorious. The strength of the enemy directly affects how strong a sense of accomplishment the readers will feel from reading about the main character defeating this enemy.

6. Status

Here, status is a relatively broad concept. Basically, this refers to the respect that the main character obtains from others, and how his hard work and power level help him to obtain reputation and status.

There's a saying that "if you don't show off your riches, it's just like wearing your best clothing only at night when nobody can see." After the main character levels up, becomes stronger, obtains some treasure, becomes rich, obtains a beautiful girlfriend, or has a relatively wonderful life in whatever way, or becomes successful to either a small or large degree, of course other people in the story will need to learn about the main character's accomplishments. This will give the main character reputation as other people react with astonishment, jealous, praise, and so on…

From a certain standpoint, this is the main character, or perhaps even the reader's truest and most penultimate goal of all. This is why starter level authors don't need to focus on researching how to write about increasing the main character's status and reputation quite yet. But at the very least, you need to know that the main character's incredible accomplishments need to be known by others, together with the accolades involved.

The above six categories of storylines are all classical examples of how to write a story that helps readers to fantasize about what they lack. Starter level authors can consider how to reasonably use these factors in their own storylines and throughout their entire story.

II. Self-substitution

Self-substitution in stories refers to the ability to have readers feel like they can substitute themselves for a character in the novel, making them feel like they're personally experiencing the events in the story. Of course, this character, in the large majority of cases, is the main character.

Simply speaking, it means that the reader is viewing himself or herself as the main character while reading.

The influence of self-substitution on the success or failure of a webnovel is quite large. Just think about it, the same thing happening to you, versus a complete stranger with no relation to you, will have a huge difference in affecting our emotions and how concerned we are about what's happening.

A story that has a strong sense of self-substitution will cause readers to be happy when the main character is happy, to be sad when the main character is sad, to feel aggrieved when the main character is being bullied, and to feel joy when the main character showing their strength. Only by having a strong sense of self-substitution will an author successfully make readers truly enjoy their novel and not want to put it down.

And on the opposite end, a story with a weak sense of substitution is only wasting everyone's time, just like asking someone deaf to listen to a concert. No matter how many "self-fulfillment factors" the author puts into their story, the readers will only think, "Who cares? What does this have to do with me?"

Evidently, successful webnovels need to be stories that have a strong sense of self-substitution. In that case, how do we make, or create a sense of self-substitution?

It's quite simple. The strength or weakness of self-substitution depends on the distance or closeness the readers feel to the main character. Another way of putting it is, how difficult is it for readers to put themselves in the main character's shoes?

Actually, every single story out there starts out with some degree of self-substitution. The moment a reader starts reading your novel, they'll automatically start self-substituting themselves for the main character. After that, when the reader starts noticing the differences between themselves and the main character, such as social status, way of thinking, behavior, and so on, all these factors can cause a sense of distance and decrease the strength of self-substitution.

This is exactly the reason why a majority of both male and female readers prefer reading stories with a protagonist who has the same gender as them. It's all related to self-substitution. Also, self-substitution is the same reason responsible for why it's incredibly difficult for non-human main characters to become highly successful novels. The few that do manage to succeed are almost definitely because either the main character is humanoid, or has a human way of thinking. Only these factors will help a non-human main character have a stronger sense of self-substitution.

For newcomer authors to improve the sense of self-substitution their readers will have for their novel, the simplest method is to make certain limits upon the main character's settings. Just make the main character's age, social status, way of thinking, and so on as close as possible to the target audience for the novel.

III. Cheats

Cheats refer to the main character's special or unique advantage over everyone else in the story.

There's a variety of ways that cheats can be expressed in webnovels. For instance, an ancient technique book, a powerful teacher, an incredible physical body… any type of advantage can be termed as a cheat.

Overall, there's four main categories of cheats.

The first is treasure-type cheat.

The main character might obtain a special or unique item, such as an alien spaceship, a computer from the future, a magical pill left behind from some ancient immortal, or a pair of eyeglasses that can magically see through anything…

The second is ability-type cheat.

The main character might have a unique ability, such as invisibility, passing through walls, flight, mind reading, or creating gold…

The third is natural-born type cheat.

The main character might be super talented in a certain area, or have an excellent family background. Perhaps the main character's father is the president, or his teacher is an emperor, or he was born with a wonderful physique for practicing martial arts…

The fourth is a knowledge-type cheat.

Maybe the main character has some knowledge that only he or she knows. If the main character went back many centuries to the past, that means the main character has modern day technological knowledge. For reincarnation stories where a main character returned several years to the past, that means the main character knows how the world will develop for the next several years. For transmigration stories to another world, maybe a skilled martial artist who was summoned to a world of magic will find that he's the only person in the world who knows martial arts and modern medical knowledge…

If fantasizing about one's desires is the foundational core of webnovels, and self-substitution is the necessary ingredient for allowing your readers to enjoy your novel, then a cheat is the basic foundation for helping to push along your fictional story.

The reason for this is quite simple. For the great majority of readers, they're simply ordinary people you can find anywhere. Thanks to the limitations of self-substitution, the story's main character can't be overly special. However, the requirements of self-fulfillment requires that the main character is better than others in some aspect, or has a better life than others…

This creates a paradox between self-fulfillment and self-substitution. Why would an ordinary person have such a wonderful life? There's three common results that come about of a story without a cheat.

1 – The author constantly gives the main character miracles and coincidences to constantly escape from danger. This way of dealing with things is actually giving the main character a hidden cheat – plot armor. Since this is not a cheat that's technically in the narrative, having too much good luck can easily make the readers feel like it's all too unrealistic, which will break their sense of self-substitution and destroy their enjoyment of your novel.

2 – The author avoids giving the main character too much luck, and instead constantly improves the main character's conditions – improving his family status, or improving his talents. Doing this to a certain degree counts as a hidden cheat as well. Not only that, if the main character has an incredibly well-off family that's the best in a certain field, it's easy to affect the readers' sense of self-substitution due to the readers' different social status from the main character.

3 – The author tries their best to not influence self-substitution and make a reasonable plot by limiting the main character's achievements. However, the result of doing this will directly decrease the satisfaction that readers can obtain from fantasizing about obtaining their desires by living vicariously through the main character. In a way, this type of novel has gotten off track from what a webnovel should be like.

So, cheats are there in webnovels to resolve this paradoxical problem between self-fulfillment and self-substitution—the main character is indeed a normal person who also managed to become so strong. That's because the main character possesses a cheat.

Perhaps some people will ask, will the existence of a cheat make the story seem too unrealistic as well?

The answer is simple: Yes.

However, on one hand, you have a story where the main character constantly has a parade of unbelievable miracles and coincidences, while on the other hand, you have a story where the main character starts with a one-time cheat that only needs to be given once, which will help the rest of the plot to all fall into place, and give an excellent excuse for how such an ordinary main character can become strong. The second is far easier for people to accept despite obviously being fiction.

In a way, with webnovels having developed to such a degree, readers are already completely used to the main character having some type of cheat. In fact, some readers even decide if they'll continue reading your novel or not based only on what type of cheat your main character has.

That's why it's perfectly acceptable to give your main character a cheat, as well as necessary. Of course, even so, newcomer authors need to pay attention to having a reasonable plot. Or, more accurately speaking, making your story which is obviously fiction appear more realistic. Your story is imaginary but still seems natural, natural to the point where people forget that it's fiction.

Here's an example. Your main character is a bookworm. He's ordinary in every way. One day, he suddenly received teaching from an immortal, and learned so much that he scored #1 on all his tests.

This seems too obviously fake. After all, everyone knows that immortals don't really exist. But, if you give this scenario some twists—by first introducing the main character and describing how hard he works at studying every day despite being poor and suffering hardship, and also talking about how kind he is before having an immortal get impressed with his moral character—this will sound much more reasonable. Or, you don't even need to have the immortal character physically appear. You could have a scene where the immortal appears in the main character's dreams to teach him, making the main character not know if everything was real or not after he wakes up, but he indeed became much smarter afterwards. This way, even though your storyline and cheat are basically the same, it will sound a lot more natural.

The above three are the three critical elements of webnovels. While creating their novels, authors must simultaneously consider the settings for all three of these major elements – What's my main character's cheat? How do I increase the sense of self-substitution readers will have for my main character? And how do I add additional "self-fulfillment" elements?

To give an analogy, writing a novel is just like building a house out of wooden building blocks. A single wooden block can't even be called good or bad. What's good or bad is which wooden blocks you choose, and how to stack them. If you're skilled at putting your wooden blocks together, even if they're low-quality or incomplete wooden blocks, you'll still be able to construct an excellent house. Meanwhile, no matter how excellent the quality of your wooden blocks, you'll build nothing but a garbage heap if you don't put them together in a well-planned manner.