Blog #14- Writing Analysis: How To Write A Webnovel!

There is a thing experiencing Webnovel authors go through after learning how to write through basically people online insulting your story, and that's the feeling of 'how to pace' their next chapters.

At first, writing is a passion for an author they do on the fly. However, once they get serious and learn all they need to know about their story's genre, their drive for perfection causes them to write a lot less.

Writing itself becomes a chore as expectations from your reader and your own make you subconsciously think you're back in school. This is a normal reaction considering your hobby has become unpaid work...

However, there is a way to overcome this! Well, at least if you're writing Action-oriented story with lots of people punching each other, and that is by NOT GIVING YOUR CHAPTER A NAME!!!

Now I know what you're thinking: "Come on, stop messing with me, Love4NovelGuy. How can not naming your chapter do anything? My new chapter I put work in is part of my story and needs attention!"

And that's where you're wrong. The moment you start posting on a chapter by chapter basis, you've already made it hard for yourself to invest in your own story. Sometime after writing the chapter and posting it you'll forget what you even wrote in it.

The best way to overcome this is by telling yourself that you'll only stop writing and name chapters after you've gotten to a satisfying climax to all those chapters you've written before the 'satisfying end'.

I know, you're probably doubting if my mental trick will even work. But you know, the first lesson to mental tricks is BELIEVING IN IT! You can't expect things to fall on your lap and motivation isn't something you find, try motivating YOURSELF.

Now that you've thought of a story and want to get it out on page... Well, do it. Go 'barf' all your ideas into the first draft of your story, leave it alone for a few days, then reread it to see if you made mistakes.

Editing is a major part of storytelling when your writing and there is no author who had wrote a masterpiece on their first draft. Get over any mental hang-ups you may have before following this advice.

The reason why I said this works best for action oriented stories is because 'fast pacing' is what audiences want in such a story. Unless it's a special moment where you're characterising using something complicated, your base pace should be fact unless your writing an 'Adventure' story.

In Mushoku Tensei (Jobless Reincarnation), it may seem like an action story considering the magic system is introduced early in the story. However, it is more accurate to say the magic system was used to make the beginning half of the story more 'slow'.

What I mean by this is that having characters standing around talking to each other or doing things that don't build tension may be considered quite 'static' for those who like action, but someone wanting to immerse themselves into the fantasy world he was transported would be more interested.

This is what I mean by 'slow pace', and what I mean by 'fast pace' is having the MC tackle one problem after another to get where the next fight is. Though I may be describing them separately, most longer stories tend to switch things up every now and then to keep the reader's investment in what happened.

Now, since I've already gave a lesson on the basics of pacing and how to write an action story, let me now dive in a little into exposition. Don't worry, this won't take long to explain. I'll be quick about it.

Basically, ignore everyone who says "show and don't tell" since you are writing a wordy story where the narrator tells the reader everything. The only thing you need to do when writing exposition is to MAKE IT INTERESTING! I don't know why everyone has a problem doing this. I mean, even info-dumps can be interesting if the character giving it is also being fleshed out through interactions while doing it.

New pieces of information that are going to be relevant later need to be balanced by what you're giving now. Don't think your audience are idiots by letting them infer things. That's what is usually called 'subtext' by readers who want intrigue.

The lines from a character can differ in the amount of information they give. For example:

Calling a character 'Queen [Insert Name]' would be considered too straightforward. What would be a better way to introduce a character and let the audience infer by themselves is calling a character 'Your Majesty' before describing an old woman with a demeanour that seemingly demanded authority.

However, this is me rambling on and you should be courageous to write your story whether good or bad no matter what insults come your way. No good story is built in one day and editing is always an option if your grammar is so bad it burns eyes.

Just take a look at me, I wrote a story that took forty chapters to fully understand and still strived to improve it by editing a bunch of times until I finally got it to a level that contends with my newer works.

Good luck and be sure to ask if you want another Analysis with your own choice attached~ :)