Why Did the System Become So Useless?

[If you have managed to catch the attention of a potential reader with your cover art, title, and synopsis, the beginning of your story is what ultimately draws them in and makes them decide whether or not they want to continue to follow your story. Thus, the quality of your beginning roughly equals the probability of gaining new readers.]

"Yes, yes, yes …" Su Yan couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Wasn't this common knowledge? Who would want to read a story with a shitty beginning? He impatiently clicked [next] in hope of getting an actual hint as to how he should write a beginning.

[A good beginning needs to fulfill two tasks:

1) The beginning has to answer basic questions about the story.

2) The beginning has to show the readers that the story is interesting.

In the best case, the beginning will already showcase your writing style, too. Overall it can be said that the beginning will provide a potential reader with a short glimpse of almost every aspect of your story and writing skills.]

Su Yan paused and his lips twitched. Did the system want to tell him that a beginning that wasn't perfect would make his whole novel pointless? Wasn't this too vicious?! The readers should give him some time to show off!

Unfortunately, the Lovely Writing System didn't share his opinion. Grumbling, he clicked for the next part.

[In the beginning, you should present your protagonist and the world he lives in. What is the name of your protagonist and why should the readers care about him? What else should they know about him? Is it important whether he is a human or rather part of another race? And does he live in the world we know, in a parallel version with another history or maybe in our world but several years in the future?]

Su Yan blinked. Mn? He already had all this! The robes and the talk about cultivators should tell the readers about the world the protagonist lived in and as for the protagonist himself …

Damn! He hadn't mentioned that his protagonist was human. But then again … wasn't that obvious? After all, the ones who became part of a sect were human in most cases. Maybe there would be some who weren't totally human but those were exceptions.

So, all in all, Su Yan felt like he had pretty much fulfilled this first point. How come his scene was still too short then? Had he done something else wrong? He frowned and read further.

[If possible, you might include hints regarding the future development of your story. Are gay relationships frowned upon in the protagonist's world or is gay marriage allowed and even common? Might your protagonist already be in a relationship?

This might also be a good opportunity to introduce the problem your protagonist will face. What stands between him and his happiness with the male lead? What holds them back from being together just yet? The readers should know who or what is opposing them so they know what to expect for the rest of the story.]

"Oh!" Su Yan straightened up.

So he was supposed to include the problem between his main characters! This …

He frowned. No, wait. This made no sense at all! Don't even speak about falling in love and having problems, the male lead hadn't even appeared yet! How was he supposed to bring up problems?

Su Yan frowned even more. This was absolutely impossible. The problem between the two of them would be that Ziju An was Dou Fang Hai's master and that society frowned upon a relationship in such a situation. But right now they weren't master and disciple and Dou Fang Hai was just a small brat. How could he bring their problem up like this?

All the so-called hints the system had shown him since opening this practice task were either completely generic or some shit he couldn't use at all. Why had his system suddenly gotten so useless? Weren't its tips normally better?!

Su Yan shook his head and clicked for the next part in a bad mood.

[Measured against the length of your story or the first volume of your story if you're writing a longer series this general information about the story should be established at the very latest after a fifth of the overall length.]

Su Yan's eyes grew wide. Wait! So everything he had read until now wasn't for the first chapter but instead … for … several chapters?! Maybe even a mini-arc?! Why hadn't the system said so in the beginning?! This thing was obviously bullying him!

Su Yan turned to the side and looked at Nie Chang with a hurt expression but his unsympathetic boyfriend didn't even notice.

"Hmph." Su Yan snorted and turned back. "I can do this myself!"

Nie Chang looked up when he heard his boyfriend's voice but a certain someone was already staring at his phone again. Nie Chang looked at him a moment longer before getting back to work with a smile. It seemed his little darling was working happily. There was no need to worry.

Su Yan wanted to click for the next part but there actually wasn't one. Instead, the system gave him two other choices: He could either get [Further information] or [Go back to the menu]. He pursed his lips and clicked on the second one.

Sure, he could have a look at some more information but he felt like that wouldn't be of too much use. It would be better to put to use what he had read just now. After all, he already knew now that he had a fifth of the novel's length to establish all these things.

Mn … That should be … Su Yan frowned. How was he supposed to know how much a fifth was?! After all, the system hadn't given him a chapter limit for this story! It really was bullying him this time!

Just who could tell him what a fifth of an unknown number of chapters was, ah?!