If you look back, I said that the amount of repetitions in NEET is lower than in usual Chinese novels. And don't mix up useless repetition with exposition and info-dumping. What I mean is; when every character and even people on the bus stop absolutely must praise MC and say how good-looking he is, how he looks better than idols, etc.
Let me ask you a question. Imagine that we have a chapter without a change, and we have MC and Chiaki in this chapter. They are flirting in the chapter. However, the chapter ends with a fadeaway, and there is no actual description of how they bonded. What would happen if we change the structure of the said chapter and add unique descriptions of their bonding and dialogues between them. The price? Part of those praises of the MC that are irrelevant, at least part of the useless 'joke dialogues' with a system, and so on. Will we benefit, and will the story become more interesting if we do a lot of such exchanges? And, of course, the author would do this rewrite, not us.
Will the comedic undertone suffer if we substitute dialogues with Chiaki with something new and unique? Will the romantic part benefit if we have actual descriptions of budding feelings instead of fadeaway scenes in favor of unnecessary worshiping of the mc? And I stress out unnecessary worshiping.
You know, you have a point. But I’m gonna borrow Tony Stark’s words here: is it too much to ask for both?
What I’m trying to tell you is that those constant worshiping is not pointless at all—well, at least for me. The whole point of the novel is obviously wish-fulfillment, and one of the most effective wish-fulfillment device is to evoke the sense of approval to the readers—by giving praises to the reader’s substitute which is the main character.
This kind of gimmick isn’t something new, either. You could even see it in the popular Japanese novel like “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” where Rimuru gets constant worships and praises as well.
So, it’s not pointless at all—actually, like I said, it’s the selling point of the series, heck it could even be the selling point of all the web novels.
That’s why, even if you said you could replace all those constant worshiping and praises the mc gimmick with something even more worthwhile, then I’d say, is it too much to ask for both?
Since those constant worshiping and praises the mc gimmick isn’t pointless—maybe even the selling point of the web novels—and your point in adding all those faded parts are both very important and will surely enhance the reader’s experience, then why not add both of them in?
The series will be longer, of course, but that, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t that big of a deal at all—it will be even better, since the longer means the more experience I’d get.
If you're a real panster, strict outlining wouldn't really do much help for your story. It sometimes stifles creativity, at least that's my experience. My current work has like 438k words. I have two previous stories several years ago that I dropped, but combined they were 450k words. All through power of pantsing. I only have a very general idea of what's going to happen, and outline the most recent plot point only for purposes of thinking up and writing different scenes than what was outlined.
Pantsing is really fun, but it takes a lot of self-trust and maybe even self-abandon. You have to surrender your conscious control over your mind and let it play around by itself—your job is only to observe and not interrupt.
But like I said, that takes a lot of self-trust and self-abandon. I’m actually quite a perfectionist who realize that fact and can barely control the urge to go fix things up, so that’s why it takes quite a practice to be able to pants well.
It’s so true what the old saying says: write drunk, edit sober.
To be a true pantser, you need to write drunk, and maybe blind and deaf as well. You can’t have any expectations or any sense of perfection while writing. You have to completely surender total control over your mind, but then once you’re done, it’s time to face the reality—fix the plot holes, baby~! lol
