1) The first sentence is what grabs my attention to read the first paragraph.
2) The first paragraph is what sells the first chapter.
3) The first chapter gives me a question that the reader should be curious about and your book should be the only way to answer that question.
I have a pattern.
Single Line at the start of the chapter to be a zinger.
Then I have a little exposition at the start of most chapters.
A paragraph explaining the setup.
Paragraphs are broken up by topic.
Occasionally a one-liner where I hit the reader with a single idea.
I will sometimes put something all by itself after many carriage returns to make it ESPECIALLY stand out.
"When having a conversation I have words inside quotations and get rid of the word 'said' whenever possible." Eldritch had discovered that people are smart enough to figure it out for themselves, "You just need a comma and some quotes to get people to know who is talking. The important part is to start a new chapter whenever the speaking subject changes.
My imagination interrupted, "This would be an example of that." It looked around and wiggled its tendrils, "Actions can be done by anyone and rolled into the paragraph." Eldritch nodded as my Imagination continued, "As long as who is talking inside the quotes remains the same."
"So Expositions should be all at the start of the chapter, with maybe a small wrap-up at the end, but if you get in the habit of having conversations like this, you can group things up in a way that is easier on the reader's eyes. It knows where one speaker ends and another begins. In fact, if you keep up the pattern, you won't even need to point out who is talking, the reader will figure it out by style of speech, or the fact only two people are talking."
Then, finally, I try to have a final zinger line to end the chapter on.
It's cheap psychological manipulation, but it works.
How about an example?
Author Note: This is my first time writing a novel, so bear with me now.
"Keugh... is this.. how I leave this world?" He coughs blood, and after a slight pause he laughs and smiles. "Oh well, whatever all I can do now is hope."
My life was full of stupid shit honestly, I never spent my time well.. if I could I wish I could go to a different world like Murim with some system, man, I should've stopped reading those weird novels, but whatever honestly, in the end, it's the survival of the fittest, even in this so-called "comfortable" world. All I hope now is that I at least don't go to hell, or get reborn, since me going to Heaven is the equivalent of letting a crazy murderer not go to jail while being caught.
"G-goodbye you shitty world." he tries to yell out loud while on the concrete ground, but only to output a barely audible voice with a lot of people looking down at him in worry, with sirens in the background.
Suddenly, he wakes up on a bunch of leaves and some grass, with rays of sun on his face. Still not comprehending what has happened, he looks around to see many tall trees with lots of leaves on them. He then feels a different type of clothing on his body, he sees himself wearing a red and black Hanfu. (I believe a Hanfu is the things people wear in wuxia or murim please tell me what the name is of what they wear.) When he tries to look around he notices his long hair going all the way down to his upper back. Upon noticing all of these details, he begins to check if he still has his manhood.
"Oh... thank god, I'm still a man." He redirects his attention back to his surroundings. "So where am I? By the looks of it it seems like I'm in a different universe?" He begins to remember the life he's lived giving him a irritated expression on his face. "AGH! Whatever, I just need to be better then last time, this time I will try to actually do something with my life."
And then out of nowhere a blue square appears right in front of him, not bounded by gravity or the laws of physics.
[Initializing...]
After looking in confusion for a little bit, a light begins to pop up in his head, causing him to grin a little bit at the realization of what has just appeared right in front him.
"My god, haha... is that a fucking system!? Please let it be a system and not just me being crazy." At those words the blue square begins to show numbers indicating the percentage of something.
[Initializing... 4% 7% 13% 25% 43% 77% 99%]
"What the hell, I'm not hallucinating? It really is a system!"
[Initializing... 100% Congratulations, Thank You For Playing Our Game!"
"Keugh... is this.. how I leave this world?"
Melvin was dying. he held his hand to his mouth as he coughed and pulled his cupped hand away to look at it. The odd mix of blood and mucus actually distracted him from the sucking chest wound for a few seconds. For just a moment, he forgot there was a small bullet hole in his back and the frickin Holand Tunnel out the front.
He fell to his knees, not quite sure who shot him in the back. Given the time of day, it was most likely anyone who knew his schedule. That meant this assassination was a betrayal, "Oh well, whatever all I can do now is hope."
The funny thing was, he had just realized he was doing things wrong. His whole life he'd be a bastard. He'd only thought about number one. He justified it with how life had treated him. His father was a working stiff who never got anywhere. Mom always bitched at dad and only thought about how much happier she could have been if she had only married Jack back in college.
Melvin spent most of his childhood getting the crap beat out of him, so as soon as he had his chance to get ahead, he took it. He had learned nobody cares, so he cared about no one. He was a very good liar and got ahead by backstabbing, betraying, and never ever showing mercy.
One day, that changed.
He realized everything he did was to get back at the people who beat the crap out of him. Everyone he hurt, was just an attempt to make things "right" to make things fair. But one day he realized something. He was just evil.
It started small. he couldn't do his job. He couldn't focus. he started trying to stop, get out. Nothing made him happy anymore so he just stopped doing drugs, stopped having sex, and stopped doing everything. He finally made up his mind. He was going to quit.
Unfortunately, his partners figured it out first.
Now he was face first on the sidewalk, people screaming, people running. He doubted anyone would catch the bastard who killed him, nor would anyone care. He just stared at the growing pool of blood under himself as he thought, ~Honestly, I really was going to try and fix things.~ He closed his eyes, ~Ah well, at least there's a special place in Hell for someone like me.~
Now, compare these two What is the QUESTION?
The original: What is this guy going to do?
My Rewrite: Is this guy going to make good on turning over a new leaf?
Which question is more compelling? Which one is more likely to get you to read to the end of the book to find out?
People like a question that goes somewhere and isn't open-ended. Keep that in mind.
2. Run it through a simple spell checker like Word.
3. Go to ChatGPT and type "Rephrase The Following Paragraph" Take one paragraph of at least 3 sentences and save it in a separate file. Feed that paragraph to ChatGPT. Copy the resulting paragraph to a separate file. Make a hybrid paragraph of the best of both.
4. Repeat step 3 until you have done every paragraph.
5. Turn on Grammerly. Just use the spell-checking feature. Screw the suggestions.
6. Go through your chapter to search for the following words:
Suddenly
Very/really
Started
Just
Somewhat/slightly
Somehow
Seem(s)
Definitely
If you see any of these words, reconsider them. Usually, these words are misused. If someone is speaking, no problem, but outside of the conversation, they usually are a bad sign.
7. If any sections don't feel right use the following at random:
prowritingaid.com/rephrase
sudowrite.com/app
writesonic.com/
But they do not allow unlimited use, so just use these occasionally to get a different perspective on how you phrased something.
8. Put it through Text Edit and turn on the text-to-speech feature. Listen to the chapter and fix it as it reads it out loud to you.
9. Go through and check for words that you keep using over and over. Using the same word too often will stand out. Try to have at least three different ways of referring to any main character. Avoid using the same word more than once in any given paragraph, or at least no more than once a page (pronouns/conjunctions not included, obviously). The English language is incredibly diverse, so the more you force yourself to get creative using alternatives, the more interesting your work is.
10. Turn on Grammerly one last time for spell-checking.
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START AT THE END.
You need to know what the ending of a plotline is, At least the final gut punch you plan for the reader to have. You can have an epilogue afterward, but you need that final scene in your head at least. Just writing because "I have a cool idea." Doesn't work. You need to know the ending.
Most books are three acts.
You need a plot that starts then finishes in Act/Act, in order of importance:
1/3
1/1
3/3
2/2
1/2
2/3
What I mean is you introduce a plot in Act 1, then it ends in Act 3, followed by Act 1 ends in Act 1.
The overall plot, that goes from plot 1 to plot 3 is the most important, but 1/1 is the second most important because it KEEPS THE READER READING.
That means, before you start the story, you need to have 6 endings. I don't care how much you write it out, but you need 6 plots and 6 plot endings. ANYTHING ELSE IS BOTH UNNEEDED AND DANGEROUS. You also need to know how the plot STARTS. So you need 6 beginnings and 6 endings. However, if you work those out ahead of time, everything else is just filler to get the story to move from one key scene to the next.
For example:
1/3: Joe is summoned and he has to defeat the demon lord
1/1: Joe is dropped into a strange situation and needs to adjust.
3/3: Joe will have a setback he needs to overcome
2/2: Joe will go on a training montage.
1/2: Joe will encounter the miniboss and have to overcome them.
2/3: Joe will have a romance subplot where he meets a girl and they fall in love by the end.
So three things begin in the first act, 2 starts in the second, 1 in the last.
There is one conclusion in the first, 2 in the second, then 3 in the ending
(and if you do it well, it all comes together in one scene.)
It's simple, it's formulaic, IT WORKS.
If you do this, you won't "write in the wrong direction" because you know where the ending is. Once you work out those 6 starts and 6 ends, everything else in the book is just connective tissue.
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If you are having problems making a character Here's my cheat sheet
Name
Race
Apparent Age
Actual Age
Sex
Gender
Height
Weight
Eye Color
Hair Color
Parents (How many, Sex, general Relations)
Place of birth
Current mental Age group: (Childhood/teen Age/Young Adult/Older Adult/Elder)
Where PC/NPC spent their (Childhood/teen Age/Young Adult/Older Adult/Elder)
Note Worthy Events of (Childhood/teen Age/Young Adult/Older Adult/Elder)
Current Socio-Economic Standing (Poor/Lower Class/Middle Class/Upper Class/SuperRich)
Nobody lives in a vacuum. However, everyone rhymes. get in your head the above groups and some stereotypical traits for each.
A guy whose morality is Objective 1, Subjective 1, Social 5, Outcome 1 is the kind of guy who believes in "Good" Outside himself and seeks to internalize it. he thinks society is corrupt, and willing to commit crimes if the outcome is positive.
ie Batman.
Charisma is personality, Manipulation is how controlling you can be, and appearance is how you look.
So your typical otome Villainess is a Chr 1, Manip 4, App 4.
When you get good at it, you can "shorthand" a character with ease
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How to self-motivate:
Tell yourself, "NO ONE LOVES YOU! YOU ARE A WASTE OF SKIN! YOU ARE ONLY WORTH SOMETHING WHEN YOU DO SOMETHING! IF YOU AREN'T DOING SOMETHING, WHAT GOOD ARE YOU? EVERY MOMENT YOU WASTE NOT DOING SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE, A BABY KITTEN DIES! IF YOU ONLY TRIED HARDER, THERE WOULD BE LESS DEAD LOVED ONES IN YOUR LIFE! EVERYONE YOU EVER LOVED THAT DIED IS YOUR FAULT BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T WORK HARD ENOUGH!"
Then I get back to writing.
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On units of measurement:
If you wanna use metrics in your story, go ahead. It's your story
But I always use "We put a flag on the fuckin' moon" units.
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On How Much You Write:
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Something pounded into my head was, "WHAT CAN YOU CUT OUT OF YOUR STORY?"
Every word you include is a fraction of a second to read. Every fraction adds up. Time is the currency of exchange between an author and a reader. I am asking you for time. I am asking you to SPEND TIME ON ME. So, I go through and I pare it down. Carefully and deliberately ask myself, "What Does This Bring To The Story? Is it redundant? Have I already told this to the reader? Does repeating it serve a purpose? If not, how do I cut it? If it is new, then how can I make it serve a second purpose? Is there a way to have this information have a second meaning? A third meaning? Can I combine it with something else? Will It change when the reader knows the ending and will it be BETTER? Is there a better plot point I can use instead? Can I subvert their expectations and give them something BETTER than they expected and if so, how much can I keep hidden from the reader so they truly can't see it coming, yet will think it was obvious in retrospect?"
Smaller. Tighter. More concentrated. BIG is the enemy. Flowery fluffy filler is a sign of weakness. Hit him hard, let the reader breathe, then hit him again, but short rabbit punches.
I know that quality is what matters, but in the back of my head, I have this Big Is Evil, hang-up. 500k Well Written Words is fine. the 500k isn't the problem.
Except it's a problem.
Part of me wonders, like it or not, is it too much? Then I say, "If it's quality, then it doesn't matter. You can have large quantities of quality. It does happen."
Then I say, "No it doesn't. You arrogant FOOL!"
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BEST TIME TO POST CHAPTERS
The best time is subjective, just be consistent.
HOWEVER...
I have anecdotal evidence that the best time is 12:01 am local time so you have the maximum amount of exposure to the algorithm. To get the most amount of "hits", post once every three days for maximum return. But that's just my own systematic testing of the system. Take it with a boulder of salt.
I'm not sure I understood what you meant here, so I will explain everything from the beginning. When you post a new story, you have to get a cover, title, and synopsis. Even if it is a bad synopsis, write one. Second thing you have to do is use as much tags and genres as you can and want. A lot of readers look for certain tags, so using more tags that fit your story will help you. If you don't want to spoil, try using tags that won't spoil the story, but fits it.
Now to upload schedule. First thing first, never bulk upload. If you upload 2 or more chapters at the same time, your story is flagges as spam, and you won't get any views since it will be hidden from latest updates for a day or so. And you don't want to miss latest updates, since it is a thing that gives you most views.
Secondly, when you post a new story, it would be better to not upload more than one chapter in the first day. Instead, upload one chapter a day for a prolonged period of time, like a week or so.
Once a week has passed, the path splits. If your chapters are really long, 4000+ words, don't upload daily. Stick to uploading roughly 2-3 times a week at max. If your chapters are really short, 1500 words or less, try to upload daily, or even upload 2-3 times a day. HOWEVER, spread your releases. Do not upload at the same time, but wait for a few hours before uploading a new one. It would be best if you can wait for 4-5 hours. And if your chapters are around 2000, it's better to upload at least 2 times a week, but there isn't really an upper limit.
I'm not sure I understood what you meant here, so I will explain everything from the beginning. When you post a new story, you have to get a cover, title, and synopsis. Even if it is a bad synopsis, write one. Second thing you have to do is use as much tags and genres as you can and want. A lot of readers look for certain tags, so using more tags that fit your story will help you. If you don't want to spoil, try using tags that won't spoil the story, but fits it.
Now to upload schedule. First thing first, never bulk upload. If you upload 2 or more chapters at the same time, your story is flagges as spam, and you won't get any views since it will be hidden from latest updates for a day or so. And you don't want to miss latest updates, since it is a thing that gives you most views.
Secondly, when you post a new story, it would be better to not upload more than one chapter in the first day. Instead, upload one chapter a day for a prolonged period of time, like a week or so.
Once a week has passed, the path splits. If your chapters are really long, 4000+ words, don't upload daily. Stick to uploading roughly 2-3 times a week at max. If your chapters are really short, 1500 words or less, try to upload daily, or even upload 2-3 times a day. HOWEVER, spread your releases. Do not upload at the same time, but wait for a few hours before uploading a new one. It would be best if you can wait for 4-5 hours. And if your chapters are around 2000, it's better to upload at least 2 times a week, but there isn't really an upper limit.
Forgot to add one last thing. What to do if you fudged up the beginning, and didn't get the appropriate boost. There is no cutting corners. You upload. Consistently. For a loooong time. I'm talking consistently uploading for at least 6 months. And you shoud try sticking to the upload schedule that I've mentioned above. If you upload one short chapter a week for 6 months, there won't be any miracle. Spamming readers with huge chapters isn't a good idea either.
As it was already said, there are 25 slots for tags so use as many as you think can fit. People do search for these tags
For your tags, I'd recommend adding one to define what kind of protagonist you have. For example, I use Unreliable Narrator, Determined Protagonist and Underestimated Protagonist in addition to Female Protagonist. You will get hits based on that.
From there, I would skim and pick what you feel fits your story best. There are a whole boat ton of tags available. Simply scroll through them and choose what reflects the story you intend to share. Even if it might feel spoiler-ish to use them, it'll still help guide people to your story. You should use the tags to give people as clear an indication of your story as you can.
Edit cause I forgot to add that I did read the first three chapters of your story. The only tag that I can think of based on what I read was "Mystery Solving" based on the cats and the little girl. However, I don't know if that's valid for the rest of your story as I don't know where you're going with it.
thanks for checking! I also want to mention three things I've noticed. first, add your stories in a signature on here, and try to be more active. that's a MAJOR way people will check them out. second, be more proactive on the main site. Read others stories, leave comments, etc. Be the reader you want in your works (admittedly, I'm still working on this myself, as I've taken on too many projects and just don't have time to read anymore).
Finally and most importantly, Create a Brand. You'll see a lot of people have profile pics, memorable names, or a gimmick they feed into or play off of. Even if you don't do a persona or post/comment consistently, at least have something recognizable other than a black W on a green background. That shows that you're more serious about sticking around.
P.s. and don't forget to post/comment for reviews/read swaps. AND KEEP YOUR END OF THE SWAP. more viewers means more viewers, and getting people who are willing to take the time to comment and/or leave a review? Priceless.
i'm wondering why, is it cause of the time i post chapters in? or cause of the algorithm? or the urban fantasy , the genre of my story specter days, is an unwanted genre since its not a litrpg or harem or cultivation novel? can anyone check and tell me what can i improve for better feedback and why not support.
With the amount of readers you have now. I would suggest to delete your story and update it again. Though, I don't know if there any rules against that, but since you come back from a long break, you can just restart from the beginning. You will have a day on the main page for the new story, and you can upload your chapter one by one to have your story on the last release page while you continue writing your chapters and stock it.
If you do that, releasing one chapter or two chapter a day until you catch up to your current chapter will grant you some view and probably more readers than you currently have.
As it was already said, there are 25 slots for tags so use as many as you think can fit. People do search for these tags
For your tags, I'd recommend adding one to define what kind of protagonist you have. For example, I use Unreliable Narrator, Determined Protagonist and Underestimated Protagonist in addition to Female Protagonist. You will get hits based on that.
From there, I would skim and pick what you feel fits your story best. There are a whole boat ton of tags available. Simply scroll through them and choose what reflects the story you intend to share. Even if it might feel spoiler-ish to use them, it'll still help guide people to your story. You should use the tags to give people as clear an indication of your story as you can.
Edit cause I forgot to add that I did read the first three chapters of your story. The only tag that I can think of based on what I read was "Mystery Solving" based on the cats and the little girl. However, I don't know if that's valid for the rest of your story as I don't know where you're going with it.
The story has potential but there wasn't anything to really grab my attention to make me want to keep reading. I know you're going with ghosts being so similar to alive people that the protagonist can't realize at first but it doesn't make for an interesting story for the reader. At least not for me, anyway. I like my ghost stories with descriptions of things feeling weird, a chill in the air or something off about how they look.
The story has potential but there wasn't anything to really grab my attention to make me want to keep reading. I know you're going with ghosts being so similar to alive people that the protagonist can't realize at first but it doesn't make for an interesting story for the reader. At least not for me, anyway. I like my ghost stories with descriptions of things feeling weird, a chill in the air or something off about how they look.
So, there are 3 things I see when looking for a new series to read: title, cover and blurb/synopsis.
The title is kinda odd. Maybe try changing the title from 'Specter days.' to 'Specter Days'. The period at the end and the lack of proper capitalization may rub some (possible new) readers wrong.
Second, you have a great cover but your typesetting could use some work. The font+color used gives a very happy and warm tone but, judging by the tags, this isn't that kind of story. Try searching on FontSpace.com some new one that fit the type of story you're trying to write.
The blurb is ok. I'd say it needs to be a little more descriptive of the MC, maybe? Nothing too long. Oh, and more tags to increase discoverability helps.
Your genre might be better received on a different site? I can't speak for everyone here obviously, but I'm not particularly interested in paranormal stories or real world stories (I like fantasy or sci-fi). I know there are places that have more interest in paranormal stories but I don't know specific sites, as I don't really read those stories. There are certainly subreddits that will like paranormal stories.
Not that it's any excuse to stop posting here, maybe things will change, and it takes less than 5 minutes to upload if you already have it written anyway.
