I need help before i post my web novel if anyone can help answer some of questions i have
1. I have everything written in a paragraphs should I revise my novel in the style everyone else has with each line of dialogue seperate from each other for clarity?
2. Should I keep working on a subpar cover art im drawing or slap my OC on the front? im not sure if what would be more attractive.
3. what day would be the best to post?
4. Is there a way I can post my art as chapter or no?
5. should I write my author's note as a bonus chapter or in the synopsis/summary?
6. also the word count for each of my chapter's is 4000 should it be condensed to 1 paragraph that I have to make it shorter? I worry that my intro wont be enough to make the readers want more.
I appreciate any and all responses even if you cant answer all the questions.
1. In general you want dialogue spoke by a character to be in the same paragraph, but you don’t have to separate the dialogue itself into its own paragraph.
2. If you want attention the best thing is to show a beautiful character or something eye catchy.
3. It doesn't matter when you post as long as you are somewhat consistent and keep going.
4. You can post your art in chapter using one of the editor tools from a link. It’s best to post it on discord or something first.
5. There is a tool for author notes in the Scribble hub editor.
6. Word count doesn’t matter as much as compelling plot. Just don’t go insane like 10k words. People read between 1k and 4k word chapters.
I need help before i post my web novel if anyone can help answer some of questions i have
1. I have everything written in a paragraphs should I revise my novel in the style everyone else has with each line of dialogue seperate from each other for clarity?
6. also the word count for each of my chapter's is 4000 should it be condensed to 1 paragraph that I have to make it shorter? I worry that my intro wont be enough to make the readers want more.
1. In general you want dialogue spoke by a character to be in the same paragraph, but you don’t have to separate the dialogue itself into its own paragraph.
2. If you want attention the best thing is to show a beautiful character or something eye catchy.
3. It doesn't matter when you post as long as you are somewhat consistent and keep going.
4. You can post your art in chapter using one of the editor tools from a link. It’s best to post it on discord or something first.
5. There is a tool for author notes in the Scribble hub editor.
6. Word count doesn’t matter as much as compelling plot. Just don’t go insane like 10k words. People read between 1k and 4k word chapters.
I see, thank you very much for the help I'll look over the guide and revise my work before posting it I'll admit i did tend to go overboard with some of the later chapters haha i think i reached around 7k at one of them... thank you again so much for the response.
Thanks for the insight I'll definitely try hard to improve my cover art, as a beginner artist it may take a bit but i'll try my best to speedrun to make it look presentable haha. thank you again.
I need help before i post my web novel if anyone can help answer some of questions i have
1. I have everything written in a paragraphs should I revise my novel in the style everyone else has with each line of dialogue seperate from each other for clarity?
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.
-----------------
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.
--------------------
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
--------------------------
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.
---------------------------
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.
--------------------------
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."
Every 3 days is the maximum return on time spent posting when you examine the analytics. Never more than once a day. Once every two days is still good, but you miss out a little bit on views in the long run. Not much, mind you. It's not ever a full standard deviation. Every 2 or 3 days is fine. I just go with 3 because I sometimes have multiple stories going at the same time.
6. also the word count for each of my chapter's is 4000 should it be condensed to 1 paragraph that I have to make it shorter? I worry that my intro wont be enough to make the readers want more.
I usually do not less than 1500 not more than 3000, which shooting for 2000. Breaking it up into chapters by topic with cliffhangers is usually the best. If you are worried, break it up into two 2,000 word chapters and post them a day apart. But your call.
I need help before i post my web novel if anyone can help answer some of questions i have
1. I have everything written in a paragraphs should I revise my novel in the style everyone else has with each line of dialogue seperate from each other for clarity?
Generally have only one character speak per paragraph. If a different character starts speaking that's a reason to start a new paragraph. If the speaking character takes significant actions between lines even if no one else speaks start a new paragraph. If the sentence spoken is getting too long break it up into another paragraph. As for how long is too long you'll learn over time what readers tend to think is too long of a paragraph. I try not to go past 5 lines on the SH website with the default font before I start looking for a good way to break up the paragraph.
I tend to group some actions and speech together in the same paragraph if it doesn't get too long and is done by the same character.
Covers with characters tend to do better than those that don't have characters. For novels with a male audience female characters on the cover tend to do better than male ones.
Hard to say since it differs per novel. A really general one is that the vast majority of readers on SH are in the US so timing it sometimes most US readers are at least awake and even better free to read is best to start from, however depending on your novel the audience might be very different than the general audience of SH in which case the best time can change a lot.
Depends on how long it is. If it's just a couple lines include it in the synopsis/summary. If it's multiple paragraphs then it's going to clutter up your synopsis.
6. also the word count for each of my chapter's is 4000 should it be condensed to 1 paragraph that I have to make it shorter? I worry that my intro wont be enough to make the readers want more.
With webnovels update frequency will help you a lot. In general more chapters is better at least until you're up to daily releases at which point I would recommend increasing chapter length over posting more. You might be able to push it to two chapters a day, but chances are people are going to feel overwhelmed. If you're a real monster and you are writing 5k+ words a day maybe think about starting another novel rather than writing that much on one so people don't feel that it's a struggle to keep up with the amount you're releasing.
So if you can write 4k word chapters every day do that. If you can't and you write that in a week doing four 1k chapters throughout the week would perform better. I would recommend not going below 1k chapters though as too many people are going to feel they are too short which will negatively affect the perception of your novel. 1k-2k words per chapter are generally accepted.
I need help before i post my web novel if anyone can help answer some of questions i have
1. I have everything written in a paragraphs should I revise my novel in the style everyone else has with each line of dialogue seperate from each other for clarity?
2. Should I keep working on a subpar cover art im drawing or slap my OC on the front? im not sure if what would be more attractive.
3. what day would be the best to post?
4. Is there a way I can post my art as chapter or no?
5. should I write my author's note as a bonus chapter or in the synopsis/summary?
6. also the word count for each of my chapter's is 4000 should it be condensed to 1 paragraph that I have to make it shorter? I worry that my intro wont be enough to make the readers want more.
I appreciate any and all responses even if you cant answer all the questions.
① I personally think that webnovels look better when each line of spoken dialogue is on a separate line.
② Whichever you personally think looks better; I do think that you should at least have a temporary cover, since leaving it as the default doesn’t look very good.
③ If you have a job, then I’d do it on your days off. If you don’t, then I’d go with Saturday or Sunday
④ Yes, but you’ll need to find an image hosting site. If the site supports direct URLs, then you should be able to just paste the link into the chapter editor, and it’ll show up.
⑤ I don’t know why you’d put an Author’s Note in your synopsis.
⑥ The prologue chapter for my story was just over 800 words, if I remember correctly. I think you’re doing fine on the word count. No clue what you mean by “one paragraph” though.
