JayDirex
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
- Messages
- 582
- Points
- 133
I'll cut to the chase, and hopefully help some authors on the way. But I'm dropping my well crafted, perfect grammar, pure structure, well received (by the VERY FEW who like it) novel. Now 50K plus words in.
Like many Authors up here desperately seeking the secret formula (which I now know what it is), I kept thinking that it was, not only a good story, but mostly theme and setting that hooked readers: (LITRPG, ISEKAI, SMUT) along with action. The truth is those tags help (and mine was not Litrpg or smut...just isekai) but where I went wrong.
Pay Attention
When you TRULY look at what not only trends, but has a lot of readers actually reading and commenting are stories where the plots and conflicts are very INTERPERSONAL. Meaning, yes person is sucked into another world and has to figure stuff out, but the sticky stories are the ones where the MAIN PLOT is about that very struggle with other people (via romance, individual revenge,) the point is the conflict REALLY involves person on person conflict on a PERSONAL level.
AS OPPOSED to my story, and many others fantasy style stories like mine, where the plot is more general. Mine is a perfect example: Competent Mercenaries (meaning not too much at a disadvantage when they are isekaid- and that is BAD because that lowered their stakes, as opposed to a virgin game developer sent to another world- he has higher stakes because he is at such a disadvantage) and when they get there the plot becomes about NOBLES, and winning their war, and finding the crystal that can lead to the: .zzzzzzzzzzz Lost the audience by chapter 8.
OF COURSE I HAVE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS IN THE STORY- it's FKN ROMANCE!! - but the romance and all of that is SUB-PLOT...that happens in between them going from place to place and fighting and etc.
And for the past 8 months of writing this pointless story, i was ALWAYS just focused on the PROPER CRAFT OF WRITING. CLARITY. STRUCTURE Character Motivation....and wanted to FLING MY LAPTOP at all of the piss-poor grammar trash up here that has waaaay more actual readers than my story.
Only now my self-righteous ass Finally gets it.
Moral of the story: To heck with your fantasy world and your overarching plot. If you want people to read your story- Focus the plot around the interpersonal. The individual struggle of people between people about people stuff (revenge, sex, lies, history between them, falling in love- Problems between individuals on an individual level and LOTS and LOTS OF SEX.
Follow this advice plus a LITRPG and or ISEKAI. I guarantee you will get readers who actually read your stuff.
Here are my numbers, by the way. Completely unacceptable for the amount of work I'm putting in.
and that 143 is an anomaly because that day I hit trending. So it doesn't count
Like many Authors up here desperately seeking the secret formula (which I now know what it is), I kept thinking that it was, not only a good story, but mostly theme and setting that hooked readers: (LITRPG, ISEKAI, SMUT) along with action. The truth is those tags help (and mine was not Litrpg or smut...just isekai) but where I went wrong.
Pay Attention
When you TRULY look at what not only trends, but has a lot of readers actually reading and commenting are stories where the plots and conflicts are very INTERPERSONAL. Meaning, yes person is sucked into another world and has to figure stuff out, but the sticky stories are the ones where the MAIN PLOT is about that very struggle with other people (via romance, individual revenge,) the point is the conflict REALLY involves person on person conflict on a PERSONAL level.
AS OPPOSED to my story, and many others fantasy style stories like mine, where the plot is more general. Mine is a perfect example: Competent Mercenaries (meaning not too much at a disadvantage when they are isekaid- and that is BAD because that lowered their stakes, as opposed to a virgin game developer sent to another world- he has higher stakes because he is at such a disadvantage) and when they get there the plot becomes about NOBLES, and winning their war, and finding the crystal that can lead to the: .zzzzzzzzzzz Lost the audience by chapter 8.
OF COURSE I HAVE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS IN THE STORY- it's FKN ROMANCE!! - but the romance and all of that is SUB-PLOT...that happens in between them going from place to place and fighting and etc.
And for the past 8 months of writing this pointless story, i was ALWAYS just focused on the PROPER CRAFT OF WRITING. CLARITY. STRUCTURE Character Motivation....and wanted to FLING MY LAPTOP at all of the piss-poor grammar trash up here that has waaaay more actual readers than my story.
Only now my self-righteous ass Finally gets it.
Moral of the story: To heck with your fantasy world and your overarching plot. If you want people to read your story- Focus the plot around the interpersonal. The individual struggle of people between people about people stuff (revenge, sex, lies, history between them, falling in love- Problems between individuals on an individual level and LOTS and LOTS OF SEX.
Follow this advice plus a LITRPG and or ISEKAI. I guarantee you will get readers who actually read your stuff.
Here are my numbers, by the way. Completely unacceptable for the amount of work I'm putting in.
and that 143 is an anomaly because that day I hit trending. So it doesn't count