The Decline Of Speculative Mystery In Story Seeking

[Ilikewaterkusa]

As part of growing up I always had an adherence and curiosity to the profound set of books, which had often been in the school library, and on my shelf. I would have spent hours of my day in observation and imagination in speculative thought, a questioning for the profound. Be it in Curious George, Green Eggs and Ham, or Cat In The Hat, I had found myself in a state of profound trance away from the supernatural stimuli and corrupt dialectics (messages) of a materialistic society, that placed pleasure above all else without nearly no adherence to traditional, morality or safety.
But as of recently, I had came in to thought and observation of this happening. This happening is story tags, which had taken out the traditional joys of finding a story, which is the speculation of the plot from the title and brief description. With these story tags it has made the soul searching experience of finding a story that resonates with you less like a grand journey spanning what feels like epochs, but more like a grocery trip work that grocery cart of yours. These story tags have basically undermined the thrill present in finding a story for oneself, and replaced it with a mediocre expression of ever increasing pickiness, entitlement, and close-mindedness.
I am not saying that we should completely deal away with story tags as a whole, since such an action would leave some to be scarred by an unexpected twist.
In short I am believing that the specificity present in the application of story tags have been a disaster for the literature community, and has subjected those of us with picky tastes to be increasingly unsatisfied with the current state of literature, so in such they often create their own which often subpar to a degree.

 

[Cipiteca396]

There are two easy solutions to this. Don't sort by tags, and only sort by tags using the 'Exclude' function. For things you don't want to see under any circumstances.

Tags are a convenience, not a necessity.

 

[Amok]

I have like 20 tags and my story is only on chapter four(soon five). I'll be using them as a guide while I write, and chuck those that I don't use(tho most are pretty much what I'm aiming for, mostly being world-related tags instead of plot-related, which I feel differently about)

Personally I don't search for tags, just look at title and cover, read synopsis, and if that gets my attention I'll start at chap 1. don't like when the plot is laid out in the description as you say, discovering it as one reads is part of the joy. In fact, and this is my own personal preference and might not be marketable/feasible, but I want nothing really revealed in the synopsis, not even the chapter 1 plot.

{Jiminez, an ambitious rat farmer, returns one day to find his family slaughtered, his homestead swallowed by black sands = already too much, I want to be there when he discovers it, even if it's on page 1, without having prior knowledge that this is going to happen. This is much like playing a game twice for me; sure, there might be alternative quests and ways to play, but that first jolt of mystery and curiosity has already been spent, like the first joint being mind-expanding, the second less so, the fourth merely mundanely medicinal.

Get this feeling a lot reading sequels, where author explains what happened in first book for those who didn't read it---very many times this type of exposition comes out boring af, and even if I pick up a series at book 4 without having read the others, it still feels a bit lame and lumpy, as if not exactly fitting in the current narrative...maybe I would prefer to have this conveyed through dialogue, and with greater subtlety.}

 

[Kilolo]

those tags are for search engine purposes
not something that means "if you like one of these, then you'll like all of them"

 

[Discount_Blade]

Personally, removing story tags would cause me to abandon this site. There is far too much yuri/yaoi/gender bender/etc. on this site that removing the tags for it would mean its very likely I would pick a webnovel with such story elements, and I have no interest in reading anything with these elements in it. Yes, it does ruin the story for me and yes it does matter to me. If I wanted to read it, I would, since I don't, I won't.

 

[Jemini]

I have like 20 tags and my story is only on chapter four(soon five). I'll be using them as a guide while I write, and chuck those that I don't use(tho most are pretty much what I'm aiming for, mostly being world-related tags instead of plot-related, which I feel differently about)

Use your tags as a guide? I think you're literally putting the cart before the horse there. You should already know what you're going to write, and fit the tags to what you are going to be writing. Fitting your story to the tags you have selected is the wrong way around.

That said, @ the OP, people who write in the way I just described can easily wind up writing something very different from what you may be expecting in accordance with those tags. So, I don't see it as being all that horrible.

 

[Amok]

Use your tags as a guide? I think you're literally putting the cart before the horse there. You should already know what you're going to write, and fit the tags to what you are going to be writing. Fitting your story to the tags you have selected is the wrong way around.

You've haven't met me, I always make ponies push carts >.<
Picked out the tags to match what visions I had of world way back then, re-read tags if I want to remember some element i'll be including(nano-witches and clockpainters and the like).

You got a point, planning is more effective, ain't gonna argue that, but I've always been a jump-off-the-cliff-and-see-how-you-land kinda primate.

 

[Zirrboy]

In my opinion there's a fundamental difference between a library and a webnovel site.

The books in a library have all been published, meaning that not only did the story itself go through an appeal screening, but the writing also got polished by professional editors.

With webnovels the former is about finding a site with content guidelines you pass. And for the latter, you are your own editor in most cases.

Thus they don't appeal to me in the same way.
Compared to published books, webnovels are about diversity, and thus the likely presence of a story tailored to your content preferences.
That's why I take the (on average) drop of quality in terms of craftsmanship.

 

[Snusmumriken]

You also dont necessarily have to stick to rigid definitions of a tag too. Quite a few of my tags are rather loose on their definitions, and while technically correct many aren't exactly what do you expect when you read them. (Heck, I've gotten some comments because I chose to approach isekai from a different direction than an average web novel without the usual truck/god/rob dance)