I find most web novels to be lacking in terms of quality. Their prose is often amateurish, their plot simple, and their characters forgettable. That's not to say I never enjoyed one, however. Its quite the contrary, and I would even compare them to fast-food most of the time: quick to read, easy to enjoy, but not good per se.
One of the major problems I have with web novels is their content. In a word, it's empty. How chapters have you read where nothing truly happens? Like filler chapters, destined to be forgetten the moment you finish them. On ScribbleHub I've stopped counting.
I agree with you on the amateurish prose, but to say it’s empty is wrong. Well, at least for me.
From what I’ve read so far, I still think the rather
well-written web novels still have a lot of depth. I still find myself wanting to become friend with some characters in some stories. That can never happen if the story is
empty.
But, maybe this is just me. When I read, I usually visualize the scene vividly in my mind. I can see it right down to the tiniest details. It’s like I’m watching a movie or an anime in my head. No, even better. It’s like I’ve really been there. Completely absorbed into the story.
The characters—no matter how unrealistic they seem—are so alive to me.
(this may be because I’m used to the character in anime. But that can be debated. I’ve watched a lot of movies with realistic characters as well, and still feel like the characters in anime are really alive.)
But once again, there are plethora of web novels out there, so maybe what you’ve read thus far are just like what you’ve described—empty. And there’s also a matter of taste. Everyone has different taste, you can’t expect them to like the same thing.
In my opinion, some stories are great precisely because their overflow with details. They show the love the writer put into his work, they create memorable scenes and characters, they make the stories more complete. Without them a wolf is nothing but wolf; It's neither a ravenous beast nor a drooling mess with fur and an insatiable maw.
To finish, and of course it's my opinion, but I would truly suggest reading into why words have such impact on our minds. Why some stories are so loved, and why something made you cry. By doing so you will learn the inner workings of stories and why details, "Show, don't Tell", and many other things are so important.
I disagree with you on this. Saying something is great is fine, but that’s just personal taste.
You said, “Some stories are great precisely because their overflow with details,” and that may be true—for you—but like I said, that’s just a personal taste.
I‘m okay with a lot of details if it’s truly matter to the story, and that‘s the author’s job to do so—to make readers care about the details given. But when I read it, I find myself not giving a crab about the details at all. I just want the story to move on quickly.
And there are also different types of detail. I’m okay with details in the backstory and exposition, but when the writers get fancy describing scene, it gets irritating.
Like when the character just wake up in the morning and go on about his daily routine, if abide by the rule “show, don’t tell“, the writer will write about how he opens his eyes, how he feels on the sheet, how the light shines on the curtain reminds him of something in the past, how he slowly reaches his hand to turn off the alarm clock, how he slowly sits up and moves the blanket away, how he slowly gets off bed, how his feet touch the cold floor, how he stretch himself, and on and on….
See what I mean? Not all conventional novels are like this, of course, but from what I’ve read so far, they seem to go along this way.
But in web novel—let’s say a Chinese web novel in a modern day setting—the writer will just simply say, “The next day, Ling woke up early. He got out of bed and took a quick shower. After getting dressed, he glanced at the clock on the wall. It’s 10.34 PM...”
See what I mean? The everyday morning routine is boring if you get into too much details. I don’t really care about it. But when you
tell instead of
show—like in the second example—I suddenly feel good about it. I don’t wanna skim it because it gets right to the point.
And more than that, it also gives off a more
storytelling kind of vibe, if you know what I mean.
However, I do not think this pacing difference has anything to do with the "show don't tell" rule. Thats bad parctice in any peice of writing, includiing web novels. It also does not necessarily add any words, nor should it slow a story down. That is more a result of the writing style.
The “show, don’t tell” rule is part of the writing style, though. Some writers like to show more than tell, while others like to do otherwise.
But to get into it, let’s make sure we’re on the same pace about ”show, don’t tell”.
From my understanding; showing is when you add different pieces of detail and let the readers figure out the context on their own.
This can be fun the first time around—especially in mystery genre—but if do too much it can be confusing and overwhelming. Most readers—in my understanding—don’t wanna scratch their head figuring out the deep meaning of the prose everyday.
There is this famous example about “show, don’t tell”. It says, “Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
Oh, for Christ’s sake, ain’t that sounds romantic.
Why can’t you just say, “It was a quiet night. The moon shone bright in the starry sky.”?
Don’t know about you, but I think that sounds a lot better. It gets right to the point also manage to paint an image in the reader‘s mind.
Don’t get me wrong, you can still show just like in the first example, but think about doing it over and over throughout the novel. It’s gonna be too painful to read, don’t you think?
Telling is not bad at all. It’s just the matter of how and when you use it.
The rule ”show, don’t tell” is BS, in my opinion. If you wanna abide by an advice, then it should be more like, “show,
and tell”, instead.
I really hate this piece of writing advice because it almost ruined me a lot of times already. I wanted to write a quality story, so I just followed this rule.
And what did I get? A tangle mess of a beautiful prose. The prose looked beautiful to say the least—not flowery, but still beautiful and rich in details.
But then—it feels empty. It isn’t my voice no matter how I look at it. It’s not how I TELL a story. (There’s even a meme on Youtube about what it‘d be like if you tell a story to your friend as if it is a YA Novel. Go check it out.)
Point is, when following “show, don’t tell” rule, it leaves me with a prose that doesn’t sound like me at all. It sounds pretentious.
So I just said, “Fuck it,” and decided to break the rule forever. I now have this reminder in my notepad: TELL, DON’T SHOW.
Neat, huh?
I follow this rule and feel better about it. My writing flows smoothly like a river. It also gives my story a more
storytelling kind of vibe.
Of course, I don’t just tell all the time. There are some moments that I want to show more details. And I can feel it instinctively about which part I should show, and which part I should tell after following this rule I created myself.
With that experience, you can say that I distrust this golden rule, “show, don’t tell” I really hate it with passion.
And most conventional novels I’ve read so far seem to show more than tell—to the point of it’s being too much.
I remember reading a novel about an assassin, and you know what? The writer takes more than one pages to describe how the assassin walks. More than one pages!
And boy was it redundant. It goes on and on about how he walks, how the weather feels, how he prepares himself mentally (this one’s fine, actually, as it’s related to the story), and then back to describe every bits and details of the surrounding.
Honestly, it was a torturous read.