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SnoozySloth I got scared by your long reply. A sudden wall of text appeared, still it was a pretty interesting reply on the hardships you had when you started.

lynerparel
Yeah, I went overkill. Basically just wrote a damn chapter on my phone lol.
Any lessons I missed you care to share? I wouldn't mind some advice or lessons learned from a high ranker like you =p.

EldridSmith
I'll try to check it out tomorrow after looking at Lerrech's, as I promised him earlier in another thread. I've finally got some spare time tomorrow so I should hopefully be able to read a few chapters of both.

SnoozySloth Not really advise, but when I started writing it was on wattpad. It was an original called Beginnings end. I actually brought it over here in webnovel but unlike wattpad the reception I got from it was not even 10% like before. Beginnings end was what started my writing path, it led me to the one more time series, which has been contracted recently so I deleted it here in webnovel.

So when I noticed that my work doesn't seem like its drawing in a crowd like I thought it would, I checked what kind of originals people like, then I saw this writing prompt about Systems, it was then I thought, people in here like systems. So I made a system based novel for the first time,it won the prompt, and at the beginning it was doing really well, it actually got to the point that it was almost contracted, but at the last hurdle it didn't make it. Still I persisted a bit in writing it. Then I started getting bad reviews, which made me less passionate about my work, still I continued, then I noticed my work was slowly going away from the top 50 and then it was barely on the top 100. It was then another opportunity arise, another writing prompt about school life. I had an idea for a school life setting for the longest time, and I thought now was a good time to show it to others.

Not only did I win the writing prompt which I gain SS, the work I made was three times more popular than my system based novel. The people in webnovel was starting to change so I needed to change my writing style as well. So now that novel adopted soldier has been at the top 15 once, and is now stuck at top 24, it's even been contracted.

So all in all this long a** reply can only be summed up, by don't stop writing what you find interesting. and enjoy your work, and in the end your effort will be rewarded.

SnoozySloth Ok thanks, I'm not in a rush for it so no worries. My novel is light hearted unlike most of webnovels stories so I hope you're enjoy and it brightens your day. :)

lynerparel
Thanks!

Can you expand a bit on almost contracted? Not sure how a novel gets almost contracted lol. Thought it either did or didn't =p

SnoozySloth Well I can't really expand much on that topic, but when you get to a certain amount of words, and your novel is popular enough webnovel reviews your novel. That's about all I can say in this topic.

If you're free, plz help review this one's novel [0-0]

SnoozySloth on a serious note, it's like... So risky to type a thesis in forum and on mobile :laughing: one time I lost 12 paragraphs of stuff I wrote on inkstone because i pulled down the screen to look for the Save button, but refreshed the screen instead. Gg.

lynerparel thank you! The sharing really helps.

When there is interest and momentum from readers, it helps support the authors (my) interest to write.

It feels sad when my (true) collections number has dropped for 2 days now.

It makes me wonder if i should terminate this story and try out another idea that should pique interest... and keep this story for another time!

Thanks again for sharing your journey, it really helps...!

For those wondering, my novel started as an imagination of a song I wrote, about "Always looking forward, never looking back to you" - friendships and relationships meaning more than power could ever mean.

I think I'll just go back to what I enjoy writing - not a light hearted comedy but a real, heavy, conflict filled battle story with lots of tragedy :laughing:

And the discovery of real friendships and love and "nakama".

Then I'll post my song on YouTube later.

https://m.webnovel.com/book/11594239806435805

Ierrech Keep at it. I have some readers that really love the work. The ranking is part fads. Things come and go, but if you can remain constant then that is good.

BabyTanuki Thanks for the encouragement!!!!

Though I do want to get contracted and have a change of career... lol... I do want to finish off this story first... gain the experience and finish this journey with my imaginary friends :smile:

Ierrech
Finished my review. I left it on your novel and am pasting it below. Wish I had more advice to give you on it, but I don't have much. Your writing is excellent in quality. You clearly don't lack ideas. Things I think you can improve on are:
1. Removing multiple perspectives for the early chapters.
2. Introduce less in the early chapters. Too much is going on and it's overwhelming. All in the time of a fight where not much plot development happens. Or at-least not much plot development understandable to the reader.
3. Thought of this one after posting my review. You may want to work on your story/plot pacing. I think your story/plot pacing is to slow for the chapters I read (first 7). I myself find this challenging as well. My 1st novel was arguably too slow paced. My 2nd novel was too fast paced in the beginning, though I think I got it just right after the first 10 chapters or so.

My review:
Note: I give 5 stars despite whatever I write below. This review is given as of 7 chapters.
Writing Quality 5/5: Excellent grammar, sentence structure, etc. I think this may be the first time I gave a 5/5 for writing quality on a review.
Updates: Don't know. New reader.
Story Development 3/5: It's not that the story isn't good. Because it is. It's just that I'm 7 chapters in and I still don't really know much of what's going on. What's the big goal?. The fight and backstory took 6 long chapters. There's just too much going on with little development. We're watching Sam. Just when I start to like her and develop a connection to the character, BAM! Now we're watching grandpa. Okay, let's follow that for a bit... oh. Now we're in a backstory. So much happening but so little being explained to the reader within that time.
Character Design 4.5/5: Characters are interesting and I like them. Especially Sam and grandpa. Could be a bit more descriptive on looks. Author is really good at describing fight scenes between characters.
World Background. Both 5/5 and 2.5/5: here's why. The world is interesting right from the beginning. Woah! We got magic, knights, and junk. Cool. Oh, we also have electronics such as cellphones. Oh, okay. Is it an Earth-like world? Oh, we've also got Gods and the characters are saying things that sound like Buddhist attacks to me... Yeah, I'm lost. I feel like the world has 5/5 potential. It reminds me a bit of Naruto because of the mix of tech and magic. But there's just too much going on too soon for me to absorb and process it all.

Advice for author. Note: These are my biased thoughts and may not necessarily be correct.
1. Drop the multiple perspectives at least in the beginning. We need time to get acquainted with MC and her world-view first. This has an extra benefit as well. If MC watches the beginning fight, then when Gramps and the bad guy are yelling out their weird Buddhist-sounding attacks then the MC can express confusion on having no idea what the hell is happening. Then the reader isn't lost. The reader is connecting with the MC because neither MC or reader knows what's happening. Also, now there's a reason for all or at least some of whats going on to be explained to her by grandpa after the fight is over.
2. Too much introduced too soon. Magic, Buddhist sounding attacks, knights, electricity, etc. This might get resolved by just getting rid of the multiple perspectives as mentioned earlier though.

Ierrech
Oh one more thing I forgot. Again, just my opinion, but I think your synopsis is way too long.

SnoozySloth Thanks!!! It's something I can't see/ feel myself when reading it I guess!

Gotta change it then; that's very helpful!

Ierrech
You're already fairly far in the story though. If it's going to make your future chapters confusing by doing a lot of editing then you may want to hold back. Perhaps keep it in mind when planning your next novel.

EldridSmith
Done. I left comments on your first three chapters with some suggestions and fixing a lot of grammar/sentence structure issues.

Review below:
Note: I give 5 stars regardless of what I write below. I wrote this review as of 7 chapters.
Writing Quality 3.5/5. This is the main area the novel suffers, though its still relatively easy to read. There are a lot of run-on sentences. Some poor sentence structuring. A lot of comma misuse. Still, I wouldn't let that turn you away from this novel, because it's a quick read that's easy to follow.
Updates: Dunno. New reader.
Story Development 4.5/5: We've got some interesting developments happening very quickly. It kept my interest, which is relatively rare for most novels these days. Minus half a point for unnecessary overuse of time-skips.
Character Design 4/5: What's the difference between Adrian and Eldrid except that one is lucky/athletic and one is fat? Their personalities and emotions need to be fleshed out more. They don't express themselves when things happen. No frowning, questioning, sarcasm, trembling/fear, etc. Despite that, I like both characters. But some potential is being wasted here.
World Background 5/5: I know what's happening. Things only get more interesting as you go with the introduction of Adrian's master.

Final thoughts: You're doing a good job. Your ideas and story pacing are both excellent. Work on grammar, sentence structure, and character emotions. Then your novel will soar in quality. I gave you some example comments in the first three chapters. I hope they help.