Webnovel.Forum

ValentinaKhan Alright, I wasnt planning on arguing, but since you seem adamant about your opinions, let me say mine.

Not. Every. Story. Follows. The. Transformation. Curve.

As I have stated the transformation curve is a very classical approach, which is why you will find them in many books. Most of them follow one adventure though.
The books you cited are the examples which prove my conjecture, as I stated a that it is used in many stories, most which are worth following. But the are stand-alone books, or simply sequels.

Your statement that any story that does not follow the the transformation curve is a teenagers wet dream, is a rather childish one, and an almost offensive view on the many different books. It is a complicated matter, summarized and oversimplified into a skewed narrative, which in itself is false to begin with.

One piece for example, doesn’t follow a transformation curve. Many arcs in One piece end in a climax, or have no end.
The marine ford arc ends on a climax, or the water seven arc, which is sorely an expositional arc towards Enels lobby. You will also find that the story use multiple climax and arcs whose climax would only be found in another arc.

Nanatsu no Taizai, is a bother example, in which you follow the Main Characters through only part of their adventure, which began a long time ago. It does not divide itself into arcs, even less does it use transformation arcs.

Boku No Academia is also a great example. As you said before, the later half uses does not use a transformation arc, but is still essential to the plot. Would they have gone with another transformation arc, the story would have turned predictive.

Clannad and other Slice of life do no follow the arc.

To shift away from anime’s, many detective stories and thrillers do not use the curve that you mentioned. More often than not, you find their climax at the end of the book, in which wither the culprits is revealed, or maybe even not.

A comedy, such a story the office, or friends does not follow the steps you mentioned.

Many fables such Odyssey and the tale of Gilgamesh do not follow the steps you mentioned.

Does that make these stories any lessons worth than they are?

The point which we are currently arguing is a point which has been talked about since ancient times. Gerhart Hauptmann, a representative for naturalism (the era which believed life should be represented in a natural way, instead of forcing a linear outline such a story the transformation curve) mentioned in his drama “Die Ratten”, the importance of moving a plot point beyond a climax and how the old approach has turned stale. The book went on to become a classic.

I’m not saying that a transformation arc is bad, but that it is not a necessity. In an online novel, which thrives from having many chapters, the curve is not advisable as it turns your story predicatble and repetitive a problem many novels her have btw, due to using the arc (find villain, get stronger beat villain. Repeat with different names)

EDIT: I’m sorry if I may have come of as rude, your statement about “teenagers wet dream” had made me a bit mad.

ValentinaKhan
Was the curve you are referring to is the classic way to write a playscript, known as a 5-way act triangle, in which the climax is in the middle?

https://www.google.com/search?q=play+5+acts&client=ms-android-samsung&source=android-browser&prmd=ivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW8cfpo9nfAhURfnAKHSilASQQ_AUoAXoECA0QAQ

EDIT: Hey I saw my mistake, the whole time I thought you were talking about something else.
But hey, this also shows that there are different ways of structuring a story, not just using the transofrmatoon arc. So my point still stands

ValentinaKhan I repeat. Every story follows the Transformational Arc. If it doesn't it's not a story, but a teenager's wet dream.

Really? Wow! Who said that? Must be a powerful Sith, I'll bet!

So, how to elongate your narrative?
You can do like Martin: writing a story with many POV, almost every POV a transformational arc itself.
You can do like Tolkien: writing the backstory of every damned tree branch. But you risk to kill your readers by the sheer amount of infodump.
You can do like in the Hunger Games series: writing multiple arcs but every one of them self concluding (Escaping the games, overthrowing the government, etc).

#1 Lol, were you too lazy to google the name of the Hunger Games author?
#2 See what the problem is with your examples? None of them are web novels. See, with a title called "how to write a webnovel..." I expect you to stick to that format when citing examples.

Or you can use some cheap tricks like in most asian narrative: Fan service, fillers, slice of life and so on.

It's really difficult to find a story which doesn't follow the rules.
(If it doesn't it's not a story, but a teenager's wet dream.)

Again with the generalization. And you're either not looking hard enough, or not looking in the right places.
#1. Movies are stories, too, right? I can point you to a bunch of war movies that have no transforming protagonists. They don't change, they just survive. They are spared a horrible death not by overcoming character flaws or whatever, but sometimes by sheer dumb luck or outside intervention.

Or, certain movies just depict a snapshot of someone's life, i.e. over the course of a few days. Example: Inside Lleywin Davis. The protagonist doesn't transform. He just... exists. There's not inciting incident, we just see his struggles, and at the end, nothing is resolved. His life continues.

Or, the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone. You can argue that The Man with No Name doesn't transform at all throughout the trilogy.

I can go on and on, but you get the point.

#2. Look at The King's Avatar, the #4 (Edit, #5 now :() on Translated story ranking and tell me: How did the protagonist transform?
Most people would scratch their head at that question. Sure he has flaws (1 or 2), but it doesn't affect the plot in any way. He has the same personality in nearly 2000 chapters. The thing that does the most transforming is his umbrella.

And I dare you to say that novel is a teenager's wet dream. If you do, then (1) I applaud your ballsiness and (2) Congratulations, you just alienated the very community you set out to "educate."

What you've outlined in your "guide" is not a webnovel. It's just a story cut down to bite-sized chunks. I'm not dissing your guide. I'm just saying: it doesn't fit a web novel.

I suggest changing the title to "One approach to writing fictions." It's more reasonable and open to discussion. Assuming that's what you're trying to be.

When I saw the thread, I thought it was an invitation to a discussion. However, it looks like you're just here to dispense wisdom and expect to be responded with praises and thanks. If that's the case, I'm gonna peace out and go back to verbalizing my teenage wet dream.

ImBloo

I sense you don't have the tools to sustain this conversation, so I'm going to simply point out what you got wrong in any example you made.

You can look up for the definition I'll put in italic with Google, I don't have time to waste teaching angry kids the abc of storytelling.
(If any other apart from this crybaby want to know, I'll gladly explain.)

Inside Llewyn Davis is a Transformational Arc, but our Llewyn is a Tragic Hero.

The Dollars Trilogy aren't stories, they are situations

The King's Avatar is a comeback sport story, like Rocky and Any Given Sunday.

I add:
Of course the The King's Avatar is not a teenager's wet dream. A teenager's wet dream is when your character has everything and nothing happen. Something along the lines of "I'm the coolest kid in school, girls want me and boys want to be like me. Forever and ever. No ifs, buts, or ands."

Then, is TKA a good story? Objectively not.
But, but...it has a Transformational Arc? Yes, but it's poorly developed.

Don't get me wrong. I like the story, but if popular=objectively good, then we should gather every Sunday in a dedicated building to read a page from 50 Shades or Twilight.

Hyowha Coincidentally, I've just been reading about narcissists who have no capacity to understand they could be wrong (read on, please, I don't mean you). It's sad in theory, but if you're in any kind of relationship with them, it's anything but; it can be downright scary. Something about the OP's insistence on his/her POV rang alarm bells, but maybe I'm just being jumpy. P.S. They don't like being called out or shown up. P.P.S. They like feeding off the negative reactions of others (it's best that we leave them alone). We should all be informed of these kind of stuff so we could keep ourselves protected -- just my two cents :)

P.P.P.S. Might be advisable to lock this thread soon.

ValentinaKhan I really am shocked speechless. Have you read the article?

And I explained focus you how a climax is not needed at the end and can be placed also in the middle, as evidenced by the link I send you, so I hardly agree that’s you found me at fault. You need to stop cherry picking points that suit your case and devolve them into straw hat arguments only so you can preach your skewed world view.

And please, when you link my article back, at least read though it or just say you do not agree. Instead you find fault in a place which has been answered in the given article.

I will just leave it at that, feel free to argue back, and I will stay silent.
Take it as you will, but there has been enough posts on this forum which the readers can pull their opinions from. As we both won’t find agreement, and I respect your opinion, even though you are wrong.