I wonder what to do if you already feel that the story is exhausted? Continue to write until the conditional 100 chapters ... or throw an arch and move on to a new arch? But then there will be no logical end to the old arch.

But the logical conclusion of the old arch seems to be becoming more boring, the repeatability of the storyline appears. The author and readers will probably get bored with both writing and reading.

Is it possible to quit or rather not finish the boring arch with a logical end and immediately switch to a new arch? Or are there any methods or techniques how to get around this situation?

Can veteran writers suggest something? Give advice?

The second question is how long can a novel be left without updates? Without losing full interest in him ?!

The third question - what techniques to use in addition to including the emotions of characters in the text block? Is it worth describing the character, in detail, with eye color? Height? Habits If then you will most likely never return to this in a novel ?! And what's the point of writing that the character had blue eyes, emerald or black? Eye color gives nothing, they are not magicians, is this in no way a manifestation of their superpowers? Yes, and growth, what's the point, talking about growth. Was he short or giant? If then nobody returns to this? It’s like writing in detail about a room, saying that a loaded gun hangs on the wall. And then during the whole novel and at the end never mention the interior of the room and the hanging gun ?!

The fourth question is whether it is worth indicating the exact prices and other figures? On the one hand, this increases the realism of the text block, since the prices are market, real. And on the other hand, you can get confused. Since the author remembers one arch about this, and in the second he already forgot about those numbers. Is there any way to get away from this?

The same is true for too many minor characters. If you haven’t updated the novel for too long, then slowly you begin to forget about the characters that you put into the characters. They seem faded and insignificant and without them history will not lose anything. How to be with them?

The fifth question is whether different chapters may have a different number of words.

For example, the first chapters of 5500 words, the 40-50th chapters of 1600-1200 words, and for example, the 70-80th chapters of 550-600-1000 words?

Thanks! I hope someone from the veterans will be able to answer these questions and suggest the best way out of the situation.

    Gourmet_DAO I can only answer some, but the eys in my opinion kind of help to solidify a scene or to let the reader know the seriousness of a situation.
    Chapter length I think should be stable I started out writing 1k chapters and my novel didn't do great, but once I increased the word count to 2k minimum my novel got more reactions.

    I also have a cheat sheet written down to keep track of numbers and item values so I can always refer back to it later.

        Gourmet_DAO I can only answer some, but the eys in my opinion kind of help to solidify a scene or to let the reader know the seriousness of a situation.
        Chapter length I think should be stable I started out writing 1k chapters and my novel didn't do great, but once I increased the word count to 2k minimum my novel got more reactions.

        I also have a cheat sheet written down to keep track of numbers and item values so I can always refer back to it later.

            Slewis This is an interesting idea on the account of the notebook, thanks, I will use it! Respect!

                There are some cool thoughts here. I'll start from the bottom up, because I feel I have most expertise in your last three questions.

                Q.5: Web novels and traditional, paper back novels are different in that web novel authors tend to inflate word count, or draw out arcs, in order to hold readers for as long as possible. My background is in traditional novels, so when I was writing those, my editor hammered me constantly. "Be concise!" he seemed to shout in his emails. "I can reduce your entire novel by 30%!" A 30% reduction on a 600 page novel is crazy to imagine. He thought I wasted too many words, and he was right, frankly.

                My method back then was to keep each scene in the area of 2k words, and thereby keep each chapter about 10k words long. Currently, I do it mostly the same. I keep each chapter around 2k words, but if it's 500 words less or more? That's fine. I write only what's absolutely necessary, either for the reader or for myself. While I try to keep within a range, if a scene is only 800 words? Fine. Bloat is distracting, it's complicating, and this reflects on your third question; write too much and the details that matter, like chekhov's gun, will be lost or forgotten.

                Q.4: Very rarely does something have to be exact. Only be exact if it makes sense for a smart character or funny narrator. As a general rule, keep things vague in the beginning, and if it's a recurring theme or event, get more precise as you go along. It will help you remember, and it will keep it in your reader's mind. For instance, start with a reference to a battle, then if it comes up again offer more details about what happened; eventually, someone might mention the date, and if it has mattered for so long, it'll be an important plot point you will remember.

                Q.3: I always try to include details about characters, even the minor ones, because I want to create a good image in my reader's mind. I'm taking them on an adventure, to my place, filled with strange people and strange things, so they should have a good idea of what they're looking at. Not everyone believes this is important, and depending on your genre and your audience, it might not be, but it's what I like.

                But, of course, the characters in my novel actually have special eyes! So, it's often important to talk about eye color. It's also important to talk about age and gender, skin color, or clothing style, because how people look and who they are affects how characters interact. I may not often mention how tall the king is, but I do mention it, and it affects every scene he's in. He can be thoughtful and gentle, but he can overpower people with his size, and that has an impact on the reader's perception of him... and the house nobles, who surround him like children; look to him for guidance.

                But, remember, the rule is to say only what's necessary. Be concise, says the harsh editor! If a character's 'character' doesn't influence the scene, perhaps you should rethink them, or include a wider representation of ages, genders, races, professions, etc. Sometimes, a character who pops in just to deliver a letter doesn't need an introduction; sometimes, that character starts a conversation in the room, and then maybe it's worth mentioning that he's a down-and-out noble scion, working as a page while his house is in disarray.

                In all things, use your best judgment. Write the way you want to write, and your work will find an audience. If that audience is large enough to earn a living is another conversation.

                  If the story is basically over but you want to keep going, you pretty much have to find a new arc, maybe even change the protagonist

                    If you want to change an Arc, you could always throw in a sudden event.
                    Is your war going really slow? Well, maybe the ancient space dragons have decided no is the time to come home.
                    Is your royale wedding getting annoyingly long? Perhaps it's time for some people to get poisoned.
                    Is your training scene feeling dull? What if it stops being a training scene when unknown monsters attack!

                      @Gourmet_DAO
                      For the third question.

                      For me, it is important to include the eye color, hair color, skin color shape of the face, habits and routines of the characters especially the important characters such as MCs or other character that can be seen in many chapters of your book.

                      Why? Because we are making a move! A literary art! Unlike mangas, comics and manhuas, our novel doesn't have illustrations. If we don't have illustrations our readers will only have a vague idea of our characters. It is important to let them imagine using the words and description you have given them. You might think that these were all pointless but in the readers' imagination, it is their fuel. It is the reason why they read.

                      Always remember that if you are writing, use your five sense. Hear, touch, smell, taste, and sight.

                      Always keep in mind that we need the readers to imagine what we are imagining the time we write. We are introducing them fictional characters, so we ought not to make them just 'fictional' but also relatable, that's why habits, beliefs and some other things were important too.

                      As for the room with guns hanging on the wall, it is part of what we call 'World-building' writing those simple descriptions will make your novel wven more immersive as if they were inside the novel itself.

                      Example: A room with a gun hanging on the wall. If you describe it like that, you can already tell the behavior of the owner of that room, maybe he's a hunter, a gun enthusiast or other related things.

                      Note: Even if something is not as important as you might think, it will surely pay-off in the long run. Even if some descriptions will not be seen in the future, still it is important in the present.

                        Gourmet_DAO
                        For the fourth question.

                        Personally, I like to put exact prices and currency. If you happen to forget it, you can always come back.

                        My technique is to use the real world denomination but I'll just change the name.

                        Example. 1 bronze is equal to a dollar. 1 silver is equal to a hundred bronze, which is a hundred dollar. And 1 gold is equal to 10 silvers, which is 1000 dollars with ten 100 dollar bill.

                            Gourmet_DAO
                            For the number of chapters.

                            You can continue writing many words but uou must set your minimum, for me, Its 1000 words. When I exceeded that number of words, I will still write as long as what the chapter/story needed. If it needs more words then do so. Just don't go below your minimum.

                            This is only my personal opinion.

                                ZenoWriter Thanks for the interesting thoughts and for taking the time to share them with me.

                                That is, you think that in the text you need to cut off all that is superfluous and leave only that without which this chapter cannot exist? Curiously, you will need to try to put it into practice 1 Thank you!

                                    veinglory Find a new arch? Interesting, but can I leave a story for a while, and then return to it? or should I finish it first and then start writing just a new novel, such as the second season?

                                        Heaven_Dream It is clear, that is, the characters must have their own history, biography, descriptions of height, weight. figures, eye colors, worldviews, political preferences, hobbies. But the question is how to do this? If you just write - blah blah blah about it all, as in the initial reference chapter, will it be very boring? Not interested? What matters to me as a reader, for example, that Yuna-chan loves the Perfume group, there are pancakes with cottage cheese. and doesn't like to eat green onions? It would be much more interesting to me to know what she sells in the flea market and at what price? Where did she find coins for example, and how does local government relate to this? That is, ordinary household information. Well or something like that. Sorry, my English is not very good, the third language. But now I try to write easier to make it more clear.

                                        Thank you for your advice, I'm sorry that I could not immediately answer them. I read yesterday, but after work I was very tired and could not write anything.

                                            Gourmet_DAO I wonder what to do if you already feel that the story is exhausted?

                                            Hmm. I don't face this. I write to chapter goals of an outline. So nothing is redundant in my stories. I'm meticulous with word usage even if to a reader it seems cliché or random. I write to a purpose on every chapter. If my story is cliche is because I purposed it that way. Story building is like fitting a jigsaw puzzle to me. At some point the end picture is going to be seen to reader before they reach the end. That is until they realize a jigsaw piece is missing at the very end 😅. I usually write for series, so my writing style is episodic even if I cater for paperback releases.

                                                Veronica8 This is similar to how I write, and I think that's the way it should be done. If you write with purpose, your story won't be exhausted until its end. I'll add that, rather than an outline, I use a guideline or a "waystone" technique. I do not keep notes and allow myself a lot of liberty to move within my story's critical beats. The main benefit of writing outside a predetermined diagram is that you can surprise yourself and your readers, and develop your story in a more organic way; a jigsaw puzzle, but one that feels natural, and not artificially constructed to fit a chart.

                                                    The third question -

                                                    The truth is all that stuff is terrible writing. The only web novel supports that stuff, and even then, it's only to talk about how sexy a woman is- the standard jade skin, huge tits. Etc we find in many novels. If you want to bring things up, make sure it affects the protagonist. For example, if he is a teenage boy, the whole jade skin thing might work. If you describe a setting, it should be to add a feeling, or emotion, or to cement a fact.

                                                    For example, if the gun on the wall, alludes to the fact that the owner of the place sells firearms, or is part of a black market or whatever. It works. But, if you're adding raw data into your novel, your readers will be burdened with too much information.

                                                    If your brought into the past, and you found yourself in your old home. The details of the home are the things that you would look at because it would act as evidence to an abnormal situation, but if you're going home on a normal day, you would rarely think of it.

                                                    If it's snowing, and the protagonist is cold, that's important. If it's snowing 100 miles away, and the protagonist is not even aware, you should not be writing about it.

                                                    In short, writers should only add details that affect the protagonist. If you wana write about blue eyes, write about what it does to the protag. If it does nothing, don't force it. You can bring that detail up in conversation etc.

                                                    Like
                                                    A girl venting, "OMG if only I had blonde hair and blue eyes."
                                                    Protag. "There is nothing wrong with your eyes, I think there cute."
                                                    "Shut up! Every girl has brown eyes. It's so normal."

                                                    It's impossible to write about every detail and most details are not important. Image writing like billy walks into a store-Then describing all the objects in the store. The type of tile, all the other people within, etc. Then he goes in buys a soda and leaves.

                                                    Your readers would be pissed. They had to keep track of all that data. Simply so that the protag buys a soda?

                                                    Don't like this post. Thanks <3

                                                      Acutelittletrap

                                                      I'm not understanding. If Billy walks into a store, and we describe all the people that are there, the quality of the tiles, his purchase, etc... why would readers be pissed?

                                                      We have a setting for the scene, the store. It's a bit old on the outside, paint flecks from the facade. Billy steps inside, the tiles are fatigued and yellow, and what few customers mill between the isles are the same. Old, haggard, like flecked paint; tired as they go about their evening. Their black hair and olive skin is familiar, because they look just like him, one of the misfortunates left behind by a booming economy.

                                                      Billy retrieves a soda from an old cooler, but the light is out, and the fridge is broken. He takes the lukewarm drink to the register, and grabs a bag of chips on the way. There's a smiling mascot on the bag, and the chips are his favorite flavor. He sets the drink down on the counter and drops the bag beside it. A joyless employee rings him up; he checks his wallet, he only has a dollar. He sets the bag aside, makes his purchase, and leaves with the soda, feeling no better than before.

                                                      If we're judging this paragraph by its end, we can say "oh, he only gets a soda, what was the point of that?" But we can use that scene to demonstrate the wealth of the area, the class that Billy lives in, and the demeanor of his peers. We can show that Billy is tired, perhaps old, and poor. We can show that he buys a warm soda, as opposed to a cold one, because as it was implied with the bag, it's his favorite treat. That he didn't complain that the machine was broken implies that he sympathizes, or understands, or perhaps isn't outspoken. Maybe he's the sort of person who doesn't make waves.

                                                      "Show, don't tell," is one of the most iconic idioms in writing. Whenever possible, demonstrate by the features in your scene what your character is feeling, what their world is like, and where they are placed within it. All of that data is crucial part of setting the scene, when Billy gets mugged the next street over, as his ghetto crumbles to riots that catapult Billy into the story's next arc.

                                                          ZenoWriter

                                                          The problem with all of that is that while the writing may not look bad, you did not progress the plot if you kept that going. Also, you added other elements in that example, the status of the world. The protags viewpoint and feelings. A feeling of depression. So, there was nothing wrong with the example you wrote as is.

                                                          What I was talking about is more like-

                                                          I walked into the store. It contained apples, oranges, and new shelving and brand new televisions. They were a couple of teenagers on the side kissing. One of the teenagers is a boy and he goes to school. The girl is attracted to the boy. The light was on. I walked inside and grabbed an apple from the fridge. I took it to the register and paid.

                                                          Both examples have a good amount of detail, but mine does not do anything with it. What you wrote is far better. But, it's not because of the details it's because you made those details do something. That something is the difference, and that supports the plot. Because the setting gives mood which in turn affects the protagonist.

                                                          -Don't like this post.

                                                              Acutelittletrap You presented a situation where you expected detail would be unnecessary, because it was just 'getting a soda.' My example was how such a situation could add elements that expand on our one-bit character, and absolutely move the plot. I agree you can do description badly and not add anything helpful. Your guideline for describing what only effects the character is a good one.

                                                                  Veronica8 You have your own writing style, since probably the series and books are slightly different in structure. But you are a great fellow! Experience and knowledge mean a lot to a writer or screenwriter! Wow! Thank you for sharing valuable information!

                                                                    Veronica8 You have your own writing style, since probably the series and books are slightly different in structure. But you are a great fellow! Experience and knowledge mean a lot to a writer or screenwriter! Wow! Thank you for sharing valuable information!

                                                                        Acutelittletrap “It’s impossible to write about every detail, and most details are not important. An image written like Billy walks into a store, then describes all the items in the store. Type of tile, all the other people inside, etc. Then he buys soda and leaves. " - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!! Golden words !!!, I will remember this and I will follow this in the novel. Thanks!

                                                                            Wow, fiction is different than technical. In technical, you need to write how the system works, extra details are useless. We need facts. Therefore, it would be easier to write - Billy went to the store, bought soda, it was spoiled. I went around the corner to relieve myself. But he was robbed.

                                                                            But in fiction it is necessary to describe the store, then the region where he lives, the state of people, a lot - a lot of extra words that turn out to be superfluous, and they describe the world inside the novel, the world of a person, himself.

                                                                            Oh, damn, how complicated it is. Still need to be able to describe in such a way that it is interesting, useful and not boring and boring.

                                                                            But with the color of the eyes, I don’t understand at all why you need to know what the hero has - emerald eyes or black? If the color does not give any magical or superpower, then what is the use of it? His hair was black, his eyes were black, he was dark-skinned. So what? As a reader, this does not tell me anything. He was handsome, and to hell with him that he was handsome. If the main thing in the novel is the search for treasures, not a romantic relationship.

                                                                            As we were told two things - write to the fool, write easier. The first message led to the fact that the usual action, which could be described in 30 words, had to be described in 300 words. Fiction seems to be similar to this statement. Normal action: Bill bought soda - poisoned - went easier - turned around the corner - he was robbed. And in fiction you have to - give a description of things in the store, how the store looked, customers and the owner of the store - the type of soda - how Bill was poisoned - what was the corner of the house, who robbed him, how he was robbed.

                                                                            There is something to think about. Thanks.

                                                                              Why not describe in such key detail the key details, what does the reader care about the boy or girl that they like each other. Bill is the main character, for some reason he went for soda. Bill- shop- soda- robbery. This is a sequence of actions. And what is there in the background, if it has nothing to do with the hero, why is it? Should this boy and girl never appear in the novel again?

                                                                              Damn, writers have brain processes differently from techies. Isn't it easier to transfer information in batches?

                                                                              THAT is a simple combination - Billy - Shop - Soda - Robbery. With an additional description, replenished with details that can help describe the world in which Billy lives? And can it also change the whole structure - Billy - Shop - Girl - Boy - possible robber? - a possible hero? - a possible superhero? - can this boy and girl appear in the novel somewhere again? - soda - robbery - miraculous salvation?

                                                                              well ... there is something to think about

                                                                              Gourmet_DAO In my style of storytelling, the world reflects the characters, and the characters reflect the world.

                                                                              Take for instance Billy, and how we introduce him. We use no description of his character, just descriptions of his surroundings. He visits a run-down store, filled with fatigued people, and barely says a word as he pays for a sub-standard soda. We can say a lot of things about Billy that give context to a broader story, and because we create these ideas in the reader's head, we don't create confusion later, when Billy is mugged. Why was Billy mugged? He was clearly not in a great part of town.

                                                                              We can use physical traits, like being handsome, to play into or against certain expectations. Readers might first think a character has an easy life, because they're handsome. They might think they're sociable, or affluent. By setting up those expectations with a simple word like 'handsome' we can do our own twists. He was handsome, but airheaded. He was handsome, but unlikable. Details like those help create robust characters that either stick in the mind for their uniqueness, or add color to the world our protagonist travels: "Being handsome was considered a curse, it troubled him greatly," etc.

                                                                              And I'll mention that prejudices based on appearances, such as clothing, skin color, hair color, eye color, etc have existed for thousands of years. The way someone looks does have, and should have, an effect on any story where humans are being sociable. By addressing these things and including them in our stories, we create worlds that are relatable to things actual people go through every day. Some fantasies try to get as far from that as possible. I approach it and explore it.

                                                                              I agree with you, 'write to the fool, write easier' is a good saying. I also believe in 'write whatever you want, and your work will find its audience.'

                                                                                  ZenoWriter An interesting look at the story. That is, beauty or ugliness is the hallmark. Can eye color and so on be a sign of superpower in different cultures? Curious!

                                                                                  My heroes are ordinary, simple, not handsome, not freaks, an ordinary average person.

                                                                                  Thank you, you're right, write what you want, just and you will find your audience! Respect for new and interesting thoughts for me!

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