Pleasedeteme While I don't have exactly high confidence in my writing skills, I have been writing for several years... Not a shameless plugging in, but here's a short story I wrote: https://www.webnovel.com/book/yanhua_16433603005917105 Maybe take a look and decide for yourself if I pass the barline.
I'm kinda new to Webnovel, and right now I'm having a really hard time reading things, especially online, so I haven't read much on this site, so I don't really have a reader's perspective... Maybe someone else can help with that.
As for assessing your work, I don't have much time on my hands, but when I have time I could go through your work and give a good combing through. Depending on how much feedback you want I can give a light proofread or a heavy edit...your choice.
Best authors
Pleasedeteme I can help edit your work, but it's not for free.
Pleasedeteme You can just read the books who stand high on Power Ranking. Maybe you will like one from that. And please do tell me what Genre you like, maybe I can help you.
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J.K. Rowling probably isn’t going to read your book and critique it. You can read her books though. Pick any published book in a bookstore that interests you for that. Everyone has a different opinion, so it’s hard to give a name for the best author ever. For example, I tried to read Harry Potter several times and fell asleep each one. In my opinion, the books are boring and unreadable. However, the movies were decent. (I only say this because I know it is against popular opinion). If you want a list of top grossing authors in the world, I’m sure there is one online.
I’m not one of these famous authors, but I would say that good grammar makes your book stand out around here. Being able to understand your writing easily is essential to the story being enjoyable! If I have to guess what you meant because it isn’t written clearly, then it automatically is worse. Of course, you still need an interesting idea and plot that is well developed.
As for examples of what to read or do to improve, you can read and write anything to do that. When reading, look for what you like and dislike. Pay attention to grammar, style, imagery, etc so that you can take what you like and leave what you don’t. When writing, pay attention to feedback. Negative feedback is what will help you the most, so accept it and learn from it.
I can’t promise to proofread your work because, well, I’m lazy these days. There is a review swap thread though, if you want to post there. Some of the reviews can be helpful, others are useless flattery.
I can tell you that my style is to tell a story from one characters point of view. I think it makes the story the easiest to make immersive. For this perspective, you can pretend the reader is one of your characters and just explain what they see/hear/experience. This looks like, “You are walking down a dark, narrow hallway.” It’s also possible to take the perspective that you (the author) are a character who is relating what happened to you. This looks like, “I walked down a dark, narrow hallway.” The key is to keep it consistent. If the reader is a character, then they only can know things that character knows. Anytime the character does something like sleep, the story has to skip to when they wake up (unless it is a dream or they have a power to do things in their sleep).
If you give me a title of something you are working on, I can try to take a peek and do a chapter review or something. I’ve just been really slow and unmotivated lately, so I’ll make no promises. Also, my reviews are typically harsh. I’ll point out what you do good as well, but there is a good chance that I say at least a few negative things about what you wrote.
I’ve never read supreme magus, so I have no opinion. I started reading “Release That Witch“ and it was pretty good. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite story on the site even. This app is sort of like where I go to write stories on my phone, so I don’t follow a ton of books on here.
Pleasedeteme I kinda like u so Ive been following u for a bit but dont expect good authors here to follow a good story line. Because most stories here either follow a wuxian cliche formula or an OP isekai type, in which a linear story that only focuses on strength development (not character because their personalities are akin to a line, unchanging and boring).
Most of their works follow a wish fullfillments, I mean nothing wrong with that but if u break it down, the flaw is very glaring.
Real story requires struggle and requires the MC to be a dynamic character, Harry goes to several phases, while characters here will feel kinda the same from start to finish.
You know I could give u some advices, Im not the best author, But I know some stuffs about writing.
I’ll try to send you some comments. It’s in my reading list now.
Pleasedeteme well nah But I kinda see you everytime on forums lol
Pleasedeteme Oh boy. All I can say is, all the literature masterpieces that I've read have been books by people like Charles Dickens or Ray Bradbury or John Steinbeck...I doubt that you could compare works on this site to those by people like them.
Pleasedeteme I haven't read all of his, but I really love Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities. Tale of Two Cities seems more of a classic than the former. One key to becoming a classic is to have really deep and complex themes. Which is why studying classic lit is such a helpful tool to writers.
But out of everything I read this year, I have to say that East of Eden by John Steinbeck is definitely at the top. Of course, not everything has to have big words to be a classic; My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry are also among my favorites. Really, it doesn't matter how complex your prose is, as long as you have something meaningful to say.
So while you may not be able to find the next J.K. Rowling on this site, reading classic lit and studying why these works are classics is a huge step in helping writers grow. It's kinda like having the author mentor you, in a way :).
I aspire to write works like the ones above one day, and to publish them in real life, but I still have a long way to go and lots to learn. So I'm using this site to help me practice my skills and spending time reading a lot of good books. After all, reading is the other side of writing.
I feel like I went down bit of a rabbit hole, but I hope this helps. Good luck to you on your writing journey! :)
A tale of two cities is a classic. I love that book.
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Pleasedeteme if you're looking for pieces similar to traditional publishing, I would say there aren't much. That type of writing is not popular in online novels with hundreds or thousands of chapters.
Most online readers have short attention span. There is usually a suggested word count for each chapter. They came from a study at how long it would take for a reader to be bored from reading one chapter. Not all authors follow it since it depends on the story and the genre.
Pieces like Harry Potter and such have a slow build up since they're world building a lot. If you cut it down to 1.5k words each chapter, nothing much would have happened in that length. Having that mindset, most online writers would use more simple words and phrases plus change the pace of the story to invite a wider audience.
Taking Harry Potter as an example, for online platforms like WN, I'd immediately cut to the trip to the zoo where Harry discovers he could understand snakes and frees one with magic. This would attract interest. It's about being efficient in intriguing the readers, building up the world setting and understanding the character.
Pleasedeteme nah that's the very embodiment of trash
Pleasedeteme isn't is obvious why it's popular? Because people like it. They like the plot, the writing style, the characters, the world building. We all have different opinions, I didnt like it the moment it said it was an "infant to supreme magus" journey.
How the fuck would I know its flaws? Like I said before, if I don't like the sypnopsis then I don't read it. I call it trash because it's my opinion, simple as that.
shadowdrake27 Omg, can you read some chapters of mine as well. I want a genuine review ( be as harsh as you can). I tried review swap but none of them seem genuine enough to me. Like I want to know where I'm lacking.
Title: Death Goddess Reborn 
P.s. I'm not trying to promote my novel, I just want a critique
This is a trap I set for myself...
I’ll read the first chapter and leave comments. Again, I might only point out the bad things because the goal is improvement. There are likely a lot of great things about your writing as well.
I will not do a “review” because I can’t accurately judge your whole story by the first chapter. Look for paragraph and chapter comments.
I think that as a beginner level writer, going on to read novels from award winning authors as a form of study isn't the best idea. You should first just read a lot of novels or well written content of any kind (fanfictions, articles, the stories in a fifth grade English book). Once you have done that you'll develop an instinctual understanding of how to write. This is how I ended up becoming good at english. Even now many people with far worse essay writing skills than me have a better idea of grammar. I can't teach someone english without having to relearn the basics of grammar myself. It's a form of common sense for me in the way I write. Do I sometimes make errors? Yes. Anyone can make mistakes. But I never read so many things, or watched all those shows and movies in order to learn english. It just happened on its own.
So before you start critically analyzing any big novels, you should just read a lot of things to develop a basic sense. Idk how to describe it better than this but it's like an acquired passive feature that takes a lot of experience in reading.
shadowdrake27 Honestly I did review swaps and after receiving perfect reviews from people I felt too bad giving them bad ones due to their grammar or like other poorly developed elements. I tried to hint at it or openly leave a comment but I fear that they'd think I'm being rude or something.
But as a new author if I don't participate in this kind if stuff I don't think I'd get a lot of attention.
I understand that. Often I would write tons of examples and explanations for how I think someone could improve, only to see that their review said, “wow, you used words! 5/5 keep writing!”
You should do whatever you want to (or need to) do in order to achieve your goals. I don’t care if people think I’m rude, so I’m not afraid to leave a 1/5 in grammar with the comment, “I can’t read this.” However, I did receive some good reviews through the swaps. Likewise, some stories were great! It’s just easy to tell when someone is looking to trade 5 star reviews.
If the goal is to spread your own novel, doing review swaps is a great idea. They might like your book and continue to read it. If not, this app tracks the number of people who have your book in their library, so it still increases your stats. Nothing wrong with that. Nor do you have to leave critical (I would call them “good”) reviews.
Pleasedeteme Strength of the supreme magus: Good backstories, good world building, MC and system
Flaws: Gets boring several chapters later, does a lot of asspulls, the arcs get repetitive.