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Veronica8 "Also, not a lot of agencies represent LGBTQ characters. If they do, it's still in the pure romance space. I'm an oddball with my stories. Very hard to market, so too much of a ROI risk."

This is giving me less than negative confidence when it comes to Urasaria being published, haha. The snail-mail stuff is so stupid; great, lemme print out 50 pages of my manuscript, of which an unpaid college intern will read 10 before throwing it in to the trash.

I've got a friend who's a great writer that writes more traditional literature, and he still can't get published because of the "I think you're an excellent writer, but I can't sell this" bull. He always asks them why they bother taking on formulaic crap when most of that doesn't sell, either - he's never gotten a response yet. The comforting thing, at least, is that quality never goes out of fashion. I figure/hope in 10 years that current agencies will look back and wonder what they were thinking when they kept publishing only commercial stuff, rather than nurturing writers willing to do new things (like LGBTQ outside of pure romance). Or, they'll get overtaken by free webfiction. I think we're noticing a shift like that with self-published fiction, but it's still untenable for most money-wise.

Still, keep on improving. That's the only thing you can do. Good writing resonates with good readers in a way I don't think super-popular stuff can; I mention that since I know you & I are both in a niche.

Anyway, speaking of myself, I checked my 25 ratings out on another site today; I have eight 0.5/5 ratings. Those are, bizarrely, more comforting than the 2s, because a 0.5 rating is just dishonest on its face; I try not to rate anything here because I have absurdly high standards, but even then, that's just because every review I would post would be "2/5: More characterization." I wouldn't rate even the worst story a 0.5/5.

Fortunately, I think the only complaint I've gotten for it here is the socially awkward characters stuttered too much; I still have a bit of a habit of writing dialogue like pure transcription. It's quiet otherwise, which I suppose is good.

Worth noting that a few crafty authors prematurely deleted their kneecaps to get around the requirement, as well.

Genre: Action/LGBT+

Synopsis: "After the end of the Cold War, superpowers taking the form of bacterial colonies on one's heart begin appearing around the world. A new class of law-enforcing "hosts" is established over the next decades, given legal immunity to deal with violent criminals however they choose.

In modern day, Mia Schultz is a young socially awkward lesbian. She's attacked by an unknown man and given the power to control a swarm of fire scarabs named Worldwide, and as she begins her new job at Urasaria Academy, she's soon pulled in to a mystery on Worldwide's true origins."

https://www.webnovel.com/book/15156703205207605

I didn't post these on the stories directly, as I thought it'd be unfair to rate based only on 3 chapters - I read 3 chapters each.

Overlord_Venus I like that you focused on characterization before plot - I can never care about a plot or world without caring about characters; but I think the story would benefit from more complex characters. The prose is straightforward, which is fine, but there's a few low-grade cliches (or overused phrases) - "rich life experiences", "cozy dreams", "lovely little grand-daughter." I did like "beat them out of their dreams", it's just using "cozy" to describe dreams is something I've read hundreds of times.

The dialogue is realistic. The plot is fine, the Sentinelese tidbit was amusing since I also know about them. That you focused on personality before describing appearance is good. I always say that if you want to make me care for someone, don't tell me the color of their eyes - tell me what those eyes see.

For Prakash & his wife, it feels by chapter 3 I've only gotten the basics; Prakash wants a daughter because he's jealous of the attention & his wife is dominant. I'm unaware if this expands later, but I'm left asking: is this indicative of deeper problems with their marriage? Is he the type of guy that has ever been tempted to look elsewhere, or is he too stalwart to cheat - or does, perhaps: "her intuition always made him uneasy; it gave him an uncomfortable feeling that if ever he had some dark secret she would sense it immediately. That, more than morality per se, had kept him from yielding to temptation."

You don't have to give everything in the opening, but something like that (er, but don't copy it since it's from a real novel, haha) would give a more complex character & make me interested. Think not only of the first layer, but the 2nd & 3rd, so to speak.

Jeysss It's plot-based - I prefer character-based, but I'll try to be helpful.

So, I also write fights, but I'm not certain on the fight prose. I don't know how to show what I mean without excerpting from an author who has good action prose, Mickey Spillane, but compare:

"Feeney Last wasn't easy. He ripped out and came in to me with both fists before I could get my coat all the way off. I caught a stinger on the cheek and under the chin, then smashed a right in to his face that sent him reeling back to bounce off one of the columns. [...] He braced against the pillar and lashed out with a kick that landed in my gut and turned me over twice."

The Blood Summoner: "The attack was parried by the handle of the ax, and countered with a giant arc swing, sending the boy back to avoid the fatal blow." A more MS-ish style might be (roughly) "His blade was fast but his foe was quicker. The handle of his axe flashed up to block and lashed out with a swing that would've torn the boy in half if he hadn't swept back."

I don't mean to suggest writing exactly like MS, though - action prose is difficult and it's best to find your own style. I have my own, but it's nothing like Spillane's. Few tips I can give: don't care about proper grammar during fights, care about conveying the action. Note how MS (a best-selling author in his time) uses multiple "ands" with no commas to keep the pace up. Try not to use needless adverbs/adjectives - if a reader can imagine fine without it, cut it. This is good practice in general, but especially in action; modifiers are lard.

Anyway, if anyone wants to post a review on my novel, here's the synopsis: "After the end of the Cold War, superpowers taking the form of bacterial colonies on one's heart begin appearing around the world. A new class of law-enforcing "hosts" is established over the next decades, given legal immunity to deal with violent criminals however they choose. In modern day, Mia Schultz is a young socially awkward lesbian. She's attacked by an unknown man and given the power to control a swarm of fire scarabs named Worldwide, and as she begins her new job at Urasaria Academy, she's soon pulled in to a mystery on Worldwide's true origins."

It's an LGBT+/action novel, but I have about 35% male readership, who presumably like Mia violently murdering criminals or that she's 6'1" in boots. I'd maybe compare it to the Spiderman trilogy where it has a plot, but you read it for the character drama. My only warning is that Mia is very awkward in the first chapter, but improves by 2-3.

https://www.webnovel.com/book/15156703205207605

Die a day before it's invented.

Some day, I'll be as concise in my posts as I am in my writing.

1) [How many words should be in a story?]

Short stories range from 500 - 10,000 words. Novelletes are 20,000-30,000. Novellas are around 50,000, and most published novels are around 100,000-200,000. Some publishers, I assume, are wary to publish very-long stories (>200,000) depending on the genre: epic fantasy can get away with 400,000 words per book, but I'm not aware of any romances that are that long.

As for how long a story needs to be, I would er on the side of concision at first, but you'll probably want to "make every scene count", basically. If you're writing a scene where two characters talk, ask yourself "Does this push plot forward? Character development? Is it at least entertaining or funny? Could this be shorter and make the same point?" Similarly, if you are describing something, good description is done through a few, well-chosen details to allow the reader to fill in the rest. I'm not sure what you mean by "cooking or medicine", since I'm a character-focused writer, but you'll gradually develop a feeling for when you're stretching something out too far.

For example, if I'm writing an arc that takes place over several months, then I can introduce a lot of different situations that characterize a main character via her reactions/thoughts, and show the growth of her personal relationships. That arc ended at 36,000~ words, but it's a bit underwritten. However, if I have a 1-week long arc where two characters have minor relationship trouble, I know I can't stretch that out, so it ends at around 8,000 words, maybe. Then again, you can always introduce new situations and...

... Sorry. I know that sounds like "How many words do I write?" "Enough.". Characterization in particularly is a funky thing where you can know a character in one moment better than someone who's in several scenes.

2/3) [Write half of a novel and publish it in parts, or publish it as it's being written?]

If you can handle writing that fast, then yes to the former. I post 2,000 words daily, but had to wait until my story was nearly finished to start posting it, but I have certain restrictions that make my writing process slower. Readers will want a consistent update schedule, so as long as you can meet that, then it's fine. I'm not sure if you're asking this for your first story, but I'd advise against publishing chapters as they are written, because...

5) [You get an interesting idea in chapter 45, near the end. Should you stretch the novel out?]

...as you mention, you will find different ideas in the process of writing. Sometimes, you're going to realize 10,000 words in "Why am I focusing on this character?" and scrap it. You'll realize halfway through "Isn't this other plot more interesting? Why am I doing this one?" I had an experience recently where I re-introduced a character in the final arc, wrote 5,000 words with her, then realized - "Wait, the reader already knows most of her personality. Why am I not re-introducing this other interesting character instead, who the readers don't know as much about?" Another time, I had the same thing happen mid-arc; "Why am I focusing on her? Let's change focus in this chapter, to this new, more interesting character."

And it was better for it. It's a normal part of writing. I think it's better to grab the new idea and go for it, because you can always return to the old one in a later work. There's no rules, though.

Of course, if your initial novel is about adventuring treasure hunters, and then your idea is "let's change this to gory horror", then yeah, probably hold off on that.

4) [How do you get better at writing? Reading good stories, writing good stories, or something else?]

All three work. I will say that I tend to, if you are looking for good stories, recommend stuff like Irwin Shaw's short stories or Elmer Kelton's "The Time It Never Rained". What makes them useful is that their prose is straightforward, so a new writer isn't intimidated by Moby Dick-esque poetry. Writing on your own will help - your brain will start placing words together more easily - but there are things that I didn't understand until I started reading.

For example, "show don't tell" gets said a lot, and so in my early writing, I never wanted to tell a reader a character's feelings directly. Then, I read both of the aforementioned writers who did just "tell", realized that their stories were great, and now I don't ever have issues just saying "Mia felt guilty." if needed. I think we sometimes get stuck in rules that don't shatter until we see someone acting outside of it and realize that there was no reason to follow the rules. I realized my quip earlier about description, because I had read long, meandering descriptions, then realized the short descriptions rang my mind's bell better.

6) [What is the optimal number of words in a chapter?]

I've seen 1,000 to 10,000. Supposedly, some lower-spec phones have trouble with chapters >4,000 words on here, and I usually see 6,000ish in IRL published novels.

7) [How important is the title page?]

I assume you mean cover: I don't know anything about that. For most views, you could probably put an anime woman with big boobs on the cover. I think someone here said that she doesn't like when covers include titles, and I'd have to agree - getting text to look right is tough for an amateur. A good image can catch the eye fine, and it's really just the presence of any image that says "Hey, I put the effort in to a good cover."

I think there's two different types of reality when it comes to writing: what I'd call "macro" reality that can cause major flaws in a work, and "micro" reality that leads to micro flaws. Reviewers tend to overstate the effect of the latter, I believe.

So, for micro flaws, there's the sci-fi masterpiece The Planet of The Apes (1968). Three astronauts crash-land on a planet of... apes, later shockingly revealed to be Earth after a nuclear war. Now, it's illogical that they wouldn't realize immediately - you can tell you're on Earth based on star patterns, and the apes literally speak English: but it would be silly to throw out the entire movie and ignore its good characterization, excellent dialogue, and poignant messages. A viewer must accept this premise to engage with the story.

Similarly, I watched Spiderman 1 yesterday, which unfolds logically once you accept Spiderman is a crime-fighting vigilante who can shoot webs because he got bit by a spider. I didn't need an explanation how the spider gave him powers, and I like when creators can poke fun at themselves about that. I've got a scene in my story where the fire-wielding MC goes to the beach, and her friend asks "Mia, why can you drink lava but still get sunburnt?"

"I'm... sure that there's a good... Let's just focus on the training."

Another example is that, in story, superpowers can be transferred between people via bacterial colonies growing on their hearts. How do you surgically transfer bacterial colonies? I dunno, but a reader must accept "okay, so they can be surgically transferred, let's see what's done with this concept."

But then there's "macro" reality. I can accept a world where superpowers exist. I can even accept Woody Allen films where a middle-aged man is dating 20y/o supermodels, as much as I'll squirm in my seat, because he usually respects the viewer. He's not going to have a character do unrealistic things without a reason. Ishiro Honda (director of original Gojira films) said that we should always portray how real people would react to strange events.

I accept that a modern-day action story would have characters use swords instead of guns, because swords are badass. I wouldn't accept that a character could have a best friend for 10 years, then suddenly murder them with no guilt. Five years after finishing a story, what will you remember?

Also, to be clear, when I say objectively here, I mean in the most coldly logical way possible. I've written characters who are victims who deal with the very real problems of authority figures not believing them, that they can't receive justice, the aftereffects of their emotional trauma & difficulty trusting people - I try to be as aware as I can be of the reality of it. (Most writers also aren't skilled enough in characterization to depict it with the seriousness expected.)

I think you're running in to knowing that there's really no objective, logical reason why rape is worse the murder, but discounting the emotional/cultural reasons for it. At least in the US, the idea of capital punishment presupposes that murder is a "fair" punishment for some crimes (and is technically the "best" solution to stop them from reoffending, because they literally can't after except as a ghost), and all states generally recognize a right to self-defense. We've all seen movies where action heroes gun down hordes of faceless henchmen, and in some ways this becomes cartoonish & entertaining because it evokes a visceral feeling of vengeance. I remember reading a best-selling novel in the 1950s where the hero guns down hordes of communists.

Logically, yes, murder is the worst crime one can do to another person, but we generally, culturally accept that as a response to evil people & maybe have become desensitized enough in fiction to believe that it's a justified response that can be used for entertainment. (As I write a novel that features lines like "As a man might snap a wishbone, he tore his body in two, discarding the grisly halves over his shoulders...", I do find those deaths exciting in the way a Mortal Kombat fatality might evoke "oh, disgusting! but holy shit, haha.") Whether it's something in human nature or that every state having a military necessitates this justification, I don't know. I'd really recommend checking out The Cultural Legacy of the Headshot, it's interesting stuff.

However, rape isn't culturally conditioned this way because it's regarded as an act with no justification. It makes no sense as a punitive measure because of the lasting emotional trauma it leaves, which is seen as more sadistic. (We could say the same about prison in general, but let's not go there.) Even torturing an "evil-doer" is usually done for the greater good - in 24, the scenario of "you need to help me defuse a bomb" was used in a later Supreme Court case, and in Mickey Spillane novels (& my own), the people it's used against are pure evil who "deserve" it. Rape is just not seen culturally in the same way - although historically, the Red Army in WW2 supposedly raped many German women. Additionally, there's genre expectations to bear in mind - there are few action novels that don't feature murder. There are many that do not feature rape, and thus a viewer has the option to drop a novel & read something if that does discomfort them.

Anyway, you're running up to the objective reality that murder is worse than rape, but you have to take in to account the cultural reasons why. I agree it doesn't make sense strictly logically. The points on length given above are also good, and that rape is portrayed more seriously - it's often added by bad writers to substitute for true depth/character complexity/maturity, whereas we've all seen an Arnold flick. To approach it another way - why is torture less acceptable than murder?

Write better fights.

also the existential dread helps too

I began writing 3 years ago because I was frustrated over how bad writing in anime was after watching Kill la Kill, and while that's cooled a bit, it's still a factor that keeps me going. I'm a very competitive person who can't stand not being good at something, so I tend to go extreme in to anything I do - reading hundreds of pages of literary criticism to become a better writer, testing new styles to improve, the frustration when something doesn't come to me and the reevaluation of what I've written. I'm a bit of a misanthrope, so I work very well out of spite - what drives you will depend on the type of person you are.

That isn't to say I don't love writing, though. It frustrates me that my own work will never be as popular as some crappy harem isekai, or the great cinema I've seen will never be as appreciated as Marvel, but when I wonder why I bother, I can at least sit in my satisfaction that I've created something good or better than the writing I hate. It's a bit of a superiority complex - it's tied closely to the misanthropy, so I not only want to be better, but I need to be better than the average writer. I have a friend who uses the same mindset for lifting weights - he can't stand being physically weak.

Is that an antisocial or unhealthy mindset? Sure, although I think my post history shows I do genuinely want to help people, and I don't enjoy being hurtful to others.

So I dunno, I guess you just have to find your own discipline/motivation for it. I wrote a lot of stories no one's ever seen, and I know my drive to improve is all internal, but I also love knowing someone out there will appreciate what I've done and the craft that goes in to what I do. This, I believe, is a difference between true quality and fun, but massively popular "lowest-common-denominator" art: many will like the latter, but very few will love it deeply. So I suppose I want to write not only for myself, but for the person out there that will say at the finale: "I really loved this story, but what was with all the KLK references? You must've been a big fan of that show."

That's my drive - I can't say what your's has to be. For me, it also helps that no one, really, is writing stories like mine - if I want to read it, I have to write it.

Barring that, this poem always deeply motivates me, somehow:

"There is the feeling beside that which is felt,
as if a great artwork beyond consciousness,
whether gazing a church tower, or being sifted through its panes
like alluvial photons. There in a bowl of opening roses,
made majestic by a slice of sight reflecting
the spoke of sun upon a slab where something dead may lay,
is an abstract of insight grown well within your wreath of verse,
brief episode of touch, still opening endlessly and growing,
self-illumined, silent paladins of the muse,
like nothing that ever was:
I know nothing of life."

The most accurate collections is on the URL ending with /list (can't remember what it's called), the most accurate views is on the story page itself, and the Dashboard updates every day at about 10-11AM EST.

I'm tempted to self-promote to pick up all the angry bisexuals (also) clicking this thread, like selling cheap life insurance policies outside of a funeral, but I'll instead say that in an alternate timeline there's probably somebody posting a thread asking why all these stories have so many straight people, and that's funny.

Also, I mean, fanfics having bi characters? That whole mode of writing basically exists to either write about your favorite anime characters having sex or for the author to imagine having sex with their favorite anime character(s). (Character, if they're loyal.)

I can't resist bringing up the alien scene from Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, since I saw it recently, but this dialogue between the main character & super-intelligent Martians stuck strongly with me:

SANDY BATES: "Wait, don't go, I have some questions!"

MARTIAN: "We can't breathe your air!"

"Yeah, at the rate we're going, we're not gonna be able to either. You guys gotta tell me, why is there so much human suffering?"

"This is unanswerable!"

"Is there a God?"

"These are the wrong questions!"

"Look, here's my point. If nothing lasts, why am I bothering to - to make films, or do anything, for that matter?"

"We enjoy your films. Particularly the early, funny ones."

"But the human condition is so discouraging. Shouldn't I stop making movies and do something that counts, like - like helping blind people, or becoming a missionary or something?"

"Let me tell you, you're not the missionary type. You'd never last. And - and incidentally, you're also not Superman. You're a comedian. You wanna do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes."

If everybody did what they were best at, at their best, life would be much easier.

I have 30% female readers (and 30% unknown) on a novel where someone gets snapped in half "as a man might snap a wishbone", so the answer is yes, but only VERY cool ones.