Webnovel.Forum

RadiantFlame Appropriation? No one cares. Certainly not on this site, where yoinking content, making racial assumptions, and out-and-out blatant racism is practically a part of the culture. As for whether it would be awkward or not, that's up to you as a writer.

What you really need to worry about is how you're going to use them. For the love of god, don't use idioms in prose (unless absolutely necessary, or to make a point). Not only is it cringeworthy, it's bad writing (same as it is with cliches. Idioms and cliches are somewhat related). Dialogue is iffy, but since people use them in everyday language (Chinese or otherwise), it's tolerable.

Well, what do you think your readers are looking for when they're looking at your very first chapter? They certainly aren't looking for a wall of exposition, and they certainly aren't looking for cliches or hackneyed catchphrases.

So, now that those are eliminated, what else can we do?

It all comes down to how you've outlined/thought of your story. What themes does it have? What characters or conflicts are there? What fact about the world, or interesting feature of someone or something can you bring up to intrigue your readers in the very first line?

If you want to draw your readers in with a character, try explaining how they're so different from other people. What do they think? Why do they think that way? Are they the happy-go-lucky type, or are they a social reject with a desire to spill their vitriol upon the world?

If it's a place, do the same, only the scope of your sentences should be relatively broad, considering places are far bigger than people!

Perhaps you simply want to convey an idea that's integral to your story. Well, it's the more philosophical route, but if written well, can get your readers to think.

This brings us to the point of this post.

Get your readers to THINK!

Get them thinking about the purpose behind your words, your sentences, the entire reason for the novel. Lead them on. In a way, an author should be the ultimate sadist, taking pleasure in their readers' every agonized moment, manipulating their emotions to build a world within that anticipation. Not sure if that's a quote, and I may be unintentionally using some philosopher's words, but you get my point.

So, I've recently come into contact with conspiracy theories. Now, before you start calling me a tin-foiler, I'm going to say that I don't hold any stock in them whatsoever. HOWEVER, one interesting conspiracy, or rather I suppose you could call it a Lovecraftian horror or analogue horror concept, that has caught my attention inspired me to write an interesting script about them. A particular scene that I think would happen if they did exist.

By the way, I'd like to see what people come up with, so if you've got a horror-based short story or script to post, feel free. This should be fun, even though it's out of season.

---

Mother: "Doctor, she's in here."

Doctor: "Right ma'am. Please wait outside, I'll be back momentarily."

Door closes

Doctor: Sits on edge of bed "Hello, Sophia. How are you doing today?"

Doctor: "Your mother asked me to ask you some questions, is that okay?"

Doctor: "Erm... just nod or shake your head when you feel like it."

Sophia: nods hesitantly

Doctor: "I've heard you have a some friends, could you tell me about them?"

Sophia: nods

Doctor: "What are they like? Do they talk with you a lot?"

Sophia: thinks for a bit, then nods

Doctor: "I see, you get along well then. Your mother says you like to ride your bicycle ever since
you learned how. Do they like to too?"

Sophia: shakes

Doctor: "That's sad. Is it because they don't have bikes?"

Sophia: shakes

Doctor: "Is it that they don't like to ride with you?"

Sophia: vigorously shakes

Doctor: "Then what could it be? Do their parents not want them to?"

Sophia: shakes

Doctor: "Hmmm... so, how many friends do you have? Are there more than five?"

Sophia: Confused shake

Doctor: Takes notes on a clipboard "I can see you're confused, and that's fine dear, you don't need to worry, that one was a bit hard to answer."

Doctor: "So, do you only have one friend?"

Sophia: nods

Doctor: "You've been away from school for a week now, do you think they're worried about you?"

Sophia: shakes

Doctor: "Why? Do they know you're gone from school?"

Sophia: nods

Doctor: "I see."

Sophia: glances at the corner of her bedroom

Doctor: "Sophia, I want you to think very carefully when you answer this next question, and be honest with me, okay?"

Sophia: hesitant nod

Doctor: "Is your friend here right now?"

Sophia: nods

Doctor: "Is that so? Are they saying anything about me?"

Sophia: nods

Doctor: "What are they saying? Does your friend like me?"

Sophia: thinks a little while staring at the corner of the bedroom

Sophia: tilts her head, confused

Doctor: "Do they not like me?"

Sophia: slow, unsure nod

Doctor: "Do they want me to leave?"

Sophia: "Terri..."

Doctor: more notes taken "Oh, their name is Terri, I see, I see..."

Doctor: stands to leave "Okay, that should be enough for today."

Sophia: reaches for his sleeve

faint shuffling from the corner of the bedroom

Doctor: startled by sound "Sophia, dear, now's not the time..."

Sophia: shakes

Doctor: "Dear, please... let go..."

shuffling comes nearer

Doctor: "I said let go!"

Sophia: "He doesn't want you to go..."

Doctor: "He...?"

Sophia: "He says you'll never go..."

Doctor: "Damn you woman! YOU SAID IT WAS AN IMAGINARY FRIEND!"

Sophia: "He says..."

shuffling stops

Sophia: "You'll stay here, forever."

silence

Sophia: "Terri, where did you go?"

Terri: "He wasn't a friend, Sophie. None of them are friends."

Sophia: "Really?"

Terri: "Yes."

Terri: "Sophie, give me your hand."

Sophia: complies

Terri: "Swear to me, that we'll always be friends."

Sophia: hesitates

Terri: "Trust me. You always did, didn't you?"

Sophia: "But that was... was before..."

Terri: "Swear."

Sophia: "I swear."

Terri: "Sophie, we're going to leave now."

Sophia: "Where?"

Terri: "A place where no one can trick you again."

window opens

door opens

Mother: "Doctor, is everything alright?" Doctor? Sophie? Sophie!"

The wind blew through the open window. It was a fell wind, left behind by a creature that preys on the imagination.

---

The Tulpa, by ShoeInk

It would be counterintuitive to make localized time monitors for each account. In order to properly function, it would have to run through lists of the entire userbase, just to check when it needs to update for every individual based on their chosen country. The amount of processing power that would take for each and every time zone, every hour, on the hour, wouldn't be astronomical, per se, but a waste of power.

A global update based on one timezone is better, of course. Convenient? No. Feasible? Absolutely.

Just make a mental note of the time the site updates, and act accordingly. Isn't that hard, or has technology swaddled you in so much automated comfort that you can't properly schedule a reading pastime?

Tsk. Moore's law isn't a measure of how much technology evolves, but instead an exponential curve of human indolence.

I can't say I really have a favorite on this site, since, believe it or not, I don't really read that many web novels.

Shocker, I know. Why the hell am I even on this platform?

Anyway, of all the novels I have read, hands down my favorite of all time is David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. I know, it isn't a web novel, but classical literature is great stuff, all from a time when romanticism was at its peak. Since then, it's only been in decline...

Tomoyuki I already accounted for that. Slander is entirely different. As I said, I meant small-time things that really don't matter, such as what SlaveOfTheLord was talking about with someone calling you a donkey. This wasn't about slander, rumors, or anything like that.

There are exceptions to every rule, as shadowdrake27 mentioned.