u/Dependent_Tomato_235

I recently discovered TWI after a number of years reading fantasy. Even online. I thought I came across a hidden gem only to find that this was actually quite popular and that it's been running for 10 years. I don't know many stories that can retain popularity for that long. Heck, not even just stories, but ANYTHING in the entertainment industry with how many new things are being made.

Was TWI like an instant hit from back then, or was it like Worm that only really blew up a lot later into its run, I believe Worm blew up just before it ended? I know TWI isn't over, but did something similar happen here?

Fruits Basket is the greatest drama anime I've ever watched, that and Clannad, but for the drama I'm looking for specifically, Fruits Basket is my top 1.

I'm looking for romance anime with some real messy drama. By that, I mean that the climax of the anime needs to have arguments, fist fights, crying, heartbreak, friendships breaking, bullies getting their butts kicked, angry confessions and kisses in the rain. That level of drama involving every character in the cast.

Fruits Basket had all of that and more, and that's why I call it my top 1. However, it's since left an unscratchable itch for me that no other romance anime I've watched has been able to soothe.

Any recommendations?

Yesterday, I posted my first video online. It was just me staring into my camera for 14 seconds. I can't talk into a camera. Not at all. Not even just saying one word.

Today, I had an assignment where I had to record a speech for assessment, and I nearly cried just thinking about doing it. No joke, no exaggeration. I was on the verge of tears, and it was only 2 minutes long. I did not want to do that. The thought of me recording myself talking to nobody but a camera absolutely freaks me out. It makes me cringe so badly. Especially when there are other people in the house.

For YouTube, I'm gonna have to do this for much longer periods of time. Staring into the camera right into my appalling face, talking as my ear-grating voice travels around the room (I spend most of my time alone at home, so I'm always quiet) and then having to end the video, play the video back and listen to it, then post it??? I'm not ready for that.

I don't want to do faceless channels either, so how do I get myself to do this?

I've been writing my story in 1st person for the first 16 chapters. However, now I'm seriously considering switching to 3rd. I feel like 3rd person would give the writing a much more literary tone, but at the same time, I feel like it lacks the access to the characters needed for the kind of character driven story I want to tell.

First person will allow me to explore my character's inner world a lot more, which is very important. However, when I write first person, I filter the actual writing through my character's own personality and voice, and I feel like her personality doesn't really match the tone that I want for the story.

To give an idea of what my story is like, it's kind of like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End or The Elf Who Would Become a Dragon. It's slow, melancholic, emotional, and, at times, whimsical.

Plus, there's the added bonus of 3rd person being the preferred reading perspective on Royal Road. So, readers and writers, please help me pick a perspective

Discovery Writers, I need your help

Trying to plan and plan out my story drives me crazy. I've tried multiple times now to do so, but every time I do, there's always some kind of roadblock in my way. So I decided to just discovery write it. It's been fun so far, but still frustrating having to make everything up on the spot.

But now I'm getting to a point in my story where it's time for me to open up my high fantasy world (which is still just a blank canvas in my head because I can't imagine any of it even though the entire thing is supposed to be made up by me!)

With opening up the world, comes moving the story towards its Climax and towards the end of book 1, but I can't do that because I have no idea what happens in the Climax or the ending of book 1, all I know is that I want it to be sad. I don't even know how to deal with my current problem regarding the antagonistic force of the story.

EVERYTIME I TRY TO, I END UP JUST WANTING TO PULL MY HAIR OUT!!!

I have tried 3 times now to plan this story out properly, and each time I have failed. I don't want to drop this story because I'm genuinely having the most fun with it out of anything I've written before and I'm genuinely excited about its future, but it's such a headache to deal with it. And like I said before, I'm approaching parts of the story where I'm just not as comfortable doing pure discovery writing.

Anyone else who writes this way, please help me.

When I first decided to start writing out one of my ideas, there was an ending scene I really wanted to use. I got the inspiration from another story that had the same ending, and I thought it was really cool. But now I'm trying to outline my story, and I just can't seem to find a way to get to that ending that I want. I can't even come up with a real Climax.

The story is whimsical in tone for most of the time, and so I want the book to end on a tragic note. I just seems so cool in my head, but I can't get to that ending on the outline. Like I said before, I'm also struggling with the Climax. The plot is about a girl trying to cure a curse as well, and this is the first book in a series.

I have tried multiple times, and I've failed. I cannot move forward at all, and I need help.

If only I wasn't so F***ing stupid

I only get to visit my dad like twice a year since I live far away from him now. He normally comes to pick me up in June and then in December/January, where I'll spend only, like 2-3 weeks with him and his side of the family. Today, he just dropped me off back at my mom's place, and I want to cry. It's been like this literally for almost my entire life. I should be used to it by now at 16, but I'm not. I want to be with my dad more.

Anyway, in the midst of my anger and sadness over this situation, my mom got the bright idea to tell me that if I had gone over to my dad's place with my laptop, then I would have been able to stay there longer since I do homeschooling and could've just done it there.

I wanted to bring the laptop with me originally, but my mom was never a fan of me bringing my valuable gadgets and devices with me because she was worried they'd get stolen. After years of being denied the chance to bring my Playstation there, I had pretty much given up on trying to bring anything extra with me that wasn't my phone. But then she tells me that at the worst moment.

The worst part is that I can only blame myself. If I wasn't so fucking stupid, I could have still been there, but instead I'm back to my mother's noisy, full, and annoying house, and I'll only be leaving again in November. I still want to cry, but I can't. I'm back to being the big brother now

3 months ago, at the start of the term, I gave myself a challenge, either pass the term or kill myself. I failed. Not just the term, but maybe even the year as well, with numbers so pathetic I once thought it impossible for anyone to get such a score. I've gotten 0 for an exam 3 times this year so far. I've basically failed 10th grade already, and we're only halfway through the year.

The only reason I haven't done it yet is because my dad said he was going to pick me up over the holidays. Nowadays, I only see him like twice a year, so I figured I could just wait a bit. Over this holiday, having taken a break from everything, I feel a lot better. I never have to think about school or all its stresses, apart from the fact that literally everybody I know will only ever ask me about school and all i can do is smile awkwardly knowing that im disappointing all of them.

But anyway, the holiday is coming to an end. There are 3 days left till we go back to school, which means that now it's that oh so familiar time whenever I visit my dad, where I start counting down the hours till I leave, and do my best to squeeze out as many hours, minutes and seconds as I can while trying to stop myself from breaking down. Been doing this for almost my whole life, and it still isn't manageable for me.

School starts next week, and it's the weekend, so now my head is slowly going back to the headspace it was in at the beginning of the term. I don't want to go back to school.

I have no confidence left. Not a shred of self-esteem within me. It's all dead, and I don't know if I could ever get it back.

I already know that once my escape is over and I'm back to day to day, I'm gonna get bombarded with school stuff again. I'm probably gonna be made to leave online school as well, which will only make me feel worse.

Yesterday was my birthday, I turned 16. I don't want to die. I want to chase whatever dreams I have left. I want to fall in love. I don't want to die. But at the same time, I don't want to keep living like this.

How do I outline a book again?

I'm 16 and have already finished writing 1 book. However, now I'm trying to start working on all the other books I want to write, and it's like I've completely forgotten what to do. At least as far as planning is concerned.

I'm a very heavy plotter, or at least I was for the first book, even planning out each scene and even some words of dialogue before writing them out, I have tried to do the same for my other projects and nothing wants to come out of my brain. I've tried this for 2 of my projects, 1 fantasy and the other fantasy romance, and here's what I'm struggling with

1. Whimsical fantasy

So this story is about a girl in a world of magic needing to collect 100 artifacts one by one with a bit of an overarching conflict happening around it. My struggle here is that though I know how the story starts and ends, I don't know what could happen in the middle. I have ideas, but I don't know how to order them from the beginning, middle, and end. Plus, a lot of important worldbuilding and even side character information is still vague, and no matter how hard i try, I can't think of anything to cover the logical dots that are needed for the ideas I have to be plausible.

2. Fantasy romance.

The problem here is that the romance in this book is gonna be taking place under the ocean. So I can't develop the romance or the characters because neither of them are gonna be speaking to each other. Another thing is that I'm trying to frame this as something close to a mermaid x human romance, but I kind of want the female lead to be a human, but that will ruin the whole tone, I guess. Since at the start of the story, the Male Lead is convinced that he saw something supernatural or strange and that's what drives his curiosity to get a second look.

But yeah. Problems.

I feel like I'm in a bad reading slump. Before, I had no problem reading for like an hour, two hours, three hours, even 5 hours straight, reading around 100 pages of a book per day, but now it's hard for me to make it past 10 pages of any book.

Like my mind just gets so exhausted now when I'm reading, and it's hard for me to read anything. Please help

After trying and trying multiple different times, I have to say that my novel is honestly just better with a slower start. I tried to start with a hook and get to the action quickly, but that didn't work. The character introductions felt rushed, and I barely had any time to set up the world. Some of my side characters I also felt were a bit botched in this faster moving version of the story, and now that I'm back on the drawing board, I have to admit to myself that I prefer a slower opening for my story.

This begs the question, how can a slow story hook readers? Starting with action is out of the equation for me, so what else can I do?

So, my passion project failed. I spent the past year planning and writing it, and when I launched, things just didn't go very well. Now I'm trying to choose what to do next, and it's just not working. Technically, I currently have about 7 different ideas for a project I'd like to write, but only one of them are actually a good fit for Royal Road.

But even with that one, while I do like the idea itself, the problem is... I just don't like LitRPG. Or at least I don't want to write it. I'm more of a fan of hard magic systems than just video game mechanics, but after my past experience, I realized that that's not gonna work over here.

So... how do I make myself like a story idea? After over a year working on my last story, I've pretty much forgotten how to construct a story, and I don't even feel like writing anymore. There's only one of my 7 stories, which actually fits Royal Road. It's LitRPG, Action heavy, and I see a lot of potential in it. Problem is... it just doesn't excite me as much as it should.

I can't even just make myself power through it the way I did my other one when I started burning out. I literally have no energy left.

I don't want to give up on web fiction, so I ask for the last time. How do I make myself like a story idea?

I'm in a bit of a crossroads here. There's a story I want to write, but it's off meta. There's another story that I don't really want to write as much as the other one, but for RR, it's the better market fit. In order to get some kind of glimpse into the likely future of my story, I want to know from any other writers on Royal Road, how are your off meta stories doing? And by off meta, I mean

No LitRPG

No Action (or at least, minimal action)

Progression is fine, but not the power fantasy kind.

I'd prefer answers from people writing more slice of life, whimsical or melancholic toned stories, but pretty much anybody outside of the above genres is fine. What I'd mainly like to know is,

View Count

Follower Count

Patreon Numbers (only if you're comfortable)

How long you've been releasing for

The general idea or tone of your story

The current state of your reader base.

Thank you if you reply!

How is it that almost every Webnovel story I see has some insane release schedule of like 14-21 chapters a week? I'm barely able to upload 1 chapter a day! You guys are doing 2 and 3?!

Please tell me your routines and secrets. I need to know. With that kind of output, I would be able to solve so many of my current problems in regard to my writing.

I want to write this story, but it's already been written

A while ago, I watched a TV show that I felt had an amazing concept but was executed poorly. As a writer, I really want to use that concept and make it into a story that actually does the concept justice. But now I'm about to start writing, and I can't help but feel as though I'm plagiarizing.

The core premise is exactly the same, but I made mine just a tiny bit different, and I worry that difference may not be enough. I tried to change the concept entirely while still trying to keep the essence of what I liked about it, but it just didn't hit the same way.

Now, I don't know what to do because I am genuinely obsessed with this story, or at least my version of it. But I don't want to get in trouble

One thing I want to try is creating stories from pictures and the vibes I get from them. I've already collected a few pics that have insane vibes, but I have no idea how to turn them into actual plots. I want to strengthen my creativity and think outside the box a bit, but this is hard.

One thing I want to try is creating stories from pictures and the vibes I get from them. I've already collected a few pics that have insane vibes, but I have no idea how to turn them into actual plots. I want to strengthen my creativity and think outside the box a bit, but this is hard.

It baffles me that there is a whole sector of writers who are able to do this. Just picking a feeling and rolling with it. Are any of you guys here? Any help, please? I have tried and tried and tried to think of some things, but my mind just goes blank every time. It makes me feel like I lack creativity.

Please don't try to discourage me. I already feel like I have the bones of some incredible stories.

Content creation is something that's interested me somewhat, but it's not something I'm comfortable trying. I hate recording myself. I don't like pictures. I hate how I look on camera, I hate the sound of my voice, I don't have good equipment, but most of all, I don't have any content to create.

I consider myself a very boring person. I don't have any talents, any skills, or anything unique to set me apart from everyone else. I'm not funny or particularly entertaining personality, and I live a very boring life.

I like the idea of being a content creator. It sounds like a lot of fun. But when I actually think about myself doing anything online for the world to see me the way I am now, I just cringe.

Content creation is something that's interested me somewhat, but it's not something I'm comfortable trying. I hate recording myself. I don't like pictures. I hate how I look on camera, I hate the sound of my voice, I don't have good equipment, but most of all, I don't have any content to create.

I consider myself a very boring person. I don't have any talents, any skills, or anything unique to set me apart from everyone else. I'm not funny or particularly entertaining personality, and I live a very boring life.

I like the idea of being a content creator. It sounds like a lot of fun. But when I actually think about myself doing anything online for the world to see me the way I am now, I just cringe.

I know it sounds crazy but hear me out:

I'm writing a story that is kind of different from the meta but still falls into the progression and isekai subgenres (I already explained more about it on a different post)

I feel like my story is in the same spot as Mother of Learning. They're both more character driven stories that are still fit into certain molds but are almost vastly different from what usually gains traction on the site. MoL already topped the charts on the site, but now I'm wondering how I can follow in its footsteps.

I believe in the story, and I know that it's good, at least conceptually, everything else is up to the readers to decide. Before anyone says anything, I don't have money for ads of any kind. So that's out of the question.

Can anyone give me a statistical history of MoL? Just so I can understand better how it got to its position. I'd also appreciate any advice or opinions you may have about my story or its chances.