Requesting feedback: Can you please tell me why my story is bad?

Rookieqw

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Sorry to bother you, but I have finished the prologue and can gather that this story of mine won't be very interesting to other people. Nevertheless, I will finish it for the sake of discipline, if nothing else. But I also want to learn from my mistakes and learn how to create something good for other people. If you have time to spare, can you please tell me why the story is bad?

https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1042505/hordedoom/
 
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RiaCorvidiva

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People don't like prologues as a rule. For good or ill, prologues are generally coded as 'we're going to lore dump a bunch of things on you that might be relevant in five hundred chapters, but not actually introduce a character, setting, or anything we as readers can latch into and care about'.

If you must have a prologue, keep it short, snappy, and directly relevant to the character(s) appearing in chapter 1. Web serial authors flake and go on indefinite hiatus and/or drop their works all the damn time, and no one wants to spend time and emotional investment in a prologue that, going by the numbers, most likely will never actually have a payoff.
 

MintiLime

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Read the first chapter of the prologue. I liked it sooo… no good advice, just an extra reader?
 

Corty

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So far, all seems good, just keep at it as you were. Readers will come as many only pick up a story after having enough chapters. :blob_cookie:
 

Assurbanipal_II

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Sorry to bother you, but I have finished the prologue and can gather that this story of mine won't be very interesting to other people. Nevertheless, I will finish it for the sake of discipline, if nothing else. But I also want to learn from my mistakes and learn how to create something good for other people. If you have time to spare, can you please tell me why the story is bad?

https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1042505/hordedoom/
Writing. Not the problem.

Asinine and rambling plot. Yes. Too much narration. Not enough personalisation.

Who is the MC? What is the point here? Who are the characters?
 

Kalliel

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Redundancy, perhaps?

I look for immediate and constant entertainment when reading a web novel, so the way you write makes me lose interest quite fast.
 

RepresentingWrath

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My question was not rhetorical. I thought it might help if you mention what you think is bad, so we all can talk about it.

As for me, I think your synopsis is bad. I don't think the first chapter is objectively bad, but personally I find it boring. Apart from me not liking the style, I don't like the content. It's not something I would've read if you didn't ask, since I'm not into mecha+monsters. Nevertheless, I find the content to be generic, sorry for phrasing it like this.
 

Rookieqw

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Why do you think it's bad?

Sorry for taking too long to answer. Firstly, it's because all my other works are of poor quality. No matter if I always try to finish my stories, if the number of readers is low, it means that my writing is bad. It is an objective fact, but I struggle to put a finger on why it is bad. To me, the story is interesting; I am not bored with editing and proofreading it to the best of my abilities, and I am having fun writing it. But if I want to write for others, if I want to write a good story, I have to change.

From this thread alone, I now know that I screwed up by not explaining what the character looks like. There are problems with redundancy, and it is boring. It's no wonder readers don't read it. The story is objectively one of the worst on this site, but there is no harm in seeing it through to the end.

Nevertheless, I find the content to be generic, sorry for phrasing it like this.

Don't worry about it! It's much worse to hear that everything will be fine if you just believe in yourself and keep writing when you know it's not fine and are looking for answers to what exactly is wrong. There are dumb people, I am one, and the truth can help us improve. Or at least stop the agony of not knowing where you mess up.

Writing. Not the problem.

Asinine and rambling plot. Yes. Too much narration. Not enough personalisation.

Who is the MC? What is the point here? Who are the characters?

In the prologue, the MC recalls her attempt to escape the laboratory where she was created. Whitecoats are the researchers, and Orange Fiends are the guards. The MC calls them that because that is how she and the other products see them. The point of the prologue is to show why exactly Ravager (the MC of the prologue) screwed up the Wolf Tribe so much, to introduce the concept of superpowers, to explain why Ravager is not fully sane, and to give the barest explanation for Ravager's sudden flashes of quick understanding

So. Less narration, more plot, start with dialog, show what the characters look like. I hope I got it right.

Redundancy, perhaps?

I look for immediate and constant entertainment when reading a web novel, so the way you write makes me lose interest quite fast.

That is harder to understand. I do not doubt that you are correct, but for me, it is hard to spot such things. How do I train myself to spot redundancy?
 

RepresentingWrath

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Sorry for taking too long to answer. Firstly, it's because all my other works are of poor quality. No matter if I always try to finish my stories, if the number of readers is low, it means that my writing is bad.
You see, this is the main problem. It is not a fact. It's one of multiple factors. Let's not argue what is more important, since this is beside the point. The fact is, you and other people can't argue that quality is not the one and only deciding factor. At least when it comes to Web Novels, and relative popularity. I'm not talking about getting millions of views, or seeling millions of book. We are talking small scale popularity.
To me, the story is interesting; I am not bored with editing and proofreading it to the best of my abilities, and I am having fun writing it. But if I want to write for others, if I want to write a good story, I have to change.
You are tearing yourself in two. What you find fun(genres and tags) won't necesserily be fun to readers, no matter how good it is. I would give you the following advice. Try making a test novel. Write a story that includes popular tags, a story that will be popular here.

To ease the task. Write either a fanfic of Naruto, Harry Potter, or a fantasy+adventrue+romance+comedy(optionally r-18) story. No need to finish it, but write like 10-20 chapters. Don't repeat rookie msitakes(like bulk uploading), and use hot anime girl as a cover.

Try to give it your best when you write it. No need to overexert yourself, but don't write gibberish either. I understand you won't have a lot of fun doing it, but think of it as an experiment. If you get way more views than all your other stories, it means you simply write something not popular. If that's actually the case, the way to solve the problem of low views will be absolutely different.
 
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