It’s vampires and werewolves! How could it not be popular? ? Even I’m writing about vampires right now LOL. Bella is probably like most otome visual novel FLs, bland enough for easier self insert and power fantasies. Idk how much substance I’d show if I were being courted by two mythological beasts before I finished high school ? But also, sometimes people are just that simple, and nothing’s wrong with that hehe
Oh, no denying she's the prototypical VN protag, though the funny thing about that is I'd bet good money the writer had never even heard of VN's before writing twilight. I wonder if she made Bella bland on purpose?
Oh yeah I agree with you 100%. I believe this was back when female protagonists (or female characters in general) rarely had much of their own development. Sis definitely won’t pass the Bechdel test ?? though I guess you could say that about many romance novels where all the characters think about is love and their love interests. Like I said, kind of outdated in the modern sense, but a classic for a reason, and got a lot of girls into reading, even if many believe it doesn’t deserve its popularity. ? Teenage me was on the bandwagon of “tWiLiGhT sUcKs” mentality despite never reading it, and now I’m more like “Twilight existed for a reason, let her be
”
Daww shucks
cookie?
To be fair, the original topic might have deserved a high-jacking, and besides, I'm not sure twilight doesn't deserve a place in "Authors Making Bank With Meh Stories/Writing." Now, if you want a tangent, I could really get into the weeds of the male/female writer/reader dynamic, but I'll spare you that essayOh yeah I agree with you 100%. I believe this was back when female protagonists (or female characters in general) rarely had much of their own development. Sis definitely won’t pass the Bechdel test ?? though I guess you could say that about many romance novels where all the characters think about is love and their love interests. Like I said, kind of outdated in the modern sense, but a classic for a reason, and got a lot of girls into reading, even if many believe it doesn’t deserve its popularity. ? Teenage me was on the bandwagon of “tWiLiGhT sUcKs” mentality despite never reading it, and now I’m more like “Twilight existed for a reason, let her be
(trying my best not to hijack the thread and derail it from the original topic please forgive me for my yapping ?)
Cookie~Daww shucks
I have a bad habit of comparing to others, need to work on that haha. Thank you for the kind words
Shoot… I really want to read that essay… ?️?️ must resist further hijacking…To be fair, the original topic might have deserved a high-jacking, and besides, I'm not sure twilight doesn't deserve a place in "Authors Making Bank With Meh Stories/Writing." Now, if you want a tangent, I could really get into the weeds of the male/female writer/reader dynamic, but I'll spare you that essay
Much delayed response to OP. A large part of that is probably also about fit to market. Fully polished works will not do numbers on a content mill site like RR or SH. They also have very different marketing requirements. An LN style "goes on forever" story can advertise itself by hitting the right boxes (popular tropes/fandom), and having a well established history of output. A fully polished novel has a proper ending, and is as much about the cut as the add. You'll have exhausted a good novel of content long before you've even hit a handful of readers as a WN.
Be careful talking like that, or I might write it out and post it to your profile
(cough cough write it to me cough cough)Much delayed response to OP. A large part of that is probably also about fit to market. Fully polished works will not do numbers on a content mill site like RR or SH. They also have very different marketing requirements. An LN style "goes on forever" story can advertise itself by hitting the right boxes (popular tropes/fandom), and having a well established history of output. A fully polished novel has a proper ending, and is as much about the cut as the add. You'll have exhausted a good novel of content long before you've even hit a handful of readers as a WN.
A "traditional" book requires a completely different strategy... which I'll tell you when I figure it out, lol. I suspect (outside big name publishers) it requires something similar to the WN style "constant content" strategy, but... modified in some way.
Be careful talking like that, or I might write it out and post it to your profile
i dunno what would be best for you brother. You do what you think is right. For me personally I don't care much about world building as long as its coherent. It's personal preference. I honestly skim most prose about environment and fully skip history and geopolitics and shit. Some people are really into it. Just have to find what audience wants what and conform to the norm, or challenge it if youre brave enoughI suppose it depends on how you explore your world
I would not recommend going as far as to invent a new language
I prefer worldbuilding as a backstage character, not the main focus but always give a little pinch here and there if it's necessary. But not too much
I plan on writing 8 stories that take place in the same fantasy world, hence why I'm asking. World building is a fun thing to add but I'm not smart enough to go too in-depth, plus it's not the central focus.
Then I have hope to make a stand and grow my audience!
Nya~!
And it got its start as Twilight fanfic... Really - she wanted to rewrite the story but with the characters meeting as adults instead of teens, and with the "vampire" drawing power from S&M rather than blood. And it went downhill from there (sadly straight into a massive bank vault).One of the most horribly written books of all time, "50 Shades of Gray", was a multi-level best-seller and spawned two movies. It's not always about the writing anymore, it's who you know. E.L. James' husband is a high-profile marketing genius.
And there you go.
A lot of the traditional authors world build like they’re about to drop a WN. In fact worldbuilders should just take the WN route. Doesn’t it suit them better?Much delayed response to OP. A large part of that is probably also about fit to market. Fully polished works will not do numbers on a content mill site like RR or SH. They also have very different marketing requirements. An LN style "goes on forever" story can advertise itself by hitting the right boxes (popular tropes/fandom), and having a well established history of output. A fully polished novel has a proper ending, and is as much about the cut as the add. You'll have exhausted a good novel of content long before you've even hit a handful of readers as a WN.
A "traditional" book requires a completely different strategy... which I'll tell you when I figure it out, lol. I suspect (outside big name publishers) it requires something similar to the WN style "constant content" strategy, but... modified in some way.
Be careful talking like that, or I might write it out and post it to your profile
Well, unless you're like Raymond Feist and his collaborators - spend that time ALSO writing (and gaming ... and tweaking the games to fit what you're writing). Midkemia Press was born out of that worldbuilding exercise and did quite well for a while, maybe even still.
THISOne of the most horribly written books of all time, "50 Shades of Gray", was a multi-level best-seller and spawned two movies. It's not always about the writing anymore, it's who you know. E.L. James' husband is a high-profile marketing genius.
And there you go.
Yes, as @CharlesEBrown also pointed out, "50 shades" was passed off to the media as "Twilight fan-fiction" and people went crazy for it. E.L. had already done Twilight fan-ficition in the past, so she essentially fooled the world and made herself a sensation - by writing a horrible book. As one person asked her in a Q&A once, "I can't decide what you hate more - women or the English language."
Star Wars (AKA "Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope") was pretty pedestrian. It just had a fantastic soundtrack and combined stuff that hadn't been seen in movies for a few years - the flow of the classic serials, a mix of Wu-Xia martial arts + space opera + epic quest + hero's journey + heist film + war movie. Star Wars was probably the single most IMPORTANT movie to come out in the 70s - it brought John Williams back to attention (he'd been hidden behind the light of Henry Mancini until Star Wars started production and became one of the biggest names in sound tracks thanks to SW and Superman), showed that science fiction and fantasy could make money without being blatantly cheap "B" (or lower) movies, spawned Industrial Light and Magic, made Dolby Sound and industry standard. Without it, we would probably not have gotten Star Trek movies and few, if any, spinoff series, and maybe even never got the modern superhero films, nor Lord of the Rings (beyond Bakshi's failed attempt). The Empire Strikes Back, however, was great - possibly the best of the series (though I've seen solid arguments for Revenge of the Sith; before Disney got involved, and really, the only BAD one was Attack of the Clones).I, personally, think Devil/demon women are much sexier than catgirls.
Would it be wrong of me to say I think starwars, and harry potter aren't very good, or interesting?
Book 7 is more of a pure fantasy... but the first thing she published after Harry Potter WAS an actual mystery (I have a copy, title is something like "Casual Vacancy," I read about ten chapters then didn't get back to it for a few months and didn't remember enough to continue, except that it was a bit of a slog to get that far).
I'm a brain addled almost middle-aged adult, thank you very much.
I might have to look into this?
