Can we have an OELN tag?

[Hans.Trondheim]

Why do I lobby for an OELN tag? Original English Light Novels (OELN) have come to refer to those stories inspired by the Japanese Light Novels (JPLN) popular nowadays, yet with an English 'twist' to it by the way of how it is written.

For one, OELNs are dialogue-heavy, compared to typical English writing. Second, it has more 'telling' than showing. Third, the use of onomatopeia in some works.

So why do we need an OELN tag? Not only it is an emerging writing style, but also I think we should tell the readers what to expect in our works. Having OELN tag would mean that, at least, our novels would be judged according to OELN standards (for those who know OELNs) as compared to the current 'one size fits all' standard in this site.

"Hans, even if we have OELN tag, if the reader doesn't know a thing about OELN, it's useless."

I don't think it's that useless. At the very least, we have a tag that fits the writing style of our stories.

Kinda like the cultivation stories here.

Ayt, that's it. I'm requesting this if it's okay. If not, it's cool. This isn't the first time I requested this, so I'm fine with it.

 

[Eldoria]

Since I love using onomatopoeia as an audio sensory effect in narration... I support this feature.

 

[Playerkartik]

Why do I lobby for an OELN tag? Original English Light Novels (OELN) have come to refer to those stories inspired by the Japanese Light Novels (JPLN) popular nowadays, yet with an English 'twist' to it by the way of how it is written.

For one, OELNs are dialogue-heavy, compared to typical English writing. Second, it has more 'telling' than showing. Third, the use of onomatopeia in some works.

So why do we need an OELN tag? Not only it is an emerging writing style, but also I think we should tell the readers what to expect in our works. Having OELN tag would mean that, at least, our novels would be judged according to OELN standards (for those who know OELNs) as compared to the current 'one size fits all' standard in this site.

"Hans, even if we have OELN tag, if the reader doesn't know a thing about OELN, it's useless."

I don't think it's that useless. At the very least, we have a tag that fits the writing style of our stories.

Kinda like the cultivation stories here.

Ayt, that's it. I'm requesting this if it's okay. If not, it's cool. This isn't the first time I requested this, so I'm fine with it.

I would really love to have this tag...

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Ic wolde ondrædan þæt ic write an langsum auld Englisc gesceaft...

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Ic wolde ondrædan þæt ic write an langsum auld Englisc gesceaft...

You really gonna flex your old English to me?

Sige ikaw na magaling. Di na ako papalag.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

You really gonna flex your old English to me?

Sige ikaw na magaling. Di na ako papalag.

Actually found an app to translate between Modern and Old English... Knew it was different but not exactly HOW different until I played around for a few minutes...

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Actually found an app to translate between Modern and Old English... Knew it was different but not exactly HOW different until I played around for a few minutes...

Paid app?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Paid app?

It has a paid version but works like Google Translate with nag screens for free:
Old English Translator | Free AI Historical English

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

It has a paid version but works like Google Translate with nag screens for free:
Old English Translator | Free AI Historical English

Fascinating, good sir. Much appreciated.

 

[FRWriter]

The more tags, the better. Why not?

Though in this case, I'm not sure there will be a large audience interested in the tag. This tag is also a little hard to define. Very hard to place a story into this tag.

 

[Sebas_Guzman]

Hans, we've never spoken, but I do read what you write and respect you. I'm giving you the counter because no one else is.

I don't think this makes sense.
On Syosetu, do they have a tag for "LN?"
No. They don't. This doesn't make sense on a webserial platform.
If you're on Amazon, it's different, because what the Light Novel term conveys is "anime inspired."
But here? I guess you might still want to convey that, if somehow, your title and cover don't convey it. But it still doesn't change the fact that Light Novel is not a tag that Syosetu uses.

Also, this being the standard:
OELNs are dialogue-heavy, compared to typical English writing. Second, it has more 'telling' than showing. Third, the use of onomatopeia in some works.

It doesn't work. Plenty of english books are dialogue heavy. Should we make a category for books where the entire book is one guy's dialogue as he retells a story in real time? Because that exists. Second, plenty of english books do more telling than showing. They range from being books for middle schoolers, to just being bad books. Third. Onomatopeia. Plenty of writers who do not think about audio book narration do this.

Do you see the problem Hans? These are all subjective. What is "dialogue heavy." What is more "telling" than showing. Are we going to tabulate all instances? How much onomatopeia crosses something into being OELN? Also, drawing the comparison to other light novels.
Does 86 do your hallmarks? Does Danmachi? Danmachi has whole sections of a third person narrator that makes it hard to adapt because nothing is being conveyed through dialogue. 86 is a war story that is moody and introspective.


Cultivation? What does that tell me? Potential chinese mysticisim. Meditation to power up. Generally a powerful world of supernatural magic. Taking pills to powerup.
Do you see the difference? The things you point out as hallmarks of OELNs can be EVERYWHERE, and typically they highlight traditionally "bad" writing techniques.

Now, on the other hand, I saw we had a tag for Poetry. So, if we do this, I would like to have tags for plays, and literary fiction as well. Might as well have some for autobiographies and non fiction as well.