Cultivation improvement

[Zenomew]

How can I make a good Xianxia or Wuxia cultivation novel which does not suck

What are the main mistakes to avoid

What characters are best suited for the story

 

[Peter3135566]

Things dosent always go well for the mc, but unless you go for everyone vs mc, it dosent always go wrong ether... find a balance... diffrent cultivation stages can defeat those higher then them if the diffrance in stages is small enough and they are much richer or more talented, and diffrance of 1 stage might lead to a stalmate leaning to ome winning if both have about same talent, realm crossing wins are cool but shoudent happen often without good reason...

 

[Tsuru]

How can I make a good Xianxia or Wuxia cultivation novel which does not suck

What are the main mistakes to avoid

What characters are best suited for the story

You called the expert Tsuru for it.
But first best tip: just go read more series on 69shu or other raw websites, oops my bad they are GOOD series, go read trash manhuas to understand what is hateful.

1) Dont do retarded villains / young masters
2) Dont make MC retarded

3) Fights are boring usually in word form.
3.1) Bc too many done
3.2) Or unless you got great skills
3.3) Or the MC has a special original thing. Like comedy effect. There was a very popular anti-routine series where his first power is his eyes can make the enemy be pregnant for 10s (and no, it doesnt have a manhua despite million readers) or the cautious MC that bomb the op villain 5 times with hundreds of talismans pursuing him.

4) Dont write a toxic or cold heroine. Or a tsundere.
Just look at Doupo Cangqiong or SoulLand-DouluoDalu how to have a loveable heroine

5) Just dont do the toxic xianxia cliches, everyone hate it now
6) Try to be original, have your own thing = (not just xianxia) Why read your series and not someone else?

 

[Corty]

• Avoid multi-layered cultivation systems.
  • With every layer having nine sub-layers with sub-sub-layers, you will find yourself skipping and jumping over them as the story progresses. Making them redundant.
• Don't introduce hidden levels.
  • Make the levels count. One of the biggest failing cliches in most stories is when MC reaches a high point, and suddenly, a higher level appears and restarts the "now you are a scrub" cycle, making all the achievements he had invalid in a snap.
• Don't mimic Chinese naming conventions and myths.
  • Unless you are fluent in it.
• Think about all the clichés you hate when reading cultivation novels.
  • Avoid them or twist them to its opposite.

That's how I did it, at least.

 

[CheertheSecond]

Wish I got a culti system where even the lowest level of cultivation came into play in higher level battle.

 

[Fallion]

Really? Just be consistent with the facts... The vast majority of them are just throwing numbers and information left and right only to change them within a couple of chapters, sometimes even in the same chapter.
The rest seems more like a matter of opinion to me, but I'd like to see more cultivation stories where the MC is together with only one or two others instead of the constant giant harems where you barely even remember the members 2 chapters after they last appeared because they appear so infrequently and matter so little when they do.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

How can I make a good Xianxia or Wuxia cultivation novel which does not suck

You don't. You write something that is not a xianxia but pretend it is.

 

[xephon]

Don't include any harems.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Include harems.

 

[RepresentingPride]

• Don't introduce hidden levels.
  • Make the levels count. One of the biggest failing cliches in most stories is when MC reaches a high point, and suddenly, a higher level appears and restarts the "now you are a scrub" cycle, making all the achievements he had invalid in a snap.

That's not a failing cliche. Every reader of a cultivation story knows that there will be higher levels besides the ones we know right from the start. I don't see it as a failing cliche at all. It's normal that in a small village/sect, you don't know how big the world is, and even more so if the story includes other planets/ the universe.

• Don't mimic Chinese naming conventions and myths.
  • Unless you are fluent in it.

Chinese Myths categorize a story as Wuxia or Xianxia, so it can't really be separated. If a writer wants to write a cultivation story without Chinese myths, it will become a Xuanhuan story.



Wuxia and Xianxia are a genre. It's like fantasy; you can do everything with it. Something might work in your story but won't in another. The only thing is not to abuse the cliches if you use them like the face slapping of the young master. If it's one every 100 chapters, well, why not? If it's every ten chapters, then it's a no.

Try to read some good novels about cultivation.
For all purposes, "Martial World" is good.
For character development, interaction, and fighting as a group, the "Soul Land" series is good.
There are also many more out there that you can look at to get an idea of how "good" cultivation stories are made. However, even then, some with cliches everywhere can still be "good" and have a lot of readers, like "Against The God" cliches are everywhere, 20+ wives, harem, and shit, but a lot like it.

 

[Corty]

Every reader of a cultivation story knows that there will be higher levels besides the ones we know right from the start.

They got conditioned into it and now nobody dares to change the status quo or want to do something different, because then they can use it as a reason to introduce world hopping and keep looping their stories for the pay-per-chapter mulah.

Chinese Myths categorize a story as Wuxia or Xianxia, so it can't really be separated. If a writer wants to write a cultivation story without Chinese myths, it will become a Xuanhuan story.

Please, if someone who is not versed in Chinese naming conventions and their myths, the meaning behind said myths, creatures, sayings, etc, and tries to use it in their story, it turns into cringe or, as Twitter would love to call it, cultural appropriation. Don't touch what you don't understand.

Want to write a cultivation story? You can just make sure not to copy everything without any sense put behind them.

 

[Zenomew]

A yin yang body which make the MC shift genders but the catch is that

When female her body is a high level furnace and for others to steal his/her powers they have to dual cultivate with MC

When Male they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood to gain his powers


Long story short the MC(who by the way does not give a shit about gender identity) decided to achieve immortality and become a spirit god free of death gender and perverts

 

[Deleted member 148356]

Wanted to contribute but then I don't recall much on Xianxia/Wuxia.
This is difficult task but be aware how repetitive the enemies/luck are.

Its not just young master/higher up but include more variety.
Can be crazy unorthodox, weak thug, betrayal, bully, impatient beauty, enemy of my enemy is a friend.
In terms of luck can be replaced with barter, bribe, gift, hint, technique.

In Chinese there is something about describing someone and the more variety to add in terms of face/body shape, tone, imperfection, pose, clothing...

This is fatty, he ate breakfast of 5 man, like a pig that drench in sweat with pimples that looks horrendous but nevertheless has the strenght of a raging bull capable of catalpulling a man 500 metres by his bulging belly. Wearing thick jacket and oversized pants which wanted to rip, thankfully it was just stretching thanks to superior material.

On the other hand, 4 eyes is a quiet reserved person who do not bother with insult and yawns all day. His main income is being a bookwormer teaching impatient kids that looks far filled then his thin bamboo stick like body. Food is from the wild and malnutrition and infection feels like coming close, no worries as he smiles brilliant like a scheming duck.

Naming has traits you should consider.
This sect revolves on solving justice with sword, Wǔlì(Sword) Yì(Justice) sect.
Naming someone who is greedy but kind, Chán(Greedy) Qīnqiè(Gracious).

There is also the common name of Chinese, you try study that.
I've seen Wu, Mo, Yin, Hao, Lin, Luo, Shi, Zhu, Ah, Lai, An.
Second part combined from 1 is a trait or legend which contain more then 4 letters.
Like Shi Zhen, Wu Meng, Qu Bailai, Mo Yuron, An Sugong, Chi Chai.

Remember I'm a rookie uwu.
Don't take my advice for it might cause disaster.
Remember to research~ unless you want trouble.

 

[RepresentingPride]

They got conditioned into it and now nobody dares to change the status quo or want to do something different, because then they can use it as a reason to introduce world hopping and keep looping their stories for the pay-per-chapter mulah.

Some changed it, but there just a few of them.

Please, if someone who is not versed in Chinese naming conventions and their myths, the meaning behind said myths, creatures, sayings, etc, and tries to use it in their story, it turns into cringe or, as Twitter would love to call it, cultural appropriation. Don't touch what you don't understand.

Want to write a cultivation story? You can just make sure not to copy everything without any sense put behind them.

Yes, and that why I said, if you want to write Xianxia or Wuxia, you need to use some of them, not everything. But if you want to write a cultivation story without having those things in it, then you write a Xuanhuan, not Xianxia or Wuxia.

 

[Zenomew]

If you all have any example of good cultivation novels or if you have written any can you please post it here