Slowpaced storyline

[KhalEnner]

After writing more than 30k+ words, I realized that the story is progressing very slowly.
It's already been 7 chapters, and the mc has barely left the first city. It seems like I've focused too much on world-building.
Do you think this is bad?

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

After writing more than 30k+ words, I realized that the story is progressing very slowly.
It's already been 7 chapters, and the mc has barely left the first city. It seems like I've focused too much on world-building.
Do you think this is bad?

No.

 

[Tegeli]

Nothing degrees that the stories of even whole series of novels can't take place in the same city.

 

[Unknown_Hero]

If you want fast pace then my work is some unique stuff :

The Unstoppable Adventures of Kaito and His Totally Normal Day

Kaito’s life is a whirlwind of absurd pranks, strange friends, and chaotic adventures, all wrapped in constant laughter. But when a bizarre secret is uncovered, the world around him begins to unravel. The jokes stop, and a dark conspiracy threatens everything he thought he knew. Now, Kaito must...

www.scribblehub.com

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I hope not. The real story only intrudes about every third chapter in "Between Worlds" - and does not REALLY get going until about chapter 40...

 

[Empress_Omnii]

I've read slower that are popular, so probably not. Just know many readers won't enjoys a slow novel.

 

[Y2N1]

A rushed story is worse than that, so no.

 

[LilRora]

What does it mean the mc hasn't left the first city? There are stories that start and end in a city without ever leaving the area, so this doesn't really mean much. A much more accurate estimate of pace is the number of events. Depending on pace, there's typically one distinct event every few thousand words, with an important, story-changing event every few to few dozen chapters, but there's no hard limits in either direction ans there's a lot cases when those numbers tend to change drastically, for example when describing war, and across different genres, particularly in horrors and slice of life.

 

[KhalEnner]

What does it mean the mc hasn't left the first city? There are stories that start and end in a city without ever leaving the area, so this doesn't really mean much. A much more accurate estimate of pace is the number of events. Depending on pace, there's typically one distinct event every few thousand words, with an important, story-changing event every few to few dozen chapters, but there's no hard limits in either direction ans there's a lot cases when those numbers tend to change drastically, for example when describing war, and across different genres, particularly in horrors and slice of life.

My bad. I mean, the mc only visited two buildings in that city. And barely pass a single midnight.
Before that, he was only sleeping for whole day.

What does it mean the mc hasn't left the first city? There are stories that start and end in a city without ever leaving the area, so this doesn't really mean much. A much more accurate estimate of pace is the number of events. Depending on pace, there's typically one distinct event every few thousand words, with an important, story-changing event every few to few dozen chapters, but there's no hard limits in either direction ans there's a lot cases when those numbers tend to change drastically, for example when describing war, and across different genres, particularly in horrors and slice of life.

Also, the genre is adventure. And he was supposed to travel around the world.

 

[LilRora]

My bad. I mean, the mc only visited two buildings in that city. And barely pass a single midnight.
Before that, he was only sleeping for whole day.

Also, the genre is adventure. And he was supposed to travel around the world.

I've given a similar answer to a question about world-hopping stories, and I'll reiterate it now. It doesn't matter how long it takes, what matters is to adjust the length according to importance, keeping style in mind. If a city is not important to character development or plot, you can briefly describe it in a few hundred words and move on. If something really important happens there, you can spend tens of chapters if that's what it takes to show it well and include everything that is supposed to happen there.

Regarding style, what I mean is mainly to be consistent. If you want a slow, casual adventure, you can include more small interactions, descriptions, unimportant events. If you want it faster, thrilling, you can skip a lot of things that don't have much meat and focus on events important to the plot. Depending on your choice, different pace will become natural, but it's important to keep it consistent unless you're purposefully changing the story's style and/or tone, for example after some tragedy.

When you're beginning a story, it's important to establish the environment and the characters, so it's fine if things are stretched out some and pick up spees later. However, I can't tell you whether your pace is good since I haven't read it and I don't know what you want your story to be; it may be great or you may be overdescribing things. You should be the judge for that.

 

[KhalEnner]

I've given a similar answer to a question about world-hopping stories, and I'll reiterate it now. It doesn't matter how long it takes, what matters is to adjust the length according to importance, keeping style in mind. If a city is not important to character development or plot, you can briefly describe it in a few hundred words and move on. If something really important happens there, you can spend tens of chapters if that's what it takes to show it well and include everything that is supposed to happen there.

Regarding style, what I mean is mainly to be consistent. If you want a slow, casual adventure, you can include more small interactions, descriptions, unimportant events. If you want it faster, thrilling, you can skip a lot of things that don't have much meat and focus on events important to the plot. Depending on your choice, different pace will become natural, but it's important to keep it consistent unless you're purposefully changing the story's style and/or tone, for example after some tragedy.

When you're beginning a story, it's important to establish the environment and the characters, so it's fine if things are stretched out some and pick up spees later. However, I can't tell you whether your pace is good since I haven't read it and I don't know what you want your story to be; it may be great or you may be overdescribing things. You should be the judge for that.

Thanks for the advice.

I think the reason I feel my story will progressing slowly is that I have too many important characters, each with their own circumstances and character growth to explore.

On top of that, there are side characters, backgrounds, and world-building elements that are necessary for the other characters' development.

In the end, I guess the best thing I can do is just write the story I want to write.

 

[MarekSusicky]

Thanks for the advice.

I think the reason I feel my story will progressing slowly is that I have too many important characters, each with their own circumstances and character growth to explore.

On top of that, there are side characters, backgrounds, and world-building elements that are necessary for the other characters' development.

In the end, I guess the best thing I can do is just write the story I want to write.

If I can add my 4 cents, you don't want to overwhelm the reader at the start. So if the price for going faster would be introducing tens of characters in two chapters That would be more harming.

 

[Isometric]

All I care about when reading is that it's entertaining. Are the chapters interesting enough to keep me reading? If so, it doesn't matter what's happening or how fast the pace is. If the chapters aren't interesting, though, or they're basically just long info dumps, either go back and spice things up, or skip ahead to something else, then come back to the boring parts again later.

 

[Tempokai]

If you think your story is slow, you don't think about what you want really from your story. My webnovel about truck driver who has godlike powers only in his dreams only covers 4 DAYS in 26 chapters. It doesn't matter if it's adventure and the MC didn't leave the first city in 7 chapters. It's all about what HAPPENED meaningfully during those 7 chapters. Stop forcing the mentality of "gosh, I need to make the MC travel around the world", make it as "my MC travels around the world MEANINGFULLY despite the slowness of the progress". You need to make the adventure matter, not ticking boxes like it's a checklist.

 

[JayMark]

Chapter 51 for my passion project and the characters haven't made it past the first twenty-four hours. Moo.