Writing Smallest sacrifice you can make to gain the most when writing.

[RepresentingWrath]

I'm here today to give another advice. You know how everyone says, "Write what you want and someone will love it?" A lot of people agree with it, but I'm not here today to debate on this. I'm here to tell you one tiny thing you can sacrifice, that will make you stand out. We all want to write things we like, we have fetishes and so on. I know, I am the same. But this miniscule, unassuming thing can make your novel pop.

MC's appearance. Yes-yes, we all have our preference, but this detail can make your novel stand out a lot. Allow me to actually illustrate it.

What you see here are 5 novels. If an author sees his novel cover used here, I'm not saying your novel is bad, or good. I'm not giving any opinion, assesing them, rating them, or implying anything.

Back to advice. What catches your eye the most? Perhaps you won't click on that exact novel based on cover, but where does your eye lingers? What color pops out? That's what I was talking about. Making your MC look different won't make your novel good or bad. But it will help you stand out amongst the others. You might not even put MC on the cover, but it's not about covers. It's about how your MC looks like. Make them unique for your own benefit. Sacrifice your own preferences just once to get a big boost.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

You.

Sacrificing you would be the smallest sacrifice I could make to get good at writing. Trust me. Between you and a goat, most gods would take the goat.

 

[Plantorsomething]

The redhead, but only cuz the ofher samples are white hair. Other than that, children’s souls are the easiest sacrifice for writing ability. They’re very creative.

 

[Jemini]

Lol. Well, how do you like that? So many people doing Wifu cover arts has, in fact, made it so Wifu cover arts are not so appealing anymore. (This isn't even counting the fact that they seem to be getting algorythmically suppressed.

That said, I think this advice only really matters if you're making the cover feature your character and only your character. A cover is a lot more interesting if you put an ensemble up on the cover of several of your characters. It allows you to arrange them in a way that uses positive and negative space in a more interesting way, while also possibly including a background that would help expand on your world as well.

(I personally like covers where the protagonist is on the cover, but there's something in there drawing your eye away from them. Interestingly enough, it makes them a little more appealing if they are not "demanding attention" as a result of their placement on the cover.)

In short, this can be summed up as "have some proper art direction when it comes to the design of your character."

 

[RepresentingWrath]

The redhead, but only cuz the ofher samples are white hair. Other than that, children’s souls are the easiest sacrifice for writing ability. They’re very creative.

That's the funny thing. Do you think I cherry picked it? Ah, to hell with it. After browsing trending the other day, my friend showed me a bunch of covers. I will use the word "covers" to make it easier for both of us. Out of 10 covers, 2 were red kitsunes, 1 black with somewhat distinct color scheme, and 1 black but with a lot of blue, 5 white kitsunes, and one purplish, but again the color scheme was close to white ones.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

I don't know man. I have too many babies here and not enough time to care for all of them. The answer is pretty obvious to me.

 

[Rezcore]

I have a preferred character archetype: cold, intelligent and competent. As if Sherlock Holmes and John Wick had a baby. I like characters that think, and tell you why they are what they are. I love sympathetic villains, I love villains that are villains simply because they see the rot in the system and somewhere along the way, they became part of it.

Wait, what were we discussing?

 

[ArchlordZero]

I do have a bingo card for hair color of waifus in my novels. Next novel will have blue hair :3

 

[BigBadBoi]

You.

Sacrificing you would be the smallest sacrifice I could make to get good at writing. Trust me. Between you and a goat, most gods would take the goat.

Thank you TheEldritchGod for enlightening us

 

[Rezcore]

I do have a bingo card for hair color of waifus in my novels. Next novel will have blue hair :3

I have a similar thing, except it's love interest for my mcs that seem to not fit them and argue a lot...

 

[Corty]

You forgot to include the kitsune covers that look smushed because of the wrong aspect ratio that the author doesn't care about.

 

[Kalliel]

You forgot to include the kitsune covers that look smushed because of the wrong aspect ratio that the author doesn't care about.

This is too accurate.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

Other than that, children’s souls are the easiest sacrifice

I've already sold my own soul, how much more do they want !!!

...soul inflation is crazy

MC's appearance. Yes-yes, we all have our preference, but this detail can make your novel stand out a lot. Allow me to actually illustrate it.

Also giving my MC white-ish hair seemed so much more unique when I started this novel a decade ago ? I blame go/jo

 

[greyblob]

kitsune meta abusers. mega cringe

 

[WinterTimeCrime]

Your MC probably doesn't even have to be a furry. Just print out some AI art and call it their DLC kitsune-waifu skin, limited edition.

 

[melchi]

Sacrifice this one for novel @TheEldritchGod blessing.

 

[Plantorsomething]

That's the funny thing. Do you think I cherry picked it? Ah, to hell with it. After browsing trending the other day, my friend showed me a bunch of covers. I will use the word "covers" to make it easier for both of us. Out of 10 covers, 2 were red kitsunes, 1 black with somewhat distinct color scheme, and 1 black but with a lot of blue, 5 white kitsunes, and one purplish, but again the color scheme was close to white ones.

Still need a much bigger sample size to say “all covers in general”

I've already sold my own soul, how much more do they want !!!

...soul inflation is crazy

Also giving my MC white-ish hair seemed so much more unique when I started this novel a decade ago ? I blame go/jo

..now I’m thinking of a novel where soul sacrifice is akin to a nuclear arms race where no one wins, and is the main reason why necromancy is banned.

 

[MajorKerina]

It's the one with the boobs/most skin right?

I always go with eye-catching for the cover. Every cover I can, boobs front and center. Or at least cute anime. One of them had a school bus and an alien ship and it was a terrible idea.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

The redhead, but only cuz the ofher samples are white hair. Other than that, children’s souls are the easiest sacrifice for writing ability. They’re very creative.

Gingers have no souls. Trust me. When it comes to sacrifices, Gingers are the "Chinese Food" of sacrifices. Yer always hungry again an hour later.