Yeah, follows the golden quote that I heard from one of the times I hangout with my friends.
"If you're looking for something to make you feel good and blinds you, don't deny praises. But if you want to move forward, never accept praises and look past them."
Imagine you're writing fiction. You finish 2k words in a day. Then you continue writing again and again... until you're done.
A few years later... you've written 1 million words. You smile, witnessing the fruits of your labor. You might cry while smelling the paper... no, that's an exaggeration. I think... we can still be proud of our work without the smell of ink.
You happily show your work to your friends, colleagues, or even family. Look, I've managed to finish my fiction just the way I wanted it.
"Please read my work."
Your friend smiles, "That's great. Let me read it first."
You reply, "Of course."
Your friend receives your fiction. She focuses on the paper (or phone screen).
Her dark eyes widen. Her lips pout. She flips through the pages. Then she closes the book.
You ask, "What do you think?"
Your friend is silent. Cold sweat drips from her forehead.
She pats you on the shoulder and says, "your fiction may be good in your opinion. But-"
She shakes her head. "I can't read it. My eyes are tired from just reading one page."
"You're amazing... you wrote 9,000 pages. But I can't read it. Sorry."
Your eyes widen. "How is that possible? Is it unreadable?"
"I even remember Errie releasing a black aura to defeat the black dragon in chapter 900?!"
Your friend snorts, "You're an author... I'm just a casual reader. How should I know what you're thinking?"
Your friend pats you on the shoulder and says, "Your fiction might not be suitable for me. Try... give it to someone else."
You don't give up. You hand your fiction to your friends one by one.
But their response is the same. They can't finish a single page.
You might frown, witnessing this cruel reality.
Well, this is just a fictional scenario. But this could happen to any author. The problem?
The authors lack feedback. The narrative might be good for them. But it's not reader-friendly.
Many times, I don't give feedback because I don't know how to form a criticism/analysis that the author 'deserves'. Especially if it's between authors. For example, I have this certain view on someone's story, they ask for a feedback firsthand, but we have these diametrically opposite writing styles that it feels like anything I would say to them would be just a twisted attempt of transforming the other party into something that they are not. To these authors I know, I can't really say much other than giving them a thumb up and telling them to continue writing.
The feedback I want the most is when people talk about their interpretations of my stories and how certain scenes are working or not working in their view. I don't mind even if their interpretations are the opposite of what I actually intended. The death of the author or something... Anyway, at least that feedback means my stories are more than just about 'things and things that happen', I don't want to write something like that.
Now, as for feedback. See, I'm not a native English speaker. I don't know what words to use in writing, but I go by the principle that I avoid redundancy in words. Like, I try to come up with synonyms so I keep away from typing, "she said, he said, this guy said,' and so on. But, I would receive criticism on the choice of words, and I was like, "What the fuck did I write wrong now?"
Said is one of those words that blends into the background. It's actually more jarring to a reader when the writer is trying to avoid said by constantly replacing it with replied, interjected, added, explained, etc. If that's what you've been doing, that's probably where the criticism came from. Ideally, you'd replace dialogue tags with thoughts and action beats to show what the character means by what they said. But not for every line of dialogue, because that can get tiring. So still mix in a simple "she said" every few lines, maybe a synonym if it feels right, and don't use tags at all if it's obvious who's speaking.
Said is one of those words that blends into the background. It's actually more jarring to a reader when the writer is trying to avoid said by constantly replacing it with replied, interjected, added, explained, etc. If that's what you've been doing, that's probably where the criticism came from. Ideally, you'd replace dialogue tags with thoughts and action beats to show what the character means by what they said. But not for every line of dialogue, because that can get tiring. So still mix in a simple "she said" every few lines, maybe a synonym if it feels right, and don't use tags at all if it's obvious who's speaking.
Definitely. Thanks for the heads-up on that part, though, hmm...I really am not comfortable adapting that rule.
Does it even apply for OELN-style of writing? I get it that it's a must on Western-style publishing, but my work is OELN (Original English Light Novel, which is inspired by JPLNs). What do you think?
I'm asking this because whenever I use AI apps like Grammarly, I always get flagged because apparently, 'writing in English isn't supposed to be dialogue-heavy,' which JPLNs are the opposite. So if I go by that, there's a difference between English novels, and JPLNs, and by extension, OELNs.
I haven't heard of OELN, so someone else would have to answer that. But you could skim through a few dialogue scenes in some of them and see how different writers handle it.
I haven't heard of OELN, so someone else would have to answer that. But you could skim through a few dialogue scenes in some of them and see how different writers handle it.
Coz I write in English, but my style is OELN, which is inspired by JPLNs. And I often get flagged by AI apps like Grammarly and ProWritingAid because 'English writing should have minimal dialogue' while JPLNs are just the opposite. So clearly, if I go by this, there's a difference writing and publishing in English, and in JPLN, (OELNs too, by extension).
I’d really appreciate honest, constructive feedback. Especially in areas where the story may not be landing as clearly as I hope.
In particular, I’d love to know:
• If the emotional moments feel genuine and grounded
• If any worldbuilding concepts are confusing or under-explained
• If the pacing ever drags or feels too abstract
• If dialogue sounds natural, especially in quieter scenes
This story leans more toward wonder, stewardship, and long-term growth than constant conflict, so I’m always trying to balance reflection with engagement. If something feels unclear, distant, or overly polished, I truly want to know.
The most important part is the prose. I don't care if the plot doesn't hold up or is full of holes or if the characters are wishy-washy (within reason, of course) if I'm sucked in by the writing. A lot of authors bend over backwards trying to make airtight plots and characters that make perfect sense and always act right, and they just forget to make their writing good. The page by page, line by line prose. So my feedback is always centered around that; grammar, punctuation, vocabulary. If the words flow well you can get away with mostly anything.
Imagine you're writing fiction. You finish 2k words in a day. Then you continue writing again and again... until you're done.
A few years later... you've written 1 million words. You smile, witnessing the fruits of your labor. You might cry while smelling the paper... no, that's an exaggeration. I think... we can still be proud of our work without the smell of ink.
You happily show your work to your friends, colleagues, or even family. Look, I've managed to finish my fiction just the way I wanted it.
"Please read my work."
Your friend smiles, "That's great. Let me read it first."
You reply, "Of course."
Your friend receives your fiction. She focuses on the paper (or phone screen).
Her dark eyes widen. Her lips pout. She flips through the pages. Then she closes the book.
You ask, "What do you think?"
Your friend is silent. Cold sweat drips from her forehead.
She pats you on the shoulder and says, "your fiction may be good in your opinion. But-"
She shakes her head. "I can't read it. My eyes are tired from just reading one page."
"You're amazing... you wrote 9,000 pages. But I can't read it. Sorry."
Your eyes widen. "How is that possible? Is it unreadable?"
"I even remember Errie releasing a black aura to defeat the black dragon in chapter 900?!"
Your friend snorts, "You're an author... I'm just a casual reader. How should I know what you're thinking?"
Your friend pats you on the shoulder and says, "Your fiction might not be suitable for me. Try... give it to someone else."
You don't give up. You hand your fiction to your friends one by one.
But their response is the same. They can't finish a single page.
You might frown, witnessing this cruel reality.
Well, this is just a fictional scenario. But this could happen to any author. The problem?
The authors lack feedback. The narrative might be good for them. But it's not reader-friendly.
My question is, what kind of feedback would you like to improve your narrative?
I've experienced something like this as well among my peer-group and gaming group. Primarily when I was first starting out, and when I with my newer gaming group because they really aren't fans of my writing as well. In part, it's because they really weren't avid readers (which is fine).
Admittedly it hurt at first, but I've long since gotten over it.
They weren't in my target audience is all.
Or just didn't really want to read what I had written.
I would have appreciated any and all critiques and feedback though, specifically on the technical side. (Sentence structure, Paragraph structure, Sentence and Paragraph lengths, Spelling / Grammar.)
That said, I also wouldn't have objected to getting feedback on the narrative side as well. (Plot holes, pacing, progression, characters, character-depth, etc etc etc).
There were a few exceptions though, and thanks to their input I'd like to say I've taken several exceptional strides forwards, and continue to do so with their advice in mind, and heart, as I write.
The major advice/comments on shortcomings (paraphrased):
Make friends with spellcheck / grammar-check (in MS Word) - Did this too. It helped. A lot.
What's with the weird names. Where did you come up with them? Maybe try using some more 'normal' sounding names. - Did this. Sort of.
Use shorter paragraphs dude. Nobody wants to read a wall of text. (I leaned closer to the 'Gatstby-style' amateur mistake.) - This has been the biggest help to develop my writing style cleanly.
That protagonist is really boring. He's super-good at everything and just knows exactly what to say/do to 'win'. Maybe make him fail sometimes too. - Fixed this too, sort of. I think. Jury's still out on this one.
I really like how detailed you are. It lets me paint a clear picture in my head of what's going on.
Those were some cool fights, but the named characters feel a little too OP for the story. It kills the tension. - Definitely followed this one. Whether I succeeded or not, well, that's still up for debate. (Chapter 2.2 in The Elarian Chronicles & Aethara Chapter 2 are the most recent samples).
Description follows Action. If you're going to describe something, keep that in mind, and do so from the character's perspective. - This has been some of the best advice I've gotten, and I regularly pass it along.
Use all the character's senses. Not just what they can see. - Did this, but I do still tend to lean heavy on the visuals.
There's been a fair bit more over the years, but these are the big ones that led one of those readers to comment:
"I think this is probably the best that you've ever written." with regard to one of my older side-projects.
Heh. I've been "Friend One" in this scenario more times than I've been the author. Getting a dialogue going with the author was the key to figuring out what the problem was (when it could be fixed).
