Web Serials: It remains to be seen how important Evanescence will be

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Web Serials: It remains to be seen how important Evanescence will be

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Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Metaworld chronicles is the atlas shrugged of web serials - so bad, it feels like satire. It's not satire. It's absurdly right wing, and full of loathsome poo poo.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2020 07:43

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 20:51

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Top web fiction has updated their UI (since I lasted looked) and is accepting submissions again. Using it, I was pointed towards two web serials I hadn't yet read.

SUMMUS PROELIUM

Super hero genre serial, with competent writing. If your into the genre, definitely worth giving it a go. I find the action sequences pretty enjoyable, and their spread out enough that they're never exhausting.

https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/discovery-1-01-summus-proelium/

Technically Abroad

Transported To A Fantasy World with LitRPG leanings. It's honestly just... poorly written. Constant grammar mistakes, bland prose. Not really worth reading. Skip.

edit: the "prove your human" questions top web fiction now makes you solve if you try and upvote a serial are truly fiendish. If you make a mistake, it punishes you with even more "where are trains" questions. It took me a good 30 seconds to get certified as human.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Dec 22, 2020

# ¿ Dec 22, 2020 13:17

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

To slightly expand on what other people have said, yes, books and web serials are two different mediums! The same way that television and movies are two different mediums. Like tv and movies, books and web serials have a similar but not identical physical interface, and like tv and movies, books and web serials place their creators under wildly different economic and cultural pressures, which leads to different works.

For instance:
-Web serials can have text that is invisible until you mouse over it, and can veer into becoming a multimedia project.
-Web serials don't have to worry about the book getting physically too big to pick up and read.
-Web serials authors have to worry about gaming royal road's algorithm, and convincing readers to upvote them on top web fiction.
-Book authors have to write aware that their work will only be published if it meets the requirements of a publisher.

Also to sidestep into audience chat, anecdotally I have IRL friends who over the last few years haven't read any fiction that isn't a web serial, and who haven't read any non-fiction books since highschool. I 1000% believe that the audience for this medium is, on average, less literate than the audience for physical books.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2021 05:37

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Narmi posted:

I feel like you examples are kinda moot, especially since eBooks have become more popular.

I'd argue that ebooks and physical books are two different mediums too, just as netflix, youtube, and regular tv are all different mediums.

Narmi posted:

I know that authors/publishers of physical books can game the system, e.g. by manipulating Amazon's ranking system, the Sad Puppies/Hugo Awards, or manipulating the NYT bestseller list.

This is an interesting example of the differences between the medium of web serials and books - both mediums are effected by algorithms allocating marketing space, but the differences between those algorithms change how content produced to pander to those algorithm, uh, panders to those algorithms.

Narmi posted:

As for the size, there aren't really huge physical books because they get broken up into a series, like The Lord of the Rings.

I can actually draw an interesting parallel to the medium of traditional tv and the medium of streaming tv (e.g. Netflix). Originally tv was produced for an audience that could be expected to watch episodes in any arbitrary order, so, whether it was episode 1 or episode 77, that episode could still be a viewers first interaction to the show. TV was also produced with ad breaks in mind, so stories were typically a sequence of start -> climax -> ad break -> start -> climax -> ad break, etc.

As the medium matured, stories did start to became somewhat more serialized, with show like buffy the vampire slayer having complete series arcs. You could still watch episodes (barring perhaps season finales) out of order and still understand the show, but you'd gain something for watching each episode in order.

With Netflix, the demands of syndication suddenly became moot, and its pretty much guaranteed that every viewer would watch every episode in order, and this change to the medium changed the content of shows dramatically. The entire Jessica Jones era of Netflix shows were highly serialized, without ad breaks, and had episodes that barely functioned as discrete things you could watch, instead becoming a slurry of content that you could binge in one or two sittings with cliff-hanger after cliff-hanger drawing you into the next episode. The medium of Netflix fundamentally changed the content of shows, even though its still tv.

I definitely think that if Tolkien wrote lord of the rings as a web serial, it would be *completely* different. Tom bombadil on steroids. Tom bombadil is an extremely web serial character.

Narmi posted:

Your anecdotal experience sounds a lot like selection bias so I'm not sure what to make of it. From what I've seen, people mostly tend to fall into camp or the other, but there is still some overlap. For myself, I like both formats. My younger brother likes to read books and listen to audiobooks when he works,and has never read a web series. I have friends who read only books, and friends who like web series as well. I wouldn't qualify the audience of the latter a "less literate" just because they like to read in a different format.

To be less anecdotal, I expect mediums with less accessibility barriers to have a wider reading base than those with barriers, and books have a financial barrier on top of requiring more effort to gain access to them (have to physically go and pick them up). Web novels are a click away from a bored teenager with no money browsing reddit, and I'd expect that to bring down the average literacy level of the audience.

I do want to be clear though that I'm not saying that the lower literacy level of the audience is a bad thing, just a thing. I expect the audience for YA books to have a lower average literacy level than other fiction as well.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2021 08:17

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Narmi posted:

The format is different, the content is what matters. A show is not better or worse because it's on TV vs on Netflix. CBS aired the Office, and now Netflix hosts the Office - it's still the same show.

{Notes going through points 1 by 1, pointing out interesting similarities between the mediums}

To be crystal clear, I'm arguing that their are important differences between the mediums of paper publishing and web serials, and those differences matter, are interesting, and are worth discussing. Whether books or web serials are better mediums is not something im interested in saying.

I love the lack of gatekeeping, the high accessibility, and the amount of novice works available in web serials and web fiction. Their are also plenty of well written works in this medium by good writers with interesting things to say e.g. WtC.

quote:

A lower literacy level is a bad thing, and everyone knows this. Your whole "webseries are for bored teens" just reeks of smugness and condescension, because what, you're a grown adult that has better taste than a semi-literate teen?

Your entire post is reasons why web series are lesser than traditional publishing, for X, Y and Z reasons. But those reasons exists for both formats. You just kind of gloss over that.

The audience shapes the medium through economic and cultural pressure, and the audience having lots of young people encourages authors to write fiction that is aimed at or accessible to young people.

To be crystal clear, web serials aren't a lesser medium to paper books, just a different medium.

Ytlaya posted:

I also feel like the gaps in quality can be far more attributable to genre than format. Like I can pretty confidently say that PracGuide is better than most published fantasy I've read (which is usually pretty bad).

It feels like people are comparing random fantasy/superpowers web serials with the best books, rather than just books as a medium.

I've definitely picked up that LitRPG serials can suffer from a general trend towards right wing politics, its probably the clearest genre trending towards right wing-y ness I've found outside military sci fi fiction. Their are some notable exceptions in the LitRPG genre that trend more left though, e.g. Dungeon Crawler Carl.

If a writer's not paying attention, the format of "I have big stat block, that means im better than everyone" can easily lead to authoritarian politics. If your protagonist has an "intelligence" stat, and their intelligence is higher level than everyone else's, then it can naturally follow that they should be making decisions for the group, and suddenly you've built a setting where a dictatorship just makes logical sense because the protagonist is literally a superhuman compared to everyone else.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2021 00:39

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

A big flaming stink posted:

lol, pirateaba posted the editorial letter she got from the editor of 8.11E

this is by far the nicest editorial notes i have ever read

Are professional editorial notes usually meaner / blunter than this? I've only ever edited or been edited by friends or family, and that's kind of the level of niceness that everyone's gone for in general.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2021 10:19

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Cardiovorax posted:

Yyyyyeah, kinda sorry for even bringing it up, I just didn't want anyone to have a very unpleasant surprise. I was really surprised to see people recommend that serial here, because that's exactly the kind of poo poo that normally makes goons go "what the gently caress is even wrong with this guy" in a hurry. Hope that's okay with everyone.

Your post was very necessary and im glad I now won't incidentally stumble on that poo poo. What the fuuuuuuuck.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2021 08:05

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Hiveminded posted:

I'm a cheap gently caress getting back into genre fiction and want to read free words online. Wildbow is the most popular web author, decided to read his stuff as an entry point about a year ago. I somehow read Worm and thought it was okay (definitely a lot of interesting ideas), but in retrospect i'm not sure if i liked it or if it just stockholmed me after the first ~100k words. I loved Pact, it's probably going to be the standard i weigh future web serials against despite its many flaws. Twig was good in a lot of ways and very interesting, but the story arcs got very muddled and indistinct to me after a certain point; i lost the will to finish it and couldn't actually find where i left off when i decided to go back and try and complete it. Ward was painfully bad and drudging, couldn't make it past the first 20k-30k and all the other opinions on it i've seen from previous fans of wildbow were even more negative. I'm leaving aside ~~Poof~~ Pale after a brief read of the first several chapters, but my opinion on it soured after the perspective shift from crippled/dying 30-something woman (the initial prospect of reading a story with this kind of protagonist really engaged me) to three melodramatic zoomer tweens. in general, i think i'm a bit burnt out reading about -- and also at this point, more than a bit skeeved by -- the sheer number of teen/kid protagonists in very dark, lethal settings?

Basically, can anyone recommend more web serials like Pact and maybe Twig/Worm? Maybe with a cast that are in at least their twenties? I'm starting on Unsong and it's giving me Good Omens vibes which i appreciate greatly, but it's considerably drier and the writing hasn't gripped me yet. would definitely prefer to go back to it later and read in the meantime something a bit livelier, or without as much gematriah.

Check out a local library or an internet library, hit up stories on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award, and have a good free time with always good fantasy lit. There is definitely quality stuff in the web serial genre, but its slimmer pickings compared to the sheer wealth of stuff you can find in paper novels.

For answers keeping to the web serial medium, the thing that Wildbow is (occasionally) good at in Pact and Pale is:

1. Tense action scenes
2. "magical" arguments between people complicated by fantasy rules.
3. genuinely weird fantasy, where fantastical things occur.

For 1, into the mire is great. https://intothemire.com/
for 3, Katalepsis is great. https://katalepsis.net/

For 2, a practical guide to evil is decent https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Mar 29, 2021

# ¿ Mar 29, 2021 00:31

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Unsong is written by someone who personally is not a nazi but certainly seems to attract them and promote them and direct them against his enemies and privately admit that he's hiding his power level to sneakily spread their ideas. Also really hates feminism and insists that trump isn't racist.

Of course to know this you'd have to read his posts and they're all a hundred thousand words of waffling.

What the Yikes.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2021 00:39

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Is there anything good in the vein of (I'm sorry Hungry) Katalepsis, Unsong, Pact, for the occult stuff?

Not necessarily Reincarnated in Another World with the Power of Enochian Ceremonial Magic (unless that actually exists, in which case link me to it), just something with rituals and grimoires and poo poo, also not being written by a terrible human being like Scott would be good.

If your willing to go cross mediums, the fiction podcast archive81 is very very much about rituals (ESPECIALLY its third season, which is stand-alone compared to its first two, and follows two magicians as they attempt a very large and complicated spell)

http://www.archive81.com/

"Archive 81 is a found footage horror podcast about ritual, stories, and sound."

# ¿ Mar 29, 2021 02:12

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Plorkyeran posted:

I noticed Fates Parallel is running some ads on RR now too. I've always wondered how effective those are.

That's an interesting question.

https://www.royalroad.com/pages/advertising-faq

Depending on how much you buy, its about 0.125c to 0.151c per thousand impressions which on first brush seems Very Very Good, but the click through rate of those impressions would probably be lower than the googles.

Users reading through RR will see an add at the top and bottom of every page of a web serial they read, not just on the front page and the search pages. Someone would be far more likely to click an add while they are on the front page or browsing for new stories, VS them been on like chapter 463 of defiance of the homophobic subtext as their eyes glaze past the advertisement at the bottom of the screen and auto-focus on the next page button.

RR isn't doing any evil UI design stuff to disguise their advertisements as natural results to the glazed eye either.

Yeah, I also wonder how effective these ads are. If there is anyone here with glorious glorious stats, slam them into this thread, sate its curiosity.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Sep 12, 2021

# ¿ Sep 12, 2021 06:12

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Selkie Myth posted:

OUR CAMPAIGNS
Title Views Views Left Clicks Cost
Beneath the Dragoneye Moons 2114052 0 975 $250.00

Thanks for posting this data!

Interesting - somewhat low click through rate, but the actual cost of each click-through is still pretty decent, $0.256c per person.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2021 16:50

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

KamikazePotato posted:

Question; what's the rules/culture acceptability for talking about your own book launch here? I have a lot of data I'd be interested in sharing, but it might come across as bragging cause, to be blunt, the launch has been very successful.

(Extremely Litrpg voice) Stats stats stats!

# ¿ Sep 20, 2021 05:23

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

catgirlgenius posted:

I thought maybe at least one person in this this thread might appreciate this litrpg microfiction as much as I did:

RELATIVE TIME KNIFE

Yeah this is excellent, I love it. The Comedy and the horror both landed. It's interesting to read good writers intentionally breaking grammatical rules for effect.

LLSix posted:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40290/demesne Is pretty entertaining. The MC is a monster, but one of the tolerable kind of monsters so far.

Demense posted:

In the middle of the rains, they finally finished digging the core for the demesne.

Whisperer Lolilyuri, Lori to most,

NOPE

# ¿ Sep 23, 2021 05:38

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

To build a proof of concept, patreon had two developers. To move from proof of concept to minimum viable product, patreon burned 2.1 million dollars in less than 12 months.

With 1 dev coding to get proof of concept working (probably not even able to dedicate full time to the project) - even if RR has the money to ramp up spending once the proof of concept was finished (they don't), they would be competing with an established company to steal a sliver of their revenue. It's never gonna work.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2021 06:49

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

quote:

Nine-To-Five Villainy also continues to be good, though it's still in its introductory chapters. It has significantly higher quality writing than most RR stuff; it's just "smooth" to read and I feel like the two protagonists have very distinct voices and perspectives. The only downside is that I'm not a big fan of what I think the protagonists' powers are going to be, but that's not a huge issue if everything else is good/interesting.

Gonna have to give a big anti-recommend for Nine-To-Five-Villany. It's prose is not unreadable, but its politics suck. To pick one random example out of a hat:

quote:

Time travel is like that one hot crazy girl everyone warns you about. You know it's bad news, but you still put your dick in crazy.

This is an author note.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2021 17:50

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

D34THROW posted:

In mid-2028, the geographical and geopolitical landscape of Earth changed irrevocably when two megalomaniacs joined forces against the world and tried to take what they thought was theirs. When conventional turned to nuclear, everything fell apart in clouds of fire and destruction that ended life as we know it. Now, in 2151, it is a struggle to survive, as the descendants of those who survived the Last War scrape by on the skin of their own knuckles. And they rely also on the efforts of the Outcasts, who brave the Wastes and scour the Exclusion Zones for Old World fortunes and technology. Below it all is the hope that perhaps one day the world might return to the better days that are now gone.

Every word in your blurb a percentage of readers will fall away, so you want to make promises as quickly as possible to hook readers in.

Shorter Edit posted:

Decades ago, two megalomaniac's tried to conquer Earth. They instead sparked nuclear Armageddon. Now, in 2151, humanity struggles to survive, reliant on the Outcasts, explorers who brave the Wastes and scour the Exclusion Zones for Old World fortunes and technology.

This is a mediocre edit (on my part), but the economy of word count here is what's important. The shorter start gives you space to make more promises about the protagonist, events, mysteries, and locations.

Side note, but you possibly don't want to mention the two megalomaniac's in the blurb at all. "Decades ago, nuclear Armageddon scoured earth. Now, in 2151" gets you to your central promise faster. If you do want to mention them because they are important (e.g. the protagonist will be exploring one of their abandoned military bases), the sentence that makes that cool promise is a great place to first mention them.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Nov 17, 2021

# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 16:06

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

quote:

Decades ago, the end of the Last War bathed the world in nuclear fire. Now, in 2151, the world depends on their own will and that of the Outcasts, intrepid explorers who brave the Wastes and Exclusion Zones in search of Old World treasure and tech.

You could still potentially eat some words from that opening.

shorter edit posted:

Decades ago, the Last War bathed the world in nuclear fire. Now, in 2151, the world depends upon the Outcasts, intrepid explorers who brave the Wastes in search of Old World treasure and technology.

D34THROW posted:

I suppose I was trying to insert too much of the prologue into the blurb.

I appreciate the help, all

The thing is, the story isn't only about the Outcasts. It starts off with a wannabe Outcast and an experienced Waster going out together, but there are other factions and people to explore as well, like the Witnesses and the Numises to start.

Yeah, that third paragraph sounds like great stuff to add to your blurb. Best of luck with the marketing!

# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 16:56

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Mulozon Empuri posted:

Some of them are actually quests on some nerdy website, but still worth reading.

I've never heard the quest terminology before - are those similar to the CYOA adventure forum things where a thread collaboratively inserts actions into the story that the author is writing?

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 03:05

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Peachfart posted:

I have now started 5 or 6 serials that go from interesting plot -> generic magic school story. Please writers, stop this. It is so boring.

Out of curiosity (question open to anyone) what elements make up a generic magical school story? Only wizard school story I can remember is the pots, but haven't really run across many wizard school plotlines outside of that.

Run across waay more superhero school storylines, which are WIERD beasts, especially compared to early superhero genre stories which focused on characters fully acting on their own volition, entirely divorced from state power structures. Modern superhero school stuff is like... utopian reimagining of the police / military as a high school / college campus. Wierd stuff.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2022 20:39

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Whaleporn posted:

{Good post}

Really cool effort post! Thank you for writing this up.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2022 09:11

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

It's cool and good when authors include things because they have something interesting to say about them, but I'm imagining the opposite where you very crudely graft a setting divorced from your narratives thesis and just leave it chilling bewilderingly in the background. Yup, all these children are going to school on the moon. Nope, this is never relevant narratively or thematically. Like that owns.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2022 05:37

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

One of my favourite things about watching mediocre Disney shows is the moment when some sort of exec has come in and left a note like "hey, this show would probably make more money if their was a school", and so suddenly all of the characters who were previously living the medieval peasant life are sitting in a room listening to some guy in his 40's. Give me that unintentional narrative dissonance.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2022 05:44

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

I just went to Demesne royal road page on this thread's recommendation and had a flashback to when I last read the opening of this book and put it down in disgust.

The literal first page of Demesne posted:

In the middle of the rains, they finally finished digging the core for the demesne.

Whisperer Lolilyuri, Lori to most,

This is your periodic reminder to anyone not reading Demesne that their is a reason for this.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2022 21:37

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

DACK FAYDEN posted:

the post recommending it did point out her name

Ah, I see I glazed over the original recommendation. Frankly, (cw: csa) The name blatantly marketing the text to paedophiles is just such a screaming red flag. Minimizing how hosed up that is is... side eye. I am side eying the recommender.

I don't want to consume the thread in a long discussion about this and derail the discussions of other texts, so that's the last ill post about this.

edit: important context

Rob Filter posted:

To be clear, anyone recommending Demesne is 1000% not a paedophile, nor is anyone ITT talking about the text. It was not my intention to imply that, and I apologize if I accidentally did.

To be explicit, anyone recommending Demesne has poor taste and a blind spot for how dangerous it is for a text (especially a web serial on a site with a large active reader base of children) to market itself to creeps (even accidentally), in the same way that random people IRL recommending me goblin slayer have poor taste and a blind spot for fascist rhetoric.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Feb 23, 2022

# ¿ Feb 22, 2022 22:11

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

e: no need for this post.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Feb 23, 2022

# ¿ Feb 23, 2022 04:33

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Patrick Spens posted:

It's basically a much worse version of the ending of Mass Effect 3

lmao, this is one of the most casually damning condemnations of an ending I've heard.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2022 08:33

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

MonikaTSarn posted:

Are there any good litrpg / web serial podcasts ? I've been listening to the Wandering Inn podcast ( No killing goblins, https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/dragonus45) and it's been quite entertaining.

Alexander Wales does a rationalist fiction writing podcast with another web serial author, and it ends up covering alot of web fiction. It might be something your interested in.

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/rationally-writing-rationally-writing-302JZise1YV/

# ¿ Mar 9, 2022 18:03

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

I've recently dived into the royal road forums, and I return with links to a few interesting threads.

Firstly, RR still doesn't have any LGBT+ tags, so as a replacement people on the forums have created a thread to index LGBT+ works here: https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/108535 .

Secondly, this guide by TheFirstDefilier (aka writer of defiance of the fall), talks about how the web novel business model works. It's a grim and fascinating look into how the big stories on RR are shaped by the commercial pressures of the web novel medium: https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/116847

# ¿ Apr 10, 2022 12:25

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Larry Parrish posted:

also I really don't know what to make of that queer story list having yuri and lesbian together lol. is that their way of saying it's the weirdly dated perspective characters in manga have where they pretend like even though it's 2020 in the story they've never heard of someone being gay in Japan. is it just that they copy/pasted an entry from someone else with weeb poisoning? I'm losing my mind here.

If your handling tags on a platform that isn't AO3 their is incentive to put down every variation so that if two different people search for either closely associated tag, both can find your work.

AO3 has a bunch of interesting tech and volunteer work that supports a best in class tagging system, and means people can just write whatever tags they want. You can read about it here: https://www.wired.com/story/archive-of-our-own-fans-better-than-tech-organizing-information/.

Selkie Myth posted:

While we're at it, I wrote my own guide, which links to not only TheFirstDefier's guide, but also links Shirtaloon's and Pirate's guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O29fCQIg_onlh2SwIr54SXdApLGK-mlcsuDFrH6GgzE/edit

We say a lot of similar things

Interesting, thanks for the link.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Apr 10, 2022

# ¿ Apr 10, 2022 13:55

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Wildbow really hates drug dealers / drug users.

I remember been younger and reading the death note manga, and seeing the phrase "dangerous marijuana addict", and then the dangerous marijuana addict has a gun and is robbing banks and lmao. The official translations change this to "dangerous drug addict" because in the west "dangerous marijuana addict" pushes the bounds of credulity even for right wing anti-drug people.

Wildbow has written chapters more right wing than death note. His infamous chapter where he has a literal Nazi heroically refuse to let drug dealers / addicts sit at the crime roundtable for criminals doing crime things because dealing drugs was a step too far, and the protagonist is like "Yeah!!!" in the narration, lmao. He hasn't to my knowledge written anything quite that yikes since, but once you see his war-on-drugs politics you can't unsee them.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2022 02:40

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Ytlaya posted:

I just started reading TUTBAD since people have talked about it in this thread a lot.

It's good. It has whatever vague element to it that makes it "readable without friction" (which is the best way I can explain the difference between the serials that I find enjoyable and the ones I don't).

Yeah their are a few things that I think contribute to how easily readable TUTBAD is:
1. It's well written.
2. It's without many difficult metaphors or load bearing difficult words. I'd say the prose leans towards George Orwell rather than Ursula Le Guin, and both of those writers are very accessible.
3. The story's content is interesting, but its not emotionally challenging. Like, I've yet to cry while reading it.

Total digression on load bearing words:

Fallen London posted:

A spider promenades across a window-sill with obscene casualness

I like this sentence. "Promenades", as a verb, is something I'd never read before, and I had only a vague context for it (Promenade? Like, the overbuilt wooden walkways that commercial districts on beaches stand on?). That said, even if you lack that context for promenade, you can still clearly understand the core verb-noun action of the sentence.

quote:

A spider crosses a window-sill

That said, the first sentence is still a bit trickier to understand than this second summary though. I think TUTBAD leans towards easier sentences, despite the inclusion of many anachronistic words.

TUTBAD chapter 1. posted:

Mizuki wore culottes that stopped just above her knees, looking like a skirt when she was still, but short pants when she was in motion.

Lmao I had no idea what culottes were and was about to be like "anachronistic clothing" and then googled the term and im just completely ignorant nvm post over.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2022 20:01

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Cicero posted:

TUTBAD 105: Hmm, being lost in a poison gas-filled canyon seems less than ideal. Wonder if this'll finally lead to a dungeon day reset by Alfric.

I'm guessing that since Alfric takes this poo poo serious and is always carefully paying attention, Isra is probably good at tracking, and they have the helmet so they can jump up into the sky whenever they want, them being lost here means spatial dungeon fuckery.

TUTBAD 105: speculation I've yet to see Wales work discuss 4 dimensional space, and that seems like something that is EXACTLY up his wheelhouse.

# ¿ May 26, 2022 21:20

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

If your feeling exhausted after reading Wildbow's magnum opus the Worm, I'd recommend some lighter reading.

IMO, you should Kick Back and Unwind with the hit book The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy. A heartwarming story of a father and son walking down the titular road, its a great way to destress after hard literature. I'd strongly recommend reading the book with no spoilers whatsoever, just to guarantee that you won't have any wholesome moments spoiled. Enjoy!

# ¿ Jun 9, 2022 03:54

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Worm is one of the few seminal webnovels, for better and worse. If your interested in web fiction its possibly worth reading some of it just to see its influence on a bunch of other texts. The only things more influential I can think of are Harry Potter and the methods of Rationality (lmao) and fifty shades of grey.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Jun 9, 2022

# ¿ Jun 9, 2022 04:21

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Piell posted:

As someone who also liked Worm, I wouldn't bother, Ward is worse in basically every way

That's very unfair. Ward has more words.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2022 01:07

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Piell posted:

And you'd argue that isn't worse?

Let w1 = worm's wormcount, and w2 = ward wormcount's. w2 > w1.

Translated from maths to english: ward is greater than worm.

That's not even my personal opinion; that's proven mathmatical fact.

e: I'm been very silly to poke fun at ward's word count, please don't feel obligated to respond to this argument as if it was serious unless it amuses you to do so.

Rob Filter fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jun 22, 2022

# ¿ Jun 22, 2022 01:53

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

Galick posted:

After finishing binging Worm, I'm kinda feeling something more easy to digest. I've also just finished the latest Cradle book and kinda want more wuxia fightin' goodness.

Anyone have any recommendations along those lines? Not Beware of Chicken or Forge/Threads of Destiny, please. Kindle or just posted online are both fine!

You might find The Last Ship in Suzhou interesting.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2022 16:59

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

TUTBAD 119: I've been waiting to see what the inciting incident is for one of the core 5 (along with the herb dragons) to get "kidnapped" by the-suspicious-woman-who-is-probably-a-dragon-in-disguise, and I strongly suspect this is it.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2022 08:15

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 20:51

Rob Filter: Jan 19, 2009

LLSix posted:

TUTBAD: It's hilarious how so many commenters are convinced Cate is a dragon, on basically no evidence.

I want to believe.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2022 03:55

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Web Serials: It remains to be seen how important Evanescence will be

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