Remarks on finishing the book (3)
Let’s talk about the second question about this subject:
[The short story collection model is fundamentally unsuitable for serializing online articles]
Many authors who have actually written novels probably know that if a large number of readers are lost after reading, 90% of it is not because of any bad points you wrote, but because they "stopped looking forward to it".
What does "ending expectations" mean?
To put it simply, the story ends in stages, and the readers’ original expectations are satisfied, so they stop reading.
The protagonist finally gets rid of his status as a death row prisoner and is released from prison.
The criminal in the shocking cold case was caught.
The unparalleled problem that has puzzled experts has been solved.
The villains in Fish and Meat Township finally got their punishment.
At this time, even if you continue to write a new story immediately, if the next new story does not have a very strong connection with the current story, there will be a strong sense of interruption and a lot of follow-up reading will be lost.
Even great authors often worry about ending their expectations.
Rumor has it that when Doudou was writing Dou Po, he was worried about losing a large number of readers after completing the three-year contract, so he just forced a lot of things to happen in the last two months of the three-year contract, which made Yao Lao fall into a deep sleep, but he just couldn't Go to an appointment.
This characteristic is not limited to novels, but is prevalent in various serial works.
In order to fight against "breaking expectations", the authors had to rack their brains and use all their strength. Make the development between stories continuous and always create a feeling that "the story is not over yet".
The protagonist got rid of his status as a death row prisoner and came out of prison. Only then did he realize that he was framed for being imprisoned for no reason, and began to look for the framer. And the framer has already targeted the protagonist. This time, she does not intend to borrow a knife to kill someone, but to do it herself...
The prisoner of the shocking unsolved case was caught, but he immediately escaped from prison, and behind him, there seemed to be a mysterious mastermind...
In the fish and meat village, the high-ranking official who was so heinous that he could not see human nature at all was punished. No one believed the stories he told about strange powers and deranged gods before his head fell to the ground, about the reincarnation of gods, and about being demoted to earth. Until three days later, when the man who supported him angrily came to ask for his guilt, the Nine Heavenly Gates opened, snow fell in the summer, all the officials greeted the Immortal Lord in fear, and the emperor knelt down to apologize for the death penalty... (What the hell is unfolding!) Anyway There must be continuity between the stories, and they cannot end simply and abruptly. They must constantly lead to new developments and new expectations.
This is why there are so many "beat the young and the old comes", and this is also the easiest way to create a feeling of "the story is not over yet".
The book "The Magician of Fairy Tale World" is obviously more like a "short story collection" in terms of overall structure.
I intentionally add some connections between the stories so that the characters in the stories can be connected and establish a long-term main line.
But the tightness of this connection is limited. It is more like a skin, a cover, forcibly connecting the stories.
This mode of short stories is common in real fairy tale books. Each story is almost independent, and you can read any of them at any time.
As a physical book, you can read back and forth at will after purchasing the entire book.
But as a serialized online novel, the short story collection model is obviously inappropriate. Every time the story ends in stages, it is fatal for subsequent reading.
A problem that authors who write about astronomy often encounter is that every time they change the world, they will lose a lot of follow-up reading. Other types of creators are often troubled by the sudden drop in reading that occurs when changing maps.
Therefore, generally speaking, authors will choose to write hundreds of thousands of words on a map, squeeze out its potential, and then change it.
And because of my initial settings, I had to change maps frequently.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
If I were to re-create this book, I might choose to make the world smaller and try to integrate as many stories as possible into one kingdom to make the connections between the characters closer. Of course, there are no ifs for writing a book.
After talking about the two difficulties I encountered when writing a book, let me talk about my future creative plans.
(To be continued)
(End of chapter)