There are a number of survival strategies that Webnovel authors use to try to keep on top of their relentless workload while keeping their audience happy. These are strategies that any serial writer can learn from, although some of them are fairly specific to this meat grinder approach to writing.
Keep the story simple – Webnovels have extremely simple long term goal-driven plots. That goal might be “become a god” or “win the love of a good man,” but they’re always built around simple and direct Spine of Action which naturally give the author a lot of room to expand and play with.
Keep it primal – The motivations of Webnovel characters (like any good fictional characters) are primal ones that any audience member will understand because they’re things that all humans feel. A desire for revenge, to protect their family, to uphold a personal reputation, to save someone, to gain love, to regain something which was lost, to make money, to build something greater- these are all primal motivations which let the reader and lead character connect.
Be your lead – Your lead character is a power fantasy alternate world version of yourself- own it. They’re you, simplified, slightly generic, and given a few positive traits for the audience to connect with. Don’t spend time agonizing over the perfect lead, just get in there and write your fantasy- because others have the same fantasies and will relate to you. Not only that, it’s what will make your character feel unique and different from the other leads- you are the secret sauce!
Make sure your lead is active – Your lead character is the driving engine of your story- they need to want something, and want it bad. They can’t be passive or unsure- they WANT it, and everything they do is in service to achieving that goal. Your story is about how the lead character achieves their goal- everything else is secondary.
Hit the ground running – You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so the saying goes. Good advice for writers too, as audiences have little patience for a story to warm up, especially in Webfiction. The central plot, motivation, character, goal and other essentials must be delivered in the first few chapters or the audience is going to be looking to get their entertainment fix somewhere else.
Stay audience focused – The goal of a Webnovel writer, first and foremost, is to entertain their audience, and give them that hit of dopamine they crave. Plot, character, fine prose and witty dialog are all secondary and just there to keep the audience happy, and no trick, no matter how cliche or crude is off the table if it keeps the audience coming back for more. Chapters must always end on dramatic questions, and no plot twist is too wild if the audience enjoys it. This isn’t writing War and Peace, this is producing fast junk food entertainment.
Power fantasies sell – The audience is there to have their emotions stroked, and the simplest way to do this is to have the main characters act out the fantasies of the audience.
Keep it PG – The sad truth is that general audience stories make more money exactly because they’re targeted at the widest possible audience. The more people you turn-off/offend, the less people are going to be reading your story. Swearing, sex, torture, graphic violence and other dark content are just going to turn people away, especially teens who are the target audience of most of these stories. A little dash of these can add spice to a story, but too much will have readers heading for the doors.
Revenge plots sell – The strong bully the weak, the hero steps in and gets revenge on the bully, the audience eats it up and cheers. Rinse and repeat.
Sexual fantasies sell – Cater to the sexual and emotional desires of your audience if you want to keep them coming back. The love interests must always have some sexualized selling points (large breasts, gorgeous eyes, handsome features, beautiful shape, etc) and other traits which stimulate the audience on a personal level. Don’t be afraid to dip into sexual fetishes, but not too deeply. The temptation of sex sells much better than the act itself. (Unless you’re specifically writing for an audience that expects sex.)
Harems work – A main character who finds their love and commits is boring, but one who must choose between many different wonderful options keeps the reader interested in who they’ll end up with. Not only that, it lets the writer crowd the story with a whole array of walking sexual fantasies for the character and audience to lust after. Everywhere the main character goes, they should be encountering beautiful potential love interests.
Everybody loves a winner – The man character is a power fantasy stand-in for the reader, and the reader hates to lose. If your main character starts to lose, the audience won’t be into it and will wander off to read about some other winner. Characters can suffer setbacks in their goals and shouldn’t always get what they want, but in the long run their path should only go in one direction- up!
Luck over effort – In many Webfiction genres, the main character is on a long and hard road, one which is normally overcome by blood, sweat, and determination. The problem is doing that stuff involves a lot of boring time doing actual work, which is not really a lot of fun for the audience or that dramatic. So instead, while the main character should look like they’re working hard, they should actually be getting a non-stop stream of lucky breaks that let them skip ahead to the good stuff. Audiences love this, because it makes them feel like they’re one lucky break away from success in their own lives, and that hard work is overrated. However, you still need to pay lip service to doing work, so the main character should still do something to earn each of their lucky breaks- just things which are dramatic and interesting. (Like rescuing people, exploring ruins, winning duels, and other things which allow them to seem to earn their next power-up.)
There’s always someone bigger – The writer should establish right from the start that there’s a hierarchy, and the main character’s place in it. (Usually near the bottom.) This gives the character a distant goal to work towards, and helps the audience understand the challenge that the main character is facing, making it seem more difficult. (Which in turn makes the audience more interested in seeing how the main character manages to overcome that massive disadvantage.)
Start the main character with a handicap – The main character should never start average- they should start below average. Whether it’s because of a curse, poor health, being orphaned, born to the lowest caste, or whatever- they should always start in the worst possible place. This creates instant audience sympathy because we love underdogs and feel connected to them. It also makes the thrill of their success all the more sweet.
Style is overrated – The point is to keep cranking out interesting stories as fast as you can, not tell them in some great and flashy style. Find a tight, concise storytelling style that lets you write fast and use that for writing your Webnovel, don’t worry about wowing the audience with your prose. Just tell the damn story, and if that means telling and not showing, then so be it. As long as it’s interesting, the audience doesn’t care about your style. (But they do care about grammar and spelling, so make sure those are still solid.)
Know your genre tropes – Genre tropes are tropes because people love them, and they work. No matter how many lists of cliches are made, or TV Tropes debates happen, the truth is that those tropes are there for a reason, so don’t avoid them- embrace them. Know what they are, and be ready to use them to keep your audience happy, no matter how much the critics may moan.
Write ahead – You will always get sick, or have writers block, or a family issue, or whatever else life decides to throw at you. This isn’t a possibility- this is factual reality like death, taxes, and people bothering you when you’re trying to write the best parts of your story. There is only one solution for this- write several chapters ahead of what you release, with a minimum of three chapters in the bank. For serials, where you’re responding to reader feedback, too many chapters ahead can cause trouble in case something doesn’t work the way you planned, but not writing ahead at all is asking for skipped release dates. And, as any serial content producer can tell you, the road to hell is paved in missed deadlines.
Listen to your audience – For most fiction writing, the best advice is to mostly ignore your audience and just write what you want. For Webnovels, the point is to write what the audience wants to read, and the only way to do that is to pay attention to whatever feedback you’re getting from them. Learn what your audience likes and doesn’t like, and then give them more of the good stuff. However, do remember that sometimes not giving them what they want until the last possible second produces better results than just giving it to them right away. (Also, don’t lose sight of your central story goal.)
Do some loose planning – While you need to be nimble and ready to change the story to suit your audience tastes, it’s not a bad idea to plan the story out very loosely from start to rough finish. A two or three page synopsis is fine, and it can make the world of difference when writer’s block comes down the line. Also remember that long stories are like eating elephants- they’re done in stages, one bite at a time. Plan a series of steps, not a whole big block. That lets you slip in other steps or re-arrange things as you go.
