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Larry Parrish posted:the biggest problem with royal road is, as with many sites, especially for entertainment, is that the users are extremely stupid, lol. or maybe im just some 300 iq being that can't be effectively catered to, I dunno. I think it's more that RR users are young. Like, mid teens young. On top of just not being fully constructed people yet, I get the impression that, for at least some of them, RR stories are, like, basically the only fiction they have ever read outside of school.
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Apr 10, 2022 23:32
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I get it, holy hell I read a lot of awful fanfic at that age. And now, but that's not important.
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Apr 10, 2022 23:37
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yeah it's not really a mentality I can understand, cuz I started reading before school and basically spent my entire school life coasting by reading in class lol
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Apr 10, 2022 23:38
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Larry Parrish posted:yeah it's not really a mentality I can understand, cuz I started reading before school and basically spent my entire school life coasting by reading in class lol I did the same, lol. I remember one day in the 4th grade my teacher was so mad about my desk being covered in books that she dumped it on the ground right before recess and made me clean it up.
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Apr 10, 2022 23:53
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Omi no Kami posted:Yeah, it's worth highlighting that stuff like Katalepsis can't really be directly compared to RoyalRoad series- RoyalRoad stories are marketing challenges, not writing challenges, and good stories that aren't written in the format the site's readers like, with the volume and release frequency that they enjoy, will often suffer. Katalepsis is closer to Into the Mire or Pith in structure- it's basically an amateur novel that uses a lot of formatting and storytelling techniques from novels. Hey, thanks! You always have such complimentary things to say. And yeah, for the record, I suspect you're right about the general readership on RR, I just don't think that kind of audience even interacts with Katalepsis much, except to leave the occasional bizarre comment or review. Sibling of TB posted:Just got to say. I'm a 33 year old father of 3 and my biggest concern for awhile was whether Heather we doing right by Zheng. This is an incredibly valid concern because half the time Heather has no idea what she's doing, especially about all the relationships she's bumbled her way into. And Zheng is, um, a complex person!
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Apr 11, 2022 00:00
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Hungry posted:I probably should not have held off on posting to RR as long as I did, that was a poor decision, because I've picked up plenty of audience there, but it's not the standard RR audience who dominate the site. There is another audience there, they just tend not to be very vocal in public comments and the like.  (kidding, you do great work, just gotta josh ya for that assumption)
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Apr 11, 2022 00:04
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I don't even bother to have a RR account, lol. If I like a story enough I grab the Patreon or the RSS feed and if I don't it's no loss if I eventually lose the tab on my phone or forget about it.
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Apr 11, 2022 00:10
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Larry Parrish posted:I don't even bother to have a RR account, lol. If I like a story enough I grab the Patreon or the RSS feed and if I don't it's no loss if I eventually lose the tab on my phone or forget about it. this is the way
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Apr 11, 2022 00:19
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Infinity Gaia posted:I'll give the first one a try but the translated Chinese stuff always reads kinda off to me. I usually feel the same way; I think that Chinese WNs are frequently directly translated in a way that, even if grammatically correct, has a strange sort of "rhythm" to it. By "directly" I mean that the sentences are all directly translated, rather than being rewritten in a way that is more natural to English speakers. I have a hypothesis that (non-machine-)translated Japanese often ends up sounding (comparatively) more natural specifically because direct/explicit translation is frequently impossible (forcing the translator to use their own words to express the same thing). But Chinese is a subject-verb-object language like English, so maybe this makes it easier for translators to just explicitly translate sentences. There are also elements unrelated to prose, though, like the humor often landing sort of weirdly for me, but I imagine this is far more subjective. I'll usually understand what the joke is, but it strikes me as the sort of humor that is heavily dependent on tone/timing and ends up just sounding awkward when translated. It sort of vaguely reminds me of Japanese boke/tsukkomi humor, where the source of the humor is clear, but it doesn't really work well when translated to English (largely due to differences in tone/tempo in language).
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Apr 11, 2022 01:39
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Larry Parrish posted:The biggest thing I've noticed lately is authors not wanting to bother with number crunching for litrpg stuff, and this makes readers mad lol. They want more numbers for some reason. Who the hell is paying attention to that stuff and not skimming it?! I feel the opposite. I've stopped reading series before because their math stopped making sense. The top two reasons for me dropping a litRPG are that and doing something like having the MC start abusing slaves and other subordinates that convinces me that the author is horrible person. When I want to read fantasy without numbers, I go read traditional fantasy, or Katalepsis or Prac Guide. When I read litRPG, it's because I want to read about a world with defined levels and skills. It's soothing to escape to a world where things are organized, rational, and simple. A world where complex problems can be reduced to a handful of numbers, and hard work is rewarded by clear, easy to measure improvements. In short, stories don't need numbers to be effective (I'd even argue that most stories are better off without numbers), but if an author includes them, they better make them at least stand up to a cursory inspection.
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Apr 11, 2022 02:08
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Fates Parallel volume 2 is dropping on Amazon tomorrow; I’m intensely curious if and how the plot will be reworked. e: I don’t know what day it is. nrook fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Apr 11, 2022 |
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Apr 11, 2022 02:20
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Related to numberchat, I deeply appreciate the glossary of measurement terms in the notes for the most recent Desmesene.
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Apr 11, 2022 04:24
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I would have loving loved RR and the "generic RR story" at age 13. It's pretty similar to what I was reading then but without having to constantly visit the library to trade in for a new stack of books.
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Apr 11, 2022 06:06
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Plorkyeran posted:I would have loving loved RR and the "generic RR story" at age 13. It's pretty similar to what I was reading then but without having to constantly visit the library to trade in for a new stack of books. O lord I read so many bad books just cause it was available at the local library.
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Apr 11, 2022 07:53
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kitty cat kill sat: PEAS
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Apr 11, 2022 08:06
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I'm so happy for that cat.
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Apr 11, 2022 08:07
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nrook posted:Fates Parallel volume 2 is dropping on Amazon tomorrow; I’m intensely curious if and how the plot will be reworked. Would definitely be interested if someone else gave their impressions of the reworked Fates Parallel. I got the first book on Amazon, but I bailed midway through after I was given some content warnings. Specifically, I heard the initial soul-bond brainwashing stuff I found creepy was nothing compared to what would show up later with... I think some princess lady they had just met.. As I understand it, a lot of that is integral to the story being told, but I imagine it's still possible that a rework could tone down some unpleasantness.
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Apr 11, 2022 20:52
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avoraciopoctules posted:Would definitely be interested if someone else gave their impressions of the reworked Fates Parallel. I got the first book on Amazon, but I bailed midway through after I was given some content warnings. Specifically, I heard the initial soul-bond brainwashing stuff I found creepy was nothing compared to what would show up later with... I think some princess lady they had just met.. There are a bunch of different criticisms of Fates Parallel. Some of them are unfair (IMO), some of them are reasonable but I don't agree with them, and some of them I totally buy. A brief description. Mild spoilers for the second volume, and extremely vague spoilers for the third:
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Apr 11, 2022 21:26
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I'm only 5 or 6 chapters in of the 17 available so far but enjoying the chill adventures of Jerry in Friendly Necromancer. Really like the excerpts at the beginning of the chapters written by the necromancer who (mild early spoilers) seems to have caused some great calamity, taken over part of the land, and is the reason necromancy is feared in comparison to the protagonist's style of doing things.
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Apr 11, 2022 22:06
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The two things that made me drop FP are:
If anyone wants to try a modern-day litRPG with a morally gray/almost noirish MC give Double Blind a try. I can't decide if I like it or not, but I've been reading it on or off for a month and doesn't have many technical problems so I imagine some of ya'll will enjoy it. Anyone know what's up with The Last Orellen? The last update was 4 months ago, so I'm tempted to think it's been dropped after 25 excellent chapters. LLSix fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Apr 12, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2022 00:19
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Kinda surprised that, as a goon, you didn't assume there were people who read all kinds of stuff and never posted in public comments I know, right?! I guess I just wasn't thinking of the rest of the internet as being like SA. (And thanks!)
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Apr 12, 2022 00:23
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nrook posted:
If I recall correctly, the main difference in Fates Parallel is that they just bumble into the magical mind-fusing thing, and by the time they figure out what is going on it's too late to undo or for anybody to give informed consent. That's pretty messed up! If I discovered that the jerk who threatened me with a knife was copying bits of their brain into my own in my sleep, I would probably do something pretty drastic. The sooner one of us is dead, the less likely I'll turn into a jerk like them. Then again, maybe the jerk roommate who threatened me with a knife has some useful skills. Maybe it's a necessary evil, given that I'm surrounded by a messed up cultivation world full of other jerks, and this messed up mindmeld could make them less likely to stab me. I've definitely enjoyed some cyberpunk stories about people's willingness to erode the self in exchange for power, social acceptability, etc. There was a pretty cool video essay by Jacob Geller about brain transplants quite recently, as a matter of fact https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMkrrjKf5AE A story that had both characters seriously reckon with how messed up what they accidentally did to each other without consent was could be really interesting. In fact, it's so interesting that I kinda end up wandering off to watch video essays about the cyberghost that brainjacks you in Cyberpunk 2077, or the ethics of copy-pasting brains in SOMA. Hmm, where was I going with this anyways.... ah yes, if the author has the brain melded characters actually talking to each other about all the messed up aspects of the situation, and making their peace with it as a necessary sacrifice to keep going in their hellworld, that could be a legit real cool story.
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Apr 12, 2022 01:06
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Not a webserial, but if you want to read books that has that stuff as a subtheme and talks about and deals with those themes I highly recommend A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkades Martine.
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Apr 12, 2022 02:11
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berenzen posted:Not a webserial, but if you want to read books that has that stuff as a subtheme and talks about and deals with those themes I highly recommend A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkades Martine. Thanks! Checking them out now... here's the amazon pages for anyone else curious: - https://www.amazon.com/Memory-Called-Empire-Arkady-Martine-ebook/dp/B07C7BCB88 - https://www.amazon.com/Desolation-Called-Peace-Teixcalaan-Book-ebook/dp/B07QPJHNSM Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation. Sounds pretty cool! I just placed it on hold at my library, should hopefully arrive in a few days. I would also recommend some Adrian Tchaikovsky sci-fi books: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-time https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-ruin It's all about hearts and minds. And going on an adventure
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Apr 12, 2022 02:33
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avoraciopoctules posted:This first one is the one that made me drop the story. I don't have any issues with transhumanism stuff. In a hypothetical world where people can reprogram their own minds, I figure consenting adults should be able to do whatever. Some friends want to fuse their brains into one cybernetic brain-jar consciousness? Sure, as long as they know what they are getting into. In fact, I thought the magical hive mind stuff in Graydon Saunders' Commonweal books was pretty cool. If I recall correctly, the protagonists in Fates Parallel can still undo it, they'd just have to start their cultivation over (which is like six months to a year of progress for them). They decide not to. As for the rest, I've had this same discussion on Fates Parallel in this thread before, and it basically just seems to come down to having a completely different read of the story than some of its detractors, so I won't try to revive the old arguments. I think it's pretty clear no one's convincing anyone else in regards to Yue and her morality, or similar, and it just bogs down the thread. Bremen fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Apr 12, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2022 03:07
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There are quite a few web serials that end up cyclically discussed in this thread. I think that personally, I'd be really interested in comparing... A Succession of Bad Days by Saunders with Fates Parallel. Perhaps throw Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic books in there too. There's a common thread running through each that I don't think we've tried contrasting side by side in this thread yet, and I always like an excuse to revisit Tamora Pierce's stuff.
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Apr 12, 2022 04:14
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I tapped out of Fates Parallel pretty early on, after the initial plot impetus petered out and it became clear that the story wasn't in any hurry to find something to replace it. Just did not have any interest in pushing through with a narrative that didn't seem to be going anywhere quickly. Kitty Cat Kill Sat is also starting to wear on me in this fashion. There's really only so many times I can read Lily talk about alerts and fugue states and the difficulties of being a cat in a space station built for humans and I think I'm about to hit the wall with it. LLSix posted:Anyone know what's up with The Last Orellen? The last update was 4 months ago, so I'm tempted to think it's been dropped after 25 excellent chapters. No, there's been been no news whatsoever. Such is webfiction. avoraciopoctules posted:There are quite a few web serials that end up cyclically discussed in this thread. I think that personally, I'd be really interested in comparing... If you want to do a close read of something- and sure, that could be interesting- a dedicated thread might be best.
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Apr 12, 2022 11:08
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fates parallel is a slice of life with an overarching background plot, not the other way around
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Apr 12, 2022 11:19
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A Memory Called Empire is quite good, I recommend it as well.
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Apr 12, 2022 14:28
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that winterland post apoc story is quite good 12 miles below been enjoying it seeing a super smug machine get its poo poo absolutely rocked via sheer hubris has been very cathartic, but I'm just waiting for it to come back and bite our protagonists on the rear end
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Apr 12, 2022 14:35
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tithin posted:that winterland post apoc story is quite good I like the gods' flight paths as a story element but nothing can beat the computer tech the humans have got going on, that owns.
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Apr 12, 2022 15:07
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My brain has been broken by too much xianxia: I always thought Fates Parallel was pretty fast-paced, but that’s because my point of comparison for the genre is always Forge of Destiny.
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Apr 12, 2022 15:15
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tithin posted:that winterland post apoc story is quite good Yup, I actually like the 2nd book more than the first one.
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Apr 12, 2022 16:40
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I agree with people in the thread stating that it's way, way more engrossing to read about slice of life with the occasional life and death struggle vs the other way around where it gets exhausting and the author only lets you up for air once in a while, which is what you need to do to keep patreon subs rolling I guess? It's more fun to write characters living their lives then churn out an endless series of fights and conflicts, partially because you don't have to do problem solving every chapter or write a 200 page system guide for yourself (I'm at 50 pages of random notes anyway. Death is certain.)
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Apr 12, 2022 16:43
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I think the balance is important because the slice of life stuff is where you see the impact of those high intensity situations. If it's just right to fight, you don't get any time to really see how the characters have changed. I like how Arkendruthist does it where there's kind of a three part cycle. Slice of life to show where the characters are at which impacts the magic development/powering up they choose to do. That powering up gets shown off in action scenes and high stakes conflicts. Then the toll of those conflicts is felt in the next slice of life section.
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Apr 12, 2022 17:31
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Whaleporn posted:I agree with people in the thread stating that it's way, way more engrossing to read about slice of life with the occasional life and death struggle vs the other way around where it gets exhausting and the author only lets you up for air once in a while, which is what you need to do to keep patreon subs rolling I guess?
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Apr 12, 2022 17:45
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murklins posted:Those stories give lots of air, that's what the training arcs are. It's slice of life where the life is very boring. Training can be really cool, but that's only because I think of training in old kung fu movies and the methods there have been reused and ground down into a cliche. Balancing on things, being blindfolded, having to use your feet to do something, repetitive tasks like pinching grains of rice to teach accuracy and improve someone's hand muscles. Or the rocky angle, using the enviroment and what's availble to train. Or the master roshi 'stupid quest that actually is a really brutal challenge that requires the trainee to grow'. That they've been used so much is a burden. Training on screen or on page should be interesting, crazy, scary, or a backdrop to dive into getting to know your characters and them getting to know each other (you're loving up today, what's your malfunction? vs Hey, I've never taken more then a few rounds in a row, let's take 5, get some water. What's got your head in the clouds?) It's like every other activity: it should function to show your characters first, your world second, and be brisk if it's not doing something new. Do you have characters who are lazy? Or perhaps cut corners? Does the guy who always talk seem to be able to run forever because of his lungs? Or is there a turn where the lazy character hyper-focuses and trains all day? The corner cutter is secretly doing something to make their 'easy' training extremely hard. The guy who always talks is totally silent on the run because he's huffing and puffing. What's the worst training? I always just skim 'learning to feel mana and I can see mana and oooh I can see the mana channels' things because it's extremely boring. I am long winded and even those sections feel like a bunch of hot air. I also will never have a training gag as good as Ranma 1/2 where the main character is forced to jump around the block and spar with his dad with a ball and chain on one leg all the while saying 'THIS IS REALLY STUPID' then a few episodes later he has a fight scene where a tiny ninja man is clinging to his leg while he jumps around dodging thus making the really stupid training extremely useful!
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Apr 12, 2022 18:27
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I absolutely hate training scenes because I've seen it all, lol. Probably the only exception is Ar'kendrythist scenes where Eric crafts magic and plays with it for a while, because I've pretty much never seen anything done that way, from his little rhyming rituals that always foreshadow how his spell won't quite be what he expected or the way he thinks about how to use stuff together.
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Apr 12, 2022 21:28
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The thing that bores me the most are fight scenes that are just fight scenes and don't do anything to develop the characters or their relationships. Two people punching each other for a while is even less interesting to read about than the hundredth description of someone learning how to see ~magic~.
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Apr 12, 2022 23:00
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Had this conversation earlier in a discord when somebody was attempting to explain their story about an exiled princess and a spoilt price and I am just so tired of War and Nobility. I cannot be arsed reading fantasy rich-people politics anymore. My little story is absolutely not suited to the RR crowd and I'll never make any money off it, but I'm having a lot of fun with it, so that's ok.
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Apr 12, 2022 23:07
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