So I have a particular like for Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
Just thought I'd throw that out there.
But there's gotta be more than that, right? I mean what, reading a web novel that is now vastly popular has what to do with my choices exactly?
I don't think anyone would think of writing more than eighty chapters for a prologue, turning what could've been a brief overview into a standalone novel.
Well, actually, I'm sure someone else will do it eventually. Maybe there's a 200-chapter prologue out there that I'm missing because it got buried after people asked "Why the hell did they write 200 chapters for a prologue?"
Are you confused?
Do you not understand any of the events of the past forty chapters?
Well that's not the best, I mean I did put some work in to add some air of mystery but I'm not trying to give you an aneurysm with a single chapter.
There was a time when I thought that misleading the everloving hell out of the reader would make them even more interested in what I was writing. I remember days when I would consider writing chapters in custom-made code, but if it was so tiring that I couldn't even make a draft then I'm sure nobody with things to do other than read would bother looking.
I want people to understand what I'm writing, because all of this is very important, but at the same time it feels kind of odd to just put everything out there.
A lot of things are straightforward, and that's good. It's nice to just know what something is saying without having to bust out a dictionary or ask ChatGPT to tl;dr it. But I think that novels ought to be different. I mean I could just skip to the end and tell you that this is all about how God is fake but I'm pretty sure there was some crazily creative gambling addict who did it about a thousand pages before me.
You need to be original, you need to give something new, and so I think confusing the reader is relatively new. It could honestly be a mistake. Maybe when I wonder about why my extensive optimism hasn't been proven right I'm just straying away from the real reason, which is that nobody picks up a book and expects it to be a jigsaw puzzle.
It seems a bit too easy to blame the reader, it's also a bit mean. I can write a novel for myself but why would I share it if I didn't want people to read and enjoy it? Even if I am wrong, I have to hope that people do enjoy being presented with some challenge of truly understanding what they're reading.
Even just saying it aloud makes me lose confidence.
But, forty-four chapters in is way too far to act on this realization, and so I'll be stuck here for a thousand chapters or so doing what I can.
Maybe I'll hit it big, and everything I do will become some sort of sensation.
"Did you see that new chapter, only a single word!"
"I know, it's genius!"
"I heard the next one won't have words."
"I heard the one after that won't have a title."
"Brilliant!"
Then everyone will start making their chapters zero words with no titles and the world of literature will come to a halt. Finally, I will have won.
It's kind of hard to be anywhere that you are forced to compare your results to others. The most famous authors are all being compared with one another constantly, each fighting for a spot as the universally recognized "greatest."
If they can't even be left alone with a reputation of being phenomenal, what am I supposed to do?
You know I really love those open-ended questions that are usually used as interaction bait, some sort of conversation starter among people who all like/do a certain thing. I don't think that they're exceptional questions, thought-provoking in any way but I find it funny how we would all care to an unreasonable degree for the answer of someone who was famous, someone who was respected.
With that being said I think I'll take the bear-
If there was ever any doubt about what I would say to someone who wanted to know why they should pick up my novel, it would definitely be:
"There's more choices that are made with good reason than you would expect."
And then I wouldn't say anything important about the actual novel.
I'm honestly not that much of a marketer. I think if someone asked me to name one positive trait about myself I'd say "I'm cool."
I mean I probably have a bunch of ironic responses I'd wheel out before that, but the unironic response may just be "I'm cool." It truly is awkward to speak positively of yourself in front of people.
Do you ever find yourself fully prepared to say something and then you realize halfway through that it's absolutely horrible? I'm sure people do it often, but I speak as I think. I can delete words on a computer, but if I could erase people's memories I'd go for every single piece of literature in their head so mine would be the first they'd read. Either I'd find a way to get the most honest review of my novel ever, or I'd find a way to get easy support.
To my readers, however many of you there are, I truly do appreciate you. If I had zero readers I would probably not be here. I'm not keen on giving up but that's a pretty undeniable sign. I do hope that you are enjoying my passion piece, and if you're not I can only hope that at the least you understand it.
If there were one reader, even if it was only one, I'd continue.
Mostly because I could call it an ORV reference.
But I truly do hope you enjoy this.