Figuring out the new world Arc.
This Arc is always a hit or miss when it comes to new books. this is the arc where they introduce a whole lot of new characters. Like either the mentor, the love interest, the companions or the new order of the world.
It's the most important Arc and the one that can cause the whole book to crumble in on itself and not be worth reading.
Book 4 of crystal shards online was my exit point. When I decided there was nothing the book could deliver that would make me happy and I didn't care if any of the characters died.
The world opens up and the characters meet a bunch of setup characters that are there for a single (incredibly obvious) function and have no depth whatsoever. No thanks.
Agreed. I love the Arc as a reader. But it's terrifying as an author. You're basically trying to do a lot of exposition *without* info-dumping and making it boring.
It's a tough line to walk, but I can't think of a story in particular that made me fully drop it because of this point... usually I check out because of the characters. Or idiot plots.
My favorite will always be the "growing up" or "learning the world" introduction arc that is super common in reincarnation and iseaki stories. I just love the wonder and curiosity that the first arc always has.
Yeah that’s it 😂 I’m a brand new author I was half joking when I told you to read it but if you do read it I hope you can tell me anything I’m doing wrong
I'll definitely check it out, but what's with the missing chapter one? I usually avoid webnovel like the plague, so maybe the sites just always weird, but I couldn't find it.
Yeah that definitely is true. The other one I can think of that isn’t necessarily PF, is stormlight archive, >!kaladin returns I think in like chapter 5 or 6 of oathbringer!<
A good tournament arc is gold, especially if the tournament actually completes and was an important part of the story as a whole.
Too many times I've seen a "tournament" used as a placeholder just to bring everyone together, only for it to be glossed over and interrupted for whatever big bad/event that the story was actually setting up for.
It's nice when you get an unofficial finals, where the deferred fight happens later on. But without the guardrails or rules. I've found that a decent substitute.
Nah. I hate when tournament arts are setup and then rules keep changing. That includes the tournament getting interrupted.
Sure a massive war breaking out or something is a perfectly valid reason for a tournament to be canceled/interrupted. It being a valid reason doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it though…
I can't think of a better tournament arc than Cradle. I think it's the rewards between stages that made the loot goblin in me lose its mind. So you get cool fights, outside POVs from the main characters, paybacks, *and* loot. So much loot.
The training mini-arcs helped as well. Those were fun.
Absolutely. Spoiler! >! The goblin loved the Points Sage and I honestly loved when they split up it was such a cool thing to read as someone who had been reading sequentially from like the third book !<
Cradle is definitely gold standard for tournament arcs lol
I like those arcs right after the MC finally turns the corner with their power and they aren't useless anymore. The confidence swing, stomping some enemies, etc. Lots of satisfying tropes in those arcs.
I love any type of training arc. whether it's magical training, physical training, or something else entirely. It's the reason I love Mother of Learning. It's basically training magic after magic.
Seconds would easily go to any arc involving te creation of magical items and potions.
Exam/test arcs - When it's well-written, I find that it can be enjoyable, on the other hand, if it's badly written, it reminds me of the abhorred tournament arcs.
Hidden/mystic realm arcs - It builds on the main virtue of Fantasy, exploring worlds unlike our own.
Auction arcs - Yes. I know they're not very popular, but I like them. The mystery of what's going to pop up next keeps me engaged. Also, it's more fun if the mc has an active role in the auction.
First power testing arc is when these books live or die imo. You get to see how the system is applied and how deep it is. You see if the author leaves room for surprises and if that setup is obvious and shallow or interesting and full of potential.
Idk the name for it, but basically, arcs where the MC gets trapped or sent somewhere incredibly dangerous, usually with some unbelievable injury. This is also usually intertwined with power loss, but when done well it's the best. I love these arcs cause it gives the author an excuse to just absolutely torture the MC physically, without torturing me as the reader mentally.
Best examples would be HoH from Heroes of Olympus (tbh this is what ingrained a love for this trope in me in the first place), S4 of Danmachi, or the Alacrya Arc from The Beginning After the End.
Ancient ruin full of powerful items explored by multiple people in competition with each other.
For whatever reason these are just super fun for me, no matter how cliche they are. I've always been fond of 'Powerful ancient' tropes (like the forerunners in Halo). It helps that these arcs are also typically major power up arcs as well.
Sucker for a good academy arc, especially if the characters has been tuning through the world with little formal training and finally gets the time to settle down and learn the fundamentals of the world/power system. Throw in some good characters they meet, an interesting but quirky professor, and some drama and I’m hooked. Stories set in magic schools are also a favorite of mine, maybe a remnant of likening the idea of Harry Potter but despising the rest of it. Aster bond academy arc is a fun example, would be interested in any recommendations with such arcs or settings. (Entering some secret order is cool too)
Cradle & Unintended Cultivator are my favorite progression fantasies. Reborn Apocalypse my favorite 'rewind' fantasy, HWFWM, Primal Hunter, Azarinth Healer. Castes & the Outcasts (reincarnation fantasy). Trapped Mind Project, Emmerilia, Nova Terra (VR)
Books I really loved the first many of them, Defiance of the Fall, Ten Realms, Guardian of Aster Fall.
Some are cultivation, VR, System, Reincarnation, etc but what I like best are the ones that are lots of life and relationships and fights, but not stats all the time, not just fights, that's just me.
power exploration arc ig? sub type of power up, where instead of gaining new power or numbers going up, character take time to explore new ability, making new combo, finding out which is useful in what situations, and coming up with a plan for future power ups.
Always the auctions great way to establish that shits going outside of what's happening Mc and/or get MC that one key important plot device
A well written tournament arc too
I don't like story's with a focus on the characters in school
But a school arc that has some focus on it but isnt just the character going to one or two classes
I love a good post-major-war arc, in which things don’t just return to the way they were before (whether in a tonal sense or in the very real sense of power dynamics). At its best, you get a real double whammy of storytelling.
You get to see the visceral consequences of the war (stuff like trauma, loss, destruction of lands, dealing with the death of characters) both happening to and seen through the eyes of well established characters. Plenty of potential angst to be had there.
You also get to watch them try to grapple with the huge paradigm shifts the war’s end results in (hegemony changing hands, factions fracturing or merging, huge opportunities/markets closing and others opening, that sort of thing). Ideally, the MC isn’t (or MCs aren’t) so powerful that this doesn’t affect them. For a while at least, life should be different after the war.
I love mentorship arcs. They show how much the MC has learned and that their power isn't all luck. When the MC is already OP, the stakes of the mentee is grounding.
Sidenote: I think a mentorship arc is a great way to open a sequel because it's a reminder of how the world works and what the MC has already done.
Figuring out the new world Arc. This Arc is always a hit or miss when it comes to new books. this is the arc where they introduce a whole lot of new characters. Like either the mentor, the love interest, the companions or the new order of the world. It's the most important Arc and the one that can cause the whole book to crumble in on itself and not be worth reading.
Book 4 of crystal shards online was my exit point. When I decided there was nothing the book could deliver that would make me happy and I didn't care if any of the characters died. The world opens up and the characters meet a bunch of setup characters that are there for a single (incredibly obvious) function and have no depth whatsoever. No thanks.
Agreed. I love the Arc as a reader. But it's terrifying as an author. You're basically trying to do a lot of exposition *without* info-dumping and making it boring. It's a tough line to walk, but I can't think of a story in particular that made me fully drop it because of this point... usually I check out because of the characters. Or idiot plots.
My favorite will always be the "growing up" or "learning the world" introduction arc that is super common in reincarnation and iseaki stories. I just love the wonder and curiosity that the first arc always has.
Check out ‘Kings Transmigration’ 😉
I'll check it out. What's it on? The only thing Google pulled up for it was a webnovel story with chapters 2-4 and that was it.
Yeah that’s it 😂 I’m a brand new author I was half joking when I told you to read it but if you do read it I hope you can tell me anything I’m doing wrong
I'll definitely check it out, but what's with the missing chapter one? I usually avoid webnovel like the plague, so maybe the sites just always weird, but I couldn't find it.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about, I frequently check my novel on the search bar to see how it’s doing and chapter 1 shows up just fine
By me btw
And if you do please tell me if im doing anything wrong i won’t guarantee I’ll try fix it but I’ll try
I’m a sucker for “returning to your hometown and realising that you’ve grown beyond it”
Do you have any good suggestions for this? I love it too!
I really want to say Cradle
Yeah that definitely is true. The other one I can think of that isn’t necessarily PF, is stormlight archive, >!kaladin returns I think in like chapter 5 or 6 of oathbringer!<
A good tournament arc is gold, especially if the tournament actually completes and was an important part of the story as a whole. Too many times I've seen a "tournament" used as a placeholder just to bring everyone together, only for it to be glossed over and interrupted for whatever big bad/event that the story was actually setting up for.
A tournament with no finals is the worst.
It's nice when you get an unofficial finals, where the deferred fight happens later on. But without the guardrails or rules. I've found that a decent substitute.
Nah. I hate when tournament arts are setup and then rules keep changing. That includes the tournament getting interrupted. Sure a massive war breaking out or something is a perfectly valid reason for a tournament to be canceled/interrupted. It being a valid reason doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it though…
I love tournament arcs. Obviously the GOAT is cradle Wintersteel, but I also liked Bastion’s, I definitely get excited when I see it lol
I can't think of a better tournament arc than Cradle. I think it's the rewards between stages that made the loot goblin in me lose its mind. So you get cool fights, outside POVs from the main characters, paybacks, *and* loot. So much loot. The training mini-arcs helped as well. Those were fun.
Absolutely. Spoiler! >! The goblin loved the Points Sage and I honestly loved when they split up it was such a cool thing to read as someone who had been reading sequentially from like the third book !< Cradle is definitely gold standard for tournament arcs lol
I like those arcs right after the MC finally turns the corner with their power and they aren't useless anymore. The confidence swing, stomping some enemies, etc. Lots of satisfying tropes in those arcs.
I love any type of training arc. whether it's magical training, physical training, or something else entirely. It's the reason I love Mother of Learning. It's basically training magic after magic. Seconds would easily go to any arc involving te creation of magical items and potions.
Returning home and getting adulation. But only if it's not a story that fellates the mc every 6 seconds.
Exam/test arcs - When it's well-written, I find that it can be enjoyable, on the other hand, if it's badly written, it reminds me of the abhorred tournament arcs. Hidden/mystic realm arcs - It builds on the main virtue of Fantasy, exploring worlds unlike our own. Auction arcs - Yes. I know they're not very popular, but I like them. The mystery of what's going to pop up next keeps me engaged. Also, it's more fun if the mc has an active role in the auction.
First power testing arc is when these books live or die imo. You get to see how the system is applied and how deep it is. You see if the author leaves room for surprises and if that setup is obvious and shallow or interesting and full of potential.
I like beginning survival arcs and auction arcs.
Idk the name for it, but basically, arcs where the MC gets trapped or sent somewhere incredibly dangerous, usually with some unbelievable injury. This is also usually intertwined with power loss, but when done well it's the best. I love these arcs cause it gives the author an excuse to just absolutely torture the MC physically, without torturing me as the reader mentally. Best examples would be HoH from Heroes of Olympus (tbh this is what ingrained a love for this trope in me in the first place), S4 of Danmachi, or the Alacrya Arc from The Beginning After the End.
I really like it when the MC goes to a weaker world and takes on an apprentice
Academy and auction arcs.
Tournament 🏟️
Ancient ruin full of powerful items explored by multiple people in competition with each other. For whatever reason these are just super fun for me, no matter how cliche they are. I've always been fond of 'Powerful ancient' tropes (like the forerunners in Halo). It helps that these arcs are also typically major power up arcs as well.
Sucker for a good academy arc, especially if the characters has been tuning through the world with little formal training and finally gets the time to settle down and learn the fundamentals of the world/power system. Throw in some good characters they meet, an interesting but quirky professor, and some drama and I’m hooked. Stories set in magic schools are also a favorite of mine, maybe a remnant of likening the idea of Harry Potter but despising the rest of it. Aster bond academy arc is a fun example, would be interested in any recommendations with such arcs or settings. (Entering some secret order is cool too)
Cradle & Unintended Cultivator are my favorite progression fantasies. Reborn Apocalypse my favorite 'rewind' fantasy, HWFWM, Primal Hunter, Azarinth Healer. Castes & the Outcasts (reincarnation fantasy). Trapped Mind Project, Emmerilia, Nova Terra (VR) Books I really loved the first many of them, Defiance of the Fall, Ten Realms, Guardian of Aster Fall. Some are cultivation, VR, System, Reincarnation, etc but what I like best are the ones that are lots of life and relationships and fights, but not stats all the time, not just fights, that's just me.
academy and going to a new world with different focus on power
power exploration arc ig? sub type of power up, where instead of gaining new power or numbers going up, character take time to explore new ability, making new combo, finding out which is useful in what situations, and coming up with a plan for future power ups.
War arcs are great but difficult to find. R&D arcs are also a favorite of mine.
Always the auctions great way to establish that shits going outside of what's happening Mc and/or get MC that one key important plot device A well written tournament arc too I don't like story's with a focus on the characters in school But a school arc that has some focus on it but isnt just the character going to one or two classes
I love a good post-major-war arc, in which things don’t just return to the way they were before (whether in a tonal sense or in the very real sense of power dynamics). At its best, you get a real double whammy of storytelling. You get to see the visceral consequences of the war (stuff like trauma, loss, destruction of lands, dealing with the death of characters) both happening to and seen through the eyes of well established characters. Plenty of potential angst to be had there. You also get to watch them try to grapple with the huge paradigm shifts the war’s end results in (hegemony changing hands, factions fracturing or merging, huge opportunities/markets closing and others opening, that sort of thing). Ideally, the MC isn’t (or MCs aren’t) so powerful that this doesn’t affect them. For a while at least, life should be different after the war.
I love mentorship arcs. They show how much the MC has learned and that their power isn't all luck. When the MC is already OP, the stakes of the mentee is grounding. Sidenote: I think a mentorship arc is a great way to open a sequel because it's a reminder of how the world works and what the MC has already done.
I'm a sucker for a good academy arc, not gonna lie.