New to writing in general this is my first book I'm writing https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/85632/going-to-the-dungeon and I was just looking for some feedback as to how I can improve my writing as a whole for the future of this book and my next books!

So I have been posting my story on RR for 5 days now (one chapter every day).

I have been thinking of perfecting my cover, synopsis and first chapter.

What do you think about the synopsis? Posting it below 👇 Would love to have some outside perspective.

Dr. Marrero finds himself in the middle of the discovery of the century when he arrives at a dig site in Cape Hatteras, USA. Glory, however, is robbed from him, and things don't go as he planned.

On the other side of the ocean, Jennah wakes Them up, setting into motion the start of the end. From the smallest virus on Earth to the biggest Hay'eriif on S'codra, life everywhere dies if they don't play Their games.

Follow along on the journey of Earth's Champions to save the human race from divine and extraterrestrial threats. Travel with them to planets millions of light-years away and meet characters thousands of years dead.

What to expect: A mix of science and fantasy elements, multiple leads (human and extraterrestrial), romance subplots, action, adventure, a long journey, and intricate world-building.

Bonus: I made a fully functional language for the story called Etherean that if you pay enough attention to it, you can decipher it (just like a certain somebody).

Like to fiction if you want to check it out. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/96870/the-wake-of-etherea

Hi everyone! With the shenanigans with NaNoWriMo and the collapse of Vella, I figured I'd use the Writathon as motivation to really get started on my serial novel. Beyond the wordcount, do experienced authors have any advice for noobs on how to interact and get involved in the community? How do we not get swallowed up in the crowd?

Hey I originally planned to post every day for a month when I first started. But I was curious if it would be better to instead post five days a week for a month instead. The reason I say this is because of one larger backlog, obviously.

But also because after the month is over I'll be switching over to three times a week and was wondering if this would be a better shift for the audience since five to three is jarring than seven to three.

Any recommendations/links will help me a lot. Thanks

As per the title, just curious how your series was when you went on hiatus.

https://preview.redd.it/gfnsode95cyd1.png?width=765&format=png&auto=webp&s=71fc4ec5fa1aacef28d3ff76210208d78961a613

I've been at this for about a month now and just cracked 1000 total views. Not the skyrocket that some people have talked about here, but still, a pretty good start.

If you want to read it, it's down below. Happy to share shoutouts too!

Aeolwyn's Conquest

It's a basic fantasy book that was based on a video game I was making called Aeolwyn's Legacy that I, unfortunately had to cancel.

I’m mass releasing today, and I’ve been trying to book some shout out swaps, but haven’t filled up my slots. If your writing anything similar to a Deckbuilding Apocalypse LitRPG (or you just want to shoutout a new author T.T), please let me know

I'm doing the Writathon this month, but have never written a story or even attempted to. I understand that what I write will be bad, but I would still like to give it my best shot.

My plan for writing is to sketch a very, very rough synopsis of what my story is. I mean, one sentence for each act and 3 descriptive sentences for each character. After that, I'm just gonna write, revise and then write some more until it is done.

Is this plan missing something? Is it stupid to just write off the cuff? Am I trying to hard and should just focus on writing anything, since it will be bad?

I am new enough to Royal Road that this would be my first Writeathon. For those who have participated before, did it impact your following in a positive way? If so, was that impact big enough to motivate you to do the Writeathon again?

A few months ago, my husband posted a marketing plan for my Royal Road launch.  We got a lot of great help from authors here, and I’m posting this to share our experiences and hopefully help others promote their books.  Our launch wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful without similar posts and advice we received here.

My husband wrote a full one-month marketing evaluation. We tried to post it here, but because there's too much of his original post in the evaluation, we couldn't. We'd still like to share it with you all, though! It has a lot of details and tips if you are interested. Let me know if you want to see it, and I can send you a link to the document.

Here are our stats after 1 month.  We posted our first chapters on September 30th, and these stats were taken on October 30th:

https://preview.redd.it/bknnpbp63byd1.png?width=1228&format=png&auto=webp&s=9775a2b798f76a3de6af47094422b15abb5324b4

We made it onto the main Rising Stars list on day 4 and slowly climbed until we peaked at number 5. It was so exciting to make the main list, so thanks to those who helped us get there!

If you remember my husband's post from a few months ago, you'll remember that we had a lot of aspects to our plan, including catering to the right audience, using my other platforms as an established Amazon author, ads, etc. Again, if you want the details, let me know, and I'll send you a link to my husband's evaluation.

Thanks to all who have helped Godspawn Ascendant reach over 1,000 followers within the first month! And thanks to all of you writers who gave me so many helpful tips, as this was my first time posting on the RR platform. I'm excited to see where we go from here.

Theme - Fantasy, school life, adventurers,

“It isn’t Marcus, is it?” A smooth, cheerful voice cut through the air as a girl approached the group with an easy smile. Seraphina Victoria, elegant as ever, offered Marcus a bright, congratulatory look before her eyes shifted to Arnos, her smile taking on a more pointed edge. “I watched your test from afar, Marcus,” she said with a tone of genuine admiration. “I was thoroughly impressed. I came to congratulate you.”

Marcus chuckled, scratching the back of his head in mild embarrassment. “Thank you, Seraphina. I didn’t expect it to turn out quite like that.”

Arnos observed her carefully and quickly recognized her from earlier. She had been the same girl mocking him in the crowd with Emily. Her attention turned to him, and she continued to speak with a warm smile that seemed a touch too rehearsed.

“And you’re Arnos, aren’t you?” she asked, her tone as friendly as it was condescending. “The commoner boy who shocked everyone.”

“Yes… that’s me,” Arnos said, averting his gaze. The way her eyes bore into him made him uncomfortable.

“Oh, aren’t you just remarkable?” she chuckled lightly, then added, “You’d make a perfect servant.”

Here we go, Arnos thought, bracing himself with a silent sigh. He forced a polite smile. “Thank you, Miss Seraphina, but I’d rather pursue my own path,” he said, keeping his tone steady. “I’d like to be a real mage—or better yet, an adventurer.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief, her eyebrows shooting up as she looked him over with concern, as though he’d just said something absurd. “An adventurer? Oh, but that would be wasting such wonderful talent, Arnos. You’d make an excellent butler with that charming face of yours—nothing too rough or rugged.”

Full chapter - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/96890/shadow-ascendant/chapter/1878991/shadow-ascendant-chapter-4

This week, we interview the fantastic X-RHODEN-X from The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop, and recommend brand new stories that are taking off.

Weekly Recommendations - FALL into these stories

Interview with X-RHODEN-X from The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop

X-RHODEN-X’s The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop is an absolutely top-notch, addictive time loop LitRPG following Orodan, who starts as a simple hardworking militia member for his country, and ascends to greatness with the most important power of them all, willpower. This story has caused me to lose sleep for the past week. I literally cannot sing it’s praises enough, and if you are unsure about reading a time loop story, give this one a try. Fair warning, you won’t be able to stop reading once you start. I’d recommend having some food on hand like pizza or tenders. Thankfully, I had thanksgiving leftovers (Canadian Thanksgiving, I am not a time traveler), because all I did in my free time was read this story. Link here.

Hello Rhoden! Really appreciate you agreeing to this interview. Obviously I’ve been enjoying the heck out of your story. Just to get the gears going, can you tell me how you planned out your story, and how it came to be? Did you make a conscious effort to write an addictive story? Long chapters but they still kept me reading and reading. It’s a great mashup of some of the main genres in the space, and I would love to know your thought process when planning. As far as I can tell, this is your first story on Royal Road. How did you stumble onto LitRPG and Royal Road and what prompted you to start publishing there? Have you written in a professional capacity before? Can you tell me a bit about your writing process? What’s your schedule like?

Heyo! Thanks for having me! And I’m flattered to hear you stayed up that long reading my work! Boy, where to start? I suppose I can talk a little bit about how I came up with the idea of ‘The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop’.

I’ve always liked the concept of time loop stories especially since reading Mother of Learning. Not from Royal Road mind you, but the older days when it was being released chapter by chapter on FictionPress. From that time, I had the idea in mind that I wanted to do a time loop story myself, but alas, I was a kid in high school who didn’t have the time. Over the years I watched films about time loops, read other fantastic time loop stories like the Perfect Run and watched anime like Re: Zero. But something was missing… there was a void in my heart. The parts of Mother of Learning that I really liked were when Zorian was focusing on mastering his basic magic missile spell to the absolute limit until it finally became an invisible projectile due to his masterful shaping skills. Or when he honed his mind magic to limits no other human mind mage had reached.

What I really craved, was power progression. And while there’ve been some excellent time loop protagonists in recent years, I felt that there was a void yet to be filled. The issue was that people in a time loop often fall victim to fatigue, mental stress and the gradual accrual of trauma over the horrible things that happen to them. The question I sought to answer then was a simple one. What if, instead of a normal, even talented, person… we instead threw a madman with no sense of self-preservation into a time loop?

A character who in a regular adventure would be the first reckless soldier to die charging the enemy army himself. A person who had an obsession with fighting bordering on unhealthy. A warrior who simply ignored the notions of trauma, stress and fatigue? From there, came the concept of Orodan Wainwright; the militia man from humble beginnings who finds himself in a time loop.

When it comes to consciously trying to make it addicting, I honestly try not to focus on that too much. Rather, I have a basic tenet I follow, which is: the story should be what’s advertised on the tin. When people read ‘The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop’ they aren’t about to read a romance novel. Consequently, I naturally tend to gravitate towards the sort of epic writing and crunchy number gains that people might like to see. Not because I’m consciously trying to make it addicting, but because I try to keep the story and its direction focused and faithful to Orodan, this stubborn man in a time loop who enjoys grinding skills.

In terms of planning, I started writing as a hobby, and the early chapters experienced a little less planning and foresight than the later chapters now do. Particularly since I wasn’t expecting for it to gain the popularity that it did. Still, nowadays the release frequency has slowed down a bit, mainly because a decent portion of my writing time consists of charting skill level increases, plot points, character arcs and world building while deciding how they should all fit into scenes which are part of a narrative.

As for myself, I got introduced to LitRPG by reading stories on Royal Road such as the Arcane Emperor (by Aternus) and The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound by puddles4263 (aka Noret Flood). I actually posted my very first chapters to Scribble Hub! Royal Road came after once I had roughly 80,000 words written and took a gamble wondering if a larger audience would like my stuff. As I’ve come to learn, people did like it, much to my astonishment. Especially since I’ve never written in a professional capacity before. Before this, the most I had were a few poorly written fanfictions… and the less we speak of those the better!

I work a full-time day job that I quite enjoy, so this tends to take up a decent chunk of my time. Even then, I try to write for at least three hours a day, and on my days off I’ll spend upwards of twelve hours writing. The process mainly involves two separate windows open. One with the Status and skills, the other with the chapter-in-progress, with perhaps a third window containing plot points and worldbuilding if I forget anything.

One thing I’ve really appreciated about your story is the magic system. It starts off and remains easy to follow, while allowing for a ton of flavor and growth as you get deeper into the story. What went into your magic system? When you were planning it out, did you want to keep things straightforward, and allow for the scales of power to be introduced with the plot? What are some of the magic systems in other stories that you’ve enjoyed? Do you have any recommendations for Authors in creating their own?

Honestly, I like to follow the philosophy of keeping things simple and expanding from familiar ground. When I started Stubborn Skill-Grinder, the idea was to have a world where power and success are categorized by skill levels, their rarity and tiers at certain thresholds. Stats and dungeons felt a little bloated to me, and they begin to get meaningless or introduce contradictions as time goes on. To that end, the simple focus on skill levels makes life and my writing a lot easier. I’ve always wanted to start slow, retain that basic perspective of the low levels and then slowly introduce the readers to more as time goes on. As an example: people in Ogdenborough, Orodan’s home town, treat even those with a skill level of 50 (Adepts) as walking gods. Most of the common citizenry have never seen people with power beyond that, and neither has Orodan. As a result, the reader is slowly introduced to things from his point of view. We start small, but then get to gradually learn more.

I really enjoyed the LitRPG System in the Arcane Emperor! It’s rather basic but it works. I don’t really feel qualified to give anyone advice, but one thing I’ve learned is that beginning from simplicity is a safe and reliable formula when it comes to magic systems. Introducing too many elements at one time can cause reader fatigue.

Another thing I’ve really enjoyed is that under the power fantasy, there is a lot of great themes being explored here with your characters. The recurring characters in the loops are full of depth and life. Orodan himself remains true to himself but develops fantastically. How do you go about crafting your characters? Do you give each of them their own backstory in your notes? What’s that process look like? Do you like sticking to archetypes, or are you going with the flow with each chapter? Did you purposefully put themes of choice and power structures in there, or am I reading into this too much?

The characters are an entire topic for sure. When creating them, I always like to focus on some important questions. What’s their natural personality? What do they want? What point in their lives are they at? What’s their current goal? Orodan himself seems rather one-dimensional at first; bull-headed, stubborn, prone to seeking out battle. Yet, as the story goes on these things aren’t just brushed off, but recognized by other characters. His stubborn nature and battle-lust are real character traits that influence any situation he’s in. He begins by utterly detesting magic as not befitting a warrior, yet as time goes on he grows to adapt and learn.

Similarly, when crafting new characters, I keep a few notes and like to have their personalities fleshed out before I even begin writing them. Partly because it helps me write, but also because it’s a time loop story and we’ll be seeing many of these characters again. Everyone has their own motivations, secrets, problems and things that they value. I like to detail these things ahead of time and then bring them in through small ways over the loops. I definitely enjoy going with the flow and sometimes leaning into archetypes, but archetypes aren’t necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. Sometimes, they can be a good tool to avoid throwing too much new information at readers. And one can still expand in new and unexpected ways from there, even if a character looks to be an archetype at first.

The themes of choice and power structure are definitely intentional. What does one do with power? What’s power meant for? In and of itself? Or to do things and live life the way people want? Different characters have different takes on that question. Some in line with our protagonist, some not so much.

You are a pretty popular author on Royal Road, and I think I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about what that must feel like. I hope you bask in the glory of growing numbers and the grind that writing can be. Because your story is one of the more followed ones, do you feel like there’s more pressure? How do you handle the popularity and the demands of vocal readers? Does the popularity impact your creative process at all? How do you handle criticism and non-critical interactions with readers? Do you have any advice for authors who are growing rapidly themselves and questioning how they are supposed to interact with readers?

I definitely felt pressured at first! Especially when it blew up and there were Reddit comments every other day. It went from me having started writing as a hobby with a story I thought was a fun idea, to me now suddenly feeling rather exposed to a spotlight. My wife definitely helped by being an advisor and shoulder to lean on, as did the fact that I enjoy my full-time job and couldn’t care less if I make money from writing or not. It also helped that I don’t have any advance chapters on Patreon. I have one, but it’s just a tip jar for anyone that wants to support me, which I really appreciate. My latest chapters are always posted to Royal Road, and I don’t have to feel guilty about potentially ripping people off by giving them poor quality in return for their money. A free product means I’m rather relaxed when I’m writing, and this helps take the pressure off and lets me get more creative.

There’s been an occasional vocal reader, and some very vocal critics too. And I’ve always responded by agreeing with everything they have to say! It takes a great deal of stress off when I side with them and agree with their valid criticisms! I’m not deluded enough to believe I’m a literary god, and that’s okay. Because for every one critic who says they didn’t like a certain part, there’s typically ten people who did like it very much. And at the end of the day, I like to think that my work is exactly what it says on the tin and geared towards a certain genre. The critics are, more often than not, folks who don’t like the direction the work takes. Which is fair, but what did they expect clicking on something titled ‘The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop’?

I get along very well with my regular readers though. Even if my limited time nowadays means the interactions aren’t as frequent as I’d like. I sometimes like to engage in the comments on Royal Road and even have a Discord server dedicated to the story. Occasionally, I’ll be daring and engage with the Reddit comments too.

As for advice, what helped me was remembering that I’m writing for fun and as a hobby. New authors should try not to lose sight of the fact that writing should be fun, and interactions with readers should encapsulate the excitement of discussing the work. It shouldn’t feel as though you’re talking to your boss or a client, but a fellow fan of something. Having a sense of humor helps, as does retaining perspective.

Recommendations. I am a bottomless pit of content consumption, and I would really appreciate if you could provide me with some media you love! Getting to know what people consume themselves is a great way to get to know them, I think. Could you please give me 5 pieces of media that you think people should check out? It could be movies, tv shows (I’m recommending From the TV show), books, litrpg, heck you can recommend me a blog. They could be works that have inspired you, or things you just really like.

For sure! I’ve mentioned it a few times already, but I think one of the first LitRPGs I read on Royal Road was the Arcane Emperor by Aternus. It’s unfortunately been abandoned, but I still fondly re-read it sometimes. The New World by Monsoon117 is also pretty good. And the Legend of Randidly Ghosthound goes without saying. I also quite enjoyed the Legend of the Arch Magus by Michael Sisa.

And for the final one, the story which actually inspired me to begin writing my own stuff, was ‘Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse’ by Valerios. Loved the dopamine hits that story gave and continues to give.

Thank you so much to X-RHODEN-X. You should be reading The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop. This entire paragraph is a link to the story.

Hope you enjoyed this issue!

🧙‍♂️Saga Scribe

As a reader, I understand how important a synopsis is. I won't even start reading a story if I don't like the synopsis. Yet, as a new author, I'm struggling to create a synopsis I'm happy with.

Are there any synopsis scientists around that have the hot tips? I'll link my fiction in case anyone wants to check it out.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/97019/windrakes-rogue
(YA, magic academy, fantasy)

Progress wise, it's going well I think? It's definitely slowing down in terms of follower count, and the average views have stagnated for a bit. I pushed my release time by a couple hours to get some diversity going, and currently my follower count is nearing 140 (it teetered on 137 and 138 last time prior)

Been some time since I promoted my story here again, so here's the link if you want to read! It's a character driven progression isekai, with litRPG elements.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/91584/immortal-reveries-second-chance-at-life-in-another

For the latest chapter: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/91584/immortal-reveries-second-chance-at-life-in-another/chapter/1877456/arc-5-beginning-of-malice-prologue-apostle

Hello everyone, this is the preview of the latest chapter of We Follow the Leader - Dystopian Progression Fantasy | Royal Road. You can read the entire chapter on RR. Thank you for your attention.

*********

Chapter 7 - The Capitan

“Ah, I see, I see,” Petros was walking in circles in front of the table Dolor was still attached to “So, you are telling me you were racking up another tab at one of our competitor’s establishments when suddenly two SSB spooks show up and ask you to come with them. They then proceed to knock you out and prepare you for execution on political charges, when suddenly a special grade magicarm that was allegedly used to kill your father in prison on Crudele’s orders and sent back to you as a warning, and which you, apparently, casually carry around with you to pubs and taverns, comes alive and binds with you, despite you being a maneless drunken ex-military grunt, and proceeds to kill the two highly trained SSB mages. Right after committing a double murder of members of probably the most powerful social caste in the Republic, you escape through the festive streets of the Capital, swarming with people and State dogs. And speaking of dogs, on your way here, you not only killed those two SSB magents but also a militia officer. And now you are here.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Very exhaustive summary. The only minor correction is that technically the militiaman was killed by his manahound, not me,” said Dolor in his defense.

“And how, pray tell, did the manahound turn on him? Did it perhaps bite through its spell leash?” inquired Petros.

“Not quite…the dagger chopped his leash arm off and the manahound attacked him, presumably because he hadn’t been a very good dog dad.”

“I see. Well, unfortunately for him, he is now a dead dog dad. But we are digressing here, young Dolor. Tell me, do you think that showing up here, at this establishment, which is technically and formally illegal, after having committed a triple murder of State reps, the only people who have rights in this country, might I add, is a good idea?” asked Petros now fully still and staring directly into Dolor’s eyes.

“Look, I know that this is a bad look, but I promise, nobody saw me. I made sure I wasn’t followed,” said Dolor with a badly hidden lack of confidence.

“Oh well in that case, if nobody saw you, I guess we can all forget that you were seen by the three state employees, whom you killed with a special grade magicarm on the festive streets of Capital City during Anniversary Day, the most important holiday of the year. Are you having a laugh at my expense, Lance Corporal? Do you take me for a fool or one of your pedestrian ex-military drunkard friends?”

“No, Petros. Please, just hear me out. You are the only person who can help me, and all I need is a couple of pointers in the right direction,” Dolor pleaded with as much sincerity as he could muster.

“Oh? And what did I do to earn the honor of being the only person whom you can turn to in this hour of need? "

“You are the only majo I know, who doesn’t work for the Conclave,” stated Dolor.

“Majo” was a derogatory term often used by the manaless to refer to the magekind. The term has had a long history. It was popularized in the Kingdom era, where it was used originally by members of the aristocracy and the manaless commoners who gladly followed the example set by their elites. Being systemically oppressed for several centuries by the ruling class had a knock-on effect on how magekind were perceived by the general manaless population of the Kingdom, who regarded magekind with great weariness and suspicion and would not normally associate with them fearing societal and sometimes even legal consequences. To be a majo meant, most times, being unable to live in habitation sectors, reserved exclusively for the manaless, being unable to obtain any job other than in military or industrial sectors, and receiving a lot of side-eyed looks and demeaning comments from the members of the manaless majority whether on market squares or in churches. Dolor did not know whether the people followed their leaders in their disdain and oppression of the magekind, or if the leaders were merely playing to the moods of the majority and using the magekind as a convenient scapegoat to blame in times of need.

“You know, Lance Corporal, I would normally tell you to hold your horses on the political incorrectness as there is no need for such foul language in my esteemed company. However, I am going to forego telling you this, because you somehow managed to commit one of the few crimes that this country prosecutes harder than using the naughty words.” Petros was standing next to a wooden cabinet and was fixing himself a drink. “What is it you want then and, more importantly, why should I help you? You are a wanted manaless terrorist fugitive who has defiled the sacred holiday of the Revolt Anniversary Day by killing not one, not two, but three brave, loyal, and devout magekind sons of the Republic. The only ‘pointer’ I can give you is to turn yourself in and spare me the inconvenience of going through all the paperwork if I were to turn yourself over to the SSB myself. "

“Now that you are asking, I am not entirely sure what kind of help I exactly need from you, but I was hoping you could answer some questions I have since I am new to this whole magic shit,” said Dolor.

“I would not have believed you, young Dolor, if you did not attack me with that magicarm earlier. But you, as you can see, are not in any position to ask me questions. I, however, do still have some questions regarding your newly found secret talent,” said Petros as he finished taking a sip of something that looked like a gin and tonic to Dolor, who had little to be proud of in his life, other than his almost encyclopedic knowledge of various alcoholic drinks, fostered by years of having a trauma-driven drinking problem.

“Sure, ask away. I got all the time in the world, not like I am a wanted terrorist fugitive on the run,” sarcastically remarked Dolor. He immediately felt a painful pins-and-needles sensation that engulfed his entire body as purple lightning bolts began crackling around his body as the aluminum table acted as a giant conductor, sending electrical shocks to his liver, kidneys, and back muscles. Dolor began convulsing widely, with only the restraining seals preventing him from jumping off the table.

“Do not take advantage of my welcoming hospitality, Lance Corporal!” Petros stopped casting and lowered his arm. “Did I tell you that before my forays in the hospitality industry, I had experience working for certain…government bodies…where I was known for being a natural at various interrogation techniques,” proclaimed Petros with pride palpable in his voice.

Dolor could not move. After all the pain he had felt in the last 24 hours, this was by far the worst, and it only lasted for a moment, while seeming like an eternity to Dolor. He felt something warm on his legs. He realized it was his urine, which involuntarily escaped his bladder after the elf’s lighting spell hit Dolor. He has suspected that Petros, the infamous “Captain of the Lower Deck”, had some sort of experience working for the State. After all, there was no way he could not. He was an elf mage who must have been old enough to have served in the Royal Army under both the Last King of Lestralla and Crudele. Elven magekind like Petros were valued particularly highly because of their longer lifespans, which allowed them to accumulate more knowledge and skills in using magic and thus made them extremely valuable for military purposes. While the Kingdom tried to control the population of magekind by making magekind family lines unable to produce magekind offspring, the elven magekind families were usually spared from this fate. Similarly, orcs, even those who were manaless, were also spared from these policies because of their naturally overwhelming physical strength. Considering Petros’ mannerisms, his magic and interrogation skills, as well as his “Captain” nickname, Dolor assumed that he was probably in the Royal Marines or perhaps some other secret unit of magekind soldiers committing war crimes off the books, of which there was no shortage under either the previous or the current political regime.

*********
END OF CHAPTER PREVIEW

You can read the full chapter on RR by following this link Chapter 7 - The Captain - We Follow the Leader - Dystopian Progression Fantasy | Royal Road

P.S. WFTL is participating in RR's Writathon, so new chapters will be coming thick and fast in the next couple of weeks. Please feel free to leave a comment, a review, or a follow, Thank you for your time and attention.

More does not always mean better. Review swaps means nothing since it’s always 4.5 or 5 star boosting. I do like them if the reviewer mentions specific good qualities in a work.

2 of those is a personal sweet spot especially if a work has no reviews.

The issue is when there’s 11 reviews and 10 of them are review swaps. As a reader it seems extremely inauthentic and puts me off. Makes me think it’s just 50 authors in some discord artificially boosting each other.

I've been meaning to ask this, but are there any successful authors (or any of you that had success) with turtle method? I meant without paying for ads and a slow but steady growth (also hitting the rising stars) because it might be very overwhelming to suddenly have so many people expecting from you after a few days or weeks. If such people exists here, I'd much love to hear some advice. Thanks!

My story, The Second Stranger, is moving up in followers! I don’t have the big numbers like some of the RS stories…yet, and I think that’s partially due to my MWF schedule and the large chapters, but I’m not giving up hope!

Join us along for the ride! We are about to go to school! (The next arc in the story)

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/96475/the-second-stranger

Thank you to anyone who gives me a chance!

If anyone wants to do any review or shout out swaps dm me!

So the writethon just started, and I just noticed it says no entries may have sexual content. Does that just mean the tag? Is someone really going to comb through my entry for that one somewhat sexual scene? Should I just enter anyways and if they disqualify me then oh well, nothing lost, nothing gained sort of thing? What do you guys think of not allowing novels with sexual content in writethon entrys?

The story has been a bit slow on the pick-up but is now moving toward the coveted training montage. What will group learn? How will they learn it? And who are the mysterious mind goblins? (I can answer the last question in the comments.)
Click the link to find out.

Yaarrghhh, click me matey

Hey everyone, I uploaded the first chapter of my story to RR! You can read it here: Chapter 1

Hopefully you all like it, Chapter 2 will be much better, I can promise you that.