Discussion Has Er Gen's writing style changed in quality for the worse?

I am a HUGE fanatic when it comes to good writing in web-novels. The reason is obvious...given the industry, the mass chapter releases, web-novels get a bad rep as junk food literature. That being said, I even more so appreciate authors who in such a field, still work on their craft to produce good writing. Good writing introduces complex themes and thought-provoking ideas that readers can explore and can relate to in real life. Good Writing does not settle for generic plots or character tropes. Good Writing is well thought out, refreshing, and stands out from the thousands of generic works that are published every year.
This rant of mine leads me back to main topic of Er Gen. I have been a huge fan of Er Gen for the longest time because his work had always been a poster child for ideal good writing in the wuxia genre...that was UNTIL recently.

I have loved his use of world building, his greater-than-life characters, as well as the amount of depth he puts into each of his novel, but I have also noticed a significant drop in quality (or I should rather say, a drastic shift in his writing choices) in recent years.

When I read Renegade Immortal, the novel shined a different light on the bitter and unblemished life that actually is to be an Immortal Cultivator. Unlike a lot other wuxia novels out there, which was about face-slapping, getting all the girls, and being a badass-genocidal megalomaniac, Er Gen told a much more harsher and grimmer tale about struggle and sacrifice his character have to make and endure through to get to the top, which was something I never read before until I picked up RI.

Then Beseech the Devil/Pursuit of Truth was an even grimmer tale of immortal cultivation, which had a protagonist who was in even worse straights that protagonist in RI. It was grim, maybe even grimier, but it had some light & genuinely lovely moments that did not take away the seriousness of the novel’s overall theme.

Next was I Shall Seal the Heavens, (which I still view as my favorite Er Gen novel, despite some of it flaws). Er Gen really out shown himself with ISStH. While I did enjoy the harshness and gritty theme from RI and PT, ISStH was very refreshing for it's different take. It had a lot more comedy and light storytelling than what I’d come to expect for Er Gen. But I actually found it very pleasing to read. It did not detract from the novel's writing, but in fact enhanced it, which just goes to prove how talented Er Gen really is. While I admit that ISStH did come with its own set of problems, I still consider it has my favorite Er Gen novel. ISStH is the only book that I've read that made me tear up on 2 SEPARATE OCCASIONS just due to its excellent writing:

Spoiler: Excerpts

1. The loss of his foster-father and loved ones during his experience in the Dream/Nightmare realm.
2. The tragic life of one of his clones, who was a blind carver that one of his love interests decided to become a mortal to live with him.

THEN THERE’S A WILL ETERNAL
Here is when I noticed the difference in Er Gen's writing. He leaned way too hard on comedy in novel, which is not a bad thing...but it was at the expense of good writing. Each time one of Er Gen's protagonists developed in character or strength, we as readers believed it because the amount of effort and struggle, they went through. But the protagonist of AWE had pretty a much a smooth sail of things throughout the whole story besides 1 or 2 bumps on the road. Everything seemed to be a slap stick gag that was just a method to drop the lead from one fortunate encounter to another. Nothing felt earned or deserving. Worse, was that there wasn’t any single memorable part, plot, or writing from that entire novel that stood out to me.

I was hoping AWE one just one Er Gen's less successful experiments and that he would get back to form with his next published work, but from I heard and read about, A World Worth Protecting follows in much of the same line as AWE which greatly saddens me.

Am I being way too critical or has someone else notice this as well?

 

Nah I feel you bro I used to think that Er Gen is one of the best writer in terms of realistic cultivation novel. BUT now I feels like i’m getting betrayed LOL

 

I remember hearing there was some disagreement between er gen and QI....maybe that is the reason?

 

I stopped reading ergen's novel after issth. Somehow he starts writing generic xianxia after the success of issth. And there are CN authors out there who are better than ergen imo like wang yu (author of rmji), chen dong, cuttlefish, and xiao ding (author of zhu xian).

And tbh ergen is overrated

 

I guess he got tired of the grim depressing sacrifices?

 

Duplicate thread?

 

I think Pursuit of Truth is his absolute best. The raw emotions in that one is amazing, I have not read RI(waiting for the complete translation), Issth was also epic, AWE is still above average despite a decline in quality. I hope he can take a long break and regain his quality.

 

reported duplicate thread

 

These are my theories

• The former intern quit and became an author himself
• The former ghostwriter quit after asking for more money and not getting it.

 

er gen got his body taken over by trashy cn novel writer

 

Or maybe he's switched styles because the paycheck is better this way.

 

Yeah my bad, I posted on the wrong forum page. It's been a while since I've done this and I can't remember..can you deleted a post once published?

 

His grim style is much better then his comady one

 

True, his writing style did change for AWE but I believe that I read a translated release from him on WW but how he was going to try a new unexplored writing form compared to previous works. The comedy in AWE was acceptable for me but as you mentioned the mc lacked that deeper level of develop for me RI is the best of his work for me.

 

It feels like Er Gen is best at writing emotional novels about tragic ‘heaven-defying’ cultivators

With IR he’s a stoic antihero, but what makes the protagonist great for me is the few heartfelt emotions he has
I believe the Pursuit of Truth is better because he’s more tragic and manic at times. It’s a lot easier to empathise with his feelings and negative emotions to his circumstances
With ISSTH it’s still emotional, and some comedy mixed in really lightens up parts of it.

However for his latter two novels, they just don’t have this feeling

 

Er Gen is still in the middle areas in regards to overall skill. Even the "better" dark novels aren't that great and I find myself often just skimming chapters, if not straight up skipping. This happens espcecially as the novel approaches midgame. And uhm, I don't think he got worse per se. The standards just increased. Most of his novels would benefirt greatly from having half the chapter count >.> As would most cultivation novels.

 

Er Gen is too overrated.

 

Look up what wuxia is, what xianxia is, and what standards Er Gen has to compete with. Tip: Er Gen will have to follow some writing classes.

Not a single long xianxia can be well written. It's impossible. Credit to Er Gen for being decent in a pile of shit, but the genre is a big limiting factor. Imagine immortality (secondary characters will die off), fast growth (outpacing secondary characters), multiple worlds/levels (leaving secondary characters behind in lower worlds), the survival of the fittest (secondary characters will die off). This is one aspect in which I think xianxia is deficient: it's very hard for these stories to get a consistent, interesting cast throughout the entire novel without contrived, inadequate measures like putting your parents in a world in your head.

 

Hmm... Have you read Cultivation Chat Group ?

 

probably because qidian took over