Question Is it just me, or do authors kind of just write in the same way right now?

So what I have noticed lately is, from both translated and same language written books, that authors just kind of write in the same kind of way. Sure, their ideas may be different, and a new idea can be refreshing. But I don't know. Novels have just kind of started to be the same way. To give an example, the novels The Novel's Extra, and All The Light That Cannot Be Seen.

Is the quality of the novels we are reading getting worse?

 

Always has been

 

maybe you has read more than enough to unconsciously realize that no matter how good the story...
it was a decent at best
it hard to get the feeling "this story is good" or "i like how the story goes" again
since you probably being picky about what you read

 

WN?
it just fad~
hmm put it on someway newbie usually copy style they have read before consciously or unconsciously until they make their own style~ or simple folliw the trend aka fad~

 

thats why finding quality novels are the way to go.

 

Try read published novels if you feel like seeing something more original. Not just the light novel side.

 

Well I have read quite a lot. I can't even count the amount of books I have read anymore. It's all just forgotten when you find a good story, right? But well, I just feel like everything the same? Hey. Maybe I have reached "the reader's enlightenment"?

But I am kind of sad about how I can't really enjoy the novels I am reading right now.

 

Meh, people lose interest in things as they grow, I used to binge anime 24/7 now I can barely watch a couple of episodes and feel most anime are the same, doesn't mean anime is worse or stale in any way, it just means I just don't connect with it anymore. It's one of those it's not you it's me moments. Just a chance to find another hobby it means.

 

There will always be influence of novels on one another, this would be even more so between same language. Try translated novels of a different language or a completely new genre. Sometimes it may simply be the genres you tend to read.

And when all else fails, take a break, try another hobby, find your true calling in life as a human slave of cats

 

now, i actually cringe to these animes, like they are so cheesy that i could instantly went lactose intolerant.

 

Sorry that pic was a bit rude, but that's true.
Some authors didn't bother themselves to be original and instead use the popular mainstream one as a reference to make some money. Of course not all of them, some are just not being able to make a unique ones because that's the only extent of their ability, some are just doing it because they like it, etc.
Yeah I know it's frustrating, but what can we do about it anyway? We have to be smart enough to find the gem amongst all of these.

 

even being original might make a similar flow/plot to another existing story, because first: there are way too many novels.
Seriously, if people could calculate 1+1=2, another person could also calculate it just like that. Either the same idea, plot, story, character development, there are just too many novels.

 

If we're talking on each details then yeah, it's really really unavoidable. But it doesn't really have to make it so obviously visible, like why does majority isekai had been always in middle ages with sword and magic stuff? why not make it in modern times or futuristic or something else? I had only seen a few of it so far. I'm not saying to make exactly a one and only kind, what I mean by unique is the vibe that telling you it's different from the other one

 

The funny thing is that I've been rereading a bit of Jin Yong, and it reminds me of how his writing style is very different from everyone else's. That had been true in the past where he stood out from the other wuxia writers, and after reading a lot more Chinese novels, it's ever more true. Everything from how he names things to how he describes fight scenes, and the kind of prose he uses feels quite different to anything else I've seen.

And Jin Yong isn't the only writer that does this. Gu Long has always been a pretty distinctive writer, and the same goes for newer writers like Yue Guan or Non=Player Character. And for all that I'm not much of a fan of Huang Yi, his writing voice also stands out from other writers. I find that it's pretty easy for Chinese writers to do this because the language has a million common expressions, but different writers favor using different ones so there are ways to tell them apart. You can do this in English as well, but I find that it's harder to have a distinctive voice there.

So if you're not seeing these differences then it means that you're either reading the same kind of thing over and over again, or that these distinctions aren't being preserved by the translators. Which I can't exactly blame the translators for because trying to preserve the flavor of Chinese writing is very hard to do and I've seen professionals completely fail at it. If you feel that the books you're reading seem to all be exploring the same ideas, then that also means that you're reading the same kind of thing over and over again. Chinese web novels are extremely broad, and there are an amazing number of kinds of different books out there. I can guarantee that there are a million different ideas that you've never seen before in them, so just read more different material and as always read better books.

If you're problem is with Japanese web novels, then I can't help that much because a lot of the popular ones are samey and they were designed by their writers to be samey. The voice thing is potentially somewhat similar to the Chinese situation, but there seems to be a bit less variation. The problem though is that the writers themselves seem to only be interested in a narrow range of writing. Go read proper Japanese writers if you want to see what the language can offer.