Discussion How do you distinguish bad novels from good novels with their early chapters?

I wouldn't say that they're exceptions at all. Most of the highly rated books aren't particularly good, and using the ratings system in any way is a bad idea (unless you're absolutely in love with BL). Being an unreliable system means that it's unreliable. Trying to use it just means that you're going to end up reading a ton of junk that could be easily avoidable.

 

Wtf does that have to with anything?

 

It's the internet. Don't bother.

 

When logically things don’t make sense or add up

no consistency from get go

Obviously author did not do research on the setting
( ie. those cn novels who have America as a setting but it is just actually Chinese )

 

The writing, the thought process, logic reasoning within the pot.

 

Seen some of my answers in the comments above. I'll just add, if the author claims they're writing without a manuscript, run. If the novel is 2k+ chapters and not a world-hopping novel, don't bother.

 

Well for me It seems that for some novels, I struggle to get through the first few chapters. When this happens, I find myself procrastinating and turning to other activities instead of continuing to read that novel. On the other hand, there are other novels that immediately draw me in and keep my attention from the very beginning. So, that is my way if that novel is good or bad for me lol.

 

Basically, if you manage to make it past the beginning of the novel…
If you can’t manage to get past the start - don’t force yourself to. Reading isn’t some sort of mandated torture (hopefully).

Like mentioned earlier the biggest red flags are author stating things and then the character not actually following through. (Welcome to shoddy Isekai! Where the Badass seasoned reborn assassin trained from birth to kill is actually just a perverted loser ogling his mother and thinking about hooking up with his sisters).

Or perhaps there’s immediately bad romance! (The Mc has crossed into some helpless character who was violated on multiple levels by the future love interest and Mc decides to live a life they hate; or maybe they have a system that says they must let someone have sex with them but Mc never questions anything!)

Or perhaps we have a “supposedly” wise Mc sent into another world with extra knowledge (rebirth, crossing, or new knowledge of the future) who says proudly ‘I will not change the plot haha’ and then proceeds to change the plot immensely and then surprised Pikachu.jpeg now that things have changed! (With absolutely no comedic filter. This is very serious and shocking!)

Or perhaps… Mc is a crazy murdering madman that is so quirky and crazy and plot? What plot we are murdering a dragon because we are the undefinable martial god with plot armor (and sadly there’s only cannon fodder in this world or Jade beauties).

Or perhaps Mc is a random civilian from Modern Earth who crosses to random land where they proceed to be an arrogant smarty pants who is now the smartest in all existence! (And no, the story does not get better sadly).

What’s worse is if the novel starts okay and then instantly falls apart after. In any case usually the author isn’t a good enough writer to hide the story’s failings so you should be able to get a good picture of the future. If you’re 100% not sure just skim the ending before reading or if you really want to know why the novel’s bad at that point just read the whole thing!

 

i barely read novels but i can with manhwa

 

words of choice from the author to describe certain events, character descriptors, pacing, and the ideology of the story.

 

The depth of the story is a good indicator and also the world building... ^^

 

I just thought of a new one: if it's a Japanese webnovel and it has the "Slice of Life" tag, then it's going to be bad. I've just checked out the first couple of chapters of one such book, and it's such an excruciating experience trying to wade through the writing. The quality of the translation isn't great, but it feels like all of the problems come from the original author.

Usually, I wouldn't put much faith in tags on NU because they are often wildly misleading, but it's okay in this case because it's guaranteed that none of the books in this category are going to be slice of novels!

 

I personally feel like starting to read the stuff just gives you a feels for it pretty fucking fast, but that might just be experience. I dont think someone new to webnovels would be able to do it reliably - heck I remember the stuff I read back when I started reading WNs and I probably wont pick up half of that shit today.

In general though,
- So some novels just stick out like a sore thumb, it is clear af they are gonna be the biggest dumpster fire you have seen and chances are you will not even pick them up in first place since you can see that thing coming from seeing the novel page itself.
- The 2nd kind of novels are ones where the initial stuff is actually really interesting, like say the 1st volume/arc. But then it nosedives really really fast. You just gotta ensure that you dont keep on reading and are aware about it. Often it is clear even during the first arc that the shits about to nosedive but that's just honestly more of a gut feeling.
- The 3rd kinds are the average stuff, kinda decent but overall forgettable. You will just feel the boredom and unwillingness to read them.

I feel like it is easier to talk about stuff that is really good instead, it hooks you up on it and you want to binge it or make it part of your daily routine. Your other chores become "Let's get this shit done asap so I can go back to reading that book" y'know?

 

It is not that bad.

There does seem to be a lot of confusing "I do not like" with "low quality garbage" in novel readers, and even more in manga readers.
There is also a massive amount of negative re-enforcement where most cases of X are bad so people start assuming all cases of that are bad, or even make assumptions of what it means that are not what X actually means. Like the # of people who complain about title length of Japanese series, and conveniently omit/ignore that that is basically the only way to get readers due to how the WN site search works makes it so prospective readers basically only see the title.

But there are some valid red flags listed that a novel is bad, or one you will not enjoy.

 

Any indication that it'd be a harem.
Protagonist who is incapable of going through character growth.
Protagonist acting out of character for no reason.
Cringe dialogues.
Smut.

I resonate with this on a different level

Nothing. It's just some random people posting their own thought no need to bother with them.

 

The main thing that comes to mind for me is when a story starts with some interesting twist or idea, just to quickly resolve or even abandon it completely early on in the story, sometimes even just after the first chapter.
It usually feels like some kind of bait and switch to get you to check out what is otherwise a completely generic story.

However, even if there isn't an explicit twist like that, sometimes it helps to just think of what exactly made me check out the story in the first place and if it is something the author is actually making use of.
If not then that is often a good reason for me to consider dropping the story.

 

for me its when the misunderstandings keep on adding up and dont get solved till like 20 chapters ~ gets me so mad