Discussion Original English Web Novels Good or Bad

There are only a few english "web novels" that I like, mainly because I haven't tried out many of them because I have no time to read multiple ones. Also there are some that are slow and aren't as polished as others (like my first novel, cough) . I prefer to read long ones and/or completed ones. I would really hate it if a series gets dropped midway

 

just because its in english doesnt mean it is good or bad rather it depends on how are the characters and plot developed, as long as those two are good people will appreciate whether its in native english or translated

 

OH god, aru you emiya shiro.?? -_-

 

can't argue with tautology

 

Some things are lost in the translations and some words play are intraductible.

I like more classics or writers with a in depth knowledge. My country has few writers that I like so that's why I search for interesting stuff into english as it is my second language and got no third language to compare with.

 

@Arcturus Can you recommend some of the good ones? That might settle this whole debate.

I think we're not talking about a major elephant in the room here. The non-English webnovels we're talking about are pretty much all from Asian countries (I don't see anybody even discussing Latin American, Russian, or even French webnovels). The novels in Japan, Korea, and China that we do see are often better, and get finished, perhaps because there is a potential lucrative career there for the successful authors, which does not exist in any English (or most other non-English) speaking countries. In Japan and Korea, successful web novels can become light novels or mangas, and in China, in addition to that, the authors can make money on the publishers websites due to the subscriptions. In the US and the rest of the world, I might be wrong but most of the web novel authors seem to be amateur (as opposed to professional - not saying they aren't talented, just that they don't do it for a living) writers, or if they are not are writing the novels in their spare time and making money elsewhere. If we had a system to support web novelists that write in English, we might have better web novels, and they might be more likely to get finished.

 

Original English Web Novels have got some things for them, and some against.

 

what i really hate about original english novel is that they seems to never finish the novel, well the only place i know to read is RRL so my opinion might be more biased,
since there's no organized place for amateur english web novelist like 17k or narou so it's hard to keep amateur author

 

It depends. You can always tell whether a writer reads too many translated CN or JP novels as the style tends to bleed in their work. Such a style never works well. Some are practically bad imitations of a translated series or other professional work.

Also, a lot of web novelists are young. They have time, and usually don't need the money for daily living as they can depend on their parents. So when you see the free web novels out there, its most likely kids/teenagers writing them. Their grammar sucks, and their worlds are tiny, so they are less experience and knowledge of reality. And as many of you know, to write fantasy/sci-fi, you must be able to write contemporary fiction first! For that, you need to understand how the world really works. To make the reader emote to the book.

But, on occasion, there pops out a really good novel. The best ones do twenty- fifty chapters or so per book so that the readers don't get too annoyed when the series itself seems to last too long or cuts off midway. The readers understand how the book is flowing. Plus, the grammar is usually decent, the word play interesting, and there is a unique presence/style that identifies the author.

The problem comes when you are trying to find that diamond in the rough. Web novels are filled with armatures. Practically 5 % of all web novels are filled with professionals, who have gotten paid for their work before that particular web novel you are reading! And for obvious reasons. So most readers don't want to put in the work to find a good web novel. And why should they? People read for fun. Not to work. Better to buy a professional book that had an editor and great reviews so you know what you're getting.

So when most say they don't like web novels, its mostly because of those writers who derive everything off of what they read (some are bad imitations of translated series, with barely any originality) and have an unpolished writing style due to their inexperience.

For those who want to check out my first novel, The Abandoned, you can do so by clicking on my signature! I have other novels as well, but the releases are much slower.

 

You are comparing English Novels with JP/CN/KR novels, so I want to say, RACIST!

If you only know English, then the amount of terrible English novels you find would be enormous. As someone said, only somewhat popular JP/CN/KR novels are translated. Well, not counting the bad translator.

However, if you can read all four of these languages, they are pretty much the same; except that English novels are written by author of different country with different culture, while JP/CN/KR novels are heavily influenced by their respective country/culture.
You can find an amateur author who know some English published an English novel; you can also find an amateur JP/CN/KR author published a JP/CN/KR novel; only no translator bother translating it.

 

@J-Mitch

Great points.

To add to what you said, a lot of people writing on the Internet are primarily doing it for their own personal entertainment, or if not are writing about things from their own perspective, not even aware of how to create works that engage and personally draw in a wide arrange of people different from them. It's a whole different ball game when you're writing for an audience, as opposed to just writing for yourself.

I look forward to checking out your novel!

It is also the lack of a good place to find works and a good way to sort through what is good and what is not (which would allow talented authors to rise to the top). To draw a comparison to a different medium with a similar problem, look at web comics (I'm not referring to the many successful independent ones that have existed for years), but newer sites that try to be a central place for them like webtoons.com. That site offers the promise of a career as a webtoon writer to those who are successful. However, there's so many different things published on that site that it's almost impossible to find what is good and what is not. People who are friends of the authors tend to give good ratings to those authors, and poor ratings to other authors. Besides, many people don't feel good about giving a low rating to a new work that an aspiring web toonist has put tens of hours or even more into creating, which may not be good just because they happen to be new.

@Demintika

We're actually talking about novels written in English versus novels written not in English. That includes novels written in lots of non-English languages, including French, Spanish, German, as well as Japanese, Korean, and Chinese etc. And just because those novels are written in a particular language does not mean the writer happens to be of a particular race. There are loads of people of Chinese background who live outside of China and write novels in English, and actually within China there are even lots of different races and ethnicities who write in Chinese. In fact, you are the only one in this thread that has even mentioned race, though I think you may have meant that we were making generalizations about people (which we might have been), not that we were talking about race.

 

+1.


On the other hand, good and bad based on styles are a relative term, for me the 95% of chinese novels are bad especially xianxia.

 

Like with any amateur works, there will be hidden gems (REALLY, REALLY hidden gems) buried in a lot of crap. English is the same. Though, I can't say I'm a fan of the more highly rated series that get mentioned here (zombieknight, worm, mother of learning), same with a lot of CN+JP series. It's just that I read too much good stuff that I think my taste is permanently screwed, I mean, I can objectively look at a series and keep reading it, but I find that they are too predictable with thick, thick, plot armours. There were some really good amateur 18+ english series back in the days that were never finished though (think the author died or something), one I still remember is the Knight of Deliverance (MC was a truckdriver, wwww). Since it played on tropes and twisted them in unexpected ways, there are few definitive goods guys and bad guys since it's a freeforall after society collapsed (modern world and magic world collided and merged into one world, inhabitants from BOTH sides got fucked, both side thought the other side invaded them, etc...), even the sex scenes were pretty good (and skippable without affecting the story).

It's different for independent author, there are some good sci-fi writers that banded together and form their own publishing group outside of harpercollin, tor, etc... There are some really good shit there, but they aren't webnovels xP

I would say... try them, but don't give them too high of an expectation. That way you don't get disappointed, and if it's good, you'd be pleasantly surprised instead. And I will admit, I enjoy some stupid series just for the fun factors and not for the stories (typical zombie shit), I wouldn't rate them highly, but they are a good way to pass time.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually got into web novels because of the problems that you cited (read too many good traditional novels, and almost everything seemed too formulaic or predictable). The different genres, tropes, and conventions in Korean, Chinese and Japanese web novels are a real breath of fresh air, even if most of them are not literary masterpieces. I have tended to avoid English web novels, because so many of them that I've seen are so awful, and at least for the translated ones we've got novel updates to help us find good things to read. It's too bad there's nothing like that for English webnovels.

 

I guess that's because no one translates the really bad ones.

Also, I see far more variety in English web novels than I do in the translated ones. Again, that might also be because people are translating more novels of a particular genre.

More or less, I think the difference in English and translated web novels only originates from the bias of translators' selections.