Would anyone be interested in volunteering to help me with a story I'm working on?

Hello.

I'm currently working on my first story, it's genre is Xianxia/Wuxia, therefore if that's not to your interest then no need to read further. Just wanted to put that as a disclaimer as I understand It's not everyone cup of tea.

Essentially I'd be thrilled if anyone could help me out a bit, because when I read what I've written - it just sounds off, as If i'm writing with a different tone from chapter to chapter.

It doesn't sound right to my ear and I've been trying to fix whatever it is for a while but I've been unable to put my finger on it and I thought maybe an outsider perspective could help me out.

Please let me know, if anyone would be interested and my apologies if this is in the wrong place on the forums.

Thank you for your time,
Sincerely.

 

sure, dm me the details

 

I mean im pretty newbish only have reading exprerience but if your interested on my help just dm me.

 

Sure dm away. If you want you can post the story here and ask for opinions.

 

You’re talking as if some editors actually get paid.

 

Volunteering!

 

Editing is a paid profession.

At thread starter, you are doing it wrong.
Unless you are going to sell your story, publish it online.
When starting out, your first 20 stories are usually bad.
You don't gain skills in one sitting.
Publish your story where people can add reviews.
That is the best way to recruit an Editor.

 

You are certainly capable of writing a good proper story on your first try, if you invest enough time and read enough beforehand. It wont be perfect, but outclassing some of the trash here on NU is certainly not difficult.

 

Swinging by to affirm this and to agree with the "just make it public" sentiment. People who consume xianxia are among the least critical audiences you can ask for, although where you post it can definitely change how deeply folks will delve into it. Much of Webnovel's audience will well-nigh deify you for decent English and an okay plot, you just have to put up with crappy management practices and floating in a sea of crappy derivatives. RR has much nicer management and most of the audience is good too, but you'll inevitably get commentary from a handful of failures who can't manage to get a work of their own past three chapters but are suddenly experts on all things writing.

From the original post, I assume you're having problems "finding your voice"; this is common, and really the only ways to deal with it are (a) read more (b) write more. Part of finding your voice is finding the confidence to just keep chugging. Reading will help you in identifying things (good and bad) while writing with some sort of regular schedule is what you need to actually manage to develop your writing voice (the schedule part is important too; far too many would-be writers go nowhere because they're stuck in a perpetual editing loop). Then you get to the fun part of deciding to actually apply voice for different characters, but get some confidence in yourself first. Guess what, you're going to notice these little inconsistencies far more than anybody else.

Ultimately, this is just xianxia. If you can string together coherent sentences, avoid turning every restaurant into grand melee, actually remember characters from past chapters before they die of old age, and not screw up your cultivation ranks and what they mean, you'll already be writing something a mile ahead of the vast majority of works out there. Just dive in; if anything, you'll receive an education for your next try, at least.

 

If you just stand up, go outside, breathe some fresh air, do some activities with friends that makes you forget about your novel, maybe for like a good day or two, you can then return to your novel and reread it with a fresh perspective. Especially helpful if you're binge writing and hit a writer's block.