Author Corner: 10-23-2022
Added 2022-10-23 14:11:27 +0000 UTCTwo new chapters of Shadow of the Soul King, with only one or two chapters left until the end of the arc (depending on how much of a cliffhanger I want to end the arc on).
I spent a bit too much time this week reading another I Eat Tomatoes webnovel, Lord Xue Ying, and as a result I only wrote one chapter of To Kill a Fox and Eat God, which I will hopefully edit and release later today after I DM a D&D session.
I did, however, have a really cool realization about reader engagement while reading this week.
There are two arcs relatively early in Lord Xue Ying which operate almost the same, with the main character undergoing a set of trials over many chapters in search of rewards, and I found one of the arcs nearly impossible to put down while I was quite a bit more bored with the other. The main difference between the two, the one where I was more bored had much, much, much higher stakes, to the point if the main character didn't pass he would die.
Given I'm a savvy reader, with such high stakes it meant I knew the main character would have to pass all obstacles perfectly, and that made it boring.
For progression fantasy stories, having the stakes low enough that the main character can fail actually makes the story more enjoyable. Or, of course, you could do what I'm planning for a later arc of Shadow of the Soul King and make the tension in the story not about how far the main character will get, but how much he'll have to reveal to do so.
I hope everyone enjoys the chapters this week!
--Thirteen Life Legion
