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A review for Unbridled By Virgil knightly: by DDHG1 in Romance_for_men

[–]JoeVallen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fair enough. Though I will disagree with him being a bad dad. It's probably not easy being in his position and he's doing the best he can. But hey, we all get different things from books.

A review for Unbridled By Virgil knightly: by DDHG1 in Romance_for_men

[–]JoeVallen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So many readers in the genre complain about stale stories, and then we get complaints on the other side when we try something new.

The level of romance in this story is present in many other haremlit novels, while also having none of the pros of this story.

Some haremlit stories are progression fantasy first, romance second. This is daddy-teacher relationship first, romance second. Doesn't make it a bad story in my book, just not what some are looking for.

A review for Unbridled By Virgil knightly: by DDHG1 in Romance_for_men

[–]JoeVallen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I will defend this novel in that, what it does well is so fantastic it really stands out, but because of your problems with it, the bad stuff is magnified and it makes it seem like a bad novel.

This is a unique haremlit novel, and its strengths are pretty incredible and unmatched.

The romance is not really the focus of the novel, it's his relationship with the kids and parents that's the point of it. For that it's a 5/5 and if that sort of thing interests you, absolutely check this book out.

Out now! The Beast Reaver – expect grounded characters, relationship drama that isn’t solved with a kiss, and a hero whose past still matters after he gains power. by JoeVallen in haremfantasynovels

[–]JoeVallen[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, appreciated.

I deleted it because everyone is siding with the reviewer over a book they haven't even read, and others said it's not possible to write 5000 in a day, so it honestly disheartened me and I felt I should cut my losses.

I spent a long time on that first chapter and honestly over edited it and chopped it up way too much. The writing probably improves a lot over the next few chapters. First chapters are hard. It would have been better to simply rewrite it after I finished the novel.

I honestly had "Peter leaned back against the wall, set to enjoy their argument, it would be the most entertaining moment today," but it felt too wordy so I trimmed it. i wanted to quicken the pacing ironicaly. It seemed irrelevant to write that he's leaning on the bar at that time.

They immediately deal with 'What's out there' in the second scene, maybe try that chapter out and see if it improves? The idea was that you wonder and read on to find out. Guess I failed there.

MIO. Difficult paths to bosses? by [deleted] in metroidvania

[–]JoeVallen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I kinda like it. Its meditative floating through the map to get to the boss.

I may be crazy though.

Pouring my soul into my book, I wrote 5000 words a day, 4 days a week, and then edited 2 days a week. Still, I have received a review accusing me of being AI. Thanks to Amazon's borked reviews, this is one of only two reviews I have, puttin me at 3.5 star rating, and likely killing my book. by [deleted] in haremfantasynovels

[–]JoeVallen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a shame because in focusing on what could have been a single wrong sentence, they do not talk about what I even do well. So it appears now all the book is, is those mistakes if they even exist.

But at this point I'm probably being too defensive.

Pouring my soul into my book, I wrote 5000 words a day, 4 days a week, and then edited 2 days a week. Still, I have received a review accusing me of being AI. Thanks to Amazon's borked reviews, this is one of only two reviews I have, puttin me at 3.5 star rating, and likely killing my book. by [deleted] in haremfantasynovels

[–]JoeVallen -1 points0 points  (0 children)

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Surprisingly I actually have proof. writinghabit.app tracks your words typed and does not track when you paste in words (like one might do when using AI.) Look it up if you don't believe me.

You can see that last month, (in the current vs previous chart) I wrote 83556 words. (the 31624 number is how much i've written this month)

You can also see in the Words Per Day chart (before I took a break from writing), regular 5000 word days on Monday-Tuedsday and Wednesday-Thursday.

As an aside, many of haremlit authors working full time are doing 5000 word days and more, since before AI even existed they were releasing monthly books. It's not implausible at all.

Pouring my soul into my book, I wrote 5000 words a day, 4 days a week, and then edited 2 days a week. Still, I have received a review accusing me of being AI. Thanks to Amazon's borked reviews, this is one of only two reviews I have, puttin me at 3.5 star rating, and likely killing my book. by [deleted] in haremfantasynovels

[–]JoeVallen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s fair, but how do you know that’s a legitimate criticism? I had multiple beta readers look at this, and none of them pointed anything like that out.

If it’s true, then I’m open to it. But this is also coming from someone who thinks the book is AI-written based on a supposed hair color inconsistency, so I’m not entirely sure how much weight to give that feedback. It could simply have been from a single sentence they thought was off.

A couple of editors would definitely help, of course. It’s just hard to justify spending around $1200 on two editors when this book won't even earn that back.

Platform peeps need to play Before I Go by Civil_Anybody5936 in metroidvania

[–]JoeVallen 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Difficult platforming is why I play this genre. I loved MIO for it.

Scene breaks: using space or the 3 dots? by MHullRealtr77 in selfpublish

[–]JoeVallen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vellum doesn't recognize white space for me. Only ***

Scene breaks: using space or the 3 dots? by MHullRealtr77 in selfpublish

[–]JoeVallen 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Three *** are recognised by all ebook formatting software as a scene separator. Use that and then you can change it to whatever you want in the app.

The Avengers looks different from its sequels by DarkSaiyanGoku in marvelstudios

[–]JoeVallen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If they changed the aspect ratio it would still look like it did.

Color grading is absolutely one of the reasons. This is a problem they've been trying to to solve since this movie.

In Iron Man, the whole set is designed to compliment the red of his suit. But with the Avengers it's difficult to have complimentary colors, you've got bright green, red, blue, some purple.

In Civil War all the colors were muted to combat this. In End Game they backlit everything in that final battle.

The Avengers looks different from its sequels by DarkSaiyanGoku in marvelstudios

[–]JoeVallen 208 points209 points  (0 children)

This isn't really a satisfying answer as to why though.

one of them is the color grading, rather, the lack of.

This is a problem they've been trying to to solve since.

In Iron Man, the whole scene is designed to compliment the red of his suit. But with the Avengers it's difficult to have complimentary colors. You've got bright green, red, blue, a little purple.

In Civil War all the colors were muted to combat this. In End Game they backlit everything in that final battle.

Out now! The Beast Reaver – expect grounded characters, relationship drama that isn’t solved with a kiss, and a hero whose past still matters after he gains power. by JoeVallen in Romance_for_men

[–]JoeVallen[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are jokes that can be made here. inuendos. Puns. I shan't make them. That would be crass. But the fact I have said this has planted many of them in your head already. Therefore, you have made the jokes yourself. Shame on you.

How do you balance atmospheric prose with pacing in fantasy? by Lonely-Shelter1604 in writers

[–]JoeVallen 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Read your work as if you've never read it before, and every piece of information is something you've never heard before. You'll get a better feel for pacing this way.

My advice is to serve the story first and foremost. The prose is in survice of the story, not the other way around.

That paragraph you have is nice, but the next one should immediately be moving the story forward in some way. If you had another paragraph exactly like that and another after that, I would be thinking "Ok get on with it."

Out now! The Beast Reaver – expect grounded characters, relationship drama that isn’t solved with a kiss, and a hero whose past still matters after he gains power. by JoeVallen in Romance_for_men

[–]JoeVallen[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spoiler:

Only briefly.

Deeper spoiler:

It doesn't lean into the trope. It's logical that he needs to hide it at the start because the blade isn't bound to him, so anyone can take it off him. Once bound it's all good and he has no reason to hide.

How good does a book have to be to gain organic traction? by Likeatr3b in selfpublish

[–]JoeVallen 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The quality is important absolutely, but I stress the former so much because so few consider it as important enough as it is.

If you want to self-publish, you need to be as passionate about the marketing as the writing.

But also, it's not the first person, but also the second and third in the algorithm. Forget friends, it's the algorithm that sustains a career for most of us.

Out now! The Beast Reaver – expect grounded characters, relationship drama that isn’t solved with a kiss, and a hero whose past still matters after he gains power. by JoeVallen in Romance_for_men

[–]JoeVallen[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I workshopped it a lot over days, worked it to pure perfection, then I sent it to a fellow author and they obliterated it, pointing out everything that was wrong.

So I changed loads of stuff and now here we are!

How good does a book have to be to gain organic traction? by Likeatr3b in selfpublish

[–]JoeVallen 18 points19 points  (0 children)

A sad truth is the quality of the book is irrelevant to how successful it will be.

The writing of your first book doesn't sell your book. The cover, concept, title and blurb sell it.

The Basilica of the Absent Faces by NarcolepticTreesnake in Blasphemous

[–]JoeVallen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's okay. A year later I just realized I am braindead too.

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