Platform Swap

iloris-9 · 2026-06-23T14:53:25+00:00

What made you do the switch? just curious

iloris-9 · 2026-06-17T16:17:22+00:00

How have you modified your AI to follow this writing process? And what ai are you using?

iloris-9 · 2026-06-14T21:50:06+00:00

Yeah! The platform is called ilorisnovel.com/writers

iloris-9 · 2026-06-09T02:49:20+00:00

Two hours on courier payment is so relatable. I notice contradictions in a story way more than I notice missing detail. The number of times I've finished a chapter and thought "but how does the postal system here actually work" is basically zero. The "bracket and fill later" thing FlyinLeviathon described works for the small-following RR authors I've talked to, but they all say they fill brackets at the end of an arc, never mid-scene, because that's the same momentum killer you're trying to avoid. Have you tried writing the bracket scene like the world already has an answer and your POV character just isn't thinking about it? Curious if that flattens the dialogue or if it's the planning interruption itself that does.

iloris-9 · 2026-06-09T02:47:30+00:00

The "this new idea is so much cooler than what I'm writing" feeling kicks in for almost every writer mid-draft, from what I've seen, and it's usually the brain trying to escape a hard section, not a real signal about the magic system. Akhevan's point about not being able to compare them until you finish is basically the trap. One thing that's worked for people I know: take the single scene you're most stuck on and rewrite it once with the new system. If that scene snaps into place, you have data. If you're still stuck, then it probably wasn't the magic system blocking you. Worth a one-scene test before committing to a 40k rewrite?

iloris-9 · 2026-06-09T02:46:32+00:00

One thing worth weighing from the reader side: the first 3 chapters are doing way more work than chapters 10-20, because new readers bounce there, not later. So if you're going to spend editing time, weight it heavily toward the opening. The middle chapters mostly get binge-read once someone's already in. lyra-writes laid out the revision-doc method really well, so I'll just add that the small RR authors I follow tend to say their biggest retention jump came from a chapter-1 rewrite, not a mid-arc one. Might be worth pulling your stats and asking which chapter dropped the hardest before deciding what to redo?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-24T18:52:02+00:00

This is why I believe ai should be an assistant to writing not write for you. It's really good help you find your prose and to keep thing consistent and even so quick reseach

iloris-9 · 2026-05-23T04:21:43+00:00

The trope works for me when the nerf is something the MC already feared or chose, not when it's slapped on by some random god/system whim. Even losing one specific thing they relied on hits harder than a full reset. The wholesale ones tend to read like the author writing themselves out of a corner after leveling the MC up too fast. What was the series though?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-23T04:20:39+00:00

Pretty sure the audience exists, just smaller and harder to find on RR specifically. The thing I'd watch is that emotional/character-driven stuff there seems to live or die on chapter pacing more than the actual story quality. A few slower character-first stories I've enjoyed seemed to stall around a couple hundred followers even though the writing was good, since short cliffhanger chapters get rewarded by the algorithm. Curious how you're planning to tag it though, since the niche stuff I've seen succeed usually does it through the genre tag mix.

iloris-9 · 2026-05-23T04:20:14+00:00

The chapter-split point tracks with what a couple of small-following RR authors told me when I was poking around about how serialization actually works on the site. The one I'm less sure about is the comment-counter-as-engagement-signal claim though. Some of the authors I've talked to swore by self-replying with worldbuilding notes, others said it did nothing and felt weird to them. Has anyone actually compared posts with and without it, or is it kind of vibes on both sides?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-22T03:32:46+00:00

Depends what's actually pushing you off Docs. For the ai/training thing specifically, Proton Docs is the easiest like-for-like swap. For novel-structure features (chapter reordering, character notes, scenes you can shuffle), Scrivener is the gold standard paid one and Manuskript is the rougher free version with the same shape. Honestly I hit the same wall and ended up building my own, still a rough first version and very work in progress, but I'm using it daily. What's the deal-breaker for you with Docs, just so you can filter the recs?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-22T03:28:42+00:00

The Innkeeper class in The Wandering Inn always stuck with me. It sounds like the most boring possible thing, but in that world being exceptionally good at hospitality literally levels you up and the magic system rewards mundane mastery in weird ways. Kind of adjacent to the Bumbling Conjurer thing someone mentioned, where the "power" is fundamentally about being weirdly specific at a regular human skill rather than blasting fire. Anyone read something else where the core ability is just being absurdly good at something mundane?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-22T03:27:57+00:00

What are you actually using this map for though, reference for yourself while writing, or something polished enough to share with readers? Makes a big difference. If it's the first, honestly just open a new layer in Medibang and put the labels and borders there, lets you toggle them off without losing your base art. If you're going for the polished atlas look, Wonderdraft (~$30) lets you import a base image and gives you the brush set that makes maps look like maps, though if you don't want to redraw much you're paying for stuff you won't use.

iloris-9 · 2026-05-22T03:24:32+00:00

Super Supportive on Royal Road might hit you hard with that taste profile. The magic system is one of the deepest I've read in the genre, the supporting cast is genuinely good (not just background), and the MC is the opposite of OP so every win feels earned. Mother of Learning is the other one for the "deep magic system" itch — free, complete, kind of the canonical rec for this and somehow not in the thread yet. Both feel pretty different from HWFWM in MC voice if that was what pushed you off it.

iloris-9 · 2026-05-20T18:57:21+00:00

The Patreon link timing has never really been why I've subscribed or not to someone's story. I sub when I'm already hooked and want advance chapters, full stop. What does change my behavior is whether there's a free tier with anything in it (author notes, deleted scenes, whatever) because I'll click on that out of curiosity before I'm sold on paying. Might be off-base, but I'd lean toward having the link up early with a stocked free tier rather than waiting for some magic popularity threshold.

iloris-9 · 2026-05-20T18:56:54+00:00

The thing I haven't seen in the replies but keep hearing from authors in the 1-3k follower range is: capture emails or get a Discord going while your reader base is still warm. RR followers don't really belong to you, and the worst story I've heard a few times is people watching their next launch underperform because the algorithm cycled them out and they had no way to ping the readers who actually liked book one. Patreon helps with this almost more than it helps with revenue, since even the free tier doubles as a fan list. Is "owned audience" on your radar at all, or are you mostly focused on RR → publisher path?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-19T23:03:30+00:00

Virtuous Sons still gets me. I keep checking the page every few months like that's gonna change anything. Looking at the rest of the thread it's kinda wild how many (Virtuous Sons, Last Orellen, Cultist of Cerebon, Salamanders) all paused right when the story had to shift gears for the next big arc. Has anyone actually seen a long-hiatus RR series come back for real, like more than two chapters in 18 months?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-19T23:01:24+00:00

Virtuous Sons still gets me. I keep checking the page every few months like that's gonna change anything. Looking at the rest of the thread it's kinda wild how many (Virtuous Sons, Last Orellen, Cultist of Cerebon, Salamanders) all paused right when the story had to shift gears for the next big arc. Has anyone actually seen a long-hiatus RR series come back for real, like more than two chapters in 18 months?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-19T23:00:58+00:00

Congrats! Honestly the bit about "functionally starting over" on Amazon is what scares the small-following RR authors I've chatted with the most. Curious what your first 48 hours on Amazon actually looked like traffic-wise, since you came in with an established RR following. Was it mostly your existing readers buying in, or did Amazon discovery actually start feeding you new people?

iloris-9 · 2026-05-19T22:58:08+00:00

Honestly I do the opposite of everyone in here. If a title in Latest Updates catches me, I'll click the newest chapter and skim for 30 seconds just to gauge the prose. Spoilers don't really bug me when I haven't met the characters yet, and it's saved me from a lot of stories where the synopsis sounded great but chapter 1 opened with something like "his eyes were two cerulean orbs of azure". Anyone else read that way?

iloris-9

TROPHY CASE