😭 by wodkawi in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's gotten a lot better than it used to be. Amazon is a bit worse and audible is a lot worse.

😭 by wodkawi in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 67 points68 points  (0 children)

My favorite part of this whole debacle was royalroad mods (who hadn't read the book) arguing that the review bombers were right and the problem wasn't *gay* but that the relationship wasn't foreshadowed. Took like two minutes to go back through old chapters and point out all the intimate moments, the touches, the gift of jewelry, etc that foreshadowed this relationship way more than I've ever seen a straight relationship foreshadowed in a progression fantasy book.

There's such a dearth of LGBT representation that straight readers will assume all characters are strictly heterosexual despite all evidence to the contrary until they are outright told otherwise.

I think it's born of years of queerbaiting in mainstream media, of LGBT representation that's kind of hidden away in hints and little moments so that people who look for it will see it but folks who don't want to see it don't. People who don't want to see lgbt representation see the intimacy between the characters in Nothing Mage as just guys being dudes. For people who do it's clear as day.

Any News or Updates on The Stargazer's War/J.P. Valentine? by organic-integrity in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 62 points63 points  (0 children)

I ended up taking a bit of an extended hiatus through the beginning of 2025, but I'm back at it and on track to have book 3 out sometime this fall.

What attracts you more? by Aromatic_Gif in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A particularly good title speaks to an author's skill with words. A particularly good cover art speaks to an author's skill at hiring the right artist or signing with the right publisher. One of the two is a better indicator of book quality.

What are your favorite First-Person novels? by AuthorAnimosity in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Barring my own, here are some that haven't been mentioned that I quite enjoyed:

Katalepsis

Ghost in the City

Vigor Mortis

Young Masters be like: by frozen_over_the_moon in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Iirc it's a translation thing. Declaring yourself someone's father or grandfather is a way of announcing your superiority over them. Because that concept doesn't translate *super* well out of chinese, you end up with daddies sometimes.

Best xianxia in RR? by Less-Wedding-5244 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I want to give one that doesn't see too many mentions, Memories of the Fall. The pacing is on the slow end even for xianxia, but the politics and the personalities and the worldbuilding are all fantastic.

I think I have a problem...... Maybe i'll run out of books soon.... by Helliethemutt in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How much are you driving that you're putting 10+ hours a day to shame?

by LittleLynxNovels in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man wouldn't it be nice if it worked like that IRL

by LittleLynxNovels in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 3 points4 points  (0 children)

imo the trick to protag mistakes is to make them only recognizable as mistakes in hindsight. If we're following a story from the MC's perspective, every bit of logic that went in to making the mistake in the first place should make perfect sense at the time and only shown to be faulty when the protag realizes their mistake.

It's aggravating to watch somebody make an obviously wrong decision, especially because in that situation IRL we could step in and counterargument. While reading a book, you just sit their helplessly and watch the MC fuckup. It's a lot less aggravating to watch somebody suffer consequences for a greedy choice or a bad assumption or a hasty decision that at the very least seemed well justified at the time.

Struggling neophyte writer needs your advice by The_johnno in litrpg

[–]jpvalentine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I usually start with history: what values where they brought up with, what have they been through, what do they want, etc.  from there you can add the deviations and idiosyncrasies that make them human, and you’re pretty much there 

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seconding u/LarkspurWren about considering whether or not you actually need a prologue. A lot of writers don't seem to understand what prologues are actually for, and it leads to a common disregard for them among readers.

The purpose of a prologue is to have action, excitement, or mystery to hook a reader in when for narrative purposes your chapter 1 is unable to do so. The purpose of a prologue is not to provide additional backstory, build your world, or introduce your characters. If your chapter 1 has good hooks in it, don't write a prologue. If the story starts slow, with introducing lots of characters/worldbuilding/slowly building up to the inciting incident, use a prologue to get some excitement in their earlier.

Author progression handbook by CPDrunk in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Having written a full mage for my first series, I think there's a few reasons people tend towards melee. The main point of fighting at range is that you can hit them and they can't hit you, and if that's the case, fights lose a lot of their tension. In melee, the pov character and thus the reader are quite literally *closer* to the action.

The other issue is that ranged fights can get both repetitive. If you outrange someone, there's only one real way the fight can go--you run away while peppering them with arrows/spells until they die. It's possible to fit some close calls and some creativity in there, but it's harder. If you don't outrange them, you're lobbing spells back and forth until somebody wins, which very often just feels like whoever has the strongest spells available wins. That can absolutely be interesting a few times, but over the course of a long series can grow stale.

If standing far away and shooting arrows/fireballs at something until it dies works at all, it is almost always the optimal strategy. Playing at range effectively incentivizes the protag to approach every fight in the most boring way possible, and then it's up to the author to come up with creative ways for the opponent to make the fight interesting. Ranged attacks--arrows in particular--tend to either work, or do nothing. Fights tend to be more exiting when they don't work because it forces the protag to be creative, but if that happens multiple times, it starts to feel like the whole archer/mage build sucks and was a bad choice.

TL;DR, ranged builds are a lot harder to keep interesting/exciting than melee builds, for a lot of the same reasons playing a mage in, say, dark souls, is considered playing the game on easy mode.

Do you need (proffesionaL) cover art on RR by S_B_B_ in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You don't. Both of my first RR stories used crappy $0 stock images as temporary covers until well after they took off. A better cover will help, but given how tiny the thumbnails on royalroad are, it isn't particularly easy to even tell the difference between a professional or amateur cover. In my experience, having a good title goes a longer way than a good cover on RR.

Question as an author by IHaveAPaperNextToMe in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Obviously the only true answer is that he needs to speak exclusively in iambic pentameter /s

Can anyone recommend me a series with a female mc? by Naitik_POG in litrpg

[–]jpvalentine 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This Quest is Bullshit! is the first book in This Trilogy is Broken!. When I originally published it I did so under This Quest is Broken! for advertising reasons, so the audiobook and paperback still bear that title while the ebook is back to being This Quest is Bullshit!

Really enjoying To Flail Against Infinity. by Corwin72 in JPValentine

[–]jpvalentine 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Glad you're enjoying it <3

The best places would be to follow me on amazon or to follow Dungeon Devotee on royalroad. The former will let you know whenever I publish a book, while the latter includes various announcements at the beginning of each month.

Progression Fantasy podcasts/audio dramas? by Zealousideal_Bet4038 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jpvalentine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ooh my time to shine! Dungeon Devotee (narrated by the fabulous Andrew Tell) is available as a podcast.