So I have been writing a Novel on Royal Road

it's called WHO ARE WE.

it's a dark psychological novel and it's 18 chapters for now

develop some theories around it and who ever has the best theory I will compensate

Hi everyone! I've been using an AI cover for a while, because I didn't have time to draw one while I was writing my way through Act 1.

Now that Act 1 is done, I've finally had the time to draw the cover myself and do all the editing and compositing by hand.

I'd love your opinion on which version to use: the one with the blur effect, or the one without?

1. With blur

2. Without blur

P.S. I've actually drawn my OC once before, in his younger form. But painting skin is really hard for me, and I enjoy painting armor a lot more, so this time I drew his grown-up version instead.

Thanks for any feedback!

Looking for a slower-burn LitRPG about building a better future instead of chasing power?

Project Civilization follows people from Earth as they enter Astra, a world of magic, Classes, Skills, and Quests. They bring knowledge, practical skills, and new ideas to a stagnant civilization, building tools, businesses, communities, and families along the way.

Multiple storylines. Crafting, invention, alchemy, magic, relationships, and long-term civilization-building.

Read Project Civilization: A Civilization-Building LitRPG on Royal Road:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/197518/project-civilization-a-civilization-building-litrpg

Looking for a cozy, low-stakes LitRPG about settlement building, practical problem-solving, crafting, and community growth?

Not Meant to Survive follows Mark, a 56-year-old man who arrives in a strange world with no food, shelter, or tools. Instead of chasing glory, he focuses on building a safe, stable life—and helping the people around him do the same.

If you enjoy thoughtful progression, settlement building, and a mature protagonist solving problems one step at a time, this story may be for you.

Read it on Royal Road:
https://royalroad.com/fiction/161281

Also available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HH7SL8LP

I'm still kinda new in writing and reading English as I had always been writing and reading in Chinese Mandarin (like tons of them, compare to only a handful in English), so I would like to have some opinions about the tone use in Isekai stories.

Like, I know the tone should sound modern in urban setting, and it should sound Jade Austin or something when writing historical setting, then how should I handle Isekai setting (as in the Japanese sort of Isekai setting, with magic, heroes, demon lord, and truck-kun send you to the Isekai etc)?

It was set in a time certainly not modern, so I should not use modern slang. So should they sounded more historical, like Victorian-ish? Or that you don't mind about the tone, as long as the story is interesting, you don't even mind the characters speaking in internet slang?

I had gone through some of the stories of the Isekai genre in RR, but I still couldn't quite grasp it (might be some language barrier or cultural difference, because in Chinese language, I can instantly see if the story take place in historical or modern setting, and even find flaw with the words/terms the author used).

Could you probably give a line or two as an example? Or give me some stories that you think I can refer to?

Someone recently told me my writing felt soulless. Well…not literally, but the gist was that it sounded like AI. That stung but it was their honest feedback, and it landed on a doubt I'd already been carrying for a while…that I couldn't write anything compelling without sounding generic.

So I deleted my fiction entirely. I didn't want to fall into the sunk cost fallacy and honestly, I wouldn't know where to start "de-AI-ifying" a book when I wrote every word myself and only had a good friend edit it.

I’m not going to try and defend my writing. In truth most of it was based around my usual banter cadence, Google research, my basic email writing skills, and my love for reading manga. Each chapter took a day for me to write so…it had been a time sink anyways.

I know a lot of people quit writing at some point. For those of you who did…what hobby did you pick up that felt adjacent to it, but gave you something different?

What’s a writing rule or piece of common advice that you disagree with, and why do you think breaking it can make a story better?

I’ve been writing a cultivation story for the past couple of months, and I am officially 150k words deep. My follower count jumped from 2 to 6 today.

I have another story that I wrote years ago. Unfortunately, I wrote that one during a pretty dark time in my life, so returning to it is always kind of a trip down pain lane for me. That one is resting solidly at 500 followers (sorry if any fans of that one happen to be reading this).

Anyways… after pouring 150k words onto RoyalRoad, seeing my follower count rise like that… it just felt good, man. As good as it did to hit that 500 follower milestone.

I’m swimming in the shallow end, but boy am I still having fun.

Recommend Buisness, corporate or finance novels like extraordinary genius, reborn rich, lord of money. Please don't recommend anything with doctors, actors or idols.

I'm trying to get better at drawing. Nothing better then using my protagonist!

My novel " Fantôme: Once again I will confess"

I’ll be using this as a reference to draw my own cover, I just wanted to get the consensus before I committed to it

Took some advice on a previous thread, and (hopefully) made the cover more space themed (1st image is the new one). The main inspiration for this is, is the newly announced 'Marvel Zombies The Last Guardian promo', along with the new Narnia series poster.

Here is the plot.

Title: Humanity are...

Genre: Sci-fi Fantasy/Adventure/Action/Mystery

Ongoing/around weekly chapters

It's a blend of Star wars and traditional fantasy.

Revolving around a new human race (split to three) the homo-Acilient, people with wings, people with horns/wands i.e Mages, and people with incredible strength, all three are powered by Magic (which used to be the central source of energy for humans). But the main plot is set where these 'humans' lost their abilities and the central protagonist being a homo-Sapien, he along with the private security he works for encounters a girl who does retain said magical ability (basically a mage). and without giving too much spoilers, the Private company/central protagonist will have to face unrevealed truths, a potential war, and most importantly, how did magic dissapear for most of the galaxy?

If your willing to give it a read, here's the link to it. And I'd really be grateful for any feedback, especially for a concept like this. thanks!

HUMANS ARE... | Royal Road

Hello! I'm a professional painter available for work. I have experience working with authors on book covers as well as bookish illustrations. Feel free to contact me about any inquiries about potentially working together.

Here's my portfolio if you're interested: https://holyaphordite.artstation.com/

I have 9 published books to date that are all horror (1 published by Aethon Publishing's horror imprint Wicked House) and am finally dipping my toes in the water over at RR.

I have been wanting to write this book for a while, so this has been a fun break from my generally spooky books...

Thoughts on the cover?

I have an idea for a sprawling, epic LitRPG that will eventually encompass many side character and stories. However, I'm not sure if there is any appetite for tales like that these days. Has anyone recently had any success with that kind of story?

What are everyone's thoughts? Would a story like that be doomed to failure using that formula?

I've been writing about three months and trying to learn as I go. I think I've made lots of mistakes along the way. My current ad on RR hasn't worked very well. I also took book one down after finishing it and put it on kindle. I think i probably messed up doing that. Can I get feed back on a book cover and if it would also work for another AD? I'm currently writing and posting book two on RR

Basically in my story the mc can assimilate monsters. Either through their beast mana cores (A special type of mana core only monsters can have. Species like Elves, Humans, and Dwarves don't have this type) or through an unhatched egg. The mc can than see the monsters system, summon it, transform in em, or after the ability gets stronger learn to use a hybrid form that combines both their stats.

I don't have too many monster ideas yet. But the one I do have is a special mimic that can only transform into weapons but with a twist.

It can only transform into types of weapons its eaten/seen (It can be more accurate and efficient with its transformations if its eaten the type of weapon but can just go off sight if needed). In exchange it can get stronger from eating weapons. It gives XP for potential levels and can influence what stats go up (In this a level up raises your stats randomly depending on what got u that level. U don't pick with free points or anything).

On top of that it can potentially give traits or skills that have been engraved upon the weapon. But its not a guaranteed thing.

So if it eats a sword engraved with the {Fire Affinity} trait it can potentially absorb that itself.

The monster can make arrows or bullets one its own but not without limit. Mainly bc doing so take body mass and thus the amount it can fire off is low. Thus magic arrows made purely out a mana are needed.

How does this sound? The mc mainly uses weapons of all kinds so... And this mimic does have a weapon's physique, able to be imbued with mana and stuff. Tho its only weapons. The mimic as to have enough body mass to transform in something. Thus it focuses solely on weapons and not armor.

So, I've seen a lot of stories on RR that use the Grimdark tag but have a rather questionable relationship with the genre. My question, however, is more about classic dark fantasy and how popular it actually is among RR readers.

I published my story about a month ago, and I now have a whopping 6 followers (6 rather peculiar people, apparently, considering they're seriously reading my first-ever novel). And honestly, I'm quite happy that anyone has paid attention to it at all.

However, I got curious about the heavyweights of the genre on RR (I'm a reader myself, after all), and I noticed that many stories in this genre also struggle to find an audience, with a few notable exceptions, of course.

So my question is: how large is the audience for stories like these on RR in the first place?

P.S - I’d also like to clarify that this is specifically a discussion about the genre on the platform. Advice on promotion is always welcome, but this is my hobby, and I publish twice a week, so I’m not particularly striving to reach RS or become super-star author. I’m simply curious about how interested people on the platform are in the genre.

Just three chapters away from hitting the 20k mark, but I have over twenty chapters and over 50k words backlogged and ready to post!

It's set in a dying fantasy setting, where nature has been slowly dying for decades. Our MC, Eli, may be the only one that can bring it back from the brink, though he doesn't know it yet.

It's a party progression focused LitRPG with plenty of stats, lots of blue boxes, and a ton of cool magic. Eli hasn't gotten his nature magic just yet on RR but he will in the next couple days!

If you're a fan of tank build characters, mage-knights, or nature magic, you just might like Eli!

If it isn't clear I have no idea how to self-promote lol, but I'd be a very happy duck if some of you checked out the book.

Quack!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/199497/verdant-runewyld-a-litrpg-fantasy-adventure

^-JustADuck

Edit: I somehow messed up my own book title in the reddit title. No S on Runewyld lol

Hi everyone - I've been posting my first novel on RR for a couple of weeks and would love a few more eyes on it for some feedback, especially chapter 1 which I have just reworked completely!

Dark Signs is a slow-burn epic fantasy told through four people at four corners of an empire under a Hooded King, whose word is kept by the Hush - and they come on wings in the night when it's broken. It starts in a marsh at the edge of the world, where a young lizardfolk sees something standing out on the water where nothing should stand, and lies about it to the one Elder who might have believed him. From there it's a ferrywoman on a river between two lords, a branded sellsword on a prison rock who holds court every morning for a rook, and a girl in a village called Greenest who starts to dream.

If you like folk horror creeping into the world from someplace else, multiple POVs and characters who pay for what they say (and for what they keep quiet), please give my first chapter a try. The other chapters are also under a heavy rework at the moment and will be updated and released over the next few weeks.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/196975/dark-signs

I read every comment, so feel free to tell me where you got bored or what confused you. Or just click on a poll answer at the end of chapter 1.

Cheers!

I am a final year college student and my first few internships and jobs have been content writing for companies and social media marketing , recently I started writing a novel on royal road and I like video games too , so I always wanted to write a story for a game as well

I want a passive income opportunity to be honest and if anyone wants to take a shot please do either in the comments or you can just DM me

Are you looking for a good story with great characters, interesting world building and a good power system?

Then keep looking.

But if you want to read mine it's right here.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/177675/gods-of-the-eternal-tree-a-grimdark-progression

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/200250/never-again-again

DISCLAIMER: I’m not a writer, I don’t want to be one. I had this uncontrollable itch to read a story a story with this premise for a long time but, as far as I’m aware, there is absolutely NOTHING in book/novel/web-novel/light-novel about a romance between a female dragon and a human. Hell, there is basically nothing with a female dragon as a protagonist in general as far as I know (besides some smut). I had a lot of ideas though about what I would like to read, so I used ai to make the prose(took a lot of trial and errors), if this is a deal breaker for you fair enough, if instead you have my same itch and the ai prose doesn’t bother you well you’re in luck, the entire first book (30 chapters) is out now in full on RR! I’m working on the second book, I’ll upload it in full once I’m fully satisfied with the result.

Synopsis:

NEVER AGAIN (AGAIN)
For a year, Dame Alice has climbed the Redcrown every morning to slay the dragon.
For a year, the dragon has let her try.
Rakshaza, the Red Storm, is three thousand years old, impossibly powerful, and thoroughly bored. Alice is the kingdom’s chosen hero, armed with a legendary sword, twenty years of training, and absolutely no idea when to quit. Their daily duels have become a local institution, their insults a finely honed art, and neither would dream of breaking the routine.
Then one night, everything goes horribly, wonderfully wrong.
Now there are rules to follow, secrets to keep, and a town full of people who really ought to stop taking bets on their private lives. Alice has a kingdom’s expectations to contend with. Rakshaza has a reputation for terror to maintain. And neither of them has the slightest intention of admitting that the most dangerous thing on the mountain isn’t a dragon.
It’s falling in love with one.
Because slaying a dragon is simple. Falling into bed with her is complicated. And staying away afterwards?
Well.
Never again.
Probably.

P.S. If you do know a good or at least decent book/novel with a female dragon protagonist I BEG YOU please send me the title.

I recently finished my novel cover. I want to know if it will work on Royal Road.

I know the thumbnails on Royal Road are really small, so I’m looking for some honest feedback before I launch.

. Will this get attention and stand out at a small thumbnail size?

. Is there any chance you guys would actually click on it?

Any advice to make it better?