Keeping Your Readers Invested

First of all, I would like to start off by saying that I'm writing this to organize my thoughts, and by writing it out, it will help me conceptualize them clearer.

I would also like to preface this that whatever is written here is my own thoughts on the matter. In no way, shape, or form should you treat my words as the absolute end all be all.

Okay, let's begin.

I should explain why I began this guide. I write a story known as This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder. Almost one year ago in April 2021, my patron reached its current peak, a peak that I wouldn't surpass until six months later. I began to think of the reason. My protagonist finally defeated a rival that I had introduced over a hundred chapters later. You can say that it was the climax of my whole story till that point.

It generated a lot of interest since I had to split the fight into three chapters due to how long it was, and maybe a few strategically placed cliffhangers. It pushed my patrons to a new peak as mentioned before. The problem is what came after.

I started to lose patrons, and the numbers only started to rise again in September.

I immediately knew what happened. My story is closer to a relaxed slice-of-life, but it still had the same high points as other cultivation stories, which meant a lot of interest fell when the main threat disappeared, hence the dwindling patron numbers. As someone trying to make a living off writing, this was not good for me.

Around October, my patrons started to rise again due to the current arc reaching the climax. It wasn't to the same degree as the amount I went from March to April 2021. This was due to the antagonist being introduced in the current arc, so my readers weren't as interested.

Now, what that out of the way, let's talk about strategies. This will be mainly pertain to action-y stories with fights and antagonists.

Antagonist

Who are the antagonists? The enemy of your protagonist, the ones the readers want to see fall/dead most of all. In fact, I would say that a large part of a reader's motivation is to see how they fall, an hero is only as good as his villain, after all.

I want to split into two categories, the Major Antagonist and the Minor Antagonist.

The Major Antagonist is the main enemy of your protagonist, the one he wants to defeat and a major part of his motivation. Or, just the biggest enemy and most personal your protagonist has, as in my case. When they appear, many readers will want want the protagonist to defeat them, but they don't. I wouldn't suggest milking it too much by allowing the protagonist to not defeat the antagonist or allow the antagonist to run too much, it will grate on your reader's nerve. Still, the problem is what happens after the antagonist are defeated or killed.

You just lost a major part of your reader's interest.

The best method is to introduce another Major Antagonist. Now, don't just insert him and say, the protagonist hates him now and must defeat him now. It should be woven more intricately into your plot. Maybe he has kidnapped your protagonist's family members or has committed an unforgivable crime to them. Take your time, they shouldn't just be introduced one chapter, and should have their detailed slowly revealed to the protagonist afterward. Something to show the readers that this will be the protagonist next big enemy.

Now, let's talk about timing. How should the next Major Antagonist be introduced? Ideally, he should be introduced before the climax of the protagonist battle with the current Major Antagonist. Maybe he won't be important at the time, but after the climax, reveal to your readers why he is so important. You could also reveal him after the climatic battle, but I would suggest revealing them within 5-10 chapters to keep reader interest, depending on how often you update.

The Minor Antagonist are people your protagonist defeats along the way. Kinda obvious, I know. They can be the Major Antagonist's underlings, or actually sever the second Major Antagonists. Either way, they are cannon fodders, tools to keep your readers interested with battles as stopgap measures. Usuaoly they are introduced early into an arc or mini-arc's and are finished by the end. If the Minor Antagonists are related to the Major Antagonist, it's a good idea to find a method for them to reveal something new about their employer that has not been repeated. Too much repetition is bad.

So, let's move onto the next major point.

Plot

As webnovel authors, we often have to churn out tons of words every week, and sometimes, you just want to increase your word count. Because of this, it often undermines your overall narrative if you aren't focused or careful. When writing each chapter, ask yourself these questions:

1. How does this relate to my character's growth?

Many of the stories in Royalroad are progression fantasy. As such, your character has to grow. If not mentally, physically. Has your character grown stronger, or has he attained the item that will allow him to advance? It isn't just about your character's power, but also his station in the world. Has his status been raised, or how has his action affected his companions?

2. How does this relate to the Major Antagonist?

This doesn't come up as often, but it's a nice way to remind your reader about what the antagonist is up to. This not gives your readers more information about them, but it cements his narrative importance. If he's mentioned so much, he must be important, right?

3. How does this advance the story?

I'm sometimes guilty of this. This can also be combined with the first two questions, but I feel like it is a big enough point to talk about it. If you have done neither of the former two, chances are, you didn't advance the story at all. Ask yourself if your chapter would matter to the story if you skipped it. At every chapter, you there should be progress that advances the plot, like the protagonist and villain's battle inching closer.

For people who outline, this isn't as much as a problem, but if they aren't focused, they might also commit the same mistakes.

Slice-of-Life

My story started closer as a cultivation slice of life, but has gravitated closer to normal cultivation adventure. But there is still a one piece of advice I can for keeping your readers interested if it's concerns reincarnation/portal fantasy.

How does your character change the world around them?

In slice-of-life, your protagonist doesn't battle much, so you have to show progress in another way. We, as the enlightened and scientifically advanced humans like to see how someone in our world advances a backwater setting. Yeah, I attribute it to pride, thinking how we are much better than them societally and technologically. So, you should show how the regular commonfolk's lives are changed due to the protagonist actions, even if it's just the people close or related to him in the new world.

What Not To Do

This is just me, but my readers mostly want to read about my protagonist Tianyi. It's not that they don't care about other characters, but they just aren't as interested. So, until you can get your readers invested in your side character, don't make dedicated chapter that does not have the protagonist. It's fine if its for a few chapters, but don't make it too long. I prefer to split the chapter so that half of it relates to the side character while half relates to the protagonist.

DON'T FOCUS ON SPINOFFs.

I did an experiment and wrote a spinoff with my protagonist's clone as the protagonist. Some of my readers like it, but on average I found that the interaction and interest dropped whenever I posted spinoff chapters. That is not to say you can't write side stories or spinoffs, just make them an extra surprise and don't let it replace your main story like I did.

Stupid, I know.

But, I wouldn't recommend it. You are already writing a lot every week, so extra spinoffs and side stories generally aren't worth it. Maybe do a short side story for your patrons or what not.

Conclusion

What I wrote here might seem like common sense, but all too often do we forget about them in the heat of the moment. It all seems so easy, but putting it into action is harder than it appears.

Ramblings

This turned a lot more extensive than I thought it would be. I make many of these mistakes, and I probably still do, kinda hard to focus when I have to pump out like 7k+ words a week. I'm not an outliner, so it only makes my problem worse.

Now, that I got this itch out of me, back to writing. I still haven't made the minimum wage of my country per month yet.