Robyn Paterson's Blog, page 5

How to Write a Romantic Comedy Light Novel (from Novenaro)

Since actual Japanese sources on writing light novels aren’t easy to find in English, I am sharing translations of some of the more interesting articles I have found during my current research here on my blog. Since my Japanese is poor, these are largely machine translations done using DeepL Translation software and then revised and edited for clarity. If the translation is off, please feel free to comment and I will correct it.

This particular article is from 2018, and I think it’s age show...

How to Write a Romantic Comedy Light Novel

Since actual Japanese sources on writing light novels aren’t easy to find in English, I am sharing translations of some of the more interesting articles I have found during my current research here on my blog. Since my Japanese is poor, these are largely machine translations done using DeepL Translation software and then revised and edited for clarity. If the translation is off, please feel free to comment and I will correct it.

This particular article is from 2018, and I think it’s age show...

Do All Light Novels Share the Same Plot?

Last week, I did a series of posts trying to come up with a new definition of what a light novel is. And among the definitions translated from Japanese, there was one from a blog post that seemed to catch people’s attention. The blogger tried to break down the definition of light novels into different categories, one of which was content, where they wrote…

2) Content (moe) faction

“It’s a light novel where a beautiful girl comes out and flirts with the main character.”

Which generated s...

What is a Light Novel? Part 4 – Rob’s Definition

Over the past three days I have looked at the different ways people see light novels.

From the Japanese point of viewFrom the non-Japanese point of viewTaking apart the six different ways you could look at light novels

Today, we’re going to go over my own definitions of a light novel based on looking at it from all of those angles. You might agree with my definitions, or you might disagree with them, but before you debate them I strongly suggest you read the previous posts to understand wh...

What is a Light Novel? Part 3 – Laying out the Perspectives

For this little project, I went through many definitions of what a light novel is, both from Japan and from the non-Japanese world. And I have to say, as I look at my survey of the definitions, I’m reminded of the parable of the blind men and the elephant.

In short, for those who aren’t familiar with the story, an Indian king wants to teach his son a lesson, so he brings an elephant into the royal court and also brings in a group of blind men. Then as the young prince watches, the king in...

What is a Light Novel? Part 2 – The non-Japanese View

Previously, we looked at how some Japanese try to define what a light novel is. Now, this time we’re going to look at how some non-Japanese have tried to define this style of book. I’m purposely not including my own definition because that will be covered in the third part of this series.

Let’s start where most people do – Wikipedia!

A light novel (ライトノベル, raito noberu) is a style of Japanese young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term “light ...

What is a Light Novel? Part 1: The Japanese View

Defining what a Light Novel is seems to be like trying to grab a greased pig – it’s messy, hard to pin down, and you can never quite get a solid hold on it. So, in an effort to understand them better, I decided to look at how Japanese speakers define the Light Novel category of books.

“It is an entertainment novel for young people that describes elements such as science fiction, horror, mystery, fantasy, and love in a light style in an easy-to-understand manner.”

Encyclopedia Nipponica (Nippo...

The Crazy Tricks Club sneaks into Audible!

Those kids from the Crazy Tricks Club have done their best trick yet! They’ve managed to sneak into the world of audiobooks with the release of the first Crazy Tricks Club book Brains Over Crime on Audible! Read by the incomparable Andrew Joseph Perez, their first crazy heist springs to life in this fun and tricky adventure!

I’m so excited to share this with you, as I was blown away by Andrew’s performance and looking forward to the world hearing what he did with the story. If you’ve got ...

Origins and Context of Isekai Discussion Video(s)

An interesting discussion about the origins of the Isekai genre. They bring up a couple of good points, including the genre’s close connection with The Hero’s Journey and some ideas of their thoughts on defining Isekai.

Rob

Gigguk Used A Million Dollar AI To Prove Light Novel Titles Are Dumb.

This is really funny, and some of the titles the AI came up with are even funnier.

By the way, I have officially started research and development on the new revised edition of my writing Light Novels and Webnovels book, so expect a lot of LN and WN related content here on the blog in the coming year. Like A LOT. You’ll see what I mean soon.

Rob