Hello everyone. I have been looking around and I hope I'm in the right sub forum for this post so please let me know if I'm being dumb and posting in the wrong place. So my book I am currently writing isn't my first attempt but it is my first real passion. It is intended to be a LitRpg fantasy novel series. I hope to make it a multi book series with continuation potential. As it stands I'm pretty well set in a general plot direction and I have the goals set and defined. What I'm getting stuck on is the beginning chapters. I'm having a hard time writing what I want to have happen and convey the situation without sounding monotonous. In the Third chapter my protagonist has just transferred to a new world filled with magic and wonder. However he is supposed to start with relatively little information and what he learns is from trial and error rather than gifted knowledge or much foreknowledge. The setting is he wakes up in essentially a new body (the transfer basically reformed him using magic so he could live in this world). This process leaves him in a paralysed state for the initial part. During this time he learns of some key differences in this world and his own like having a health bar. He realizes he's not on earth and he's stuck there and that it isn't a game. These are things he needs to learn on his own without a second character to guide him along. After some time he finally becomes accustomed to his body enough to move and walk. He starts in a dark cave. The issue I'm having is I don't know how to transition smoothly from appearing in the world through his various stages until he can manage to walk. This is due to having little (in my opinion) to side track him with. I feel like the story should switch gears often enough during this stage from various subject so as to cover many topics generally enough so that the reader gets the picture without an info dump. This I think is hard to do with only one character as there's little way for me to have a side character point out things my protagonist missed. He's not meant to come off as a super genius or as receiving divine information. He is suppose to be able to do it by simple deduction. Sorry it may sound complex. I just feel like there's only so many things my main character can *realize* before it gets repetitive or boring to the reader. Thanks a bunch. Edit : the book is generally about my characters growth through hardships and changes because of his many harsh mistakes. Thus a learning curve for the protagonist is a major point.
Question: Why does he have a health bar? Is it like a video game, or is it just part of what happens when one get transported to this new world?
The world is magical. One of the things the magic uses as a way of explaining itself on mortal life and how magic effects them is by health bars, status pages, experience, ect. Yes its kind of like a video game. The MC isn't in a game though. And no the magic isn't really sentient. It works on a sort of collective understanding. Essentially if there's 500 intelligent people in the world and 350 of them have unconsciously willed magic to explain its self in the form of health bars than by majority, all 500 see a health bar. Magic permeates this world on such a level that it influences everything. Gaining experience and stat boosts is the result of slaying other living creatures and by this absorbing portions the magic it had stored within itself.
I do enjoy a good isekai. It's hard to give advice without knowing more. He starts off in a cave, and he can't move. Yet he is meant to learn a bunch of information before he is able to move? Can you expand the scene a bit?
He comes to consciousness. Realizes he now has a body but it feels as if it is asleep and is unable to move. During this time he experiments with other actions such as using his eyes. This is when he realizes he has a health bar. In the previous chapter he went through a type of mind screw and so he's hardly surprised by such a development, and begins to take stock of his situation. He experiments with the bar to learn more and learns about his stat page showing his skills, traits, ect. Opening his eyes he realizes he's in a near pitch black cave. By this point his body has warmed up and he begins to move, it's difficult but he manages to get waking around. From here he explores the cave and finds his way out. While within the cave he learns how to use his stat page, that he has health mana and stamina bars, that it responds to thoughts, that he's not on earth, that his body is basically new even though it looks the same. That things work differently in this world than in earth, that he's not in a game. The issue is how do I convey the waking up to learning a few of these things before he gets moving.
Take your time and explore through your character, as much realistically as possible, one thing at the time. Sure, your character must be confused out of his mind but this is a plus in a sense. You have got all the knowledge about this world as the creator of this world, but your character doesn't. If you were suddenly there, waking up in that cave, how would you manage? What would you think? What would you come across first? Just put the things in line and take your time exploring them. My advice is pretty much simple, I know, but Take Your Time. No need for infodump, indeed. Exploring a new world and abilities is a very interesting aspect on its own. You won't bore your readers, so there is no need to rush over anything.
I would probably have him not realize all of these differences in the same chapter and try to throw hints as to what's happening so the reader has a chance to figure things out as fast or faster than the character. Exposition isn't exposition if the reader has to work for it, then it's a mystery. "Chad opened his eyes. Those he could move, though not much else. He must have been paralyzed. He panicked for a second, closed his eyes again, took a deep breath and for some reason he was pretty sure that the worst of it would be over in about 4 minutes and 43 seconds. He tried to figure out where he was and what had happened by staring at the mossy rocks that were directly in front of him. Even on top of the paralysis, he realized he didn't feel very well and figured that was probably because he took a couple of hits before he woke up. In a couple of minutes he'd have to see if he could find a few dozen apples to replenish his health, or at the very least find some cover and crouch down a bit to clear the blood from his vision. He realized his line of reasoning sounded a little ridiculous, and closed his eyes again wondering if he had a concussion. He'd likely have to find a bandage for that. Only 2 minutes and 27 seconds to go."
Where is this health bar, can he see it? How does he realise he has one? Perhaps he's laying paralyzed in the cave and is attacked by something which depletes his health bar a little to come this realisation but not enough to do any lasting damage?
