you’re just completely fucked because they (generally) follow the Mark Twain model of pay per word so once a story gets popular that shit absolutely gets milked into the ground.

This is a legit problem for web novels and wuxia (which get written and released chapter by chapter).

Lot’s of random plot arcs that go nowhere, and a lot of recycled story structure.

I stopped reading Tales of Demons and Gods halfway through, because the main character gains the ability to pause time and “power up” whenever he wants. I was already quite tired of it, but that was the “fuck this book” moment

I shall seal the heavens and The Desolate Era are some of my favorites (although TDE has some severe plot meandering syndrome)