Ringdom Writing Guide

Chapter 4 Urban Novels on Ringdom

Urban novels can be roughly categorized into two types: Realistic Urban and Paranormal Urban.

Realistic urban: novels under this genre mainly involve realistic events that build the MC’s winner life, such as school competition, professional careers, business running, and underground fights. The MC can be a soldier, doctor, sportsman or gangster...etc. A legendary career can be expected.

Paranormal Urban: Plus with the career development in realistic urban fiction, some supernatural elements are involved in this setting. The MC may encounter some supernatural creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves in the modern city. And the MC can get some superhuman abilities, and even open a door to a hidden supernatural world besides normal life. 

Readers may easily feel related to urban novels since the worlds are like where we live. It could save many efforts on background introduction for authors. But it doesn’t mean there is limited imagination in urban novels. Many interesting plots can be designed. Here is one classic example, the Marvel Universe. And the TV series, Supernatural, is also a quite good example to show how wild the world can be extended. Many trending animes, such as Jujutsu Kaisen, are also under this genre. 

Here is one example under the Urban genre on Ringdom:

The Last Guardian

A retired soldier lost everything in the war. His leg was broken. His fiancée breaks up with him. He has no job. Tragically, a tough man finds no meaning in his life. But in a fatal accident, he got saved by a mysterious guy. The door to a whole new world opened to him at that time. He never realized there are a group of unsung heroes guarding the world secretly. Supernatural creatures, superhuman power, magical spells… all the things he thought fictional are realistic in the world. Now it’s his turn to make a choice:

[The heroes have vanished in history. Are you willing to be THE LAST GUARDIAN?]

This novel makes a good combination of realistic events and supernatural fights. What the MC does can have a big impact on reality development. Readers can easily feel related to the growth of the MC with the vivid description, not just in power, but also in personality. A clear level-up path is shown to readers. And the signature skills the MC learned in fights are also exciting. Plus with the beautiful mutual redemption between the MC and the female lead, a hero journey of an ordinary guy is gradually presented.

For freshers to this genre, here is a prompt to start:

[I have been a single otaku for years, following my boring routine every day. but one day I get a special system, which forces me to be the underground king. The system keeps issuing difficult tasks to me. Rewards always come with danger.

‘First Task: Save the helpless girl from the three gangsters. Time limit: 1 hour.’

Now I am the helpless one! I am just a normal boy. I don’t know how to fight!]

So this is what we all have today. Leave comments below to share what you think about Urban fiction!