Web fiction is a business of chasing trends. This skill pullscurrentpopular content on each platform, helping authors choose the right genre and attach the right tags.
⚠️ Data timeliness note
Platform preferences change, this skillprioritizes using web search (WebSearch) to pull the latest data; if the environment has no web tools, then based on references/platform-profiles.md give evergreen judgments and clearly indicate "not real-time, recommend verifying online".
When to use
- Market research before starting a new book ("what's popular on Tomato now")
- Check a platform's current hot tags/genres/rankings
- Chase trends, find blue-ocean genres
- Want to understand recent preference changes of a platform's readers
Workflow
Step 1: Clarify scope
Confirm: which platform? Male-oriented/female-oriented? Want genre trends or hot tags or rankings?
(Zhihu Yanxuan leans toward short paid fiction; UC leans toward middle-aged and older lower-tier audiences; Webnovel is going overseas, with a different reader structure—adjust references/platform-profiles.md）
Step 2: Online research
Search with WebSearch (example queries):
- "<platform> male-oriented/female-oriented hot genres <current year-month>"
- "<platform> new book ranking / rising ranking <current month>"
- "<platform> signing hot tags <current year>"
- "web fiction trend genres <current quarter>" Aggregate multiple results, deduplicate, and note the information time.
Step 3: Output trend report
【平台 + 频道 + 调研时间】
【当下热门题材】Top 5（+ 简评：还能不能进 / 是否已红海）
【热门标签】可直接用的标签清单（按热度）
【上榜套路】当下榜单常见的金手指/爽点套路
【读者偏好变化】最近在追什么、厌倦了什么
【蓝海建议】竞争小但有需求的细分方向
【选题建议】结合趋势的 2-3 个可写方向
【数据来源 + 时效】（列出处，标注非官方/可能滞后）
Step 4: Connect to topic selection
Feed the trend conclusions to idea to generate specific topics, feed to submission to choose the right tags.
Make it "update daily" (automation)
A static plugin itself won't update data on its own, but you can have it run automatically every day:
- Use Claude Code's scheduling/looping capability, e.g. automatically run this skill every morning to check a platform's trends (refer to
/scheduleor/loop）。 - Or the author manually runs it once a week and saves it into their own book-bible for tracking.
Principles
- Be sure to note data timeliness and source, web fiction trends expire very quickly.
- Distinguish between "trends you can still enter" and "genres already in red ocean", don't let authors chase the tail end.
- Overseas platforms (Webnovel etc.) have different preferences from domestic ones, judge separately.
Next step
Once trends are set → use idea to settle topics,submission to match tags.