How would you write someone finding out they are in a different world?

[Santaisblue]

I've been reading Iseki/transportation stories for a while, and one thing that always bugged me was how fast the MC gets over it. I always imagined that if I wrote a story where the MC was transported to another world, I would be able to write a compelling reaction to the event; I sat down to write one such event but I came up blank for how someone would realistically react. So now I come to you all, the master writers of the Hub, to ask how you would write someone's reaction in a perfect story.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Realistically it would vary by character. Some people would absolutely freak out. Others would be like Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, and assume none of it is real (with pretty vile results, actually). Some would be overjoyed either to be in a favorite game or novel world or just to be AWAY from their old world, others would be impatient to "get home."

Whatever fits the needs of the story first, the personality of the character second IS the correct way to write it.

The story I have here (Strange Awakening) the character keeps noticing similarities and differences from the original world and talking to the reader about them.

One I will be putting up in the near future (but probably paywalling a few chapters ahead) will have a character who is "Well, I'm not dead. Might as well deal with it" as his attitude. He's curious about why he is still around since he knows he died but is more curious about this world than about how he is in it..

Another (Between Worlds) has characters shuffling between worlds - one of them was trained for it, the others kind of see it as a visit to an amusement park.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Read and watch early isekai webnovel and stories. They have better realization than the current modern ones.

Many isekai story nowadays just skip those realization thinking moment to skip intro and skip dialogue for the audience.

But i think the trope of "how protag realize theyre in otherworld" could be a good raw plot material for a potential plot twist.

Mushoku Tensei was written back in 2013 and how the MC realize he's in different world were quite good. This story pretty much the start of the Isekai "transmigrated/Reincarnated to medieval otherworld" Boom. Because its the first of its kind, and the author were pretty much creating story of genre not popular,they have to explain it better and more indepth than the usual " after isekai boom stories"

Re Zero were written in the "Isekai Boom" era of 2012, where suddenly all JP Webnovel are Isekai and the MC is pretty much very aware of the Isekai happensed to him. Isekai Protagonist aware of themselves being "isekai-ed" exist since 2012, when Iphone 4 were popular and Iphone 5 just released, and GTA V have yet to be released.

Slime Tensei were written in 2013, during the Isekai Boom era. But the author manage to make it more realistic with the way he write our Dying MC didnt just understand or properly recognize Isekai and "system" immediately. It properly capture the realism of how MC need some time to adjust and understand before they could truly realize the situation they're in.

Overlord written back in 2010. Its pretty much written with the template of VR era, and some classic isekai. The whole story is explanatory about the isekai itself, because MC is actively trying to understand what happen when the game didn't shut down even tho its supossedly the closing day of the game. MC then try his best to understand the world.

 

[TheIcMan]

Many isekai story nowadays just skip those realization thinking moment to skip intro and skip dialogue for the audience.

But i think the trope of "how protag realize theyre in otherworld" could be a good raw plot material for a potential plot twist. Like a META cognition, or something.

Nothing grinds my gears more than modern shitsekais pulling the signature pink car "SKIPPA". It's so god damn annoying seeing them jump over what would always be great worldbuilding and characterization.

Read and watch early isekai webnovel and stories. They have better realization than the current modern ones.

Zero no Tsukaima my love.

Anyways, I'm currently planning a story that basically requires all sorts of different people getting isekai'd, so this is a great question lmao. So yeah, what charles said. It depends on what kind of world, and who exactly is being isekai'd. If it's a nerd transferred to their favorite world? MF is going to be ecstatic at first. Probably going to jump the gun and kind of be an annoying dude. The opposite is true; Someone can be genuinely confused and might get their brain overloaded by a bunch of new information.

The way I did it in my previous scrapped project was the MC, someone who isn't familiar with this type of fiction, being confused, irrational, and terrified. Her being summoned by not-so-good people also helps in her distress. But even after escaping and finding solace with more reasonable people, she's still guarded. No matter how anyone treats her in this new world, she'll only truly trust herself. But because she wants to return, she has to eventually believe everyone around her. Which is the story I was trying to tell for her character.

 

[Nolff]

I have 4 unfinished stories on my belt, and I want to add more (Please help, I need to stop).

But, if I were to write an isekai story, mine would be a philosophical journey.

Because my MC praises a god, and he'll never believe he got isekai'd.




He thought all this was a dream that felt too real when it wasn't at all.

He's a rational and a clever fella, so he knew the world he got isekai'd to is real.

But his faith does not want to admit it.



As a follower of god, he believes that these symptoms of being departed to another world are non-existent.

He knows this...

And so, at the end of the story, I'll have him fall down to the bottomless hell and-


Wake the f*ck up.




...




Isekai is a genre of art, not something to believe.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Nothing grinds my gears more than modern shitsekais pulling the signature pink car "SKIPPA". It's so god damn annoying seeing them jump over what would always be great worldbuilding and characterization.

Well, they're trying to be quick about it. Its a fair tactic. Even Beware of Chicken is pretty quick about it, albeit the information density is very high in the 1st chapter, and many thing were to be explained later.

Zero no Tsukaima my love.

Ahh, sweet memories of my teenage days.

Back then i don't know the definition of isekai. I watched many Isekai without realizing they're in otherworld and couldn't go home back then.

I thought sometimes "why they worked so hsrd to achieve goals", and after all this years, i finally understood that "they really want to go home" was the answer.

If i was in their positions, despite the magic and the wonders, I definitely miss home.

The way I did it in my previous scrapped project was the MC, someone who isn't familiar with this type of fiction, being confused, irrational, and terrified. Her being summoned by not-so-good people also helps in her distress. But even after escaping and finding solace with more reasonable people, she's still guarded. No matter how anyone treats her in this new world, she'll only truly trust herself. But because she wants to return, she has to eventually believe everyone around her. Which is the story I was trying to tell for her character.

Well, its a rather common for female MC grimdark fantasy.

Probably the ending of being a hiatus is an equal to her never finding the way home, whether because she died, or even if she found immortality, due to author's blessing leaving her stranded there.

If it's a nerd transferred to their favorite world? MF is going to be ecstatic at first. Probably going to jump the gun and kind of be an annoying dude. The opposite is true; Someone can be genuinely confused and might get their brain overloaded by a bunch of new information.

Its even more standard and even more common.

Rezero started this way too, MC being a pro smart muscle guy, pretty much a mary sue/gary sue on earth, or a very charismatic bodybuilding genius, good at smarts and social, but a NEET somehow, is ecstatic about otherworld, yet being hit by harsh reality of his summoning due to magical world have people of 2x power of the strongest human on earth.

Konosuba too. MC make fatal decision of not getting power and accidentally being weak. As weakness is a sin, therefore Konosuba MC is suffering in a comedic fashion.

Very powerful magician means very insane type of suffering happening all over the place.

----

My advice is to write a oneshot isekais with those template to get you used to the trope and handling the plot.

Its okay if your female MC is being saved by a dashing magician master/duke/prince in the first chapter, to start an otome, yet a dark one.

And please write the ending to them, not matrer how out of plot they seem. Even in reality, people usually change a lot and find their ending in a rather out of place fashion.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have 4 unfinished stories on my belt, and I want to add more (Please help, I need to stop).

Only four? Beginner! I've got 2 here, one on Royal Road, and six more that I haven't posted anywhere...

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

One of My favorite plot twist on Isekai from 1968 Planet of the Apes :

The planet of apes

It was earth all along

---

Spoiler

In conjuction with Dr Stone that despite being on earth, it feels like a secret isekai story in comparison to other isekai. A really rally good isekai.

I remember reading about "Dr Stone feels like a secret isekai story" somewhere.

It really got me about this.

How human would pretty much act the same whether its isekai or earth.

 

[Nolff]

Only four? Beginner! I've got 2 here, one on Royal Road, and six more that I haven't posted anywhere...

 

[RecursiveDescent]

I feel like a good concept would be a main character that knows about isekai but has trouble realizing it's actually happening right away.
Like as far as they know it could be a dream or a delusion.

That gave me a funny idea for an isekai where the main character is dead or on the verge of dying before being transported, so he thinks the other world is a form of the 'light' you're not supposed to go to if you want to live.
So he spends the entire adventure paranoid over what action he perceives will lead to him not waking up. Or something like that.
Like maybe he has pain nullification skills or the like that makes him feel like it could actually be a dream, so when he's in danger he theorizes that he's supposed to put himself in danger instead of taking the easy path every time.

 

[Kamelingil]

Simple. Confusion, Anxiety, Overthinking, No Survival Skills, No Knowledge about the New Language, Misses the old world, but if unfortunate, could get killed by a random monster.

But if it's one of those cliche op mc isekai, they only have curiosity in mind and accepts the new world. No one would defy a new identity beyond your previous self.

 

[Heartlock]

I've been reading Iseki/transportation stories for a while, and one thing that always bugged me was how fast the MC gets over it. I always imagined that if I wrote a story where the MC was transported to another world, I would be able to write a compelling reaction to the event; I sat down to write one such event but I came up blank for how someone would realistically react. So now I come to you all, the master writers of the Hub, to ask how you would write someone's reaction in a perfect story.

I'm writing one where the MC has died, instead of really paying attention to the world as he's dealing with things, I have him dream about his past life everytime he sleeps and when he wakes, the differences become more and more evident, I want the whole ordeal to break his character eventually, the realization of never going back to the old world and the people he loves.

then comes the realization that even if he had the opportunity, would he take it? he's made friends in this new world. he also knows that if the Weltkrieg goes the same way in this new world as it did back on earth, then the terrors of the second world war would emerge in this new world. He has responsibilities to this world and it drives him crazy as he longs for his old world but knows he has a job to do regardless.

This is how I plan to utilize the reincarnation genre, to traumatize and terrorize the MC

 

[TheIcMan]

Well, they're trying to be quick about it. Its a fair tactic. Even Beware of Chicken is pretty quick about it, albeit the information density is very high in the 1st chapter, and many thing were to be explained later.

It's certainly a tactic. One I really don't like. If an isekai skips everything and slaps the audience with the MC saying "Welp! I don't care! Let's be OP in this world!", then I cry about the current state of the world. It's a shame

Well, its a rather common for female MC grimdark fantasy.

Probably the ending of being a hiatus is an equal to her never finding the way home, whether because she died, or even if she found immortality, due to author's blessing leaving her stranded there.

I honestly didn't even intend on it being grimdark The direness of the situation just made it feel that way, which is why I dropped writing it (for now) lmao.

I'm writing one where the MC has died, instead of really paying attention to the world as he's dealing with things, I have him dream about his past life everytime he sleeps and when he wakes, the differences become more and more evident, I want the whole ordeal to break his character eventually, the realization of never going back to the old world and the people he loves.

then comes the realization that even if he had the opportunity, would he take it? he's made friends in this new world. he also knows that if the Weltkrieg goes the same way in this new world as it did back on earth, then the terrors of the second world war would emerge in this new world. He has responsibilities to this world and it drives him crazy as he longs for his old world but knows he has a job to do regardless.

This is how I plan to utilize the reincarnation genre, to traumatize and terrorize the MC

Schadenfreude Isekai

 

[NotaNuffian]

Often these days I would see the first chapter starting with MC already in the world for quite awhile and is slowly getting used to things.

Because that is how it is, getting used to bullshit.

Plus the fact that everyone in the god damned otherworld also speaks the same, if not similar language as he does, have recognisable culture ie clothes and food albeit in olden times means that the novelty will wear out soon.

It is just like migrating to the countryside with goblins and kobolds as pest alongside wolves and snakes.

 

[John_Owl]

the one I'm working on now, it was the sister's idea, and the brother hated everything about his life. The first half of the first chapter is basically explaining how crappy his life is. So when he gets the chance to swap it out for something else, it's like "Yes! A second chance!!"

I imagine your average person would probably go through the five stages of grief.

 

[JayMark]

Five hundred people with five hundred different reactions.

1000 people get transmigrated to a new world after getting unfairly killed in horrific ways. They are packed together in a brightly lit but fairly roomy cave with nothing but what they were carrying when they died. For an entire day they are told nothing and given nothing. There is no entrance or exit. They are introduced to the demon lord and recieve powers. Some emotions are harvested from the subjects. Then the 500 least interesting people are killed for lols. The remainder are enslaved to the Demon Lord. Everyone is happy.

The main character, who is mildly autistic, is given a non-power and penalty stats. Then she is tortured horrifically in such ways as she in no means deserves. After which, she is branded with continuous level ten pain unending as one of her boons.

But she did get a candy bar, so I think she adjusts to the new world very well.

 

[Alski]

Mushoku Tensei was written back in 2013 and how the MC realize he's in different world were quite good. This story pretty much the start of the Isekai "transmigrated/Reincarnated to medieval otherworld" Boom. Because its the first of its kind, and the author were pretty much creating story of genre not popular, they have to explain it better and more indepth than the usual " after isekai boom stories"

It was one of the ones that popularized Truck-kun and gathered more viewers to the category. Calling it the first in anything is a stretch considering isekai has been around for many generations already, even anime isekai has been around since the 80's.

 

[Pixytokisaki14]

I've been reading Iseki/transportation stories for a while, and one thing that always bugged me was how fast the MC gets over it. I always imagined that if I wrote a story where the MC was transported to another world, I would be able to write a compelling reaction to the event; I sat down to write one such event but I came up blank for how someone would realistically react. So now I come to you all, the master writers of the Hub, to ask how you would write someone's reaction in a perfect story.

For me its similar to how a person visits another country for the first time. The culture shock, the surprise of seeing new customs, food and norms. Ie. the "holy shit they have magic!?" Reaction you see in every isekai shite. Then comes the decline as they slowly assimilate themselves into that society while still holding some of the belief set up in our world. Kinda like an immigrant slowly changing themselves and assimilating the culture of the new country while retaining the culture, norms and beliefs from their previous one.

 

[corruption]

There are a few different issues
Transmigrations as opposed to Reincarnations.
Someone who transmigrates will not get the background information for that world and customs, which a Reincanator would gain.
This means a tranmigrator would be confused about things, and may freak out about things like slavery, death sentences for lesser crimes and much more. They would also not know basic information locals would have.

Within the Reincarnation group there is a divide. Those born with their original memories, and who who gain them latter. Those born with it will be working hard to further their own ends. Those who regain memories may problems, like a misandrist being born as a man. Maybe they had a religious upbringing and this totally defies their believes

Another issue is whether or not they were told what was happening. Suddenly waking up in another world can be disorienting. However, being told by a Deity can give you a sense of direction and purpose you feel you have to abide.

And lastly. there is a trope where people enter a world from a story or game they had been playing. It is very easy to think that the MC believes they are just dreaming because entering a world just like their favorite story is just ridiculous.

These are just the basics you have to consider before going for a specific character.

Of course, I like the idea of someone who goes to a world with a game system, possibly based on on a story or game they know, and things are different enough to totally screw them up because they are so sure they know how to get ahead that they don't spot the differences.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Of course, I like the idea of someone who goes to a world with a game system, possibly based on on a story or game they know, and things are different enough to totally screw them up because they are so sure they know how to get ahead that they don't spot the differences.

One my wife used to follow was called something like "My Assassin System" and the character was pretty much dragged into the game while playing it. Kept getting confused because different playthroughs had opened up different story lines so sometimes he found himself way ahead or way behind a story he had played through - and a few times he found himself exploring areas he'd intentionally skipped in the past. Noting and dealing with these deviations (and some of the NPCs introduced or missed because of them) was sometimes more interesting than the actual story itself.