Sh*t

Sylverius

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So, quick intro. My friend donated me their OC for me to fiddle around with in the story. I haven't published them yet, so I can still change it. She is a Kuudere mecha loli cyborg that can't read. The expressions that she shows are just a smug smile, sad look, angery and blank face. Now, here's the problem. I re-read the story that I wrote, and saw that I'm slowly going down to the inevitable, that is the harem route. So uhh, how do I deal with it? I mean, is it logical? Immersive and shit? I need answers dang it! I haven't slept for a damn day trying to think how to deal with this shit, but my last 2 braincells just said "just fuckin ask here mate" so here I am. XD
 
D

Deleted member 45782

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Ask the magic eight ball.

Seriously, think only person can answer this is yourself. if you wanted it to be a harem and it just felt natural the path the story is going on, then do what you feel is natural.

Or you can always ask your friend how they view their OC in the story you have created.
 

strayCat0

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What kind of story are you writing?

From what I know, it happens when some characters don't have any major role to the current plot anymore, but authors still want to make them recurrent characters. So because they have nothing to do other than accompanying MC, authors make them romantic interests who are forced or want to follow the MC to give them relevancy and justification.

Though situation mentioned above usually only happens in a (harem) adventure story. There is no info about your story other than the girl, so i don't think anyone can give any helpful feedback. But like what above guy said, if you think it's natural, just go with it.
 

Sylverius

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What kind of story are you writing?

From what I know, it happens when some characters don't have any major role to the current plot anymore, but authors still want to make them recurrent characters. So because they have nothing to do other than accompanying MC, authors make them romantic interests who are forced or want to follow the MC to give them relevancy and justification.

Though situation mentioned above usually only happens in a (harem) adventure story. There is no info about your story other than the girl, so i don't think anyone can give any helpful feedback. But like what above guy said, if you think it's natural, just go with it.
The story I'm writing is isekai (sorry for the lack of info), but she IS very integral for the final chapter, heck, I could say that she could become a main character equivalent of a side character. They don't have any roles YET aside from the introduction to the academy (which is where the current story is).
Ask the magic eight ball.

Seriously, think only person can answer this is yourself. if you wanted it to be a harem and it just felt natural the path the story is going on, then do what you feel is natural.

Or you can always ask your friend how they view their OC in the story you have created.
The thing is, I've asked this before in a previous thread, but majority of the people either didn't like harem or downright hated the idea of a harem, so I kinda pussied out and wanted to go on the solo-loyal route.
 

EternalSunset0

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So, quick intro. My friend donated me their OC for me to fiddle around with in the story. I haven't published them yet, so I can still change it. She is a Kuudere mecha loli cyborg that can't read. The expressions that she shows are just a smug smile, sad look, angery and blank face. Now, here's the problem. I re-read the story that I wrote, and saw that I'm slowly going down to the inevitable, that is the harem route. So uhh, how do I deal with it? I mean, is it logical? Immersive and shit? I need answers dang it! I haven't slept for a damn day trying to think how to deal with this shit, but my last 2 braincells just said "just fuckin ask here mate" so here I am. XD
I mean, if your gonna expand your cast by throwing more and more girls in there, it might as well be or pretend to be a harem. Nothing wrong with that, especially since you ssid you wanted her to be important later on, so better get those screentime and development time in.
 
D

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The story I'm writing is isekai (sorry for the lack of info), but she IS very integral for the final chapter, heck, I could say that she could become a main character equivalent of a side character. They don't have any roles YET aside from the introduction to the academy (which is where the current story is).

The thing is, I've asked this before in a previous thread, but majority of the people either didn't like harem or downright hated the idea of a harem, so I kinda pussied out and wanted to go on the solo-loyal route.
People don't like idea of a harem bc irl some just don't like it that way and some of our irl ideals and views transfer over to what we prefer to read. However, there's no one shoe size please all. There are people who will enjoy your harem story. You can try doing the harem route story first since you already got the path down, then develop and gain from that experience how to write solo-loyal route as you mentioned.

When it comes to reading, mostly people just don't like harem bc way people collect girls/guys and then nothing else mentioned bout those characters, they just become a trophy set.

If you develop your characters and your plot is good, people will be open to reading it.

Also if you check on Scribblehub list all tags, there's at least 238 harem seeking protagonist stories. So it's not like your story wouldn't gain traction on here, just depends how well written it is.

By the way if this is about plot, then it best link your story somehow so ppl can see if characters and harem is developed or not.
 

CupcakeNinja

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So, quick intro. My friend donated me their OC for me to fiddle around with in the story. I haven't published them yet, so I can still change it. She is a Kuudere mecha loli cyborg that can't read. The expressions that she shows are just a smug smile, sad look, angery and blank face. Now, here's the problem. I re-read the story that I wrote, and saw that I'm slowly going down to the inevitable, that is the harem route. So uhh, how do I deal with it? I mean, is it logical? Immersive and shit? I need answers dang it! I haven't slept for a damn day trying to think how to deal with this shit, but my last 2 braincells just said "just fuckin ask here mate" so here I am. XD
Do a pseudo harem then. Its easy, just dont have romance and friendzone all the women. Dont address feelings of love, only friendship or familial type of feelings.

Plenty of stories do that and I hate it but that's your option.
Harems, they deal with those emotions. Pseudo harems dont, and that's why they are different. Because you can have a lot of women around the MC but have them only be friends and shit.
 

LinXueLian

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majority of the people either didn't like harem or downright hated the idea of a harem, so I kinda pussied out and wanted to go on the solo-loyal route. I mean, is it logical?
But the thing is the "majority" who hate harem in the forums don't actually make up most of the readership of the site. I'm pretty sure many, if not most readers on SH don't participate in the forums - there are a few readers here, sure, but from what I've seen, it's mostly fellow authors who're posting around. If harems were indeed all that hated by readers, titles with them wouldn't be hitting trending at all.

I say do whatever you want or do it based on what you're seeing from the trending stories. Alternatively, if you still can't decide, make a poll in your story to see which route your subscribed readers want you to go down.

I don't think any of us who aren't going to read your story anyway have any real right to tell you what not to do. I wouldn't worry about logic either - I was from IT and I've trained AI; the idea of a cyborg who can't read is already automatically ludicrous to me. But you know, some people like that. I'd say just go for it. We're not the demographic you're looking for, so don't worry about it.

Try not to agonize over nothing.
 

strayCat0

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The story I'm writing is isekai (sorry for the lack of info), but she IS very integral for the final chapter, heck, I could say that she could become a main character equivalent of a side character. They don't have any roles YET aside from the introduction to the academy (which is where the current story is).
Does she have any feeling to MC? Like if she already professed, or doubting her emotion toward MC? Where exactly do think that makes you feel your story is going down toward harem route? Though, we don't even know if she will have close relationship with MC after the inroduction. Will she become part of MC group? Or will she become that one girl who is so mysterious, going in and out of MC story in any second?

Generally, I would just stop any romantic scenes between them, or any slight hint of romantic feeling. Change their interactions with platonic relationship. You can just make scene where she invites MC to enjoy something, like her hobby for example. Monitor some of her business or some shit if she believed MC. Idk, watch a magic battle or something, then after that they compare notes. Just forget about shipping MC with any single character in your story, if you really don't want to have anything to do with harem story.
 

Sylverius

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Oh boy

Does she have any feeling to MC?
If I were to continue this route (which I might), not yet.
Where exactly do think that makes you feel your story is going down toward harem route?
Right now XD
Though, we don't even know if she will have close relationship with MC after the inroduction. Will she become part of MC group?
She will.
Generally, I would just stop any romantic scenes between them, or any slight hint of romantic feeling. Change their interactions with platonic relationship. You can just make scene where she invites MC to enjoy something, like her hobby for example. Monitor some of her business or some shit if she believed MC. Idk, watch a magic battle or something, then after that they compare notes. Just forget about shipping MC with any single character in your story, if you really don't want to have anything to do with harem story.
Well, that's the thing I'm asking if I were to go on to the solo-loyal route. And it's also the reason why I made this thread in the first place XD
"majority"
Well, I didn't think that one through XD
I'm pretty sure many, if not most readers on SH don't participate in the forums - there are a few readers here, sure, but from what I've seen, it's mostly fellow authors who're posting around. If harems were indeed all that hated by readers, titles with them wouldn't be hitting trending at all.
You have a point though.
I say do whatever you want or do it based on what you're seeing from the trending stories. Alternatively, if you still can't decide, make a poll in your story to see which route your subscribed readers want you to go down.
Good choice, once I gain enough traction, I'll do that.
I don't think any of us who aren't going to read your story anyway have any real right to tell you what not to do. I wouldn't worry about logic either - I was from IT and I've trained AI; the idea of a cyborg who can't read is already automatically ludicrous to me.
She's half-human XD
She wasn't taught to read in the past, that's why. It's connected with the plot, so don't worry about it being a stupid concept.
Try not to agonize over nothing.
As an introvert who's trying to be an extrovert, it's quite hard not to do so XD
Do a pseudo harem then. Its easy, just dont have romance and friendzone all the women. Dont address feelings of love, only friendship or familial type of feelings.

Plenty of stories do that and I hate it but that's your option.
Harems, they deal with those emotions. Pseudo harems dont, and that's why they are different. Because you can have a lot of women around the MC but have them only be friends and shit.
I like to do stupid things, but I don't dare doing something THAT stupid.
People don't like idea of a harem bc irl some just don't like it that way and some of our irl ideals and views transfer over to what we prefer to read. However, there's no one shoe size please all. There are people who will enjoy your harem story. You can try doing the harem route story first since you already got the path down, then develop and gain from that experience how to write solo-loyal route as you mentioned.

When it comes to reading, mostly people just don't like harem bc way people collect girls/guys and then nothing else mentioned bout those characters, they just become a trophy set.

If you develop your characters and your plot is good, people will be open to reading it.

Also if you check on Scribblehub list all tags, there's at least 238 harem seeking protagonist stories. So it's not like your story wouldn't gain traction on here, just depends how well written it is.

By the way if this is about plot, then it best link your story somehow so ppl can see if characters and harem is developed or not.
Good idea.
I mean, if your gonna expand your cast by throwing more and more girls in there, it might as well be or pretend to be a harem. Nothing wrong with that, especially since you ssid you wanted her to be important later on, so better get those screentime and development time in.
Hey EternalSunset! Doing good?
That's what I've been thinking as well... Gosh this is hard.
Have you considered just not writing harem?
The point of this thread is to fking brainstorm whether to avoid it or not mate, wtf
 

CupcakeNinja

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I like to do stupid things, but I don't dare doing something THAT stupid.

.
Good cuz pseudo harems are bullshit. Half assed nonsense, no satisfaction at all.
The point of this thread is to fking brainstorm whether to avoid it or not mate, wtf
If the point of the thread is to decide whether to avoid it....then what's wrong with what he said? Dont write a harem then. Most harems aren't done well anyway. And as someone who writes harem stuff, it can be annoying. Cuz you start to focus on just one or two girls, and start loving their chemistry, and wanna only write about them...but you gotta give time to the other heroines and you dont wanna cuz you a lazy cunt.
So you regret not just making it a pure romance story. Cuz that would be easier. But noooo you like variety
 

BenJepheneT

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Do a pseudo harem then. Its easy, just dont have romance and friendzone all the women. Dont address feelings of love, only friendship or familial type of feelings.

Plenty of stories do that and I hate it but that's your option.
Harems, they deal with those emotions. Pseudo harems dont, and that's why they are different. Because you can have a lot of women around the MC but have them only be friends and shit.
God I gets worse when those stories TEASE a relationship. Like touching each other's hand and blushing and NOTHING to follow up. Or accidentally walking into one undressing, having go through the sorry routine and having nothing to follow up, as usual.

I see you, motherfucker. You know that I know that you know what you're fucking doing. Fucking COMMIT TO IT JESUS CHRIST
 

Ai-chan

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You know what you can do?

Friendzone all of them!

Don't like friendzoning?

Sisterzone all of them!

Now we can have that sweet, juicy incest romance!
 

Sylverius

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You know what you can do?

Friendzone all of them!

Don't like friendzoning?

Sisterzone all of them!

Now we can have that sweet, juicy incest romance!
Ai-chan has spoken words of wisdom.
God I gets worse when those stories TEASE a relationship. Like touching each other's hand and blushing and NOTHING to follow up. Or accidentally walking into one undressing, having go through the sorry routine and having nothing to follow up, as usual.

I see you, motherfucker. You know that I know that you know what you're fucking doing. Fucking COMMIT TO IT JESUS CHRIST
I FUCKING AGREE
Dont write a harem then
It's not a harem, the problem is that it's becoming one and I don't know what to do, whether to turn it into one, or find a way to avoid it. I'm open to suggestions.
Cuz you start to focus on just one or two girls, and start loving their chemistry, and wanna only write about them...but you gotta give time to the other heroines and you dont wanna cuz you a lazy cunt.
So you regret not just making it a pure romance story. Cuz that would be easier. But noooo you like variety
Well sure, I can be lazy, but I can also not be lazy.
 

LinXueLian

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Well, I didn't think that one through XD
I imagine most people who ask here don't. Look, it's one thing to ask our peers what they think about our work - but a survey meant more for our consumers aren't always answerable by peers. If it's a peer I'd usually ask for technical input, but if it's something from consumers, I'd ask what they wanted to see.

The writers here seem to not like harem because they probably feel it's beneath their writing skills to do so - a rather cheap way to get readers. But you're not writing to flex your abilities. From the looks of it, you're writing to get readers and popularity. And that's a legitimate goal, no shame no lie.

As a reader, I'm a connoisseur of BL harems and I'd personally read them (and watch them with five pairs of eyes ?????). I'm trash who's attracted to cheap stuff. There are a lot of readers like me who like cheap harems; we just don't make it a habit to say anything because the people who don't like harems are generally louder than we are and their horses are very, very tall. You'll need to decide if you want the cheap types of readers like myself, or the more, uh, elusive not-so-cheap types of readers. The latter you probably need to work a little harder for.

She's half-human XD
She wasn't taught to read in the past, that's why. It's connected with the plot, so don't worry about it being a stupid concept.
I............ nah.

But if it helps, I'm not concerned about it being a stupid concept. I'm not concerned about any of your concepts at all. I'm a little more concerned about you swinging like a weather-vane with all this self-induced torture you call questions. What's dumb to me may be genius to someone else. What's ew-crappy-harem to someone here may be harem-haven for someone else. I don't really think anyone should be yucking anyone's yum but it is going to happen, so you need to know who you are.

It's your second thread about harems and I don't get why you've got such an aversion to writing an illiterate robot loli harem story for slobbering fifteen-year-old boys even though you're obviously into that sort of thing yourself enough to have a story naturally move towards that direction in the first place. It's an indicator. I mean, maybe you don't realize it, but you're even arguing with that user who's suggesting you not to write a harem. You can twist and you can turn, but it's gonna look like what it looks like.

This and slobbering fifteen-year-old boys are people too. They can click and upvote a story up.

I mean, this one guy slapped this on as his cover and I gave him 5 stars without batting an eyelash.


He did what he wanted and got a good rating out of it. Fork what everyone else thinks - they didn't get five stars; he did.

Screw logic, they don't always get you upvotes or high ratings, man. Get your army of fifteen-year-old boys slobbering and earn those stars with that can't-read-roboli harem you're obviously bending for ???

#DevilsAdvocate #YoureWelcome
 
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Sylverius

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I imagine most people who ask here don't. Look, it's one thing to ask our peers what they think about our work - but a survey meant more for our consumers aren't always answerable by peers. If it's a peer I'd usually ask for technical input, but if it's something from consumers, I'd ask what they wanted to see.

The writers here seem to not like harem because they probably feel it's beneath their writing skills to do so - a rather cheap way to get readers. But you're not writing to flex your abilities. From the looks of it, you're writing to get readers and popularity. And that's a legitimate goal, no shame no lie.

As a reader, I'm a connoisseur of BL harems and I'd personally read them (and watch them with five pairs of eyes ?????). I'm trash who's attracted to cheap stuff. There are a lot of readers like me who like cheap harems; we just don't make it a habit to say anything because the people who don't like harems are generally louder than we are and their horses are very, very tall. You'll need to decide if you want the cheap types of readers like myself, or the more, uh, elusive not-so-cheap types of readers. The latter you probably need to work a little harder for.


I............ nah.

But if it helps, I'm not concerned about it being a stupid concept. I'm not concerned about any of your concepts at all. I'm a little more concerned about you swinging like a weather-vane with all this self-induced torture you call questions. What's dumb to me may be genius to someone else. What's ew-crappy-harem to someone here may be harem-haven for someone else. I don't really think anyone should be yucking anyone's yum but it is going to happen, so you need to know who you are.

It's your second thread about harems and I don't get why you've got such an aversion to writing an illiterate robot loli harem story for slobbering fifteen-year-old boys even though you're obviously into that sort of thing yourself enough to have a story naturally move towards that direction in the first place. It's an indicator. I mean, maybe you don't realize it, but you're even arguing with that user who's suggesting you not to write a harem. You can twist and you can turn, but it's gonna look like what it looks like.

This and slobbering fifteen-year-old boys are people too. They can click and upvote a story up.

I mean, this one guy slapped this on as his cover and I gave him 5 stars without batting an eyelash.


He did what he wanted and got a good rating out of it. Fork what everyone else thinks - they didn't get five stars; he did.

Screw logic, they don't always get you upvotes or high ratings, man. Get your army of fifteen-year-old boys slobbering and earn those stars with that can't-read-roboli harem you're obviously bending for ???

#DevilsAdvocate #YoureWelcome
Hahaha
Okay, that actually got me ngl.

But yes, I understand what you're saying, "Write whatever you want". To be honest, I have nothing to say to defend myself on this nor can I say anything to continue it. I've been writing whatever I want, but I'm just scared that I might've wrote too much things that I want, but not what the readers want. I want them to have a sense of fulfillment upon finishing reading my novel, so I'm being careful of what I do.

I'm a little more concerned about you swinging like a weather-vane with all this self-induced torture you call questions.
Not gonna lie, I also tell that to myself. The only logical conclusion is that I may be a masochist and I don't even realize it XD
 

LinXueLian

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I'm just scared that I might've wrote too much things that I want, but not what the readers want. I want them to have a sense of fulfillment upon finishing reading my novel, so I'm being careful of what I do.


The only logical conclusion is that I may be a masochist and I don't even realize it XD
I think a lot of writers who write OEL novels have a misconception of what readers really want. I write fanfiction - one the main things I've picked up from it is that a lot of readers want to see our vision of something through. They're here to enjoy who we are as writers, because we dream for them in extension and pen it in a way that they cannot.

When I started writing original stuff, I realized that the ball game hadn't changed much, neither had the expectations. The volume and type of feedback has, maybe, but everything else? Nah.

We shortchange our readers when we're fickle. You're not a masochist - you're indecisive. I used to be too, so I can vouch that while it's not the worst thing to be, I don't recommend having no conviction with our vision, or a weak one, changing with the wind. Lack of conviction won't fulfill anyone - not our readers, and certainly not ourselves.

If we can't feel fulfilled ourselves, can we fulfill others?

EDIT: When I say conviction, I don't mean not dumping a story ever. You can dump stories with conviction too. I've discontinued fics without a word and nobody's ever dared to complain to my face. They don't even unsubscribe. It's hovering around and asking if we should or shouldn't that pisses readers off.
 
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Jemini

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My standard advice is that anything can be good with the proper implementation.

That said, the very fact you're getting worried about this sort of thing tells me you might not be laying the ground work for a good implementation. So, I guess you should fix that. (Not necessarily saying which direction you should fix it, but since you have apparently caught it early you should still have time to go either direction with it.)
 
D

Deleted member 45782

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Sometimes you just gotta write what you want before thinking bout readers. You have too much fear of how your writing will be perceived and while it's not bad to see how it goes and adjust sometimes, too much of that fear leads indecisiveness and dropping the project. Case in point are many abandoned story ideas. The only thing that knows of their existence is my mind, bc don't really care or push to actually write it out in tangible form.

A writer has to write the story first, before readers can consume it. No story, no readers.

Just go for it. Write your harem story. If that feels natural first, then try it out. Readers don't have your paintbrush to create your stuff, that's in your hands and up to you how to brush up something.
 
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