The Great Pansexual Polyamorous Harem Adventure

[ZukoMee]

Sounds like a train de-railing, crashing into an oil refinery, and igniting into an explosive fireball capable of being seen from space stations....but in written form. I'll have to decline. I'm sure you'll find some kind of audience here though. Scribblehub, from what I've noticed, takes in all kinds of degeneracy with open and welcoming arms.

 

[StrongArm]

Its not my thing unless there are fountains of blood and a Mc sitting on a throne of the skulls of his enemies.

But by all means, write the story you enjoy.

I enjoy tragedy and gore. Not too many people like both those things, but i still enjoy and write about them.

You most likely enjoy big orgies where everybody swings and gets jiggy. Its fine.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[RavenRunes]

I'll read whatever if that isn't the only thing selling it. You have to have readable and relatable characters. Their sexuality doesn't bother me but if that's the only thing you're selling it on it's a nope. Would get boring pretty fast if that's all it is.

 

[MajorKerina]

I tend to imagine this sort of thing a lot but most of my characters are not super horny. Or at least they’re horny but shy

 

[Maldrasen]

What I'm trying to say is, if your story is about the sex, you're gonna turn of a lot of people, and narrow your audience by a lot. There's no use complaining about it, it's the same as if you make a ultra violent story focused entirely on guns and macho men, then complain that only a small minority of women enjoy it.

I'll read whatever if that isn't the only thing selling it. You have to have readable and relatable characters. Their sexuality doesn't bother me but if that's the only thing you're selling it on it's a nope. Would get boring pretty fast if that's all it is.

I agree, an interesting world, plot, characters; all of these need to come first. A story focused entirely on sex does get rather tedious. There's nothing intrinsic there to drive the plot forward. I think it's just that conventional relationships have begun to kind of bore me. In most stories that I read, if a scene is too vanilla, I'll just skim through it. So while I'm thinking maybe 10% smut by volume, the sex that will be included should be as filthy as possible. Otherwise why bother.

That and I think the world itself should lean into being unusually lewd, and while I feel there are a lot of stories that do that well, it's frustrating when the protagonists are often too shy or innocent to take full advantage of what the world has to offer.

But I have decided that I'll definitely give this a try. I'd like to at least have a buffer a dozen chapters written before I post anything. I'm a bit of a planner too so I'd like to have a rough outline before I even start. Thanks everyone for your advice though.

 

[AnUnknownMan]

Are you going to go for a straight romance and/or smut or are you going to pick some other genres to dip into? Are you going to do the start of the relationship or skip ahead? Will there be drama and of what type? How many partners?

 

[Maldrasen]

The primary genre I'm going for is "Fantasy Adventure"

I was originally thinking I'd include LitRPG elements, but after a few days of outlining and planning it's clear it wouldn't really add anything. This book is going to be a companion novel to the old school dungeon crawl game I'm also making. Characters will use the skills and spells and such from the game, but there's no need to get into detailed stat blocks. So more traditional fantasy like one of the old D&D books.

The primary cast will be five members of an adventuring party who all meet up over the course of the adventure. They all treat sex pretty casually, so at the start they'll be more like sex friends without any real deep romance between them. Later on the main character does get into a more serious relationship with one of the other characters. There'll be some sex scenes with other characters as well, but between the five people of the main cast this is how their relationships will eventually shape out:

Spoiler: Relationship Graph

So really just a single romance, a fair amount of particularly filthy sex, set in an overall lewd sort of world. Definitely wouldn't call it romance. Perhaps smut would apply? While the sex isn't the primary focus I'm planning on going hard with what I am including. Probably going to have to make liberal use of content warnings and spoiler blocks so people can skip whatever they're not into.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

I've been thinking about starting a series, but I have no idea how it would be received given that I haven't seen anything similar on this site or others. While I really enjoy a good harem in a story, I have yet to see a story that features a mixed gender harem. (Always open to recommendations though) I understand that this isn't appealing to anyone who isn't bi, but I have to assume that there are enough people like myself who would enjoy reading a lewd gamelit harem adventure where every character fucks every other character, right?

So I waited a bit to respond to this because I had to think about it for a bit, the psychology of readers are always an interesting topic.

I wrote a “harem” on SH (that will return when I’m finished with it) where there is only 1 male, but all the females in the harem do it with each other and funnily enough, a lot of people who like harem hated it lol.

To them it read like an NTR where the females were stealing from the male character. Readers have separated themselves into different genre enjoyers and what you need to do to figure out what would be popular is to know which large group your writing will appeal to.

If you mislabel it, you’ll get 1 star reviews.
Anyway, general rule to follow.

People who like BL, GL and straight tend to separate themselves from each other.

those who like harems don’t like the main character giving up any of their harem
Members to each other.

The only group I can see appeal from is NTR lovers, and within NTR only those who like swinging/swapping, but even then most of them wouldn’t like m/m.

Now if you’re writing it for your own enjoyment and not worried about readership I’d say go for it. You can’t write a story with relationships in it that have universal appeal because sexuality is a very personal thing and people are going to avoid things they don’t like.

There will be an audience, if you got everyone in the world who likes it to read it it’ll remain tending on SH forever but how many of those people who are into it would visit SH? I guess it could be successful if you can find the communities and bring them over though.

The point is mainly that you should write and have fun if that’s your plan, but realistically there won’t be as much interest due to what people are used to writing.

Good luck.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

So I waited a bit to respond to this because I had to think about it for a bit, the psychology of readers are always an interesting topic.

I wrote a “harem” on SH (that will return when I’m finished with it) where there is only 1 male, but all the females in the harem do it with each other and funnily enough, a lot of people who like harem hated it lol.

To them it read like an NTR where the females were stealing from the male character. Readers have separated themselves into different genre enjoyers and what you need to do to figure out what would be popular is to know which large group your writing will appeal to.

If you mislabel it, you’ll get 1 star reviews.
Anyway, general rule to follow.

People who like BL, GL and straight tend to separate themselves from each other.

those who like harems don’t like the main character giving up any of their harem
Members to each other.

The only group I can see appeal from is NTR lovers, and within NTR only those who like swinging/swapping, but even then most of them wouldn’t like m/m.

Now if you’re writing it for your own enjoyment and not worried about readership I’d say go for it. You can’t write a story with relationships in it that have universal appeal because sexuality is a very personal thing and people are going to avoid things they don’t like.

There will be an audience, if you got everyone in the world who likes it to read it it’ll remain tending on SH forever but how many of those people who are into it would visit SH? I guess it could be successful if you can find the communities and bring them over though.

The point is mainly that you should write and have fun if that’s your plan, but realistically there won’t be as much interest due to what people are used to writing.

Good luck.

-_-

 

[AnonUnlimited]

-_-

Elaborate

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Elaborate

Meme.

 

[greyblob]

So I waited a bit to respond to this because I had to think about it for a bit, the psychology of readers are always an interesting topic.

I wrote a “harem” on SH (that will return when I’m finished with it) where there is only 1 male, but all the females in the harem do it with each other and funnily enough, a lot of people who like harem hated it lol.

To them it read like an NTR where the females were stealing from the male character. Readers have separated themselves into different genre enjoyers and what you need to do to figure out what would be popular is to know which large group your writing will appeal to.

If you mislabel it, you’ll get 1 star reviews.
Anyway, general rule to follow.

People who like BL, GL and straight tend to separate themselves from each other.

those who like harems don’t like the main character giving up any of their harem
Members to each other.

The only group I can see appeal from is NTR lovers, and within NTR only those who like swinging/swapping, but even then most of them wouldn’t like m/m.

Now if you’re writing it for your own enjoyment and not worried about readership I’d say go for it. You can’t write a story with relationships in it that have universal appeal because sexuality is a very personal thing and people are going to avoid things they don’t like.

There will be an audience, if you got everyone in the world who likes it to read it it’ll remain tending on SH forever but how many of those people who are into it would visit SH? I guess it could be successful if you can find the communities and bring them over though.

The point is mainly that you should write and have fun if that’s your plan, but realistically there won’t be as much interest due to what people are used to writing.

Good luck.

isn't it obvious? harem does not mean poly. it's a selfish fantasy of having more than one exclusive lover/partner.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

isn't it obvious? harem does not mean poly. it's a selfish fantasy of having more than one exclusive lover/partner.

-_-

 

[RepresentingWrath]

So I waited a bit to respond to this because I had to think about it for a bit, the psychology of readers are always an interesting topic.

I wrote a “harem” on SH (that will return when I’m finished with it) where there is only 1 male, but all the females in the harem do it with each other and funnily enough, a lot of people who like harem hated it lol.

To them it read like an NTR where the females were stealing from the male character. Readers have separated themselves into different genre enjoyers and what you need to do to figure out what would be popular is to know which large group your writing will appeal to.

If you mislabel it, you’ll get 1 star reviews.
Anyway, general rule to follow.

People who like BL, GL and straight tend to separate themselves from each other.

those who like harems don’t like the main character giving up any of their harem
Members to each other.

The only group I can see appeal from is NTR lovers, and within NTR only those who like swinging/swapping, but even then most of them wouldn’t like m/m.

Now if you’re writing it for your own enjoyment and not worried about readership I’d say go for it. You can’t write a story with relationships in it that have universal appeal because sexuality is a very personal thing and people are going to avoid things they don’t like.

There will be an audience, if you got everyone in the world who likes it to read it it’ll remain tending on SH forever but how many of those people who are into it would visit SH? I guess it could be successful if you can find the communities and bring them over though.

The point is mainly that you should write and have fun if that’s your plan, but realistically there won’t be as much interest due to what people are used to writing.

Good luck.

Memes aside, I agree with everything you've said. That's why I chose No (There's too little interest / no audience).

 

[Maldrasen]

Now if you’re writing it for your own enjoyment and not worried about readership I’d say go for it. You can’t write a story with relationships in it that have universal appeal because sexuality is a very personal thing and people are going to avoid things they don’t like.

There will be an audience, if you got everyone in the world who likes it to read it it’ll remain tending on SH forever but how many of those people who are into it would visit SH? I guess it could be successful if you can find the communities and bring them over though.

The point is mainly that you should write and have fun if that’s your plan, but realistically there won’t be as much interest due to what people are used to writing.

Thank you, this is precisely why I asked the question in the first place. The kind of relationships that I want to read are not only not written, but avoided like the plague it seems. That makes sense though if everyone is sticking to their strict genre conventions. If a book has M/M it's only that. Harem must only ever be M/F+. Besides Poly, there isn't even a tag for the kind of relationship dynamics I'm describing.

I know this isn't the sort of thing that will appeal to the majority of people, but I'm not overly worried about that. I would like to avoid people criticizing the story for not being something it was never intended to be.

Like the NTR thing. People seem to get super emotional about it, even if it's not strictly NTR. I'm not including any "cheating" so I wouldn't want to label my story as such. But some people seem to think that NTR is the protagonist having any kind of non-exclusive relationship. With that kind of attitude though, every single relationship that the main character has ends up as a lifelong commitment. I understand that people don't like to read about breakups but can no one have just a fling? Is there no casual sex in their world?

isn't it obvious? harem does not mean poly. it's a selfish fantasy of having more than one exclusive lover/partner.

But no, it wasn't obvious, which is why it was important for me to get clarification. That does answer the question though and it seems what I'm writing is decidedly not a harem.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

With that kind of attitude though, every single relationship that the main character has ends up as a lifelong commitment. I understand that people don't like to read about breakups but can no one have just a fling? Is there no casual sex in their world?

MC or other characters can have casual sex or have just a fling. They simply can't do it with any characters that matter to the story.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Like the NTR thing. People seem to get super emotional about it, even if it's not strictly NTR. I'm not including any "cheating" so I wouldn't want to label my story as such. But some people seem to think that NTR is the protagonist having any kind of non-exclusive relationship. With that kind of attitude though, every single relationship that the main character has ends up as a lifelong commitment. I understand that people don't like to read about breakups but can no one have just a fling? Is there no casual sex in their world?

As someone who has learned to enjoy some NTR recently, I can tell you that the enjoyment isn’t from the sex but from how funny a pathetic character can be.

I enjoy reading pathetic characters for some reason. Others like to fantasize about being the one stealing the girl… etc.

Anyway, hate from NTR stems from the fact that most people want exclusive partners since someone being stolen or even maybe just being rejected by someone you pour out emotions into is a heart wrenching experience.

It isn’t a mystery why people hate NTR, for me I still find a lot of it hard to read but I also find the emotional side of it fascinating. Everything from a girl losing her virginity and feeling soiled to hoping she can still be with the guy she initially loved despite past mistakes (I’m not talking about NTR fapping here).

Those stories leave some lingering effects of negative feelings, kind of like the ending of Old Yeller or Corpse Bride. When watching it the first time you might have a terrible experience but when you think and process it through you realize that it’s not that bad after all.

Hence, you tend to become a bit stronger when dealing with life situations and understanding the world isn’t perfect by any means and we still gotta live through it.

Anyway, back to the main topic.

What you’re writing is probably categorized as swinging, and if they decide to stay together it’s polygamy or poly something.

Poly leaves a bad taste with people because a lot of people can’t fathom the idea of someone they I’ve and want intimacy with also having that same intimacy with someone else. While there are some humans who have no problem with it, the average human will have instincts that tell them that they want the exclusivity, especially males since there is a biological drive (which can be negated for some males) to have their own offspring.

Like polyandry which is practiced where brothers share a wife in some communities in the Himalayan areas, the younger brothers are not happy, they don’t know whose kids are actually their own and at every opportunity the males try to leave. Even if it’s considered “normal” they don’t like that set up.

Trends go by averages, not exceptions, but there is usually a biological drive behind a lot of it. Although again, there are always exceptions to every rule.

 

[Maldrasen]

Memes aside, I agree with everything you've said. That's why I chose No (There's too little interest / no audience).

And thank you for your opinion. I understand it's not what most people want. While always adhering to strict genre conventions may guarantee a large audience, the downside is that it makes everything very homogeneous. Just making a cookie cutter isekai harem smut novel doesn't appeal to me and couldn't hold my interest long enough to write it. After all, people look for two things; something just like what they've already read and liked, and something that's different.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

As someone who has learned to enjoy some NTR recently, I can tell you that the enjoyment isn’t from the sex but from how funny a pathetic character can be.

I agree.

And thank you for your opinion. I understand it's not what most people want. While always adhering to strict genre conventions may guarantee a large audience, the downside is that it makes everything very homogeneous. Just making a cookie cutter isekai harem smut novel doesn't appeal to me and couldn't hold my interest long enough to write it. After all, people look for two things; something just like what they've already read and liked, and something that's different.

If you are referring to my reply with a single word no in it, I was simply answering the question. Also, you shouldn't confuse two things. Understanding you won't have a lot of readers =\= how many readers you will actually have. There were two authors here who started posting niche novels. They were prepared that not a lot of readers would read their works. They were not prepared that they would have less than 90 readers in their stats, while the actual readers(chapter views) were less than 40-50, with close to zero comments across all chapters. In my opinion, that is what you are going to have. I'm always happy to be wrong, but my last two predictions were correct.

 

[Maldrasen]

Poly leaves a bad taste with people because a lot of people can’t fathom the idea of someone they I’ve and want intimacy with also having that same intimacy with someone else. While there are some humans who have no problem with it, the average human will have instincts that tell them that they want the exclusivity, especially males since there is a biological drive (which can be negated for some males) to have their own offspring.

Heh, yep. I don't think I could ever actually write NTR. The idea of a pathetic protagonist just doesn't have any appeal to me. And as a person who's been in poly relationships it's difficult for me to put myself in the headspace of someone who feels that way. I guess I just lack those exclusivity instincts so writing a character that has them will be a challenge.

I am planning for one of my characters to have a partially exclusive relationship with the main character, where she only has sex with him but is fine with him still having sex with whoever he likes.