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Ahem. The Harem genre.
What is a harem? Historically, a harem refers to the women's part of a Muslim household. It means a harem may be the wives of a Muslim man, his daughters and/or pre-pubescent sons, their female servants, and other unmarried female relatives.
In the modern times, especially in pop culture, harem in literature means a story with an MC (male) with multiple potential love interests. The female counterpart is called 'reverse harem'.
But who the fuck cares about meanings and connotations? An author seeking to blaze their way to popularity should just copy JPN novel tropes and be done with it. Easy peasy lizard squeezy.
Eh fuck this. Another generic harem novel.
Any case, I'm Hans Trondheim, your friendly, suicidal neighborhood author, and also a guy who loves to write harem stories. For this thread, I'll try to give tips to budding harem authors on what should be done to...you know, diversify the harem genre.
Of course, this is for harem authors, not the harem haters.
So, in case you don't know, I got two novels under me that has, or can be tagged, as harem. First is "The Human Saint is Bored, so I was Summoned to Another World", and second is titled, "DECK".
Hey, I'm not claiming to be an expert on the genre, but I'll share my good experiences (and the best practices with what I've written).
1) So to start with, first thing that I kept in my mind is that, I should try to portray my characters as 'human as possible'.
One thing that many--including me--hates about the harem genre is that a lot (if not all) the characters are one dimensional. Meaning, they're flat; no character flaws, and/or no character development throughout the story. A tsundere would remain a tsundere in the entire story. The MC would always accidentaly open the bathroom door and gets chased out till the end of the story. A 'powerful' busty knight that challenges the MC ends up as his 'rah-rah' girl after she was defeated in their duel. You get the idea?
As a teacher in real life, I've observe that people change as they experience different events in their lives. We 'learn' as my professor say, and the fact that many harem stories (to cater to fans or for running gags) always show the aforemntioned events with the MC or other characters acting the same or similar throughout the entire work is boring, and jarring.
2) Second tip, give your characters their own feelings. Hey, it's not all the time your characters would only interact with the MC, or the MC with his potential partners. Give them situations where they'd show the other facets of their personality.
3) Third, and related to the second, please try to think outside the usual tropes. Don't let your reader skip the first few chapters and still follow your story. Make them (in case they skipped your chapters), go back because they seemed to miss a lot of important details in the narrative.
You can do this by writing new scenes where the MC or FMC can display their personality. A good example of this is the 'lost child' trope prevalent in harem stories where the MC and an FMC would go on a date, and there's always--fucking always--a lost child they'd meet.
Like fuck, parents nowadays are really lax with their children, no?
Any case, how about you make it a lost car? Or a lost adventurer? Or a lost demon king looking for his momma? You get the idea?
4) Fourth tip, and this can be helpful, is try to observe real people. In my real life job as a teacher, I get to observe my students' behavior and reaction to various situations. Then, I'd put it in my wiriting.
Take your time to look and watch for people's behavior, and if you need to, take notes. This would help you create a more 'human' character.
5) Fifth, I believe a good story properly builds up its tension till the climax. Yes, the feeling of wanting to jump to the 'interesting parts' is there, but if you rushed your work, you'd end up writing a stale wish-fulfillment fantasy that caters to what you want, rather than to what your readers want to see.
Yes, I also want to write what I want, though I also take into mind what my readers expect and want to read. It's like catering to them, while at the same time, not catering to them. Key words are 'moderation' and 'balance'.
So in conclusion, the harem genre capitalizes on the human emotions and relationships to be effective. If you only focus on the awesomeness of your MC, you'd really tend to forget that your other characters have 'feelings' and 'emotions' that you as an author needs to show in order to write a good harem story.
Hope this helps.
What is a harem? Historically, a harem refers to the women's part of a Muslim household. It means a harem may be the wives of a Muslim man, his daughters and/or pre-pubescent sons, their female servants, and other unmarried female relatives.
In the modern times, especially in pop culture, harem in literature means a story with an MC (male) with multiple potential love interests. The female counterpart is called 'reverse harem'.
But who the fuck cares about meanings and connotations? An author seeking to blaze their way to popularity should just copy JPN novel tropes and be done with it. Easy peasy lizard squeezy.
Eh fuck this. Another generic harem novel.
Any case, I'm Hans Trondheim, your friendly, suicidal neighborhood author, and also a guy who loves to write harem stories. For this thread, I'll try to give tips to budding harem authors on what should be done to...you know, diversify the harem genre.
Of course, this is for harem authors, not the harem haters.
So, in case you don't know, I got two novels under me that has, or can be tagged, as harem. First is "The Human Saint is Bored, so I was Summoned to Another World", and second is titled, "DECK".
Hey, I'm not claiming to be an expert on the genre, but I'll share my good experiences (and the best practices with what I've written).
1) So to start with, first thing that I kept in my mind is that, I should try to portray my characters as 'human as possible'.
One thing that many--including me--hates about the harem genre is that a lot (if not all) the characters are one dimensional. Meaning, they're flat; no character flaws, and/or no character development throughout the story. A tsundere would remain a tsundere in the entire story. The MC would always accidentaly open the bathroom door and gets chased out till the end of the story. A 'powerful' busty knight that challenges the MC ends up as his 'rah-rah' girl after she was defeated in their duel. You get the idea?
As a teacher in real life, I've observe that people change as they experience different events in their lives. We 'learn' as my professor say, and the fact that many harem stories (to cater to fans or for running gags) always show the aforemntioned events with the MC or other characters acting the same or similar throughout the entire work is boring, and jarring.
2) Second tip, give your characters their own feelings. Hey, it's not all the time your characters would only interact with the MC, or the MC with his potential partners. Give them situations where they'd show the other facets of their personality.
3) Third, and related to the second, please try to think outside the usual tropes. Don't let your reader skip the first few chapters and still follow your story. Make them (in case they skipped your chapters), go back because they seemed to miss a lot of important details in the narrative.
You can do this by writing new scenes where the MC or FMC can display their personality. A good example of this is the 'lost child' trope prevalent in harem stories where the MC and an FMC would go on a date, and there's always--fucking always--a lost child they'd meet.
Like fuck, parents nowadays are really lax with their children, no?
Any case, how about you make it a lost car? Or a lost adventurer? Or a lost demon king looking for his momma? You get the idea?
4) Fourth tip, and this can be helpful, is try to observe real people. In my real life job as a teacher, I get to observe my students' behavior and reaction to various situations. Then, I'd put it in my wiriting.
Take your time to look and watch for people's behavior, and if you need to, take notes. This would help you create a more 'human' character.
5) Fifth, I believe a good story properly builds up its tension till the climax. Yes, the feeling of wanting to jump to the 'interesting parts' is there, but if you rushed your work, you'd end up writing a stale wish-fulfillment fantasy that caters to what you want, rather than to what your readers want to see.
Yes, I also want to write what I want, though I also take into mind what my readers expect and want to read. It's like catering to them, while at the same time, not catering to them. Key words are 'moderation' and 'balance'.
So in conclusion, the harem genre capitalizes on the human emotions and relationships to be effective. If you only focus on the awesomeness of your MC, you'd really tend to forget that your other characters have 'feelings' and 'emotions' that you as an author needs to show in order to write a good harem story.
Hope this helps.
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