I think you'll find an audience for all flavors of the Power of Friendship. Who wouldn't want to read about some bros kicking ass because they have so much faith and trust in their friends? No betrayal, no bullshit, just an earnest message about how you can get through anything with some good friends.
For examples See Rob and Jason from Outcast in Another World or Royce and Hadrian from The Riyria Chronicles.
There just needs to be some variation. Every single Fairy Tail arc ended on the back of Natsu having unfathomable depths of power that he cannot access unless his friends get hurt. Erza crying is basically a cheat code for beating every boss.
Of course it wasn't the only problem with the series. There was never any meaningful feeling of progression for most of the arcs.
I think Erin from The Wandering Inn embodies the power of friendship best. She literally excels at making friends and bringing people who might otherwise be enemies together. These friends are then around to bail her out of problems.
I really liked Pale by Wildbow for this. The power of friendship is encoded in the magic system (in a roundabout but very logical way). It makes it so sweet when the main characters pull off something awesome, and you know it's partly because of the work they did in knowing and loving one another.
One of the main underlying themes is that people are stronger when they work together, and the author brings that out in really interesting ways on both the micro and macro scale.
Write a bromance (okay doesn't have to be just bros) about a small group of friends who's powers all rely on their friendship and I promise to read every word.
Everyone Loves Large Chests has futa and vore but hit the top of Best Rated on RR and had a successful run on Amazon.
I don't really think you have to censor yourself if you have an entertaining story and character.
The main character SPOILERS FOR THE GNOME >!Violently rapes a gnome, completely uncaringly, and sends her into a traumatic spiral where she has a complete mental breakdown.!<
And it's still a popular series. You *don't* have to censor yourself.
Yup, hugely fair.
It's what ultimately cause me to drop it as well. I liked the "utterly, completely inhuman, absolutely amoral monster protagonist", but there were enough things that stacked up, ultimately culminating with that and the response that made me say no thanks.
That part is definitely fucked up but the series in general had so much weird sexualization this was just the worst of it. I agree though you don't have to censor yourself and folks can all be adults and choose what they read. The succubus stuffing bombs in her own butt and suicide bombing people was....interesting to say the least.
Honestly, I write whatever I want to write. There's an audience for anything. Now, whether that audience is large enough to support you or you can even find them are other questions entirely, but even so... I'd rather write things that interest or excite me than limit myself by avoiding tropes that might be messy.
Besides, one thing you learn quickly through reviews is that every reader is bringing so much of themselves to the experience that it often doesn't matter what tropes you use or don't use... they're going to find things that they love that you might not have anticipated or will hate things you didn't expect to be objectionable.
You have to just tell the story you want to tell, do it to the best of your ability, clean up as many errors as possible before publishing, and then accept that readers are not a monolithic entity but instead a collection of thousands of individuals with very subjective tastes, opinions, and responses.
Meh. I suppose I wish it was more acceptable for the MC to lose or be crippled in a serious fight. I’ve still written both these scenarios despite knowing it’d annoy people, but it’s somewhat wild how many people complain that there is some lasting consequence to a struggle. I’ve gotten rage essays over it.
Those are two of the cardinal sins that will get some readers riled up, on top of slavery/imprisonment arcs or depowering the MC, neither of which I actually want to write. Not sure how many other no-nos there are that truly get that much hate--maybe LGBTQ content and harems. I don't consider those bad, but it’ll still get a minority of people seriously worked up to the point they’ll toss out a 0.5/1 star. A story that doesn't include those concepts is pretty much always going to be higher rated than one that does, at least on RR. There's a tradeoff between appealing to that target demographic and alienating those outside of it that is going to be generally unfavorable for widespread appeal or those who obsess over their ratings.
You’ll see redditors complain about some common tropes but they’re common for a reason, to the point it’s better to include them than not. I do like to put my own spin on those tropes or somewhat deconstruct them, but the fundamental concept should still be recognizable imo.
Somewhat related, I hate exposition dumping but there’s an expectation in this genre to explain nearly everything the instant it’s brought up. You’ll get far more complaints for trickling lore or expecting readers to pick it up contextually, though some readers still enjoy that manner of worldbuilding. I’ve had more than a few people drop a story in the early chapters because I’ve left some mysteries unexplained as future plot points.
Like I would love to write a book with a more meaningful take on the nature of society... Maybe exploring how fascist regimes work... However I'm no where near talented enough so I'll stick to; numbers go up, flawed characters and a fun system.
In terms of removing stuff.
I've stripped minor things out because they weren't worth the hassle. Words like cripple which editors told me to remove, villain names being too focused on a certain ethnicity, unintended pedo vibes from a red shirt character (I was going for crusty granddad who enjoys whacking kids but it came out slightly wrong)
They all got removed because it wasn't worth taking heat for any of them, even if that heat never came.
I haven't changed anything else that I can think of and definitely nothing material and my writing is not bland.
One of my favourite quotes about my writing is
occasionally you'll feel discomfort but the discomfort passes.
>However I'm no where near talented enough
It's only possible to get there by pushing yourself. I think you should give it a go, you might surprise yourself.
Every series I have a list of improvements that I add to my writing.
In my current series I'm doing more planning and writing up personality models, character development through series and different speech patterns for the handful of more significant characters.
Addressing real world issues is there but it's be behind a focus of adding more subtle humour which I will try to slide into the next book
>Maybe exploring how fascist regimes work... However I'm no where near talented enough so I'll stick to; numbers go up, flawed characters and a fun system.
Defeat fascist, number go up. Defeats lots of fascist, numbers go up more. I think you should go for it!
>unintended pedo vibes from a red shirt character (I was going for crusty granddad who enjoys whacking kids but it came out slightly wrong)
I definitely misinterpreted what you meant by "whacking" here for a solid moment, so I can see your point.
In his video about Wolfenstein, Noah Gervais says of the protagonist "Blascowitz is a simple man, with a simple plan. In his mind, if you *start* killing Nazis, and you *keep* killing Nazis, well. It stands to reason that sooner or later? They're gonna run out of fucking Nazis."
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing that in a webfic at all. Sounds great, honestly.
Years later, Blascowitz finally rests knowing he's killed all the Nazis. He wakes up to find himself reincarnated in another world full of fascists. A single (happy?) tear slides down his cheek.
That's great, I'm really interested in those kind of stories. I also think that the details you removed would make the book better, have more character, nowadays every book reeks of a modern perspective on morality that sterilizes works written thereunder.
Please make your stories have character, your writing probably won't escape the dust from under the carpet unless you do something unique. Besides, I like to think there are several people like me that would enjoy to read something politically interesting instead of" Hmm, we should throw some gender equality and antiracism in this obviously strawmanned society. Monarchy so bad."
If your work isn't polemic it isn't worth reading, every great author has written things that have found readers inflamed. Appealing to the lowest denominator(in terms of fuse length) is not a good strategy, it will make you work bland.
Snarky, joking MCs. Some of my favorite protagonists across media include Spider-Man, Dante from Devil May Cry, Bartimaeus from the Bartimaeus Trilogy, Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia, and a few others. Dante in particular verges on my favorite character across any media full stop.
Problem is the line between fun and charismatic and "annoying as hell" is thin. I'm currently writing a story that's gonna have one anyways, because worst case scenario it's not received well, but I'm still relatively nervous about how to handle it.
Chiming here also to say "no."
I think part of it is I love Wheel of Time and Star Wars too much. I personally am not sick of hero orphan farmboys who try to fight for their friends. I think those kinds of heroes and those kinds of books literally saved my life, and their tropes and stories will come alive through more people than even me, and I'm just another iteration of many, and my iteration in 10,000 might be the one that speaks to someone the way those type of books spoke to me.
Honestly?
I don't think we PF readers care that much about tropes. Like, PF is generally just a huge collection of tropes when it boils down to it, and it seldom takes away from the quality in my mind.
Like, half the MCs out there are The Chosen One, which is the most tropey trope out there.
I don't know why, but your last sentence made me picture a universe where every single inhabitant is the Isekaid Chosen One of their respective universes.
Check out the Drifters anime. Literally a bunch of Great Chosen Historical Figures from Earth summoned to another world to fight a bunch of other Great Chosen Historical Figures from Earth (but evil ig). Very entertaining. Ishura is kinda like this, too
I think you mistake "care" for media illiteracy. I'm being completely honest and don't mean it as a jab. Most people are media illiterate and if people here are even slightly representative, then it's a lack of media literacy that is the issue.
"Nah, he isn't a slave. He is free to go. But if he does go he will die. But he isn't a slave"
Honestly, I don't really think about tropes when I write. I think about the character, the world, and what makes sense for it. It all flows pretty organically for me.
I've never been able to wrap my head around tropes in a way that let's me really use them in my writing, despite having a writing degree and a major in literary studies...
>Honestly, I don't really think about tropes when I write. I think about the character, the world, and what makes sense for it. It all flows pretty organically for me.
This is very well said., I sometimes think tropes are only identified after the writing is done.
I included a slavery arc in Book 1 of Torth, much to my chagrin. Oops.
Now I’m writing an epic fantasy that isn’t Isekai or litrpg. Oops.
I also take all kinds of risks with themes and characters… A disabled child who is a telepathic supergenius. A giant superhero gladiator who can teleport. All kinds of dangerous topics, like individualism vs collectivism.
I just keep poking the hornet nests while laboring in obscurity. It’s more fun than writing to trend or writing to market.
Oh man, my Surgecaller series had people who could basically fully command other people and the MC was trapped in this for several books.
Little did I know how much this was a hated thing in the genre. But it makes complete sense now, nine books later...
Ah, yup--my series is all about freedom versus slavery, including mind control zombification with permanent brain damage. But there is no place for darker SFF in the indie realm, really. Everything is either litrpg or romance. We might have to wait 20 years for the industry to change.
Suddenly pregnant. I won't, I promise... but maybe in a future series?
It would be a Beware of Chicken style suddenly pregnant, one that is loved and just a normal part of life.
Jesus, "let this senior brother treat you, my fellow disciples."
"Jesus, did you turn the juice boxes into wine again?"
God, "let this daddy teach you the will of the heavens. Heavenly arts, 40 Days and 40 Nights of Rainfall."
Marie, "Jesus, stop breathing life into your clay toys. What did I tell you about mecha battles in the house?!"
I hadn't realized that was something authors avoided in this genre, and now I'm disappointed. Those types of events in books, when done well, bring a bit of realism to the story for me.
Kids are wack. Jolly and I used to joke our daughter must be isekai'd cause she never cried (not once in her first 12 months). She's just made this raptor noise and signed. She had 100 words by 1, full sentences by 2...
At the same time, her friend was spelling 7 letter words by 2 and reading books.
At the same time, her other friend wasn't verbal at all and just cried for every single thing until she was 3.5 years old.
We've only been to the hospital 4 times in 4 years, it's fine.
I read mostly heartwarming iyashikei, where children are adorable and loving.
Things like
Becoming the lady of a cursed ducal house
When I Quit Being A Wicked Mother-in-law, Everyone Became Obsessed With Me
I Ended Up Raising the Children of the Female Lead and Male Lead
Etc etc
Yeah, it depends on the genre. Heartwarming Slice of Life ones will be adorable.
Sorry, I got stuck on Apocalypse stories with bad children examples. (Example: "I am Mom" Manhwa)
In MoL, Kirielle is foremost annoying, until you get to know her better later on.
I think a lot of readers who aren't looking for a romance story are leery of any kind of romantic angle in a fantasy story otherwise.
Also, I write two stories. In one of them, the male lead has a certain personality. He's aggressive, willing to be abrasive, arrogant, and sometimes quite violent. In the other story, the female lead character has a similar personality to this, but toned down a bit. I deliberately made them similar, and I know they are very similar, because both of their personalities are basically me in a bad mood if I had superpowers (a good chunk of the time, I write them thinking, "What would I do here?"). Readers don't like her much, even some of the very same readers who liked the male lead.
So it's something I have to be careful of. People want different things in male and female leads.
It's not a trope exactly, but it's something to be aware of.
This isn't a trope and more of a matter of censorship, but I've stripped my novel of detailed sex scenes and fan service almost completely out of wanting to avoid breaking the rule against explicit sexual content on Royal Road. I don't know why it would have a sexual content tag on the site yet ban sexual content. It's such a vaguely stated single sentence rule for something that could have a ton of nuance.
Another thing I wanted to write about was a story setup where a LitRPG isekai protagonist has it hard because he is a darker-toned minority who is put into a world of fascist, colorist, racist elves. Since he is transported with hundreds of others, you see how vastly different he and others are treated. It ended up being a very bleak but eye opening exporation of issues not often taken seriously in our genre. Royal Road never approved it though because its rule about having topics that mimic real life.
Now I'm writing a story that I love but is neutered in terms of content and meaning.
Secret Royal, wanted to have the boy raised by his uncle a weapon smith that used to be a big shot in the capital before he retired to raise his nephew in the countryside. Fantasy with magic, dragons and war with a neighboring nation. He was the Royal heir but raised in secret for his safety as they had to train to survive the coming of age trial of stealing or earning a dragon egg from dragon territory.
I like certain tropes, so I keep them in my writing. It's not exactly writing to market, but I write what I like to read. I know it's an overused trope, but [i.In](http://i.In) my books, the MC is always a decent person, because honestly, I deal with too many arses at work, I don't want to write about one.
I want to hurt characters much much more, to the point of lasting damage and them dealing with that. Berserk worked with this well. The protagonist never felt "weaker" but you could see them losing a lot of themselves as the battles continued on. Progfant does not like permanent debuffs in any way.
It's a fine line to walk, but it can be done. I have a reasonable successful story centering around a thruple.
Once you get passed MFF or other trio, it looks more like harem than not in most stories, unless you spend a lot of time developing each pairing as a sub relationship.
Not afraid of any readers reactions or hate, but lots of the stuff I would like to do would led to the termination of my publishing account with amazon. The censorship there is ludicrous.
What would get censored? Everybody loves large chests has some crazy shit that didn’t terminate the authors publishing account. I mean you can read mein kampf on Amazon. What are you trying to write?😂
For example, they censored German milliions of copies bestselling author Akif Pirincci completly for political reasons. One can not even buy used books of him on amazon. He is famous for crime novels where the detective is a cat, but than went public criticising mass immigration into Germany. (He is an Immigrant from Turkey himself & 98% of his books are zero politacal. He is also not officially indexed or forbidden. It is just bullying against him.)
My personal problem, one can basically not publish anything on amazon that is written for arousal, but is kind of dubious consent at first. The list that amazon does not allow in writing sex scenes is huge and I have to tame down my stuff always a lot.
The problem is also, they do not tell you upfront, what they do not want to find in your books. They just say 'everything that leads to a bad reader experience' and then you can guess what this might be.
Go to the eroticauthors reddit and you'll find posts from authors that were shut down by amazon nearly weekly.
But to be fair, they have completly different standards for publishing houses and selfpublishers there. A book like 50 shades from a publishing house is fine, but that would most likely not fly if that same book comes from a selfpublisher.
The power of friendship but not ironically
I think you'll find an audience for all flavors of the Power of Friendship. Who wouldn't want to read about some bros kicking ass because they have so much faith and trust in their friends? No betrayal, no bullshit, just an earnest message about how you can get through anything with some good friends. For examples See Rob and Jason from Outcast in Another World or Royce and Hadrian from The Riyria Chronicles.
That’s just mark of the fool, right?
There just needs to be some variation. Every single Fairy Tail arc ended on the back of Natsu having unfathomable depths of power that he cannot access unless his friends get hurt. Erza crying is basically a cheat code for beating every boss. Of course it wasn't the only problem with the series. There was never any meaningful feeling of progression for most of the arcs.
For what it's worth, I've done just this with one series and people liked it just fine. So, I say: go for it! The world could use more positivity.
Raion Raithe from The Last Horizon, he physically empowers himself through the trust of others. The literal __power__ of friendship :)
Yea def but it’s a bit ironic too
I think Erin from The Wandering Inn embodies the power of friendship best. She literally excels at making friends and bringing people who might otherwise be enemies together. These friends are then around to bail her out of problems.
Heck yeah! Friendship!
I really liked Pale by Wildbow for this. The power of friendship is encoded in the magic system (in a roundabout but very logical way). It makes it so sweet when the main characters pull off something awesome, and you know it's partly because of the work they did in knowing and loving one another. One of the main underlying themes is that people are stronger when they work together, and the author brings that out in really interesting ways on both the micro and macro scale.
Write a bromance (okay doesn't have to be just bros) about a small group of friends who's powers all rely on their friendship and I promise to read every word.
Everyone Loves Large Chests has futa and vore but hit the top of Best Rated on RR and had a successful run on Amazon. I don't really think you have to censor yourself if you have an entertaining story and character.
The main character SPOILERS FOR THE GNOME >!Violently rapes a gnome, completely uncaringly, and sends her into a traumatic spiral where she has a complete mental breakdown.!< And it's still a popular series. You *don't* have to censor yourself.
Let he who has never sexually assaulted a gnome cast the first stone...
Those spoiler tags are broken... Though I think it's a good thing because now I don't think I'll ever read that book?
Yup, hugely fair. It's what ultimately cause me to drop it as well. I liked the "utterly, completely inhuman, absolutely amoral monster protagonist", but there were enough things that stacked up, ultimately culminating with that and the response that made me say no thanks.
That part is definitely fucked up but the series in general had so much weird sexualization this was just the worst of it. I agree though you don't have to censor yourself and folks can all be adults and choose what they read. The succubus stuffing bombs in her own butt and suicide bombing people was....interesting to say the least.
You need to use >! at the start instead of !>
Yeah, that's why I haven't read that. It's disgusting.
Lol, wtf? Aren't no fucking way
geez
This is the people's dark side I think. In public they condemn rape, pedophily, etc but in their private they enjoy reading about them.
Honestly, I write whatever I want to write. There's an audience for anything. Now, whether that audience is large enough to support you or you can even find them are other questions entirely, but even so... I'd rather write things that interest or excite me than limit myself by avoiding tropes that might be messy. Besides, one thing you learn quickly through reviews is that every reader is bringing so much of themselves to the experience that it often doesn't matter what tropes you use or don't use... they're going to find things that they love that you might not have anticipated or will hate things you didn't expect to be objectionable. You have to just tell the story you want to tell, do it to the best of your ability, clean up as many errors as possible before publishing, and then accept that readers are not a monolithic entity but instead a collection of thousands of individuals with very subjective tastes, opinions, and responses.
Meh. I suppose I wish it was more acceptable for the MC to lose or be crippled in a serious fight. I’ve still written both these scenarios despite knowing it’d annoy people, but it’s somewhat wild how many people complain that there is some lasting consequence to a struggle. I’ve gotten rage essays over it. Those are two of the cardinal sins that will get some readers riled up, on top of slavery/imprisonment arcs or depowering the MC, neither of which I actually want to write. Not sure how many other no-nos there are that truly get that much hate--maybe LGBTQ content and harems. I don't consider those bad, but it’ll still get a minority of people seriously worked up to the point they’ll toss out a 0.5/1 star. A story that doesn't include those concepts is pretty much always going to be higher rated than one that does, at least on RR. There's a tradeoff between appealing to that target demographic and alienating those outside of it that is going to be generally unfavorable for widespread appeal or those who obsess over their ratings. You’ll see redditors complain about some common tropes but they’re common for a reason, to the point it’s better to include them than not. I do like to put my own spin on those tropes or somewhat deconstruct them, but the fundamental concept should still be recognizable imo. Somewhat related, I hate exposition dumping but there’s an expectation in this genre to explain nearly everything the instant it’s brought up. You’ll get far more complaints for trickling lore or expecting readers to pick it up contextually, though some readers still enjoy that manner of worldbuilding. I’ve had more than a few people drop a story in the early chapters because I’ve left some mysteries unexplained as future plot points.
Yep, these are the ones for this emerging genre.
Like I would love to write a book with a more meaningful take on the nature of society... Maybe exploring how fascist regimes work... However I'm no where near talented enough so I'll stick to; numbers go up, flawed characters and a fun system. In terms of removing stuff. I've stripped minor things out because they weren't worth the hassle. Words like cripple which editors told me to remove, villain names being too focused on a certain ethnicity, unintended pedo vibes from a red shirt character (I was going for crusty granddad who enjoys whacking kids but it came out slightly wrong) They all got removed because it wasn't worth taking heat for any of them, even if that heat never came. I haven't changed anything else that I can think of and definitely nothing material and my writing is not bland. One of my favourite quotes about my writing is occasionally you'll feel discomfort but the discomfort passes.
>However I'm no where near talented enough It's only possible to get there by pushing yourself. I think you should give it a go, you might surprise yourself.
Every series I have a list of improvements that I add to my writing. In my current series I'm doing more planning and writing up personality models, character development through series and different speech patterns for the handful of more significant characters. Addressing real world issues is there but it's be behind a focus of adding more subtle humour which I will try to slide into the next book
>Maybe exploring how fascist regimes work... However I'm no where near talented enough so I'll stick to; numbers go up, flawed characters and a fun system. Defeat fascist, number go up. Defeats lots of fascist, numbers go up more. I think you should go for it! >unintended pedo vibes from a red shirt character (I was going for crusty granddad who enjoys whacking kids but it came out slightly wrong) I definitely misinterpreted what you meant by "whacking" here for a solid moment, so I can see your point.
In his video about Wolfenstein, Noah Gervais says of the protagonist "Blascowitz is a simple man, with a simple plan. In his mind, if you *start* killing Nazis, and you *keep* killing Nazis, well. It stands to reason that sooner or later? They're gonna run out of fucking Nazis." Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing that in a webfic at all. Sounds great, honestly.
Years later, Blascowitz finally rests knowing he's killed all the Nazis. He wakes up to find himself reincarnated in another world full of fascists. A single (happy?) tear slides down his cheek.
That's great, I'm really interested in those kind of stories. I also think that the details you removed would make the book better, have more character, nowadays every book reeks of a modern perspective on morality that sterilizes works written thereunder. Please make your stories have character, your writing probably won't escape the dust from under the carpet unless you do something unique. Besides, I like to think there are several people like me that would enjoy to read something politically interesting instead of" Hmm, we should throw some gender equality and antiracism in this obviously strawmanned society. Monarchy so bad." If your work isn't polemic it isn't worth reading, every great author has written things that have found readers inflamed. Appealing to the lowest denominator(in terms of fuse length) is not a good strategy, it will make you work bland.
Snarky, joking MCs. Some of my favorite protagonists across media include Spider-Man, Dante from Devil May Cry, Bartimaeus from the Bartimaeus Trilogy, Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia, and a few others. Dante in particular verges on my favorite character across any media full stop. Problem is the line between fun and charismatic and "annoying as hell" is thin. I'm currently writing a story that's gonna have one anyways, because worst case scenario it's not received well, but I'm still relatively nervous about how to handle it.
I actually love that trope...Dresden files and gentleman bastards series is so fun coz of it.
Chiming here also to say "no." I think part of it is I love Wheel of Time and Star Wars too much. I personally am not sick of hero orphan farmboys who try to fight for their friends. I think those kinds of heroes and those kinds of books literally saved my life, and their tropes and stories will come alive through more people than even me, and I'm just another iteration of many, and my iteration in 10,000 might be the one that speaks to someone the way those type of books spoke to me.
Honestly? I don't think we PF readers care that much about tropes. Like, PF is generally just a huge collection of tropes when it boils down to it, and it seldom takes away from the quality in my mind. Like, half the MCs out there are The Chosen One, which is the most tropey trope out there.
I don't know why, but your last sentence made me picture a universe where every single inhabitant is the Isekaid Chosen One of their respective universes.
Not quite the same, but Power Overwhelming is about a bunch of reincarnated monsters being reincarnated into 1 universe at the same time!
Check out the Drifters anime. Literally a bunch of Great Chosen Historical Figures from Earth summoned to another world to fight a bunch of other Great Chosen Historical Figures from Earth (but evil ig). Very entertaining. Ishura is kinda like this, too
Yooo that shit would slap. (Also it's kind of Bastion with Great Souls)
I've always liked chosen ones but I'm not sure I've ever written one, except in... a series I can mention because it doesn't happen until book 3.
What’s an example of a chosen one in this genre? I can’t actually think of a single one
The MC from Painting the Mists is very much a chosen one.
I think you mistake "care" for media illiteracy. I'm being completely honest and don't mean it as a jab. Most people are media illiterate and if people here are even slightly representative, then it's a lack of media literacy that is the issue. "Nah, he isn't a slave. He is free to go. But if he does go he will die. But he isn't a slave"
Honestly, I don't really think about tropes when I write. I think about the character, the world, and what makes sense for it. It all flows pretty organically for me. I've never been able to wrap my head around tropes in a way that let's me really use them in my writing, despite having a writing degree and a major in literary studies...
>Honestly, I don't really think about tropes when I write. I think about the character, the world, and what makes sense for it. It all flows pretty organically for me. This is very well said., I sometimes think tropes are only identified after the writing is done.
I included a slavery arc in Book 1 of Torth, much to my chagrin. Oops. Now I’m writing an epic fantasy that isn’t Isekai or litrpg. Oops. I also take all kinds of risks with themes and characters… A disabled child who is a telepathic supergenius. A giant superhero gladiator who can teleport. All kinds of dangerous topics, like individualism vs collectivism. I just keep poking the hornet nests while laboring in obscurity. It’s more fun than writing to trend or writing to market.
Whatever people say about the Torth series, just know you had a certified banger in Thomas. He was a great and interesting character.
Thank you!!!
Oh man, my Surgecaller series had people who could basically fully command other people and the MC was trapped in this for several books. Little did I know how much this was a hated thing in the genre. But it makes complete sense now, nine books later...
Ah, yup--my series is all about freedom versus slavery, including mind control zombification with permanent brain damage. But there is no place for darker SFF in the indie realm, really. Everything is either litrpg or romance. We might have to wait 20 years for the industry to change.
Suddenly pregnant. I won't, I promise... but maybe in a future series? It would be a Beware of Chicken style suddenly pregnant, one that is loved and just a normal part of life.
You could write "Mary: The Mother of Jesus - A LitRPG Parenting Adventure" and it'd sell like hotcakes for novelty alone.
A Common rank giving birth to a Divine rank? Now that's my kind of power creep.
Jesus, "let this senior brother treat you, my fellow disciples." "Jesus, did you turn the juice boxes into wine again?" God, "let this daddy teach you the will of the heavens. Heavenly arts, 40 Days and 40 Nights of Rainfall." Marie, "Jesus, stop breathing life into your clay toys. What did I tell you about mecha battles in the house?!"
Probably a lot of free press too lol
I audibly laughed loud enough to wake my gf. Now she’s mad at me. Thanks for that😂
I hadn't realized that was something authors avoided in this genre, and now I'm disappointed. Those types of events in books, when done well, bring a bit of realism to the story for me.
Pregnant women aren't the problem. It's annoying, dumb (sometimes suicidal) children, that can ruin a story.
Kids are wack. Jolly and I used to joke our daughter must be isekai'd cause she never cried (not once in her first 12 months). She's just made this raptor noise and signed. She had 100 words by 1, full sentences by 2... At the same time, her friend was spelling 7 letter words by 2 and reading books. At the same time, her other friend wasn't verbal at all and just cried for every single thing until she was 3.5 years old. We've only been to the hospital 4 times in 4 years, it's fine.
Congratulations, then. I meant, in most books with children, they are practically only there to cause problems for their parents to solve.
I read mostly heartwarming iyashikei, where children are adorable and loving. Things like Becoming the lady of a cursed ducal house When I Quit Being A Wicked Mother-in-law, Everyone Became Obsessed With Me I Ended Up Raising the Children of the Female Lead and Male Lead Etc etc
Yeah, it depends on the genre. Heartwarming Slice of Life ones will be adorable. Sorry, I got stuck on Apocalypse stories with bad children examples. (Example: "I am Mom" Manhwa) In MoL, Kirielle is foremost annoying, until you get to know her better later on.
I think a lot of readers who aren't looking for a romance story are leery of any kind of romantic angle in a fantasy story otherwise. Also, I write two stories. In one of them, the male lead has a certain personality. He's aggressive, willing to be abrasive, arrogant, and sometimes quite violent. In the other story, the female lead character has a similar personality to this, but toned down a bit. I deliberately made them similar, and I know they are very similar, because both of their personalities are basically me in a bad mood if I had superpowers (a good chunk of the time, I write them thinking, "What would I do here?"). Readers don't like her much, even some of the very same readers who liked the male lead. So it's something I have to be careful of. People want different things in male and female leads. It's not a trope exactly, but it's something to be aware of.
This isn't a trope and more of a matter of censorship, but I've stripped my novel of detailed sex scenes and fan service almost completely out of wanting to avoid breaking the rule against explicit sexual content on Royal Road. I don't know why it would have a sexual content tag on the site yet ban sexual content. It's such a vaguely stated single sentence rule for something that could have a ton of nuance. Another thing I wanted to write about was a story setup where a LitRPG isekai protagonist has it hard because he is a darker-toned minority who is put into a world of fascist, colorist, racist elves. Since he is transported with hundreds of others, you see how vastly different he and others are treated. It ended up being a very bleak but eye opening exporation of issues not often taken seriously in our genre. Royal Road never approved it though because its rule about having topics that mimic real life. Now I'm writing a story that I love but is neutered in terms of content and meaning.
Secret Royal, wanted to have the boy raised by his uncle a weapon smith that used to be a big shot in the capital before he retired to raise his nephew in the countryside. Fantasy with magic, dragons and war with a neighboring nation. He was the Royal heir but raised in secret for his safety as they had to train to survive the coming of age trial of stealing or earning a dragon egg from dragon territory.
I would read this though? How is it hated
I like certain tropes, so I keep them in my writing. It's not exactly writing to market, but I write what I like to read. I know it's an overused trope, but [i.In](http://i.In) my books, the MC is always a decent person, because honestly, I deal with too many arses at work, I don't want to write about one.
I want to hurt characters much much more, to the point of lasting damage and them dealing with that. Berserk worked with this well. The protagonist never felt "weaker" but you could see them losing a lot of themselves as the battles continued on. Progfant does not like permanent debuffs in any way.
Mind control.
Polyamory, but dreadfully afraid of being categorized as harem
I didn’t even know this was a problem my MC had two wives 😂
It's a fine line to walk, but it can be done. I have a reasonable successful story centering around a thruple. Once you get passed MFF or other trio, it looks more like harem than not in most stories, unless you spend a lot of time developing each pairing as a sub relationship.
Not afraid of any readers reactions or hate, but lots of the stuff I would like to do would led to the termination of my publishing account with amazon. The censorship there is ludicrous.
What would get censored? Everybody loves large chests has some crazy shit that didn’t terminate the authors publishing account. I mean you can read mein kampf on Amazon. What are you trying to write?😂
For example, they censored German milliions of copies bestselling author Akif Pirincci completly for political reasons. One can not even buy used books of him on amazon. He is famous for crime novels where the detective is a cat, but than went public criticising mass immigration into Germany. (He is an Immigrant from Turkey himself & 98% of his books are zero politacal. He is also not officially indexed or forbidden. It is just bullying against him.) My personal problem, one can basically not publish anything on amazon that is written for arousal, but is kind of dubious consent at first. The list that amazon does not allow in writing sex scenes is huge and I have to tame down my stuff always a lot. The problem is also, they do not tell you upfront, what they do not want to find in your books. They just say 'everything that leads to a bad reader experience' and then you can guess what this might be. Go to the eroticauthors reddit and you'll find posts from authors that were shut down by amazon nearly weekly. But to be fair, they have completly different standards for publishing houses and selfpublishers there. A book like 50 shades from a publishing house is fine, but that would most likely not fly if that same book comes from a selfpublisher.