Harem or single heroine?

[lnv]

I might be weird, but I'd rather stick to my original plan or at least some ideas rather than customize my stories to wants of the people who arrive at them. Some changes are possible according to feedback, but only if they feel better than what I personally had in mind.

Also, I believe the relationship type quite depends on the story rather than the other way. The two novels I'm currently writing just fit the harem genre straight from the premise, while the third one I plan on release someday perfectly fits a 2F1M type. To me, some scenarios just feel right to cover with certain types of relationships but I don't dislike any if they aren't forced.

You should always stick to your own story and not let the readers dictate it. There is nothing weird about it. Now there is nothing wrong with reader ideas helping influence the story, but it should still be through your own interpretation and in your own way. Otherwise it is nothing more than a story written by the readers, and not the author and that never ends well.

But the problem EER had was that the author promised it won't be a harem, but his writing style screamed harem because that was what he was used to writing. And that was what it came out as. So obviously by the end people demanded a harem ending. But that is just an excuse from the author. Because he shouldn't have written the story as a harem in the first place if he planned for it not to be a harem.

This is why it is important for the author to understand what he is writing and the way they are presenting what they are writing. Cause often times you can create intentions or expectations that simply aren't there. And traditionally, the thing that turns off readers is crushing their expectations. Now that doesn't mean that your story should be predictable (not saying a predictable story is bad either). But if you are gonna break expectations, it better surpass them, not leave them hanging.

I was talking more about real harems. Those that have it as a cornerstone genre. All those freaking rom-coms with a harem about a kind boy. Nisekoi, The World God Only Knows, Bokutachi wa Benkyō ga Dekinai(Bokuben), Yuragi-sō no Yūna-san, Go-Tōbun no Hanayome, Domekano(not sure about this one). All of those works were advertised and written as a harem. Those who like harems went to read it and what we got in the end? Sure we can get as much fanservice as we can in the beginning and the middle, lot's of stupid moments that defy logic. BUT A HAREM ENDING? Nonono, we live in a modern world and a harem in the modern world is a no-no, it's not real.

Freaking Minamoto-kun Monogatari, that was a borderline harem hentai, ended up without a harem. What the hell? We were reading all of this for what? To end up reading how the girl we liked and rooted for from the beginning ISN'T EVEN MENTIONED IN THE END? I don't know if it's false advertising or subverting the reader's expectations. In the end, I can only say that for me, it's a waste of time. I would rather read a manga or a novel about a 'normal' single relationship and won't get my hopes high.

Yes I know, I was just giving EER as an example because the author specifically said it won't be a harem but he wrote it as a harem so the readers demanded it end as one too. So it served as a perfect example of poor management of expectations and a disconnect between the writer and the readers.

So yes I agree with you, you shouldn't pretend a story of what it isn't. Because it only leaves people dissatisfied with nothing gained.

 

[TheOneWho]

I like reading harem, but HATE writing harem. But I'm fine with both, they can be fun to read. I just don't like dense mc, or Lots of misunderstanding just to make the story longer.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Err, to me harem is a surefire way to turn a once interesting love interest into something like a name that I can barely recall 100 chapters into the future. At least Sevens does a fuck up job by showing what happens when you have mentally unstable people in your harem, especially when the number grows to two and add in a couple more dashes of manipulative bitches and you have the chef's specialty of a constantly burning house fire.

Toika to me is never a man to write just a single partner at the end. Like really, by the end of all his works I am actually expected to see how the male MC has dipped his penis into the different jars of condiments and call it an end. Best I had seen is only two women??? And loads of sex.

If anything grates me more than harem, it is sex.

Harem iirc demands sex. I am not interested in CCGs where MC just go around and waste the women's time by keeping them like spares.

 

[Mephi]

Compromise. Love triangle.

 

[Zero300]

Three wives max...any more and some will be forgotten.

 

[DejaVu3502]

Personally I think that if you go with harem, you should flesh out everyone and give all of the members enough "screentime". If there are too many members and you think that's too much work then maybe it's better to go with a love triangle or single heroine. For me the sweet spot is around 3-5 girls.

 

[Ace_Arriande]

Personally I think that if you go with harem, you should flesh out everyone and give all of the members enough "screentime". If there are too many members and you think that's too much work then maybe it's better to go with a love triangle or single heroine. For me the sweet spot is around 3-5 girls.

Pretty much this. As long as you can continue giving all the members of the relationship equal time without forgetting any of them, you can add as many as you want. A lot of people say "harem bad because no development and girls are forgotten and treated as trophies." That's just bad writing that you'll find in pretty much everything, including non-harems. Don't put the blame on it being a harem when that is entirely an author problem.

Personally speaking, I love both harems and single love interest stories, but I have an excessive amount of waifu concepts. I would die a few times over before ever being able to write all the waifus I want to write if I went with giving every single one of them their own series instead of having multiple of them in harems. Plus it's fun to write the girls interacting with each other, especially when you make them as gay for each other as they are in love with the MC.

 

[UYScuti]

What is the harem for? Is the MC royalty making sure to pop out kids? Or are they just on a random walk through the countryside, picking up every stunning but neglected beauty and doing nothing with them? Do the harem members add anything other than kitchen table drama?

If the story has a smut element, then an underdeveloped character harem is fine. But if it’s a slice of life fantasy they become annoying. Shallow characters that fight over the MC who really has no features worth fighting over.

Give harems a purpose. Even romance is unnecessary in a lot of these stories. If it’s a slice of life, then have the MC bang and move on. MC can build a network instead.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I prefer a reverse harem story that ends in

Spoiler

polyamory

. Since there aren't many of those out there, that's what I'm writing.

 

[lnv]

Personally I think that if you go with harem, you should flesh out everyone and give all of the members enough "screentime". If there are too many members and you think that's too much work then maybe it's better to go with a love triangle or single heroine. For me the sweet spot is around 3-5 girls.

Pretty much this. As long as you can continue giving all the members of the relationship equal time without forgetting any of them, you can add as many as you want. A lot of people say "harem bad because no development and girls are forgotten and treated as trophies." That's just bad writing that you'll find in pretty much everything, including non-harems. Don't put the blame on it being a harem when that is entirely an author problem.

Personally speaking, I love both harems and single love interest stories, but I have an excessive amount of waifu concepts. I would die a few times over before ever being able to write all the waifus I want to write if I went with giving every single one of them their own series instead of having multiple of them in harems. Plus it's fun to write the girls interacting with each other, especially when you make them as gay for each other as they are in love with the MC.

While giving screen time is nice and all, that is only 1/10th the battle. You see, one of the most frustrating things to read is forced character development of characters you could care less about at end of the day. People might be fine with a chapter here and there, but last thing you want is to create a feeling of "when can we go back to the MC or what the MC was doing before?"

So it shouldn't just be giving them screen time but that screen time should contribute to the story as a whole and improve upon it. And this is part of what makes harem so difficult. Even more so when many stories become so MC centric, that most side cast screen time is the MC showing off/solving their problems.

Often times the MC would be better at everything than the harem cast, and to pretend that is not the case they'll give this one single thing they can do that the MC can't but MC can do everything else and more.

You have to actually get people excited about reading their stories and wanting more of them. And they should be vital to the plot, not just filler or serve to only boost the MC.

 

[DubstheDuke]

Im always gonna prefer a single heroine because if you go harem there are really 3 possibilities.

1. The hero never goes with any of em, either because hes too dumb or cant choose.

2. The hero goes with all of em like the scumbag he is.

3. The hero picks one. In this case, theres a good chance it wont be the best one.

 

[Temple]

An example of a great harem in my opinion is Mushoku Tensei.

I usually read harems on romcoms and ecchi stories and don't really take them seriously and don't really mind them actually. I hate harem if they're in a "serious" story because to me it ruins them. But yes Mushoku Tensei is probably the only serious harem that I actually like the handling and the development of the girls.

 

[kola]

If a MC had very confused relation with a girl in start, then she is taken as a concubine by other powerful person. After some time, he is also married to a second girl, who used to be friends with both.
But now, the second girl and MC are working together, to get all the power needed for getting back the first girl, as now both think that she was something more to them than just a friend and have some lingering attachments to their childhood friend.

Where do we put this story?

 

[Temple]

If a MC had very confused relation with a girl in start, then she is taken as a concubine by other powerful person. After some time, he is also married to a second girl, who used to be friends with both.
But now, the second girl and MC are working together, to get all the power needed for getting back the first girl, as now both think that she was something more to them than just a friend and have some lingering attachments to their childhood friend.

Where do we put this story?

Wow I don't know how to categorize that. If this is a TV show it's really fine to put romance/drama but readers are very fickle with the tags. Not sure what tags would that be.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I'm probably the minority here but I personally like pseudo-harems with open ends.

These are more common in the actiony harems in anime than the comedic ones, but I like it when the romance is there but is ultimately upstaged by whatever fighting or chuuni stuff happens as the "plot." With harems, whether the action types (the billions of battle academy ones that were there before Isekai replaced them) or the non-actiony ones (Nisekoi/Saekano/Oregairu), the attraction for me has always not been the actual romance but the bickering between the girls, the team-ups, and how the team's personality bounces off each other at school, at the beach, at the clubhouse, in battle, etc.

You can probably get a romantic end (like in a lot of the romcom ones) but I really don't mind open endings or the guy just not picking one and having the whole team stay friends some 5, 10 years after the story.

I still think those can still be categorized as harem (or at the very least, their anime adaptations often got marketed as such), and that's the type of resolution I personally prefer.

 

[Leti]

I personally prefer a Romeo and Juliet kind of romance, or anything involving everyone dying.

 

[Kenjona]

Meh, I like Harems as a concept and keep reading them, but generally ditch the story sooner or later. Many start out good but then for various reasons they plummet story wise. The Harem gets to big or the harem characters start to become paper cut outs midway through the story, or being added on just to pad the numbers and/or add a certain "type" to the harem, or it just become a serial dating story and the story goes no where. Of the few that I stick to longer, either: they very well written in romance department, or it is Harem but not a "Romantic" Harem (Even when tagged as such), or it has just good enough smut to keep me intrigued. If anything harem stories get more critical scrutiny from me as the bar is set higher as there are perfectly good Non-Harems out there that have engaging plot and well written action for choices.

 

[placeintime]

hmmm? This is a tough question. I guess I would go with the harem option more.