How to write harem ?

[Deathfunny]

Treat those girls like a proper human being with varying degree of problems in their life, don't make them blindly fall in love with the mc just because he/she rubbed them in a wrong skin.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Look just do stuff like referring to lady bits as "an unfurling meat umbrella". And shit like that and a harem practically writes itself.

 

[Pixytokisaki14]

Why do I feel like En chan is gonna show up and post something like:
Step 1: You don't

 

[esThr]

You don't (I am faster heh)

You don't (I am faster heh)

Jokes aside, If I was the writer I would probably slowly introduce each girl with a reasonable amount of background to each of them with their own quirks while keeping their chemistry with other girls and mc as stable as possible
In short, it's like ttrying to maintain a nuclear reactor except you will be having a different type of "meltdown" if it malfunctions heh.

 

[beast_regards]

Write what you want to write. The Internet would react to it in the only way they know.

 

[NineHeadHeavenDevouringSerpent]

Harem is a messy business in and of itself. The wrong misconceptions people have is that there could be a possibility of a happy go lucky family of harem.... Ssk ssk ssk.

You want a proper harem? Read through historical references, learn what the culture around them are. How it isn't actually anything about romance or snu snu, it's simply plain old politics. This tribe is located quite far from control, if it falls into the enemy hands that could let them build strongholds...so? Go bring that tribe chief's daughter.

They didn't even have to consummate it sometimes, just the alliance was enough for most tyrants.

The harem court isn't one of girls giggling and having a merry time cherishing their emperor's dong, it's one of brutal power struggle. Concubines scheme against one and another, the empress or wife poisons or makes others unable to sire children, etc...

You want to write harem? Then forget about fluffy, forget about making it a romcom, there's no love involved here. Sure you can write tapestry of how much of an ardent lover the mc is to all his "wives" but at the end of the day, it will be shallow as he is a human after all and won't be able to be with all of them. The old ones will get sidelined and the whole "she is the love of my life" shit just becomes hypocritical.

Make it a power move. Have instances of intimacy and laughter, not everlasting love. Have fights and deaths, have schemes and betrayals.


Ofcourse you could just take the fast food route and just pop out new jade beauties each region and forget about the old ones. If you do happen to remember them thousand chapters later just mention in the passing how devotedly they had been waiting for them for 500 years without even having thoughts about moving on, and without leaving the house or having a life all the while not even a reaction to the constant adultery of mc around the world.

 

[Thraben]

The trick is twofold:

1. Each individual pairing needs to make sense. The 'keypiece' of the harem needs to have valid, logically and emotionally consistent relationships with each harem member.
2. The members of the harem furthermore have logically and emotionally consistent reasons for it being a harem, as opposed to a simple non-monogamous relationship.

Actually, that's a key point. A lot of stories that claim to be harems are actually just non-monogamous relationships, since the keypiece's partners don't consider themselves as being a harem, but as being individual partners.

Are you writing a harem, or multiple non-monogamous relationships that happen to center on a protagonist?

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

You start with 'h' and end it with 'm'.

You do 'hent--' first, then 'marriage'. Harem.

No, seriously, I just make sure my characters are 'human' and they have their own purpose and motivations apart from MC. Other stuff? Nah. I write what I want.

 

[Zagaroth]

What made Rumiko Takahashi's harem genre material work was... well, actually, to be frank it probably worked specifically because she wrote it to appeal more to women than to men. When it's written as a male wish fulfillment "collect all the wifus" type thing, that's when it starts becoming incredibly shallow. Rumiko Takahashi, on the other hand, selected a "main girl" and wrote in rom-com elements, with all the other girls who popped up being competition. But, the competition was played off comedically, and the introduction of each new girl to the competition was done such that every new girl's justification for going after the male lead was increasingly ridiculous and nonsensical to the point that "adding more girls to the harem" was more a joke than anything, and after the first 3 or so the male lead was also starting to grow increasingly horrified at the kinds of girls who were chasing after him.

Hmm, that sounds familiar...

*googles*

Yep, that would be Ranma. Though my first exposure to that sort of Harem was "Tenchi Muyo!"

I had been intending to create a harem (which might have been an influence on my title...) but I ended with a stable MFF that I am very happy with instead.

 

[PancakesWitch]

You will bloat your story if you actually give the proper amount of time to continuously keep in touch and have every harem member grow.

I have never seen that done, and that's why I think harem is crap.

i do that

 

[Beta_Krogoth]

This might sound silly/obvious but its one really worth considering - Why are the girls attracted to your MC? If he's just some random joe who's essentially a self-insert, the story will come across more like a power fantasy. If you're looking to make something more compelling than that, consider why each girl is attracted to him and what they like about him. Bonus points if they all have a unique take on the MC and like him for different reasons.

 

[Daitengu]

i do that

I wouldn't know, cause most of your stuff is dropped here to continue on webnovel. Getting paid is fine, but I hate and can't trust webnovel so, it is what it is.

 

[doravg]

Take your time with each member.

This. You don't need anything else.

 

[Anon2024]

This. You don't need anything else.

I think the harem should also have a limit to the amount as well.

 

[PancakesWitch]

I wouldn't know, cause most of your stuff is dropped here to continue on webnovel. Getting paid is fine, but I hate and can't trust webnovel so, it is what it is.

i wasnt trying to invite you to read