I really like stories with harems in them and ended up becoming a writer because of it. I became a writer because I was sick of all the fake harems and the wish fulfilments stories, so I decided to write my own. I'm still a beginner and because of that, I wanted to ask you guys if you have any tips on how to write harems especially big ones. I know that big harems are hard to write but my dream is one day to write a good story with a big harem in it. Of course, I want to start small before I take on something so big but I wanted to ask you guys if you have some advice for me like what pitfalls should I avoid, What should I be aware of while I write and what writings skills should I practice if I want to write a big harem.
I don't have any tips but when you finally write it, do share with us here As a reader though, I dislike it when: The man is dense and/or indecisive AF (as f***) The man is POS (piece of s***) Everyone around him (inside and outside the harem) are mostly women UNLESS there is a good reason for it. Examples I don't like: His teammates are all women except for MC himself. Or, every pet he collected is for some reason a female. Like, WTF? It's not a real harem (they are not his wives for real) The harem (real or fake) is just another Pokemon collection. Gotta catch them all, ya know. There are women of every trope there. Hate it. Hate it sooo sooo much! Real people have preferences! The women don't really have a good reason to fall for him Every woman around him chose him or every woman he pursue chose him. I'm like, dude, are you for real? There must be some of them who dislike polygamy. Or, have a different goal in life so marrying him or anyone is not on her agenda just yet. Or, she just doesn't like sharing. Or, he's not her type. Or, something. Re:Monster has the kind of harem I like / don't mind. It's one of the most natural harems, I've seen. Like, it just makes sense. Super hot too It'd be interesting though if most of the women have nowhere else they can go (as in MC married them in order to protect them) and divorce is normal (like when they finally found a guy they love or when they finally grow enough to fly on their own). This way, the harem can naturally go as big and diverse as the writer wants.
A bloodfeast. Each girl is working to do away with the other socially, emotionally, and/or physically. By the end of it, the MC will be utterly traumatized and need to be admitted into some sort of countryside health sanctum.
Don't. Write a story with multiples female leads interested in a male lead. But don't write a harem story.
Japanese style Harem is one tsundere, one emotionless girl with glasses (possible yandere if she has big breasts), one tomboy, one loli (with or without glasses), one motherly type. The guy needs to be 100% clueless that they like him and he can never touch them aside from holding hands every 100th chapter. Korean and Chinese style harem is like pokemon. You get one, throw her into a pokeball and move on to the next girl.
Most harem nowadays revolve around the MC which is either naive, dense, musclehead or a lucky pervert. And most of us probably think of S*X when talking about harem, not just a kiss here and I like you there
Just give them a reason for either of them to invest in the relationship. Honestly there are too much shallow relationships where nothing is developed after the capture, though you can always go the route by making it so that those problems are part of the story. In reality, harems are formed by common interest and an easily available resource, people! If a powerful family can be bestowed things like honor by proxy, or associate with those usually the important family/person, then it's a good use of a martial and emotional investment... objectively speaking. People can get real ape sh*t once things start to collapse. You can look up supportive and healthy poly-amorous relationship depicted, or real life examples of people having multiple families under other identities. You can start with the girls, or the events where they would meet them, but if you'd like a bit more thought I suggest figuring out the variety of relationships and co-existing, even roommate stories could be a good way to think about it. Relationships aren't always about the physical, and no single action can make someone you just met wholeheartedly devoted when the person seems to be doing well for themselves.
The below assumes you were looking at the standard one-guy-many-women set up, but if you meant one woman with many husbands or some other combination my advice is largely the same. My examples are also taken more from Isekai genre, other examples might be more fitting if you were doing something more historical or the like. ------------------------------ I think we’re putting the cart before the horse here. Writing skill building idea brainstorm: > Practice writing couples. Not new lovers, people that have been happily married for years. They love each other deeply but are far past the “youthful whirlwind romance” stage of things. Maybe a short story about an eldrerly couple trying to fix their old house or something. > Write some short stories where the woman is falling OUT of love with a man they once loved for various reasons. Examples: >> Their boyfriend has been neglecting them. >> The reason they fell in love was due to something other than enjoying being with the guy, and they’ve realized they don’t get along with him much at all. For example, they were a slave the guy saved. They owe him a lot, but that doesn't mean their relationship is automatically going to work out! > Some stories like the above, except the relationship works out in the end. > Write some short stories where the guy is falling OUT of love with a woman. Such as because, say, the lady is an abusive Tsundere. Again, do some practice writing where it doesn’t work out in the end and some where it does. > Write some stories revolving around jealousy in romantic situations. > Write romantic snippits from a wide range of preferences and personality types. Some people are more extroverted, some more introverted, some more sexually inclined and some less so, some calmer, some more passionate, some are more quick to anger, etc. Focus on already ongoing relationships. I could go on, but basically you should first focus on understanding long-term romantic relationships – what makes them work, what breaks them, and how to write them. Most harem novels rely on wish-fulfillment to just have the (relatively easy) “falling in love” arc snatch up the new harem members and then keeping them frozen at or near that emotional state for the entire series. The harem-having MC needs to somehow juggle the emotional needs of a truckload of people and the first step to writing that is understanding what exactly is being juggled. All of these deal with 1:1 pairings, as I feel you should first understand how writing relationships works before trying to overlap a large number of them. ---------- I’d say in “real” giant harems the man would be an emperor or something that doesn’t actually care if most of the harem likes him or not. He likewise wouldn’t spend any time with most of them beyond the occasional night visit. How much time in the day does someone have to spend with their lover? Now divide that by, like, 12. Does that sound like enough time to meet anyone’s emotional needs? If you want to write a large harem story where the whole harem actually loves the harem-haver the harem-haver needs to have a solution to this conundrum. Time manipulation, multiple avatars, and other supernatural solutions offer one possibility. The wives might have something going on with them that resolves this as well – like some kind of spiritual link between themselves that allows for them to more directly share each other’s joy. Alternately, the MC could just be some sort of skilled cult leader or.. eh.. the harem is mostly composed of women that prefer huge amounts of alone time? Maybe? A harem that's more of a bisexual everyone-loves-everyone could also be a way to go there. If you want a story where there’s no tricks or schemes and a large group of women are just okay with being with a husband that almost never has time for them alone due to a relationship pile-up that fits together like a puzzle… good luck with that. That’d be difficult to pull off with a small group much less a big one.
My story is more on the idealistic and romantic side. The story that inspired it most was One Piece and I want my story to be like it with a lot of serious and realistic elements but by the end of the day still being realistic and positive. I want the harem to be something like a mixture of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really Love You and Kanojo mo Kanojo, so basically like a big loving family that has to face the challenges of being a big harem. I already have a solution for the time problem so that's not really a consurne.