How to write Great if not almost Perfect Harem?

Okay, touching difficult topics here, I believe there is a way to make a Harem that even a Harem hater cannot spit in contempt.

1. number of harem's members?
2. Unclear main heroine?
3. Personality?

 

step 1) don't.

(If you really have to, focus on making them strong characters as individuals and given them reasons for sticking around in a toxic situation)

 

I think there is a difference.

Harem or no harem. I think it is more about what a person themself thinks about having multiple partners.

In personal opinion, I would say three, an athletic girl, a cold girl, and a cute one, while there would be no main heroine.

Of course, I also really like just having one heroine.

 

- A reason why the harem came to be
- Harem member that actually have a personality (which is actually a more general tip for writing, since all characters should have a personality)
- A plot that involves more than a teenager lusting after every girl he sees
- No unnecessary drama like chinese harems, where every girl secretely is out for blood, poisining everyone left and right and staging happy "accidents" to get rid of competition. Which is partly already covered by the personality point...

And then you already have a decent harem story. There are more intricate things that should be addressed like the relationships within the harem, but that doesn't have to be the focus. A good writer will be able to weave that into the main plot.

 

Polygamy. But there's polygamy haters too, so that wasn't the answer either

 

I hate harem that's done for pleasing people.

Just to satisfy a larger pool of male preferences you just keep adding a cold one, jumpy one, silent one, mystery one, the ignored one or tens.



Use harem as a plot, not as a magnet for readers.


I don't mind if he has thousands if it's done right. Even if it seems taxing take your time to write down all the names of harem (yup the whole 1000, reap what you sow ) then make sure to give atleast a paragraph to each.


Make them any persona it's your wish, but it has to be for some reason and back story.

A thousand year old Loli with childish attitude asking for pampering is just fast food MSG, just make the effort to add in more traits or reasons for why ?..


A line to remember by -
Reasoning is Seasoning !!

Ofcourse personally if it really goes to thousands then I won't like it, it just seems over blown and hard to fathom each characters reaction and emotions. It makes the whole story fake and "2d".


Romance is another thing that has to be considered.


There could be n number of ways. It just needs to have enough growth and certain instances to make it feel real and something readers root out for.

A crude tip - ( first comes attention, then comes curiousity, then comes analysis, then comes the factor of "attracted", then comes denial, then proving it's not real, then falling deeper into attractiveness, then comes doubt of love...)


This is something a common trope follows. Make it different, make it spicy (not snu any), add arguments, add fights, add hatred turning to love, many more.





Ps- if I ever do harem, my rule of thumb will be this

- make it harder for the second love interest.
- Add strong emotions and traumatic experiences that convince mc and second love that they want to be together.

- Mc either disclosing this with the first love (then a fight ensues, with long term separation with the first one, then slowly reconcile using long term small doses of reminisce, longing, guilt, forgiveness, mc asking for forgiveness and reasoning it out several times) or keeps it secret for a long time and when found out loses the first love, or she doesn't trust him like before anymore
( it doesn't have to be a happy ever after you know? ).

- if i make it third one then I'll think deeper how to go about the chemistry between the three women, idk now.



- make it a point to invest a lot of time to think it thoroughly and not betray any characters.



So yeah if you want to add more characters close to mc you need to take into account their reactions to each other, the after effects, the results.


This also applies to any plot used, just make sure it feels right to you all the way then it won't matter what others think.

 

First of all, there are "Harem Haters" who will despise any work that has a hint of an open relationship in a story, regardless of the circumstances of the harem, so please keep that in mind. The only time "Harems" are acceptable to some "Harem Haters" is when it's a setting and not the focus of the story, like in Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, and even then some may reject it.

Now onto your variables. I will add more, because your list is minimalist, at best.

1. Harem Numbers: Keep it easily countable. A dozen members of the proper harem is probably the maximum you're looking for. If you're honestly trying to make a Harem Story that Harem Haters would like the Harem, it is likely a case of less-is-more. So a Harem of 3 Non-MC members is likely the number you're looking for, as most would not consider 2 to be a Harem, but would consider 3 to be.

2. Unclear main heroine: Up to you, not something I suspect would be overly significant. Hell, having the MC be a part of someone else's harem, even as a token male member of an otherwise all-female relationship, could help some Harem Haters enjoy the story.

3. Personality: DEFINITELY. GIVE THEM PERSONALITY. GIVE THEM THINGS TO DO, MAKE THEM AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE STORY AND IT'S PROGRESSION. Sorry for the Cap's lock "shouting", but this is the reason many of the mild "Harem Haters" exist, the Harem doesn't have personality, initiative, drive, or anything else but a pair of tits and a vagina. Or they had some before joining the Harem, and something about joining made them the brainwashed xxx-sleeve of the MC, losing it all. This will have to be the hardest part of an attempt for something like this. You not only have to give the girls as much, if not vastly more, personality than your MC, but you also have to ensure that they're part of the story. Which leads me to the the most important thing you missed mentioning:

4. Relevance: A vital part of stories where the MC builds a Harem that is often ignored is how relevant the Harem is. Is there a reason for the Harem to actually exist? Is it's presence relevant to the story in any way? Are the characters who make up the harem continuing to be an important part of the story? How often do we see the MC interacting with the Harem Members, or the Harem Members interacting with each other? How much is the Harem seen to be interacting with the plot? What was your gut reaction to these questions before thinking about it? This is a VASTLY more difficult set of questions to answer, particularly for that last one. For example, I am currently reading a story where the author has literally just presented us with an in-story explanation on the significance of the MC building a 3 person harem (a while after said harem was made). The girls are important to the story, do things of their own initiative while the MC is off doing his own things, and are seen fairly regularly both on their own and with other harem members interacting with the overarching plot. My gut reaction, however, was that the harem isn't significantly vital to the story. That all but one of the harem members could have been replaced with male equivalents with little to no significant changes. I know this to be wrong, the author even showcased it, but that is STILL the reaction of my gut. To make what you want, you'll have to write a story where the Harem is not only a vital part of the story, but also gives the feeling of being vital to the story.

 

First and foremost, you should NEVER write a harem story for people who hate harem. Ecchi writers don't write stories for those who hate ecchi, horror writers don't write stories for those who hate horror and harem writers don't write harems for those who hate harems. You should write a harem story for those who love and enjoy harems, not for those who hate them.

Also, something like a "perfect harem" simply doesn't exist. You can't make everyone happy.

As for your questions:

1. Many people will tell you that a small harem is better, but I will tell you that the size of a harem has nothing to with the quality of the story. Both big and small harems have their up and downsides. Big harems aren't bad, they are just harder to write than small harems, but they are also much more fun to read and write about if done well. By the end of the day, it all comes down to the writing skills of the author.
2.Yes.
3. You should definitely give all the harem members their own personalities. Nobody wants to read about a harem full of cardboard displays.

Also, there is one more thing you forgot about

4. The protagonist. The more screen time a character has, the more complex he should be and the protagonist should be one of the most complex ones. You cant have romantic chemistry between the protagonist and the harem members if the protagonist has no personality.

 

So hard in fact, that the authors with the ability to pull it off half-decently don't write it.
The more you put focus on the harem the more you have to develop these characters (Else the harem auto sucks).
But this takes a lot of space within the story, which means the pacing will be very hard to manage.
Imo 3 NPCs is the soft limit most plebs can handle without failing it with utter certainty.

 

Why is it toxic?

 

I doubt it. At best you can only make some of the harem haters accept it. Die hard harem haters never will, and that's okay. Everyone likes what they like, or visa versa.

I think three is the ideal number of woman for harem stories. After that more is less.

All of them should be treated equally.

Just make sure they are all well flushed out as characters. you know, with believable motivations, and all that. The difficulty of this is one of the reason more is less with harems.

4. Put the story in a world where polygamy is acceptable for some valid logical reason. Imbalance between the number of men, and women, in the world is the best reason, I think. Just pick some random ratio you think will work, like three woman for every man. If it's in a fantasy world you don't even really need a reason for the imbalance. Leave it a mystery, or say that it's the work of some powerful entity. Maybe say it's some disease, or virus. Also, saying that men get killed more for some reason can work, but if you use that reason, and then show a bunch of women fighting in your story as well, it doesn't really make much sense as to why the men are dying so much more.

 

This is probably the most important rule. Always create good characters when you can and the whole point to writing a harem is to have a varied cast that can interact with one another. It's a difficult task, and it's not something I think that amateur writers should attempt.

The other piece of advice is to avoid creating harem members using anime/manga/otaku archetypes. I've almost never seen this pulled off properly, and the harem characters in these stories tends to end up being terrible.

 

1) I would go with 3 members but all of them must be infertile. There is nothing worse than mixing child-rearing with harem. The thought of it only...
2) The benefits that the harem king/queen gets from each member have to be complementary (not replaceable) and known to everyone involved in the harem. This would make every member feel secure and know the purpose of the presence of the other members.
3) Each member has to be flexible enough to allow for everyone else's self-fulfilment.

 

The main problems harems tend to have, at least in my opinion:
1) The girls (or boys, if a reverse harem) have only two personality traits.
They have their stereotypical trope (tsundere, kuudere, little sister), and they have the protagonist. They're so lacking in personality traits that you can literally look at one for 30 seconds and immediately know everything about them.
2) The protagonist does not deserve such a harem.
The harem protagonist comes in many shapes and sizes, but no matter what, they do not deserve so many girls throwing themselves at them. Kirito from SAO, what has he done to deserve all those girls?? Sure he's super strong and fast and smart, but he literally just needs one episode with a girl and that girl immediately is part of the Kirito fan club. And then there's Bel from DanMachi. He's a literal wimp! Until his goddess Hestia gave him a cheat weapon, he was literally too weak and pathetic to fight anything more than a low level monster. Yet somehow every girl he meets instantly falls in love with him by the first or second interaction with him. What's up with that?? Not to mention, seemingly every harem protagonist seems to either be so dense that they literally miss every sign that the girls are madly in love with him, or they're the perfect James Bond understand-the-woman's-mind ikemen to every girl he interacts with.
3) Needless jealousy.
Ever watched Shoumin Sample? How about Haganai? Maybe you've heard of The Ryuo's Work is Never Done! Guess what all those have in common? Two girls, who constantly get into fights, at the drop of a hat, for any slight provocation, all because they're love rivals. Sometimes it's played for comedy, sometimes it's just what they do because they both love the protagonist. It's annoying. Maybe them not liking each other and fighting a lot makes sense, but literally every single time they're on screen together?? Come on.

I have a lot more problems, but I think I've run my fingers long enough. As you can tell, I am a so-called "harem hater". You don't need to appeal to people like me, people who like harems will enjoy your stuff and people who don't will not. Just write a reasonably good story with a decent cast of characters and let people project themselves onto the literal symbol of perfection who gets all the ladies: the protagonist.

 

I honestly think that if the mc was less of a pervert then mushoku tensei would probably be the perfect example of how to do a harem for people who aren't really into harems.

He gets into 3 relationships one after the other, starting and ending for realistic reasons, and then they when they meet up again they decide that they still like each other so do polygamy. This makes it so there's good development with each harem member, and it makes the idea of getting into the situation of a harem more realistic.

You get almost all of the good and almost none of the bad of both harem and monogamous romance.

 

1. Dont worry about number. Instead worry about being able to flesh out the characters. Sometime to keep in mind is that the larger main heroines you have, the harder it would be to keep them all relevant.

For example, i liked death march (harem elements, not full harem) but it introduced too many characters too quick. So a specific heroine would be focused on and be fleshed out nicely, but then the other characters seemed out of place and irrelevant. Author got better at dealing with it over time, but this something a harem novel would definitely face. So fleshing out your characters is good but dont become so focused on one of your characters that you forget about your remaining characters.

2. This could work either way, just make sure to add valid reason for it. If you do make a clear heroine, this means that the mc is leaning towards her. So make sure to show why the mc likes her more as well as what is stopping mc from choosing her over the girls and how it is resolved.

This is a harem, so it is many people liking one person. You should address why each of these people like this mc. Personally, i dislike it when someone falls for mc after one short event. If mc saved a heroine from some tragic situation, love shouldn't be the first thing to appear afterwords. It should be something more like admiration or gratefulness which can then be used to slowly bring the two together.

 

Well take reference from city of sin. I do like harem in that even though i am in so called "Harem hater" faction

 

Don’t make a harem story or even a romance story just make a story about the character doing there own thing and have them just happen to meet said member/partner and interact with them and for harem repeat till neccesary while having the members occasionaly intercact compete bond ect. Until complete there all completely together or the story ends.

 

Perfect Harem? Everyone is bisexual and in love with each other.