Struggling to remember different 'typical' encounters that you see in cultivation novels

Rather than add to the redundancy of the listings -- because people have done a great job of it already -- let me clue you in on something more fundamental. The root of mass-produced (series with something north of 2000 chapters) xianxia/xuanhuan conflict comes from downright milking the hell out of misunderstandings and inabilities to see eye-to-eye on basically everything, especially things that normal mere mortals like us take for granted we wouldn't get straight-up assaulted for doing. This not only works for starting fights, but it's also a staple for what passes for romance in much of the genre.

If you're going for full schlock xianxia, then you basically just need to act like everybody speaks their own personal language that makes almost no sense to anybody else, because it might as well be that way. About the only exceptions to the rule are very close family members (because it is obligatory that, if your MC isn't a completely clanless orphan, some large portion of the greater clan/village at large are plotting against them too), mentor figures (the good ones, not the ones that are mere pez dispensers for jade slips with techniques and/or plotting to take over the MC's body), and romantic partners once they've been "conquered" (before that it's a comedy of errors involving poor word choice and incidents with bathing at bodies of water where the female inevitably vows to murder the MC for sullying her virtue with his dirty pig eyes). Sometimes you can also allow a "bro" character to sneak in, but those guys get left in the dust sooner or later anyway, so don't worry too much if you can't bring yourself to produce those.

If you mass-produce your characters in the classic mold, you won't have to think about triggering incidents, because those bastards are triggered by basically anything and everything once they're in the line of sight of your MC; just wind them up, set them down, and let them wreak havoc while they invoke their uncle, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, who amazingly somehow all managed to live long enough to reproduce while acting in the exact same manner. Grats, you can spend less time thinking about the world and more time finding new synonymous ways to describe pale-skinned boobs, the true test of any author's mastery of the genre.

That is, of course, if writing pulp xianxia is your actual goal. If not, you may wish to discard the list and be thoughtful about it, understanding that this means you lose the easy route to pumping out multiple chapters a day because you have to actually involve brain power in the process now.

 

Reasoning being that they loose control over their internal energy which then proceeds to wreck havoc in their bodies. Does this make sense? Maybe. Does it make sense that a random ass brat can cause such a fit of rage? Nope.

 

Amazing, so many different points and yet 90% of them fit into every cultivation novel there is. Thanks for so many points to reference

 

Thanks for this, and my plan is for my novel to have these sort of encounters start but then instead of the MC doing the expected bs he does what someone like us would actually do instead. Just needed to list out these encounters and plot points so I then have a structure I can then 'normalise' if that makes sense

 

That's a good approach, although you can add to this by making some villains also react in unexpected manner, like young master Z going "hand that beauty over to me hahaha [insert more arrogant generic dialogue for villain here]" MC throws the love interest at the villain and goes "you can have her", and the villain goes "no, not that pig, i mean you (or maybe some random bystander who has no relation to MC or his group)" [que a fight because MC is trying to protect his chastity, desperately].

But even if you do as above, you also want to add generic trope breaking developments that aren't that much over the top too.

 

Exactly, I just thought of writing something like this mostly because of reading a couple novels where recently I would just think "can a lightning bolt just strike that dude? That or the MC do something about it." Especially some situations where I plan to have my MC be very overprotective of what's his so instead of letting little things pass he's pretty much going to be the type of guy where he doesn't take sh*t from anyone, just puts his foot down instead of messing around. It will promote some interesting conflicts in a non-generic way hopefully.

 

Honestly, you don't need the cookie cutter cultivation scenarios for writing just for the sole purpose of having them there. The reason why authors add them is to let the MC accomplish something. In my story, I create scenarios that allow my MC to develop something he lacks. If the MC has never killed anyone in his life, throw him into a trial of fire and slowly make him/her realize the reality of death, sharpen their survival skills, and test and evolve their wisdom and intelligence. If the MC lacks power, introduce a master figure or inheritance that will allow him to slowly gain power so that he doesn't fall behind his peers. If the MC's ideology or strength needs to be challenged, introduce a rival with a different ideology and some strength that will allow both characters to develop their philosophy and strength. What matters is what story you want to tell and how different elements of writing can guide your plot towards a goal. Most Xianxia seem trash because it is just repetitive face slapping stupid villains who give nothing to develop the character or steer the plot a certain direction.

 

please use enters.
this wall of text hurts the eye.

 

Honestly, you don't need the cookie cutter cultivation scenarios for writing just for the sole purpose of having them there.

The reason why authors add them is to let the MC accomplish something. In my story, I create scenarios that allow my MC to develop something he lacks.

If the MC has never killed anyone in his life, throw him into a trial of fire and slowly make him/her realize the reality of death, sharpen their survival skills, and test and evolve their wisdom and intelligence.

If the MC lacks power, introduce a master figure or inheritance that will allow him to slowly gain power so that he doesn't fall behind his peers.

If the MC's ideology or strength needs to be challenged, introduce a rival with a different ideology and some strength that will allow both characters to develop their philosophy and strength.

What matters is what story you want to tell and how different elements of writing can guide your plot towards a goal.

Most Xianxia seem trash because it is just repetitive face slapping stupid villains who give nothing to develop the character or steer the plot a certain direction.

 

Most everything has been mentioned here already but remember to use these lines frequently;

"I didn't recognize Mt. Tai."

"You're seeking death."

"You're just a frog at the bottom of a well."

"You're only a _____ and yet you dare act so arrogantly?"

"He's pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger!"

"What makes you think that you are qualified enough to challenge ________ ?"

Members of the MC's town/family/Sect/Clan should always refer to the MC as either "Young Master" or "That trash" depending on their position.

[ if a transmigrator, insert at least one famous poem that the MC knows in order to show up a young master at a social function.]

Also, along with the Jade Fairy female characters, include some white lotus female characters to cause trouble for the MC's female characters. Don't forget to have at least one fatty who is the MC's friend. If it hasn't been mentioned yet, any friends that the MC makes who fall behind in their training/power level should be either killed off or completely forgotten once the MC moves to the next scenario.

 

Smh, you just copied a summary of a random Xianxia. You think I wouldn't notice?

 

I'm specifically looking for these scenarios so I can have times where the audience might think one of these typical scenes will happen but then go completely differently.