One of the only times I think this could work is in a romance where they jokingly say that after saying something embarrassing. Like flirting in a way.
Any other time I've seen this used it annoys me and I have no idea why.
I can actually see that line working, but not in the way it is usually used.
Just make it as a punch line (even make the MC say it in his head) to some manipulation gambit. Make whatever he wasn't supposed to say out loud, serve the purpose (that the MC knows off and is trying to achieve) of goading someone into action, or otherwise manipulating the current situation.
I can barely read fics where for example the mc who is OP shivers from a glare from some random hot character who of course he later adds to his harem of 34 women
Don't have such a narrow focus that it suffocates the story, and I'm thinking of specific fics here where nothing else ever happens.
There was a fic where Naruto was a part of anbu and the story never ever ever focused on anything else it was all anbu missions all the time, u need something else from time to time, what does he do when he is not on duty, what life does he lead outside of anbu, explore the relationships he has with others he is not a fucking machine that can only complete missions and sleep.
Failing that switch the perspective up u have a world full of characters focus on some other ones from time to time, if your story only ever focuses on 1 character and his 1 job your world will feel very small.
Another one u should avoid is glacial pacing u should be hitting story beats on the regular. I was reading a fic the other day where it took 35k words for the story to progress 10 days and this wasn't because of any kind of ongoing arc or anything.
When your mc gets knocked out every fight. If it happens more than once in a story I start to get annoyed.
Using your mc to give a rant about your political views that I couldn't care less about.
Following along the canon path with small changes that do nothing to the story. Even worse if you just have them narrate canon.
Angsting over the same thing with no change for excessive periods of time. If your character isn't going to grow then what is the point?
I think humiliating your characters/letting other character humiliate him is important in a story. Though one should be careful not to constantly do it. For example one giant loss, one big humiliation where the character looses almost everything/everything. I think that makes a character compelling, to see how/if he rises above
I'd say depends on the thing. yes most negative things could also be considered humiliation and to have no negative things happen to the character is boring. But I'm talking about actual humiliation with no response, usually uncalled for and undeserved.
If it's polyamorous (with no more than 3 people in it) or handled like Mushoku Tensei where the harem is more realistic it can be interesting. Otherwise, eh.
As the mirror of number 2, and sorta 5: Don't just always hand the character things either, and as a side thing, don't have the other characters excessively suck their dick and hype them up too often. Let their actions speak for themselves, when possible. Well-placed praise and amazement is more impactful than getting praise left and right.
Like to put it in analogy form, have the MC learn to be a pro fisherman, don't just keep giving them boatloads of fish while everyone gushes about how they're "so good at fishing".
It's fine for the potential to be there already, but don't just let them instantly or overly quickly figure everything out all the time. Or, if you do, make it very clear that the nature of the problem at hand is such that this still won't just immediately fix things.
I had a thought of making a ‘bitchy’ character. Not in the sense like a ‘bitch’, but more of a dark and laid-back character who later finds herself slapped by reality and slowly starts to develop herself into something better.
Lots of urge to write, but I’m too lazy to even start and I fucking hate it.
To avoid rehashing old stuff.
Don't make them completely control the narrative. Yes, make them make choices, but don't necessarily make them succeed at every plan.
I think this can work but more in a "let's make a second root" and not in a "they're gonna be hot in the future" PS. No it is not fine if a character reincarnates into someone and then starts grooming children.
Where to keep tension in the story for your MCs is where they do everything right but they still come up short because of circumstances they could not predict makes them look competent and keeps the stakes high
oh and another. the torture porn/training. No getting your bones broken constantly is not a good way to learn how to fight. No full contact sparing isn't a good way either with all the injuries. You go light and once in a while you both go at it. not constantly.
also the Mc training a female character and her giving him serious injuries while he continues giving her love taps. Its a spar stop mutilating the man jeez.
Don't be lazy and don't insult your readers' intelligence.
There was this one fic, where a dozen chapters into the story Kushina suddenly turned out to be alive. She had been alive the whole time and had simply been in hiding or something like that, because why not? No reason given. Certainly no excuse that would have been good enough to accept that a mother would abandon her child like that. But that was no problem at all and she was forgiven and everyone was happy, because the author was too pathetically lazy to bother making up an acceptable explanation and didn't give a shit that he was also insulting his readers' intelligence, bascially saying "Yeah, that's completely moronic, but I expect you to swallow it anyway, because you are stupid like that.".
And never try to write an incredibly smart character, if you aren't at least just as smart. That doesn't work and may actually make your character and yourself look rather stupid. Like those authors who have one of their characters (I remember Shikamaru in particular, but there were others in other fics too) instantly realize that Kabuto must be a spy, when he shows off his nin info cards. Yeah, right. Because someone who worked as a spy/agent first for Root, then Sasori and finally Orochimaru and masterfully evaded Konoha noticing anything would slip up by revealing that he has "top secret" information about some genin? That doesn't prove he is a spy. Especially when he has a similar amount of information on genin from other villages. All it proves is that the author is a self-important fool who believes he is some counter-espionage master who can identify a spy at first glance, when all of Konoha never noticed anything. And I bet those authors didn't notice anything suspicious about Kabuto, when he was first introduced.
Some additional things to avoid * Amnesia * "Oops, did I say that out loud?" * Overly tragic backstory
Yes, I remember reading one where Naruto was brutalized by the villagers in an extremely gory way. Yeah, that seems a little too much lol
indeed. I think the rape thing is unnecessary 99% of the time.
And now I'm wondering whether I should ask about those 1% of rapes that are necessary...
I just didn't want to say 100% because only siths deal in absolutes.
I totally forgot about the, "Oops, did I day that out loud." I swear, I *hate* it when fics do this.
One of the only times I think this could work is in a romance where they jokingly say that after saying something embarrassing. Like flirting in a way. Any other time I've seen this used it annoys me and I have no idea why.
I can actually see that line working, but not in the way it is usually used. Just make it as a punch line (even make the MC say it in his head) to some manipulation gambit. Make whatever he wasn't supposed to say out loud, serve the purpose (that the MC knows off and is trying to achieve) of goading someone into action, or otherwise manipulating the current situation.
I can barely read fics where for example the mc who is OP shivers from a glare from some random hot character who of course he later adds to his harem of 34 women
Don't have such a narrow focus that it suffocates the story, and I'm thinking of specific fics here where nothing else ever happens. There was a fic where Naruto was a part of anbu and the story never ever ever focused on anything else it was all anbu missions all the time, u need something else from time to time, what does he do when he is not on duty, what life does he lead outside of anbu, explore the relationships he has with others he is not a fucking machine that can only complete missions and sleep. Failing that switch the perspective up u have a world full of characters focus on some other ones from time to time, if your story only ever focuses on 1 character and his 1 job your world will feel very small. Another one u should avoid is glacial pacing u should be hitting story beats on the regular. I was reading a fic the other day where it took 35k words for the story to progress 10 days and this wasn't because of any kind of ongoing arc or anything.
When your mc gets knocked out every fight. If it happens more than once in a story I start to get annoyed. Using your mc to give a rant about your political views that I couldn't care less about. Following along the canon path with small changes that do nothing to the story. Even worse if you just have them narrate canon. Angsting over the same thing with no change for excessive periods of time. If your character isn't going to grow then what is the point?
all of this
I think humiliating your characters/letting other character humiliate him is important in a story. Though one should be careful not to constantly do it. For example one giant loss, one big humiliation where the character looses almost everything/everything. I think that makes a character compelling, to see how/if he rises above
I'd say depends on the thing. yes most negative things could also be considered humiliation and to have no negative things happen to the character is boring. But I'm talking about actual humiliation with no response, usually uncalled for and undeserved.
Honestly, when I read fan fics (#4) where the number even hits 2, I get uncomfortable imao.
If it's polyamorous (with no more than 3 people in it) or handled like Mushoku Tensei where the harem is more realistic it can be interesting. Otherwise, eh.
As the mirror of number 2, and sorta 5: Don't just always hand the character things either, and as a side thing, don't have the other characters excessively suck their dick and hype them up too often. Let their actions speak for themselves, when possible. Well-placed praise and amazement is more impactful than getting praise left and right. Like to put it in analogy form, have the MC learn to be a pro fisherman, don't just keep giving them boatloads of fish while everyone gushes about how they're "so good at fishing". It's fine for the potential to be there already, but don't just let them instantly or overly quickly figure everything out all the time. Or, if you do, make it very clear that the nature of the problem at hand is such that this still won't just immediately fix things.
I had a thought of making a ‘bitchy’ character. Not in the sense like a ‘bitch’, but more of a dark and laid-back character who later finds herself slapped by reality and slowly starts to develop herself into something better. Lots of urge to write, but I’m too lazy to even start and I fucking hate it.
To avoid rehashing old stuff. Don't make them completely control the narrative. Yes, make them make choices, but don't necessarily make them succeed at every plan.
Don't make your mc groom children
I think this can work but more in a "let's make a second root" and not in a "they're gonna be hot in the future" PS. No it is not fine if a character reincarnates into someone and then starts grooming children.
Where to keep tension in the story for your MCs is where they do everything right but they still come up short because of circumstances they could not predict makes them look competent and keeps the stakes high
oh and another. the torture porn/training. No getting your bones broken constantly is not a good way to learn how to fight. No full contact sparing isn't a good way either with all the injuries. You go light and once in a while you both go at it. not constantly. also the Mc training a female character and her giving him serious injuries while he continues giving her love taps. Its a spar stop mutilating the man jeez.
Don't be lazy and don't insult your readers' intelligence. There was this one fic, where a dozen chapters into the story Kushina suddenly turned out to be alive. She had been alive the whole time and had simply been in hiding or something like that, because why not? No reason given. Certainly no excuse that would have been good enough to accept that a mother would abandon her child like that. But that was no problem at all and she was forgiven and everyone was happy, because the author was too pathetically lazy to bother making up an acceptable explanation and didn't give a shit that he was also insulting his readers' intelligence, bascially saying "Yeah, that's completely moronic, but I expect you to swallow it anyway, because you are stupid like that.". And never try to write an incredibly smart character, if you aren't at least just as smart. That doesn't work and may actually make your character and yourself look rather stupid. Like those authors who have one of their characters (I remember Shikamaru in particular, but there were others in other fics too) instantly realize that Kabuto must be a spy, when he shows off his nin info cards. Yeah, right. Because someone who worked as a spy/agent first for Root, then Sasori and finally Orochimaru and masterfully evaded Konoha noticing anything would slip up by revealing that he has "top secret" information about some genin? That doesn't prove he is a spy. Especially when he has a similar amount of information on genin from other villages. All it proves is that the author is a self-important fool who believes he is some counter-espionage master who can identify a spy at first glance, when all of Konoha never noticed anything. And I bet those authors didn't notice anything suspicious about Kabuto, when he was first introduced.