Why don't writers understand how important characters are?

[Doomed.Knight]

This is more a rant than a genuine question, prompted by my recent holiday reading binge. I'm not necessarily referring to amateur writers (though it's certainly something they fail at as well), but more so professional novel/light novel/manga/manhua writers. The isekai/regression genre seems particularly dense when it comes to this sort of thing.

Characters are as essential to writing stories as eggs are to making omelets. Not only do characters (and eggs) need to be done right to make the thing their part of actually good, but said thing wouldn't even be able to exist if it weren't for them. It's literally impossible to make an omelet without eggs (don't point out that egg substitutes exist, that's not the point). And it's similarly impossible to write a story without characters. There would be no action, no plot, no drama, no comedy, no romance. No nothing. It can't be done. They are the most important thing. What chef worth his salt would use poor quality eggs, or prepare them poorly when making an omelet? What writer worth his salt would neglect his characters?

As I said, the isekai/regression genre of stories are particularly bad at this (which I tend to frequent). Maybe the MC has a mom or a servant or something when he goes back in time, but they really have no character to them, get almost no screen time and do nothing of consequence when they actually show up. It's just an endless treadmill of disposable villains, dungeons and stat pages that make me wonder why I'm not spending my time doing literally anything else. 'The Hero Returns' is the most recent one I've stumbled across, for those curious, though I'd already gone over the edge before I read it.

Writing good characters is hard. I get it. But copying good characters that already exist really isn't. Everyone has their favorites and there are plenty out there, so I'm not going to point out characters that I think are good. If you're just not good at coming up with them, then yeah, you should get inspiration from elsewhere. Hell, these dungeon manhwa/japanese fantasy isekai/murim etc. novels are all ripping each other off anyway. While you're at it, why not poach the actual most important thing (characters) instead of settings or plotlines that don't matter nearly as much? Not that they don't matter, but the best plot in the world is wasted if you can't manage to give a shit about who it's happening to.

And then even when they manage to put together a half-decent cast, it's still horrible because these writers don't understand that those same characters must have agency. Characters that do not have agency are no different from stage decorations. If we have a village inkeeper or something, then sure, he doesn't need to be able to affect the plot, but if the characters are going to be mainstays, then absolutely. They must have agency. I don't mean a plot device here, like say, the MC needing a power-up so he makes use of the cold female cultivator's yin constitution or some shit. That female cultivator might walk and talk and do things and look like a person, but that's all she is. Something that looks like a person. She's no different from a mystical dagger or any other doohickey that moves the plot forward. The key-word (repeating myself, but this is a rant, so sorry) here is agency. These people need to be able to actually do stuff. Think Overlord's Demiurge going off and fucking shit up behind the scenes. That's an excellent example of a real character, because he has real agency and can affect the plot.

I know it's hard. I know. I do a bit of writing myself, after all. But if an author can't make a full cast of characters that are both genuinely compelling and have their own agency (GoT also does this well), then how about just one. I would literally settle for these regression novels having just one other character besides the MC being interesting and having their own will. But even that seems like it's too much to ask.

 

[AlwaysReading]

It's because they don't really know how to write. No, really, that's actually the reason.

Sure, they can put words on paper, but if you actually ask any of these authors what they wrote about, they wouldn't be able to give you anything deeper than just summarizing the plot. This is because they see the plot as just being the tool used to take the hero from Point A to Point B.

 

[ALandWithNoName]

kiy-yah

Click to shrink...

what do you think about stories that subvert your underlying premise, like waifu catalogue?

i do want to make sure i'm not strawmanning you, so; your point is about the agency of characters within the frame of the story (right?) i've never read a waifu catalogue story, but i gather that the utter subversion against what you're looking for is... the point? (question since i'm not sure myself)

it's the ideas between you and wc, is what i'm finding funny.

the MC needing a power-up so he makes use of the cold female cultivator's yin constitution or some shit.

Click to shrink...

specifically that, but instead reframing an entire story and making it the central theme.

i actually really like the idea of a stone-cold ass sociopath doing that very thing. i just don't have the energy to write anything like that.

reminds me of that one horror-com manhwa where the mc is an apprentice of like a jason-esque serial killer doctor. the world is like mythological-horror-ville with slashers as just the norm. what i find really endearing about it is the mc being normal most of the time. but when he becomes the resident doctor, he becomes the horror to horrors. god, it's so good. wish i had a habit of writing the damned names down of them...

 

[BronzePlaceWriter]

This is more a rant than a genuine question, prompted by my recent holiday reading binge. I'm not necessarily referring to amateur writers (though it's certainly something they fail at as well), but more so professional novel/light novel/manga/manhua writers. The isekai/regression genre seems particularly dense when it comes to this sort of thing.

Characters are as essential to writing stories as eggs are to making omelets. Not only do characters (and eggs) need to be done right to make the thing their part of actually good, but said thing wouldn't even be able to exist if it weren't for them. It's literally impossible to make an omelet without eggs (don't point out that egg substitutes exist, that's not the point). And it's similarly impossible to write a story without characters. There would be no action, no plot, no drama, no comedy, no romance. No nothing. It can't be done. They are the most important thing. What chef worth his salt would use poor quality eggs, or prepare them poorly when making an omelet? What writer worth his salt would neglect his characters?

As I said, the isekai/regression genre of stories are particularly bad at this (which I tend to frequent). Maybe the MC has a mom or a servant or something when he goes back in time, but they really have no character to them, get almost no screen time and do nothing of consequence when they actually show up. It's just an endless treadmill of disposable villains, dungeons and stat pages that make me wonder why I'm not spending my time doing literally anything else. 'The Hero Returns' is the most recent one I've stumbled across, for those curious, though I'd already gone over the edge before I read it.

Writing good characters is hard. I get it. But copying good characters that already exist really isn't. Everyone has their favorites and there are plenty out there, so I'm not going to point out characters that I think are good. If you're just not good at coming up with them, then yeah, you should get inspiration from elsewhere. Hell, these dungeon manhwa/japanese fantasy isekai/murim etc. novels are all ripping each other off anyway. While you're at it, why not poach the actual most important thing (characters) instead of settings or plotlines that don't matter nearly as much? Not that they don't matter, but the best plot in the world is wasted if you can't manage to give a shit about who it's happening to.

And then even when they manage to put together a half-decent cast, it's still horrible because these writers don't understand that those same characters must have agency. Characters that do not have agency are no different from stage decorations. If we have a village inkeeper or something, then sure, he doesn't need to be able to affect the plot, but if the characters are going to be mainstays, then absolutely. They must have agency. I don't mean a plot device here, like say, the MC needing a power-up so he makes use of the cold female cultivator's yin constitution or some shit. That female cultivator might walk and talk and do things and look like a person, but that's all she is. Something that looks like a person. She's no different from a mystical dagger or any other doohickey that moves the plot forward. The key-word (repeating myself, but this is a rant, so sorry) here is agency. These people need to be able to actually do stuff. Think Overlord's Demiurge going off and fucking shit up behind the scenes. That's an excellent example of a real character, because he has real agency and can affect the plot.

I know it's hard. I know. I do a bit of writing myself, after all. But if an author can't make a full cast of characters that are both genuinely compelling and have their own agency (GoT also does this well), then how about just one. I would literally settle for these regression novels having just one other character besides the MC being interesting and having their own will. But even that seems like it's too much to ask.

Click to shrink...

Characters are often hard to do in a satisfying way. Organic growth and change can be difficult to portray. For newer, less talented or just more hurried writers, building and maintaining a cast of characters can legitimately be a very daunting task. Most regression/Iskei fiction will tend to fall into one of those three categories. Usually, ''hurried''. when writing that style of content, it's often essential to get as much out as you can as quickly as you can. Your readers aren't always after pure quality, and there is so much of it around that if you don't update fast, you'll get left behind.

So the temptation becomes to pair everything back as much as you can for easier writing. Focus on the main character and maybe one other character who orbits them. Use cliches to fill out the rest of the cast. They may seem lazy, but it's actually a deliberate choice - you see, everyone knows the cliches so you can inform your audience of the characters with only a few words or references. They won't form any kind of connection to them and they'll be forgettable, but at least it will communicate to your readers in the smallest amount of words that they exist in the setting.

Since certain modern genres tend to focus extremely heavily on the MC alone, the sacrifice of secondary characters is seen as worthwhile in order to increase production speed and simplify the story.