Cenonn's How to Holofic and Writing in General

When being predictable isn't bad...

Now then... This chapter, I'll talk about being predictable like tropes and foreshadowing.

What are tropes? Tropes are common themes or story devices. For example, we have Fumuyoshi's The Mage with Existential Crisis (Hololive Fanfic). In his story, he has an Overpowered Character named Enma Fumuyoshi.

Overpowered characters have become so common that it has become a trope. Some of them became so bad that they ended up turning into Mary Sues.

Phanzuru's Holonatural Occurrences also follows a trope which is the Reluctant Hero. In his story, Haru Shinzou was just an average boy who got roped into the supernatural world without his consent.

Now then... Are tropes bad? Well... People might say that tropes are just lazy storytelling and I might agree with them. Tropes, if done incorrectly, are pretty much bad.

But anything executed horribly is bad. That's the law of the world. No matter how unique your concept is, if you fail in execution, you suck. The same is applicable for tropes.

However, there's a reason why they became a trope in the first place. It's because they work pretty damn well. They were so good that many authors tried to copy the idea to the point it became a trope. It became the norm of storytelling.

For example, we have the Truck Killing the MC trope. In many isekais, the MC would always end up getting killed by a truck and then get summoned to another world. Why does it work? Because truck accidents can happen to anyone.

They don't have to be involved with an incident to get murdered. They don't have to be depressed to commit suicide. And since death is a requirement to get summoned in most isekais, having the MC becoming the victim of a vehicular accident would be the best method of starting the story.

And don't get me started on romance tropes. You can say that they are "unrealistic" since enemies-to-lovers isn't that believable but I hate to break it to ya pal, they are possible. Even the teacher-student romance is possible. Even the dreaded "love-at-first-sight" is possible.

What I'm trying to say is... Tropes can benefit the fanfic as long as you know how to execute them properly.

You know what they say, "Stereotypes become stereotypes because there's an element of truth to them." While I might argue that not all stereotypes are like that, I can say that tropes are pretty much similar.

Now then... Here's a question: is it bad to include a trope which most readers are very familiar and comfortable with for fear of being called cliche? Will it be better if you avoid all tropes and make your story very unique so that people would have second thoughts about it?

I talked about two things when creating a setting. It's called Novelty and Familiarity. The same can be applied to plots.

You have to make sure that your Novelty is good enough to make sure your plot stands out among the billions of stories created in this world. However, you also have to make sure that your Familiarity is good enough that your readers will be comfortable with your story and not get lost in the waves of the new concepts you came up with. Using tropes well enough will help you in finding the middle ground for these two tricky concepts.

If we eliminate all tropes, we might end up with a really complicated story or unrealistic characters. That's a huge no-no. Depending on your execution, using tropes will either make your story provide a deep connection to the reader or make your story look like a product of lazy writing.

So yeah... It all boils down to how you can execute it. Tropes can be a double-edged sword.

And since we're talking about being predictable, I'll talk about plot twists and foreshadowing. Now then... No one wants to be spoiled. That's a given. You have no idea how some fans of Shingeki no Kyojin would throw a tantrum every time a manga reader would drop a spoiler.

But everyone loves foreshadowing. What's foreshadowing? Foreshadowing is a literary device used to give indication or hint of what is to come later in the story. It is pretty useful if you want to give your readers a feeling of suspense or curiosity.

Now then... I'll give you an example of what could happen when you don't foreshadow.

In Rushiaboinboin's Kusamonogatari, the MC and his party are going to face off against an elf king. That's normal, right?

But then the elf king went "It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming. On days like this. Kids like you... Should be burning in hell!"

Turns out. The elf king is Sans from Undertale.

It's a total kusa moment. There was no foreshadowing on that thing at all. The past chapters didn't even give the reader an idea that the king was Sans. Even the tags of the story didn't mention anything about Undertale. So of course, a lot of readers were confused.

If you don't use foreshadowing, your readers won't be emotionally prepared for the big reveals. Your readers would become annoyed, disappointed, and/or confused instead of being surprised and satisfied.

But don't worry. I'll teach ya guys how to foreshadow.

Foreshadowing doesn't mean that you have to type out the information in the narration or whatever. Foreshadowing, if effectively used, will make your readers go back to the previous chapters, reread that detail, and then go "Why didn't I notice that?!"

One way to foreshadow is in dialogues. A character saying a joke, an offhand comment, or not saying anything at all would be good foreshadowing. They might not even realize that they foreshadowed something when they said those words.

Another way to foreshadow is the title of the story. Your title might be like Vtuberislife's Manager-san is Trying to Stay Sane Today and it would foreshadow that his MC would undergo many shenanigans that would test her patience and character.

You can also make the setting be the foreshadowing. For example, you can show the weather being stormy to set the tone of the story to become darker like having the characters go into a sea journey but end up getting into trouble because of a storm.

Metaphors and similes can also be used as foreshadowing. For example, you can go "His face paled like a dead man" and then in the next few chapters, that character could die.

The last method of foreshadowing is the traits of your character. You can have a very secretive character to become the main villain of the fanfic. Heck.. Even their names can be foreshadowing. Look at the name of the MC in From Another World which was Mikage Kamishiro. Mikage (御影) means "Shadow" while Kamishiro (神代) means "Vessel of God". So that foreshadows a lot of his reveal on being the vessel of the Primordial Dark.

Foreshadowing can very much help in making your plot twists to become more dramatic and have more impact. Use it properly and your readers will be hooked to your story.

Tropes and foreshadowing will help in making your book become predictable. Is being predictable bad? Not always. Being predictable means satisfying the expectations of your readers and that's good enough.

Now that I'm done with this, I'll talk about conflicts in the next chapter.