Are isekai fans too impatient?

[CountVanBadger]

One of the stories I want to try writing sometime soon is an isekai. I'm hesitant to even try, though, because every time I ask how to write an isekai, people tell me they'll drop the book if the isekaization doesn't happen in the first chapter. Maybe the second if it's really well written. And for the book I'm planning, that just won't work. There are things that need to happen in our world to set up the plot in the other world. Without going too deep into spoilers...

Ch 1: Meet the MC. MC has interests. MC has goals. Meet MC's family. MC doesn't like his family. MC's family doesn't like MC.
Ch 2: Learn MC's backstory and why his family doesn't like him. Interact more with family, setting up eventual shocking plot twists.
Ch 3: MC's interests leads him to magical item. Magical item is taken from MC by his family.
Ch 4: Magical item calls to MC. MC tries to get it back. Family catches him. Confrontation. Magic happens. Commence isekatization.
Ch 5: Isekaization complete. We now return you to your regularly scheduled tropes and cliches.

I don't want this to be another book where the only interesting thing about the main character is that he's the star of an isekai. Things are happening in the story even before he gets sent to the other world. The main character has a personal stake in the plot, even if he doesn't know it yet. The story just won't work if I skip all of that and yeet the sucker into another dimension right off the bat. It'd be like if Harry Potter began with Harry arriving at Hogwarts and filling the readers in on his parents, Voldemort, and the Dursleys later, if at all.

Some people have suggested that I just put the important stuff into flashbacks, but not only does that sound amateurish, it'd also feel really clunky for my main character to be like "Gee willikers, what a crazy magical adventure I'm having! It reminds me of the time my parents died when they accidentally drove off a cliff and my grandma told my sister it was my fault! By the way, did I ever tell you that my sister hates me for what happened to our parents, and also she's a genius and our grandma has been teaching her this weird language I've never heard of but neither of them give a crap about me? Also, I really like to swim and..."

So, yeah. Is this story DOA from lack of instant gratification, or would people read it even if it takes a while to get to the fun stuff?

 

[Rosica]

It’s not just isekai. Tons of genres deal with this. Readers say they want the “main thing” fast, but what they really want is a strong start.

Books like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone or The Hunger Games don’t jump straight into the core premise either, they just make sure something interesting is happening right away.

People are used to stories starting in medias res these day, meaning you’re dropped into something already in motion. Blame streaming, short attention spans, all that. If nothing feels like it’s happening, they bounce.

Your outline is fine. The key is making chapters 1 to 3 feel like story, not setup. If there’s tension, conflict, and questions pulling the reader forward, they won’t care that the isekai happens in chapter 4.

Or maybe some do care, but are just being loud minority. Who know?

 

[YukieSama]

People would read anything if its piques their interest. And the easiest way to peak their interest in isekai is by putting them in this other world. It's basically the principal of "Bring on the bear."

On the other hand, I don't think delaying the isekai by 4 chapters will make your book DOA as long as you do have a hook in the first chapter.

 

[JayMark]

Really strong advice from Rosica. Make your set-up so interesting that is also story.

Interesting doesn't have to mean highstakes action and fighting all the time either.

For example; If someone would hate reading the opening of the LOFTR because it begins in the Shire, there's no hope for them. Write them off.

 

[Corty]

Yes.

In one of my stories (on WN), I got multiple commenters complaining that the MC didn't power through everyone yet or do anything major by chapter 30 or get OP yet.

Dude & Dudettes... I am planning a multi-hundred-chapter-long story. Sit down and enjoy the ride.

 

[Louhi]

Really strong advice from Rosica. Make your set-up so interesting that is also story.

Interesting doesn't have to mean highstakes action and fighting all the time either.

For example; If someone would hate reading the opening of the LOFTR because it begins in the Shire, there's no hope for them. Write them off.

Rosica keeps giving strong advice.

Is her advice strong because she is Rosica, or is she Rosica because her advice is strong?

Best girl indeed.

Anyway, here is my advice:
Only ask for opinions from people you know and trust, then use everyone else to test whether it works.

 

[CountVanBadger]

someone would hate reading the opening of the LOFTR because it begins in the Shire

Sounds like me when the first movie came out. Waaaaay too slow paced for my stupid nine year old badger brain. I tried to write a script for a prequel where the hobbits were the ones who made the One Ring. It was way better than Fellowship because it started with an orc army attacking the Shire because they wanted the blueprints for the ring. I wrote maybe five lines before getting bored and quitting.

Also, I'm going to assume that "LOFTR" stands for "Lord of F*cking the Rings" because there's nothing you can do to stop me.

 

[StarlightNecromancer]

As other said, its less instant gratification you have to worry about and more just having a hook that gets people reading.

I do have to wonder though, how relevant the MCs family is going to be post-isekai? A horrible family set up is all fine and what not but I'm curious how that's gonna matter in the other world. Part of me worries that a reader might just see it as angst for angst sake on part of why they were getting isekaied over someone else being the MC

 

[expentio]

Personally, it also quickly drives me away when the initial adjustment period is skipped in an Isekai. The worst is if the protagonist straightaway slays a monster to introduce the leveling system. It's an artificial event and makes the person look like a psychopath who all their life waited to let loose on the first creature they encounter.
While a fantasy world might be dangerous, the ecosystem wouldn't persist if nothing survives two minutes in it.

 

[Erysion]

Personally, it also quickly drives me away when the initial adjustment period is skipped in an Isekai. The worst is if the protagonist straightaway slays a monster to introduce the leveling system. It's an artificial event and makes the person look like a psychopath who all their life waited to let loose on the first creature they encounter.
While a fantasy world might be dangerous, the ecosystem wouldn't persist if nothing survives two minutes in it.

Imo if the adjustment period is skipped, might as well skip the isekai and make the mc a native.

 

[CountVanBadger]

I do have to wonder though, how relevant the MCs family is going to be post-isekai?

I'm trying to avoid spoiling a story I haven't even started writing yet, but they're part of what I meant when I said he has a personal stake in the plot without knowing it.

 

[Eldoria]

Isekai is oversaturated. There are hundreds of thousands to millions isekai fictions floating around (check out syosetu and other mainstream publishing sites). In a saturated market, readers tend to get bored (especially experienced readers).

They might only read the synopsis and the first chapter before concluding, "Oh... mainstream isekai with a harem twist." Then they decide to add it to their reading list or skip it. Or, worst of all, readers might just skim the title, synopsis, and a half of prologue before rating it at will. In the end, I just sighed.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

One of the stories I want to try writing sometime soon is an isekai. I'm hesitant to even try, though, because every time I ask how to write an isekai, people tell me they'll drop the book if the isekaization doesn't happen in the first chapter. Maybe the second if it's really well written.

That's odd. My story initially had the protagonist die in the prologue and wake up in the other world in chapter 1.
At the end of the book, I did a poll, because people wanted to know a bit more about the MC from the beginning, as I had gathered. The poll asked, what people thought of the idea of adding at least a chapter at the beginning, to follow her a bit before she just drops dead.
Can't say I had massive engagement, but that much was normal either way and all the answers I got were positive, so I added something in the beginning. If that made everything better - I don't know. But it was apparently something people wanted.

 

[CountVanBadger]

Isekai is oversaturated.

I'm going into this with the same mindset as when I started writing XNPC. I refused to write a litrpg just because they were possible, and made myself wait until I had an idea I actually wanted to write. Same thing here. I'm only writing it as an isekai because this is a story that needs to be an isekai to be told right. As in, the fact that there are two worlds actually affects the plot beyond "this guy is from earth btw kthxby."

 

[SirContro]

They are so impatient!

 

[Rosica]

They are so impatient!

They can't afford to be a patient. Healthcare is expensive.

 

[SirContro]

They can't afford to be a patient. Healthcare is expensive.

In truth, money has nothing to do with it. They don't seek healthcare so they too can be isekaid.

 

[fluffykitsune]

I made mine in ch1 find herself as a baby. Some chapters later, I start opening up her past life and in her specific case, she brought 'things' from that past life into the new one, which helps justifying the forth and go information, and that becomes the bonus of the isekai'ed. Unlike a lot of isekai stories I've read, my mc doesn't become op like in Overlord. I don't like op protagonist stories, few chapters might be fun or even amusing but then... idk. Perhaps, knowing that mc can 1 shot everything kills whatever the plot could bring forth.

Nonetheless, if your story is well written, i believe most people would go through those 4/5 chapters. (Even if they don't bring much to the table.) Most isekai stories have 10 chapters and die, if your novel is long, I'm sure people will stick around.
Nothing like trying.

 

[Rosica]

Most isekai stories have 10 chapters and die, if your novel is long, I'm sure people will stick around.

Most isekai authors have 10 chapters and die. They write isekai so they too can get isekaid.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

In truth, money has nothing to do with it. They don't seek healthcare so they too can be isekaid.

Wouldn't jumping into traffic be the fastest way, though?