Nicole Eatough's Blog, page 10

Reverse Harem Research: Alice in the Country of Hearts

Alice in the Country of Hearts is another manga series I studied for my reverse harem tone/trope research. This series is based off a Japanese Otome game (and yes, I have looked up summaries/walkthroughs of the game, which is what interested me in reading the manga in the first place). The game has spawned several sequels, as well as multiple manga adaptations, though the one below is the only one I reviewed for my research.

This series is a rather interesting take on the Alice in Wonderland story. Alice, a teenage girl, is transported to a land divided into three warring parts. There’s the heart castle, run by the Queen of Hearts alongside her prime minister, the white rabbit. The amusement park, where the cheshire cat lives. The Hatter Mansion, which is a mafia family run by the Mad Hatter that includes the March Hare, as well as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Last is the Clock Tower, which is neutral territory and where Alice lives. In this version, Alice did not follow the white rabbit down the hall, but was far more interested in reading her book (as, arguably, a proper book worm should be), so the humanoid rabbit threw her over his shoulder and took off with her. Now in order to return home, Alice must fill a vile by forging relationships with those around her. 

La Corda

(Please excuse the incomplete picture above. It’s a mix of omnibus versions and an individual volume, while missing one volume. I had a heck of time finding this series, so wasn’t able to a get a complete collection.)

I didn’t use any of my research from this series for The Genie Whisperer, but it’s still a lot of fun, so I figured I’d still include a blog post on it. The characters are quite enjoyable and a focus of this series is the value of life. Life and death don’t work the same way in Wonderland, so many characters treat death like it’s a game that doesn’t really matter. Alice is horrified by this and attempts to teach the characters that their lives, as well as the lives of others, matters to her, so that they’ll value themselves and others more. 

 Since this is a reverse harem style manga, this, of course, endears her to several of the characters, who come to adore her. I always think it’s fun to watch characters fall in love, which is part of why I enjoy reverse harem. It’s fun to see the different personality types fall for the same girl and to discover what in particular makes them fall for her.

I suppose a similar aspect to Alice being different is arguably used in The Genie Whisperer. Alice is different in Wonderland because she values life in ways that others aren’t used to, while Ali is different to the genies because she doesn’t desire magic or wishes in ways that others do. But I would say the trope that the main heroine is extra special is basically required in a reverse harem or else so many amazing guys wouldn’t fall for her. 

Enjoying this series is also where my terrible side comes out, but I only think this is okay in fantasy! An animated movie was made for this, and the March Hare and Mad Hatter characters destroy Alice’s vile and only way out of Wonderland at the end of the movie (unbeknownst to her, she thinks she lost the vile), while saying that she’s so strange, claiming she can’t make it back home, when she’s already home. Again, this is ONLY okay in fantasy, but I do enjoy those darker love interests sometimes. I don’t have any characters like that in The Genie Whisperer, but I might write a story with one someday.

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Reverse Harem Research: La Corda d’Oro

La Corda d’Oro is another manga series I studied for my own writing to help ensure I got the tone right. In this series, a young woman with zero magical talent is gifted a magic violin to participate in a prestigious competition held at her school. This competition, unsurprisingly, includes several handsome young men. This series wasn’t as fun as some of the others I studied, but I did still enjoy it enough that it was fun to reread it for my research. And I admit, I would love to be gifted with a magical instrument that allowed me to play beautifully without putting in the time and effort to practice 🙂 

La Corda

Also, fun fact, the pictures above don’t contain the complete series, since I got impatient over the whole thing not being completed and dropped the series for several years. When I picked it back up for my research, physical copies of the rest of the series were no longer available. Thankfully, I could buy the rest electronically, though it does drive me a little crazy that I have the series half in one format and half in another.

Some of the plot elements I wrote down for my La Corda d’Oro research ended up in The Genie Whisperer . . . though some are so general that I’m sure they really count as coming from there, lol.  

Plot Element: La Corda d’OroGenie WhispererMain character is the “chosen one”The main character is specifically chosen for the magic violin because she has no musical talent. The point was to show that anyone could develop a love of and talent for music. Ali, while not exactly chosen by anyone, is the only genie whisperer the genies have ever met, which means she’s potentially their only hope for freedom.People are being changed in part because of the main character’s exampleSome of the competition participants have gotten so caught up in being the best or impressing others that they they’ve forgotten their love of music. The main character’s joy as she figures out her violin helps remind them of that.Ali’s genies, understandably, have a fair bit of trauma and distrust regarding humans, but the more time they spend with her, the more their feelings for her and trust in her changes. The guys start out not believing in the main character and want her to give up/go away. Some of the music participants have dedicated their lives to music and it’s apparent to them that the main character is simply not on their level, and they don’t consider her worthy competition. Of course, most of them change their opinion as they get to know her better. Some of the genies take to Ali very quickly while others . . . not so much. But it wouldn’t be fun if they all fell quickly! Gotta have some challenging ones in there. It makes it all the more satisfying when they do fall for her 😉 

One of the smaller things I took note of from La Corda d’Oro got applied to The Genie Whisperer in a way I just adore. My note was: the guy is ornery when asked to do something for the main character, saying she has nothing to do with him, then he shows up to help anyway, because he can’t help it. I incorporated this in book three when it’s Christmas and Tavor keeps telling the other genies not to worry over Ali’s depressed mood and the upcoming holiday . . . then he does more than anyone else to celebrate, decorating the house extensively and even getting Ali presents. 

I think the trope of a guy resisting helping the main character, and then being there for her anyway is a lot of fun, so expect to see more of that in future series from me!  

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Reverse Harem Research: Kiss of the Rose Princess

The second series I studied for my reverse harem research for The Genie Whisperer was Kiss of the Rose Princess. In this series, a young woman who’s meant to save the world has four rose knights who she can summon by kissing the card that corresponds with their color. It’s kind of like Cardcaptor Sakura . . . except the cards bring handsome young men, lol. It’s a pretty fun concept, and more rose knights who don’t serve the main character are brought in throughout the series. 

Warning: This post has some spoilers for up to book five (The Doorway to the Future) of The Genie Whisperer. If you haven’t finished book five yet, proceed with caution! 

Rose Princess

As mentioned in my Ouran High School Host Club post, I broke my study of the series down into four categories to keep my focus on what I felt would be most helpful for writing reverse harem:

the guys’ interactions with the main characterthe guys’ interactions with each other in relation to the main characterthe main character’s interactions with the guysthe plot elements related to reverse harem

Like with Ouran High School Host Club, some of the plot elements I wrote down for Kiss of the Rose Princess ended up in The Genie Whisperer. For example: 

Plot Element: Kiss of the Rose PrincessGenie WhispererGetting closer to the guys makes the main character strongerThe main character unlocks her knights’ potential power in stages by deepening her relationship with them.Ali can connect with the genies to make them and herself more powerful – but they have to have a close relationship for it to work. Themes of self-sacrificeOne of the rose knights is willing to give his own life to save the main character from sacrificing herself to stop a demon from being unleashed on the world.Ali gives up her parents and then the life she planned for herself for the sake of helping the genies. Wants to escape her new destiny when it appearsWhen the main character is told she’s the rose princess, she tries hard to get out of it and rejects her rose knights. Ali, from her perspective, doesn’t have a destiny, but Tavor very much disagrees. Ali fights against letting go of her own dreams up until they determine they have to go across seas to continue their search for how to obtain freedom for the genies. 

Smaller things I took note of were things like a love interest having faith in the main character and her abilities, which applies to a couple of the genies in regards to Ali, especially after what happens in the Archives. Another is a desire for the main character to take up her “true role.” This comes out with Tavor in regards to Ali, though he’s probably the only who believes that Ali being a genie whisperer gives her a role in life that she should fulfill. 

There are a couple other little themes I took note of in Kiss of the Rose Princess that are relevant to The Genie Whisperer, but those haven’t come out in the plot yet, so I’ll keep those to myself for now! 

I admit that not all of the plot elements in the table are strictly related to reverse harem, but they still got utilized in The Genie Whisperer in ways that I felt serviced the reverse harem plot. After all, it’s partly Ali sacrificing so much for the genies that endears her to them.  

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Reverse Harem Research: Ouran High School Host Club

The first series I started with for my reverse harem research before writing The Genie Whisperer was Ouran High School Host Club, which is the most famous of the ones I own. In this series, a poor girl gets a scholarship to go to an elite high school. There, she gets mistaken for a guy when she breaks an incredibly expensive vase, so ends up having to work in the school’s host club (which is basically a club where six handsome guys entertain rich young ladies) as a guy to pay off her debt. The host club guys quickly realize their new member is actually female, and shenanigans ensue. 

Warning: This post has some spoilers for books five/six of The Genie Whisperer. If you haven’t finished those, proceed with caution! 

Host Club

I broke down my study of the series (and the other reverse harem series I researched) into four categories: 

the guys’ interactions with the main characterthe guys’ interactions with each other in relation to the main characterthe main character’s interactions with the guysthe plot elements related to reverse harem

Some of the plot elements I wrote down from Ouran High School Host Club ended up in The Genie Whisperer. For example: 

Plot Element: Ouran High School Host ClubGenie WhispererMain character must be surrounded by handsome men and stick close to themHaruhi (the main character) must stick by the host club members to pay off her debtAli must be surrounded by the genies because she’s their only hope for freedomSituations that bring the main character closer to the guysOnly the host club members know Haruhi is a girl, so must work to protect her secret (not that she really cares, other than that it’s easier to repay her debt this way)In books five/six, the genies learn Ali can summon their magic and increase their power, but only if they have a close relationship, meaning she needs to draw closer to them to power them upBarriers against characters realizing/acknowledging they’re in loveThe guys are terrified of ruining their friendship. If any make a move on Haruhi, who knows how it will impact their existing relationships with each other? While Haruhi (and one of the love interests) is too oblivious to realize love is a thing. When she starts falling for one of the guys, she thinks she’s sick.Ali worries she’ll fail if she focuses on anything but school (though who knows how that will go with her leaving school behind for now), while the genies . . . well, I can’t say without offering spoilers, but you’ll discover some of their thoughts in this area in books seven and eight, coming October of 2023 😉 

There are also much smaller things I took note of, like the love interests competing for who can make the main character happiest. When I made that note, I added an extra line that the genies would compete like that, and I had a version of that in book three, The Three C’s of Genie Whispering, when everyone but Ocean and Shadow participate in attempting to brighten Ali’s Christmas. 

Another little note I took from this series that I really love is a love interest being cute and affectionate when sleepy . . . but the genies don’t sleep, so that won’t happen in this series! Which is why I have it written down, so I can implement it into later stories. Though we kind of vaguely get a version of this again in book three when the genies are under a spell that takes away their inhibitions, which was quite fun to write. 

Overall, I felt like I got great potential ideas from rereading Ouran High School Host Club to spark inspiration for The Genie Whisperer. Rereading it also came with a major bonus! I’d somehow never read the last book, even though I owned it. It was exciting to discover I had the last book and hadn’t ever read it yet. And then, for those astute observers who’ve read the series and take a good look at the second picture above, I also forgot to include the last book or two in the picture. Whoops. In my defense, the series takes up more than one shelf on my bookshelf, which is why I missed it.

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Exploring Reverse Harem Tropes

Before I began rewriting The Genie Whisperer, I heard advice from another author on the importance of writing to genre and meeting reader expectations. Her advice was to study the best books in your genre and take note of repeated themes and tropes that would be good to keep in mind while writing and plotting your own stories. While that’s an excellent idea, I had a bit of a roadblock with that. Most reverse harem series are steamy romances, while I write sweet romances. So where did I turn to for research? Reverse harem manga!

Reverse Harem Manga

I’ve mentioned before that I came to love reverse harem after discovering it in manga and anime, though the version of the genre found there has some differences from the novels that have become popular in the western world. But since I wanted to more mimic the feel of the manga that led to many internal fangirl squealing throughout my life, it seemed like the perfect place to conduct my research. So I pulled out all my old reverse harem series and began my study!

I spent about five weeks rereading the series pictured above and took copious notes along the way. I noted repeated elements between the series, tropes I enjoyed, actions by the love interests that made me adore them, etc. At the end, I put together a giant spreadsheet with all my findings broken down by categories such as love confessions, conflicts, plot devices, and so on.

Now that spreadsheet is my first stop whenever I start on a new book. I go through my copious notes and pull out what tropes and themes I think I’ll plan on using in that book and which character(s) will be involved. With how much information I have, it can take a few hours to go through it all, but it helps me focus on the progression of the romance, which is very important in slow burn for such a long running series (the total number of books for The Genie Whisperer will be fourteen or fifteen).

I’ll do a series of posts more specifically covering the series I chose to study, why I picked them out, and why I enjoyed them.

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Inspiration for The Genie Whisperer Season 2.5

Spoiler Alert: This post is about how I came up with part of the story for The Three B’s of Genie Whispering. If you haven’t finished that book yet, you may want to wait to read this until after that. Now, onto the post!

Book 6

The stories for episodes one and three (those focusing on Tavor and Illan) in this book were both inspired by playing with my niece and nephew, with both being inspired by the same place.

We went to an indoor play place that has a jungle gym/obstacle course, and while running around with my niece and nephew, I started thinking about a situation where Ali would need to display physical competence. Because of her athletic wish from the first book, she would, of course, want to hold back to make things fair, while Tavor would want her to go all out. I thought it was a fun scenario, and so the plot line with the obstacle course was born! 

Having that plot line was also super helpful because Tavor talks to Ali about her capabilities involving more than just science, which is what she’s always focused on in the past. I wanted her to broaden her horizons, and Tavor felt like the perfect genie to have that conversation with her. Plus, I admit, I wasn’t sure how to keep involving science to solve the story problems like I’d been, so I wanted to move away from that. 

This same indoor play place also has a little walled off area that’s kind of like a mini-dance club with flashing lights and loud music that’s fun to play around in. While hanging out there with my nephew, I had an idea for Ali to pretend to be an ice genie, while she and Illan have a conversation about belonging to each other, with Illan also protecting Ali from a master who wanted her to become his genie. 

The scene above did originally take place within a dance club inside my head (one frequented by The Society, of course). But the way the story turned out, it ended up happening at a black market instead. Other than the location change, the specifics of the actual scene largely stayed the same to what I’d originally imagined. It was quite fun temporarily placing Ali in the role of a genie. 

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Inspiration for The Genie Whisperer Season Two

I’ve previously mentioned in my newsletter that when I began writing The Genie Whisperer, I had high-level outlines for what I wanted to happen in Season One (books one and two) and Season Three (books seven and eight), but I wasn’t really sure what should happen in Season Two, other than that it had to lead to Season Three. 

So how did I gain inspiration for what needed to happen in Season Two? By determining what I wanted for the book covers!

Season 2 Covers   

A while ago, I heard advice that you should plan your book’s whole package before ever begin writing a word to help give you an idea of where you’re going and keep you on track. This book package includes the book’s title, blurb, summary, and, of course, the cover.

This is advice I’ve taken to heart, and I always brainstorm titles and covers for a new book before moving on to brainstorming blurbs (what I put on my website), and then summaries (what I put on the book vendor sites like Amazon and Google Play). After all that’s done, I review any tropes/themes I want in that particular book, then I finally start on the outline. I like very detailed outlines so I know exactly where the story is going, and I can (hopefully) spot any major story problems at this stage. When that’s complete, I finally tackle the first draft of the book. 

With brainstorming the book package, I knew that Season Two would include the Archives of The Society, so debated putting scrolls or books on the cover, but that came with a problem – I already knew I wanted something like that on the covers for Season Three, so that didn’t really work. My two other major brainstorm ideas included stairs, because I knew the Archives were large, so I thought maybe something would be weird with the stairs, and doorways. Me thinking more on the doorways cover concept sparked the idea for the pocket dimensions, which, of course, are a major part of Season Two. 

I think it’s funny that something so small as brainstorming the book cover led to an idea that impacted the book so heavily, but that just goes to show that preparing the novel’s book package before I write is helpful for me. Thank goodness I listened to that advice!

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Story Inspirations

A common question for authors is, “Where do you get your story ideas/inspiration from?” For me, the easiest answer to that is: from everywhere and everything. 

Inspiration

I was one of those kids who half-lived inside their own imagination, and stories are always on my mind. The slightest thing can happen and it has my mind spiraling into thoughts of, “Well how would things work out if this happened? Or what if this thing led to that thing?”

I very clearly remember my junior high English teacher making some offhand comment along the lines of what if a castle housed a school, and my mind immediately conjured up a cast of junior high students who went to that school and ended up in situations where they had to solve odd mysteries involving the castle. I went home that day and started writing it. Small things like that have always inspired story ideas for me. 

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that my whole idea for The Genie Whisperer came from something as silly as me being enticed by a “genie” game that was essentially Bejeweled with genies in the background. I was so disappointed since the way the game was advertised made me think there was some type of storyline that I asked myself, “Okay, so what story with genies do you think would be interesting?” And then Ali, her seven genies, and the McMichael family were born. 

I’ll have more posts on specific things that I’ve gotten inspiration from, including how I come up with part of the story for The Three B’s of Genie Whispering, book six of The Genie Whisperer. But it has spoilers for the book, so I’ll have to wait a little on posting that! 

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Humor in Writing – The Genie Whisperer

When it comes to books, I don’t search out stories written specifically to be comedic, but my favorite novels always include lighter moments that make me laugh or one-liners that I want to share with friends and family. With my own stories, I knew I wanted a blend of fantasy that included humorous moments to make readers smile, because I want my books to be a fun escape from reality. 

With The Genie Whisperer, Garan presented an excellent opportunity to bring in those lighter moments. He is so out of it that he often says off the wall things. Writing his dialogue has been both a fun and difficult challenge. Nearly every time he spoke, I’d have to sit and think, “What can he say that’s only vaguely related to what’s actually going on?” because at any point in time, he’s probably at best only giving the conversation half his attention. 

After The Doorway to the Future, Garan will spend far less time in his head and pay more attention to the situations around him, but he’ll still provide plenty of lighter moments. He sees the world so differently from even other genies with his extreme plant obsession that he’ll still be the same plant genie that readers enjoy. Just with a little more coherent dialogue and paying a lot more attention to Ali 😉 

 Ali is also a figure that brings some levity to the story sometimes. Like partly with Garan, it comes from her extreme obsession, though hers is with science rather than plants. Her excitement over all things scientifically nerdy has been fun to write, as well as trying to figure out how someone so scientifically minded and socially awkward might process the world. 

It’s fun to have characters who take things to a ridiculous level sometimes, which both Ali and Garan are guilty of. I hope to include more characters like that in future series. 

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Reverse Harem Status – Original Version

This is the last of my posts comparing the original version of The Genie Whisperer written back when I was in college to what I ended up publishing when I rewrote it. I hope this series of posts has provided some interesting insights! 

Reverse Harem

I’ve mentioned in my newsletter and a few other places that I’ve been a fan of reverse harem manga and anime for a long time. I discovered it in junior high/high school and fell in love with the fun stories of all these incredible guys vying for the attention of one girl. When I originally and wrote planned The Genie Whisperer, I did it in a similar vein to the reverse harem stories that I’d enjoyed. 

But I had a problem. Back then, independent publishing wasn’t really a thing yet, and a love octagon (which is what Ali plus her seven genies would equal) was not accepted in the traditional publishing world. This led to a concern that when I attempted to traditionally publish, an agent or publisher might make me change some of the genies into girls to reduce the number of love interests. 

As much as I’d disliked that idea, I did have vague ideas of which genies I might change, though the thought of changing any of them made me sad. 

Then, when I got back around to writing again after graduating college, I put a lot of study into the publishing industry and learned both about indie publishing and that reverse harem had become a sub-genre, though those stories don’t generally resemble the reverse harem manga I loved, which still makes me a little sad. However, I was thrilled to come to the realization that I could keep all the genies just the way I had intended them and have Ali keep her seven love interests. 

Back when I had plans to traditionally publish, so also meaning when I wrote the original story, Tavor was the endgame love interest. With how scheming he’s turned out to be, I think that might have led to many unhappy readers. Good thing independent publishing became a thing!    

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