This was requested by -cherrywlne: hey! how are you? i'm reading your jjk book and man, i'm geeking out over the dark fantasy of it all (i probably shouldn't). if you don't mind me asking, are you interested in doing a chapter on "how to write dark yandere characters"?

I CAN'T BELIEVE I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF DOING THAT? I'm so dumb because I literally LOVE dark romance and yandere books, like that's been my fucking obsession for years. 

Anyways, they asked me to do one on writing dark yandere characters... but I'm gonna go above and beyond 😃👍

Also, I know this guidebook is only for Harry Potter and Percy Jackson things, but we'll forgo that. For this chapter, I will strictly be talking about stories in general and NOT just pertaining to those two universes. 

Another thing, throughout the chapter I will be making references to my Jujutsu Kaisen fic "TSUNAMI" because there's sooo many yanderes in that book that I can make examples out of (and I also wanted to do a shameless promo asihfuwhfg).

1. WHAT IS YANDERE/DARK ROMANCE?

Yandere stories are kind of similar to dark romance, I think?? They're both stories about toxic relationships and fucked up situations, but I'll explain both anyways. 

First off, dark romance. There's multiple definitions of what 'dark romance' is and it always depends on the person you ask, but here's my definition of dark romance:

A dark romance basically features a romantic relationship that is extremely morally grey or straight-up dark (they'll be labeled as problematic in real life too, btw). The characters (whether they are the main couple or characters outside of them) do twisted, immoral things, and they're either put in disturbing/distressing situations or are the cause them. The readers might feel scared, disgusted, anxious, when reading about them and they're supposed to be. 

As for 'yandere'. Well, it's not really an official genre. You're not gonna go to the library and find a section labeled 'yandere'. It's more popular in online reading sites like quotev, wattpad, ao3, and other similar sites. HOWEVER, yandere is an actual genre in the anime/manga community! There's lots of animes/mangas centered around a yandere or have yandere characters in it. 

Now a yandere is actually a word to describe a person. According to some yandere wiki I found, a yandere is "a Japanese archetype used to define a character whose love, admiration, and devotion is so strong that it is expressed as an excessive obsession and possessiveness. They are often seen as characters that are crazy in love with someone.". That's the general gist of what a yandere is, but I'll be going over the different types of yanderes later on. 

So yeah. Dark romance and yanderes everyone! 🥰

2. THE PLOT IS 50% PAIN, 30% DEATH, AND 20% ROMANCE

The most common thing about yandere stories is that they always have romance, death(s), and suffering. 

Now, most of the yandere stories I've read online have the same plot:

- Yandere falls in love with MC immediately

- Yandere gets jelly of a childhood friend or some random love rival

- Yandere kills them 

- Kidnaps MC

- MC escapes and calls the cops. Then the story ends, but oh my, what's that? THE YANDERE BROKE OUT OF PRISON?

Yeah it's a pretty simple and predictable formula. It's also kinda boring too. 

Let's talk about love at first sight. Yes it's fun where the romance happens immediately, but you know what's better? Writing about your character's descent to madness 😍 Trust me, they're hotter that way. 

Real life depiction of ppl reading a book where the character slowly goes crazy:

Maybe your yandere started out as a decent and ok character, but over time they spiraled into yandere-ness the more in-love they were with the MC. 

Examples: 

- My Essie series (PJO/HP). Ethan's the yandere. In the first book, he starts off as Essie's (MC) best friend, but then betrayed and left Camp Half-Blood. Out of desperation, he kidnaps her in book 2. He's still a good kid, not even yandere tbh even though he kidnapped her because at the end, he let her go to keep her safe. But over time, he becomes darker, especially when he finally falls in love with her. Near the end of the series, he literally starts to control her life and manipulates her into obeying him out of paranoia of losing her again.

- Tsunami (Jujutsu Kaisen). Yuta Okkotsu. Tbh, he had a crush on her from day one, BUT he actually gets so much worse as the book goes on. In the beginning, he was Mizuhime's (MC) close friend and constantly clung on to her. Never made a move because of his crippling anxiety and insecurity, but later on starts stealing her personal belongings like her used underwear to fucking jack off to. He feels guilty, but the more he does it, the more he craves her. He even kills his old school bullies because he felt threatened by them. He feels threatened by the other yanderes too, but who knows if he'll ever feel brave enough to make a move. Maybe those other yanderes are just the final push he needs... 👀

(I have other characters in Tsunami that are descending downwards but I can't talk about them because I haven't gotten to the juicy parts yet hehe)

Now... let's talk about murder.

Regardless of whether you're writing your own original story or a fanfic, your plot should not be all sunshine and rainbows.

If your story has a yandere in it, chances are, someone's gonna die in the name of love 🤪🔪

(Of course, not ALL yanderes are gonna go around killing people, but for now, let's assume that the yanderes you're writing about will.)

First off, it's gonna be a little hard to have your yandere go around murdering people if you're writing a fanfic. Why? Because the deaths have to have some level of importance. They have to impact the readers in some way and the best way to do that is to kill off a canon character they know and (maybe) love.  

Buuuut not everyone is brave enough to do that, especially if your fanfic is still somewhat gonna rely on the canon plot of the anime/book/movie/show that you're writing about. Killing off an actual character could mess up the canon plot unless you find a way to manage it. 

One option is that you can create some OCs for your yandere to kill off instead. This is kinda tricky because if you want your readers to be really hurt about the death, you're gonna have to make them like the OCs first—or at least have OCs that the readers are very familiar with because their loss would still impact them in some way. 

Another option, is to twist canon around. A canon character died in an accident? Welp, change it in your book so they would be murdered instead! A canon character was already killed by someone else? Have your yandere manipulate that person into killing the love rival so they wouldn't have to get their hands dirty! 

If you DON'T want to kill off an important character or create any OCs to kill off, that's still okay! Like I said, murder doesn't always happen in yandere books, but pain and suffering definitely do 💖

Unfortunately, I won't be talking about that just yet. Just wait till you get to the next section where I talk more about torturing your MC. 

My readers remembering just how much I enjoy torturing my beloved babie characters:

Let's talk about endings now. 

From what I've noticed, yandere stories have about six kinds of endings that are written in unique ways. Pick which one you like best! 

You've got the suicide ending: The MC just cannot handle any of the yandere's abuse anymore and they commit suicide in a desperate attempt to end it all. Can either end with the MC succeeding, or getting stopped by the yandere (and the yandere might snap and punish them in retaliation).

The murder ending: The MC cannot handle the yandere's abuse, similarly to the above one... but instead of ending their own life, they try and kill the yandere. This can either end with the MC escaping and returning to whichever loved ones they still have left, or getting arrested for their murder. 

The switched ending: The yandere pulls an uno reverse on the MC and make them look like the bad guy. This sort of ending usually happens with manipulative, smart yanderes. They either frame the MC and get them sent to prison where nobody believes them or they get sent to a mental hospital instead. Either way, nobody is on the MC's side and only the MC and the yandere knows the truth. 

The mind-broken acceptance ending: If your MC was kidnapped, then they now have Stockholm Syndrome and "love" their yandere. If your MC wasn't kidnapped, then the yandere just abused them so much that they began to finally accept their situation and love them back, even going so far as to side with their lover if someone tried to save them from the yandere.

(That's my FAVORITE kind of ending btw ^)

The acceptance ending: Similar to the above one but without the mind-fuckery. MC may or may not love their yandere back, but they are fully aware that they're in a terrible situation, they just don't fight back or try to escape anymore. If they love their yandere back, they might even feel conflicted about it. Most of the time in this ending, the MC just tries to make the best of their life with their yandere attached to their side. Very bittersweet and angsty.

The freedom, but with trauma ending: Closest thing to a happy ending! One way or another, the MC is saved (either they save themselves or someone else does). If they still have any loved ones left, they're reunited with them again. The MC tries their best to recover from the trauma of what they went through, but things are looking up for them at last. 

There's probably other kinds of endings besides these ones of course, but these are the common ones that I see a lot. 

3. IT'S GONNA BE A CESSPOOL OF TOXIC WASTE

It's literally in the name. 'Dark' romance. Get it? It's says DARK, not FLUFFY and CUTE. It's DARK. Which means there's gonna be a shit ton of toxic waste dumped into your book. It's supposed to be this way, but just make sure you portray it correctly and not romanticize it. 

Your book's going to be full of triggering topics like abuse (it can be psychological, physical, emotional, sexual, etc), mental illnesses, sexism & misogyny, noncon & dubcon, drugs, murder, gore, etc etc. 

I don't care how many triggering things you're going to put in your book, but just make sure to do your research on them so you don't end up romanticizing it. 

However, I know for sure that your book will have some form of abuse. There's no such thing as a yandere/dark romance book that doesn't have abuse. It's the one thing they pretty much HAVE to include. 

But please, please, please portray abuse correctly!

I don't want any of those 'my sexy alpha step-brother is my abusive mate 🥺💖' bullshit. None of the 'my boyfriend abuses me but I still love him uwu ✨' stuff. 

No wait... actually you CAN write that! Just make sure to write it correctly! 

I've said this so many times about so many things, but always SHOW, don't tell. Do some research and then show the effects of the abuse they face. 

Physical abuse: This is the most OBVIOUS forms of because like... they get hit. That's not exactly subtle. But anyways, victims don't just get smacked around and then go on with their day. Some effects to this are eating disorders, inability to concentrate, hostility towards others, depression, apathy, lethargy, sleep disorders, etc. Don't just say "MC feels sad and angry". SHOW IT. Show the gradual change that they go through, show them snapping at people and getting into fights. Show them slowly becoming apathetic. Or maybe the physical abuse has made them so subservient because of how terrified they are that they'll get punished for doing something wrong. SHOW THAT.

Example:

- Sanyu and Susanoo from my JJK fic. They're the parents of my MC. It hasn't been fully explored yet (but I do have Sanyu's backstory already written out yay!), but it's strongly implied that—aside from psychological and sexual abuse—Susanoo physically abuses his wife. All of the abuse damaged Sanyu so much that she literally had multiple miscarriages from the physical abuse and the severe trauma and stress only made it worse. 

Sexual abuse: Sexual abuse isn't always rape, you guys. It can be molestation, harassment, threats of rape/harassment, grooming, etc. Sometimes there's gonna be a power dynamic (teacher abusing student, adult abusing minor, parent abusing child, and so forth). This kind of abuse can be subtle depending on how you show it; if the yandere is trying to groom your MC then it probably won't start off being obvious to your readers. Victims of sexual abuse have feelings of guilt/shame. They dissociate, feel confusion, and self-loathing. Their life is going to change a lot. Sometimes they cover up because they're so scared of it happening again, other times they feel being "used" is the only thing they're good for so they turn to riskier behavior because of how much they're spiraling. 

Example: 

- Gojo and Mizuhime from my JJK fic. Teacher and student/adult and minor. It's kinda gradual, but Gojo is currently at his grooming stage. He starts off very touchy and affectionate towards her, then his favoritism begins to show when he starts giving her special treatment. He even tries to control her life by forcing her to attend missions with him, but never letting her move a muscle because she's "too weak" (manipulating her into thinking she's weak so she would rely on him more). He goes further by kissing her and touching her more intimately, and even requested that she call him by his first name. Right now, his sexual abuse is still at a low level. I'm planning on making him do even worse. 

Psychological abuse (can also be verbal & emotional): Manipulating someone, verbally, and/or emotionally damaging someone. Basically, psychological abuse is where you distort, confuse, or influence a person's thoughts and actions and changing the way they think entirely. Depending on how your yandere does it, it can be subtle. Your MC can end up wholly dependent on them, and literally can't do anything without them. Your MC might try to please them because the yandere is constantly belittling them or blaming them for things that aren't their fault. Either way, they're gonna be questioning themselves a lot and wondering what's the truth and what isn't. 

Example:

- Susanoo and Mizuhime from my JJK fic. Susanoo's my MC's father and he is a PLATONIC yandere. His abuse started from the day she was born. Since day one, he has completely isolated his daughter from the outside world and distorted her views of them through warped education. She has never used the television, never used a phone, and her books are censored and chosen by her father so she doesn't even have the freedom to pick one. Because everything is so censored and controlled, she is extremely naive to how the world really works. He taught her how to be obedient by giving her books about how good authoritarianism is, her lessons have a common theme of obedience and fear. When she turned fifteen, she was finally able to leave her home... and thanks to how unprepared she is due to her upbringing, she is left extremely vulnerable to the manipulation and abuse of the other yanderes. Thanks Susanoo, you fucked up your daughter's future :)

See how in the examples there's always consequences to the abuse and it's not just "my MC is sad, here's a short sentence where she cries about her life and then moves on :D". Psychological abuse is the main thing about my JJK fic. Her father's psychological abuse is what makes her so vulnerable to the men coming after her. These yanderes abuse her and do toxic shit towards her, but thanks to her dad, SHE IS NOT AWARE THAT WHAT THEY'RE DOING IS A BAD THING. She doesn't even notice it. That is a consequence to the abuse she faced from her dad. 

SEE HOW I SHOW AND NOT TELL, YOU GUYSSS??? Actually wait, technically I'm telling it to you because I'm writing a basic summary of it right now BUT IF YOU READ THE BOOK (another shameless promo I'm sorry asdfiha), then you'll (hopefully) get what I mean by 'show, don't tell'. 

Now that we're done with that... 

Please leave warnings in your books. You should ALWAYS put general warnings before the story starts, so at like the introduction or the foreword chapter. That way, everyone will be prepared for the toxic shit you're about to throw at their faces. 

You can even go further than that and put more specific warnings at the start of your chapters too! That's what I do in my JJK book. The warnings you put in your foreword/introduction is more of a general thing (abuse, dark romance, bullying, etc), but if there's something more specific within a chapter, then you should put that too. For example, if there's a noncon/dubcon scene, or racial slurs being thrown around, or a suicide scene, etc. 

(Unfortunately, warnings might not be enough because SOME readers just can't fucking read 💀If you have anyone complaining... about how dark your book is... reach into the screen and slap them in the face because WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY READING A DARK ROMANCE BOOK IF THEY DON'T LIKE DARK STUFF? 

You have no idea how many dumb ass people I had to deal with in my PJO/HP book because of this. I literally warned them so many times about how toxic and dark my books are, BUT THEY STILL KEEP BITCHING??? STOP READING OMG. SOME OF THEM STARTED COMPLAINING IN BOOK FUCKING FOUR AND THEN THEY'RE BACK AGAIN IN BOOK SIX COMPLAINING ABOUT THE SAME THING? OMG WHY ARE YOU GUYS STILL READINGGGGG

So yeah, just be aware of those readers. You can put up hundreds of warnings, but some might still complain about shit you already warned them about 💀)

4. YOUR YANDERE CHARACTER(S)

Okay, like I said before, it would be so much cooler if you let your yandere descend to madness than just having them start off as a crazy mother fucker. It's fun to write, and it's even funner for your readers to watch. Trust me, we love watching people lose their minds. It's kinda entertaining. 

Now how do you write a yandere character? It should be easy cuz all you have to do is make them crazy and stuff right???

No ❤️ Yandere characters are just as complex and fleshed out as your other characters! 

If you're writing a fanfiction, then it shouldn't be that hard to write them as a yandere since you basically already got a whole-ass wikipedia page about the character's personality and background, you just gotta yandere-fy them. 

BEFORE YOU DO THAT THOUGH, you gotta do some research about the character you want to yandere-fy first. The yandere traits you plan to give them should coincide with their canon personality and background and NOT clash with each other. 

Example: 

- Yuta Okkotsu from my JJK fic. In the prequel manga, he is canonically very timid with low self-esteem, but has a caring nature. In his early childhood, his best friend, Rika, was hit by a car and killed. Unknowingly, he curses her and she comes back as a grotesque cursed spirit that lashes out and hurts people who come near him. Because of this, he became very isolated (even from his own family) and became depressed. He also went through a lot of bullying over the years, but in the last incident, Rika retaliated and brutally shoved them in a tiny locker which nearly killed them haha. Out of desperation, he tries to kill himself with a knife but Rika prevented that. 

- Cont ^. Yuta's canonically extremely isolated and has zero friends, so when he met Mizuhime (MC) who accepted him and understood the whole curse thing, he latched on to her desperately because she was the first kind face since so long. He practically idolizes and worships her, obsessively remembering her likes and dislikes. But because the bullying made him super insecure, he doesn't see himself as worthy to be her lover so he keeps his feelings for her a secret and tries not to act out on them. He becomes super desperate too, and steals her things in hopes to sate his desires (spoiler alert: it didn't work). 

- Yuta's canon traits in the prequel manga: timidness, insecurity, self-loathing, depression, suicidal (but he soon gains confidence dw). Yandere traits I added that coincide with his canon ones: obsessiveness, overprotectiveness, idolization, clingy, worshipper, DESPERATE AF, closeted pervert (fucking panty sniffer LMAO), and fiercely loyal. 

So yeah. If you're writing a fanfic, you already have personality and background prepared for you, all you have to do is add in the yandere traits that would make sense with it. 

If you're writing an original story, then you got more work to do because you gotta plan EVERYTHING. 

Give them a backstory and flesh them out. 

When you're planning out your character, think of them as a character first and then a yandere second. Sure it's easier to think about how your yandere character's yandereness is gonna ruin your MC's life, but you have to remember that your character is STILL a character with more purpose other than to traumatize people. 

Normal people don't just look at another guy and go BAM, obsessed. No, that's not how it works. You need to explain the hows and the whys your character turned out that way. 

Before that! You should try showing who your yandere was before they met the love of their life. Doing so helps show the readers the massive impact the MC made to the yandere. 

For example, I remember reading this original reader-insert fanfic in Wattpad. This married guy was the yandere, but he wasn't always super obsessive and whatnot. He had a wife and some kids and he was some office worker??? I think??? Anyways, a new coworker comes in (the reader) and they become friends. His hella toxic and abusive wife becomes insanely jealous about it and yells at him, and he pretty much just takes the abuse but always stands his ground whenever she starts scaring the kids or badmouthing the reader. Honestly, he was such a nice and sweet dude, but he slowly starts getting obsessed with the reader because he saw her as the ideal image of the "perfect wife" and an escape from his abusive one (and I can't blame him because his real one sucked). Reader meets the kids, the kids like her, wife hates her. Husband gets sick and tired of the wife and kills her, reader comforts him, he manipulates her into dating him and yeah you get the gist of it. 

(If anyone recognizes the book, PLEASE TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS because I love it and I miss it so much 😭)

Aside from the dude's descent to madness, what I loved most was that the author made him so sympathetic and likable before the obsession started sinking in (actually, he was still pretty lovable as a yandere too ngl). Before he turned yandere, he was so soft and loving to his kids, and still so loyal and caring towards his wife even though she abused him relentlessly. The author did such a good job showing how the abuse effected him, how he realized he was in a bad situation and wasn't going to take her shit anymore, and his growth as a character and HOW and WHY he became so obssessed with the reader in the first place. ITS SUCH A MASTERPIECE EJKFESH. 

Okay. Fangirling over. Onto the guide lol. 

After planning who your yandere was before the yandere-fication happened, now you gotta think of a reason why they turned out like that. 

There's looooots of reasons why a yandere can became... well, a yandere. Maybe they lived an intensely lonely life. Maybe they lost someone they loved or everyone they loved and that's why they become so clingy and overbearing when they meet the lovely MC. Maybe they were raised by another yandere and the yandere way of life was all they knew. Either way, just make it as painful as you want :)

I'm not gonna tell you how to write every single option, but just make sure that the reason why they're so obsessed with the MC makes sense with their character (like I've talked about before ^) and that their yandere traits make sense. A dude that was bullied so much that they became anxious and timid until they were rescued by the MC, is not gonna suddenly turn around and become a physically abusive yandere that bosses the MC around, they're most likely going to be very submissive and probably obsessive instead. 

Just treat them like you would with any other character you're creating! Their yandere-ness is just another major aspect, but they're still PEOPLE, okay? Give them a personality other than 'crazy', give them a background, an actual life, and don't just make them another walking character trope. Compelling characters are so much better and they just resonate with the readers more than a basic yandere with nothing else to them. 

If you need some help, just do this: think of your yandere character... and then remove their yandere traits. They should STILL be a strong character without the yandere aspect of them. For example, the yandere husband I talked about before. Without the yandere traits, he still has other things going for him; he's a loving father, a loyal husband, a hard-worker, diligent with his money, a family-man, a hopeless romantic, a book-lover, thoughtful, philosophical, well-liked by his coworkers and boss, gentlemanly, etc. 

If you take away the yandere aspect of your character and are left with little to nothing, then they were never a strong and compelling character to begin with and you need to change that. 

Now, here's some examples of strong yandere characters in media that you can get inspired by:

- Yuno Gasai from Mirrai Nikki

- Misa Amane from Death Note 

- Satou from Happy Sugar Life

- Toma from Amnesia

- Literally... all of the Diabolik Lovers dudes

- Mikaela Hyakuya from Owari no Seraph (I crushed on this dude for so long askdjfawrh)

- Sangwoo from Killing Stalking (okay I know he wasn't even attracted to Yoonbum—author confirmed him as straight after all—and only kept him around cuz he... looked like his dead mom, BUT HE WAS STILL NICELY WRITTEN AND CREEPY AF)

5. THE TYPES OF YANDERES

There's literally so many types of yanderes so I will NOT be listing all of them down... I don't wanna wear out my keyboard guys, I just got a new sparkly pink cover for it 🥺

Down below is a list of yandere types. Just so you know, no yandere is strictly just one type. They're more of a combination of types, and HOW much they are a certain type can vary on what you want. Now let's get on to the list!

Overprotective yandere: These guys are overprotective af. They coddle their darling and might even go so far as to infantilize them. These guys tend to take away certain (or all) freedoms just for the sake of keeping their darling safe. 

Possessive yandere: Some can be extremely possessive and just see the darling as theirs, while others go beyond that and see their darling as an actual possession rather than their own person. Their darling is just an object that belongs to them, all thoughts and feelings mean little to nothing. 

Obsessive yandere: These guys are absolutely fixated on their darling and they want to know, or already know, everything about them. They're the type to jot down everything they learn about their darling. They might stalk them just so they can keep looking at their face and steal their belongings so they can have a piece of them. 

Lucid yandere: This means that they're aware that what they're doing is wrong. However, most of the time, while they might understand that what they're doing is wrong and harmful, they are passed the point of caring. They might pity their darling and be more gentler with them though.

Delusional yandere: Opposite of a lucid one. These types of yanderes believe that their darling actually loves them. Hits or insults will go over their heads and they'll be unable to understand that their darling genuinely hates them.

Reverent yandere: These are the worshippers. They see their darling as a god(dess) or some other higher being. These guys are the type to do and give anything their darling wants... except giving them their freedom, of course.

Self-Indulgent yandere: These are the ones that want their darling to worship them. They're selfish and care more about their own desires than the feelings of their darling, and they'll get upset whenever their darling doesn't pamper them.

Controlling yandere: These assholes completely monopolize their darling. Similarly to the overprotective yandere, they take away rights except controlling types do this more so for the sake of having control over than rather than just protecting them.

Isolating yandere: They want soooo badly to isolate their darling and keep them to themselves. They would rarely let their darlings see their friends and family or never at all. Depending on how bad they are, they might never let them leave the house period. In their eyes, they are the only ones that their darling needs.

Training yandere: Oh god. In my opinion, these are the worst. These guys literally brainwash and mentally break their darling into loving them. They use manipulation, punishments, and other methods to mold their darling into what they want. Psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, they'll go to any lengths to 'train' them. 

Dependent yandere: Cannot do anything without their darling. They're just too dependent and clingy towards them. They're also most likely to have a submissive personality and constantly need their darling's full attention or else they'd break. They'll insert themselves into their lives whether they like it or not.

Sadistic yandere: Sadistic means they feel pleasure inflicting pain. The type of pain depends though. Most of the time, these jerks like hurting their darling physically, or they can enjoy inflicting emotional and sexual pain instead. Or all three. 

Masochistic yandere: Masochistic means that they like having pain inflicted on them. These weirdos will take any abuse their darling wants to give them and they'll enjoy ever single second of it. They're a sucker for pain, especially if it's from their darling. 

Platonic yandere: These yanderes feel no romantic or sexual feelings for the darling. They could be a friend, a sibling, a parent rather than a lover. 

6. THE DARLING

Sorry, I probably should've explained this earlier, but a 'darling' is basically what you call the victim/lover of the yandere. 

There's... really not much I can tell you guys about how to write darlings to be honest?? They're the main characters, and I pretty much already gave you guys chapters about how to write your characters (see chapters: "Creating Your OC", "Strong Female Characters", "Mary Sues", "Writing Tips", "Asian Representation", etc). 

Planning out your darling is pretty much the same thing as planning out your yandere, you just don't bother with the yandere stuff. Give them a backstory, flesh them out, make sure you correctly portray the abuse they go through and how they're effected by it, etc. 

BUT THERE IS AN ISSUE I'D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT. 

For any story, regardless if it's an original story or an fanfic, you might chose to use a reader-insert instead of an OC.

Second point of view. The (Y/N) fics... ohhh god, the (Y/N) fics... 

I don't mind reading second POV, but I dread the thought of writing in it.

Why? Well, here's the main reason why I don't like the idea of having to write in 2nd POV:

You're gonna get a lot of hate. 

And by that, I don't mean that people are gonna get angry at you for writing a reader-insert. What I mean, is that your readers are going to completely forget that (Y/N) isn't actually them and get angry whenever (Y/N) does something they don't personally agree with.

Here's some instances that I've witnessed:

* A (Y/N) from a Fairy Tail fic forgiving another character who did her wrong. This led to a lot of readers getting angry because "why tf am I so stupid? I wouldn't forgive this bitch at all!!!". They are completely disregarding the fact that this (Y/N) has been portrayed with a kind personality so of course they would forgive someone. Instead, all the readers do is focus on themselves and on how they would react even though tHE FUCKING STORY ISN'T ACTUALLY ABOUT THEM.

* A (Y/N) from a Sukuna fic killing an innocent character. This led to a lot of readers being disgusted by her actions and talking about how they would never kill an innocent person even though this (Y/N) is literally characterized to be evil and merciless.

* A (Y/N) from a yandere fic who has progressive beliefs. You can probably already tell how some readers reacted to that.

I've seen this happen a lot in reader-insert fics and I feel so terrible for the authors because they don't deserve to go through that. 2nd POV is going to be a bitch to write because some stupid readers are going to GENUINELY believe that (Y/N) has to act like them, think like them, feel like them, look like them, etc., and they'll actually get angry whenever (Y/N) does something they don't personally agree with.

If you choose to write in 2nd POV, just beware of these sort of readers.

And for those who like to read reader fics... just remember, the (Y/N) in those books are never going to be exactly like you.

Another thing you should be aware of about the second POV...

If you choose to make your MC a reader-insert... DON'T MAKE THEM BLAND FOR FUCKS SAKE.

The (Y/N)s are almost always bland as hell. Like seriously. A good majority of reader-inserts are painfully boring. The other characters are beautifully written with proper development and all that fun stuff, but (Y/N) is average, plain, uninteresting, and never changing because the writers try very hard to keep them "in general" for the sake of their readers. 

Please do not do this. It is absolutely impossible to make (Y/N) relatable to every single reader out there so please don't be afraid to give them an actual personality, actual development, actual background, etc. Flesh them out like how you would do with any other character. Don't keep them as a blank canvas because that gets boring and no one can relate to a blank canvas. 

I get that it's supposed to be an inclusive reader-insert, but as long as you keep the MCs name as (Y/N) (L/N) and refrain from specifying any physical traits, then you should be good to go. 

7. RECOMMENDATIONS! 

Okay, that's pretty much all I can think of??? I'm probably missing a lot of shit, but when I got the message, I was honestly just so excited to write this that I did it right away without much of an organizational plan 😅😅😅

But before I end this chapter, let me leave you with some yandere/dark romance recommendations that you guys might like! Trust me, you should REALLY read these stories not only just for inspiration, but for enjoyment too. They're sooo fucking good!!! 

Here's the list (with links!): 

(If the links don't show up in the comments, try and refresh the page. There's a lot of links and I'm probably scrambling to paste them in the comments section right after publishing this chapter)

- "It's a Pain to be a Prince | male disney princesses x female reader" by undeclared (Quotev). This is some HIGH QUALITY SHIT YOU GUYS! I've praised this before in other books but ooooomg, it's just so addicting. Honestly the best yandere book I've ever read. It tackles other topics too like fetishization of POC, abuse, being part of the LGBTQ while stuck in a backwards community, etc etc.

- "A Soldier's Daughter" by ShinyJr (Quotev). One of the yanderes is like 6'6" 🤪

- "The Devil" by ShinyJr (Quotev). The yandere's like a male Cruella de Vil and I like to imagine him as Divus Crewel from Twisted Wonderland 👌 Makes the reading experience even better. 

- "Coven" by smalldeathandbeetles (Quotev). I was so obsessed with this book that I literally joined the Discord server for it, which I've never done before 😃 The book can be a little confusing because the author tends to go back and forth between the present and past, but it'll be smoother for you once you learn the pattern.

- "Odd Paragon" by kayjung (Quotev). THE WORLDBUILDING??? Guys I LOVE worldbuilding, and the worldbuilding here is sooo fucking good. 

- "My Crazy Oniisans" by KornilyaKoko. Okay let me be honest with ya'll... it IS an incest fic... and there's only like three parts to it, BUT the worldbuilding the author showed us so far is so well-thought out and the way they right is poetically beautiful. 

- "To Love, Once Again" by tofu_moon. This is an original isekai-ed OC book. Basically, she gets taken to this new medieval world, gets married and has a son, but then gets sent back home. Hubby goes crazy. She comes back. Shit happens. This book just has all my favorite tropes: modern heroine gets sent to a non-modern/fantasy world and has to cope, dude is a yandere, and there's a cute soon to mother over. 

And that's pretty much all I can think of... These are the more memorable ones for me, but I do have a whole reading list of yandere books in my Wattpad profile so you should check that out too if you're interested!