Feedback help for serious question: How Stupid is Too Stupid?

thatauthorguy Mana Tank Magus

Hi, I have a serious question. It seems I may have gone way overboard with MC’s initial stupidity. I’ve heard this from a couple sources.

Even if it’s funny, it’s definitely no good if no one can bear to read it.

Please give your opinion. It’s my first time doing this. Since it certainly won’t be a masterpiece, I want it to be a learning experience.

EDIT: poll closed. 1/3 of readers had serious objections, so I guess I wasn’t imagining things. I think I can accommodate to a certain extent, but obviously I’m not going to delete everything and start over. I don’t think anything I write would actually satisfy anyone who indicated that I should burn everything.

Thanks for the input. It is appreciated. Your interest gives me power. I promise to use this power for evil. Chaotic evil, of course.

4 thoughts on “Feedback help for serious question: How Stupid is Too Stupid?”

  1. In my opinion you still have plenty of room to expand on your MC. Frankly, it feels like half your currently written chapters don’t even include the MC, are from a different POV, or both (that’s not a bad thing). That’s why I say you have plenty of room to improve your character. He was just summoned to the underworld afterall, so it’d be understandable if his denial and postive thinking was more prominent in the beginning. It looks like you are planning on making him smarter soon too, so I think your current pacing is good.

    I don’t know who said he was stupid, but nothing you’ve written shows the MC as stupid. Sure he denies that bad things happen to him that doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. Also that can tie into the summoned to the underworld thing I mentioned. There’s lots of room for character building.

    Your story is great so far, and try not to take a few readers thoughts too seriously.

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    • Thanks for this. I appreciate the thoughtful reply. I’m gratified that you seem to grasp my intent and the character I was trying to create pretty well. I must be doing something right.

      Obviously I can’t write something that everyone’s going to like. I’m basically going to ignore the “burn it and start over” votes as people who wouldn’t be interested anyway. On the other hand, I’m sure I still have some room for improvement, so those who are just a bit frustrated can relate to the MC easier.

      Thanks again.

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  2. I chose the second option ( the one where you should dial it down ) because IMO it got annoying quite fast.

    It was genuinely funny at the begining and I laughed out loud more times than I thought I would at the ridiculous situations he puts himself in and how much in denial this Guy can be.

    But man, it got frustrating really fast.

    I get that you were planning on making him smarter with the dreams/memories that he repressed but it was too slow in my opinion.

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    • Thanks, I really appreciate the input. Honestly I might be the most frustrated by it of anyone at this point, but I didn’t want to suddenly destroy his character. I had no idea how difficult it would eventually get to write.
      I think I might have to go back all the way to chapter 1 (leaving the prologue) and retool some things. The concept sounded better in my head than the reality. In general, though, I think I just stuck with the status quo for far too long.
      I think I can take it from “doesn’t realize what’s going on” or “denies what’s going on” to “takes a while to get there, but eventually admits the truth and doesn’t backslide”.

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