Reader-Insert Fic - TV Tropes

You know that protagonist who has no personality or distinguishing features, allowing them to serve as stand-ins for the reader? This is that, taken to its logical extreme.

Reader Insert Fic is a genre of fanfiction where the protagonist is the reader. The protagonist of these stories is a Featureless Protagonist whose name is usually "Y/N" (as in, your name), "___", "(your name)", or "F/N L/N" (first name, last name). Essentially, Y/N isn't just a character the reader projects onto, they are the reader. Usually used for Shipping and Wish-Fulfillment, where the Reader falls in love with a canon character in the story; these are called "×Reader" fanfics. While this is usually a fanfic trope, some original fiction is written this way.

However, since it's almost impossible to write a protagonist that every reader can relate to, many Y/Ns end up being more like Original Characters. For example, Y/N is, more often than not, a teenage girl because Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls. While the writers of these stories usually try to make the protagonist a Lead You Can Relate To by making every trait that can't be left ambiguous as generic as possible, this can be a bit of an Audience-Alienating Premise for readers who are not in the assumed reader demographic.

Tropes common in Reader-Insert fics include:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: The downplayed "Good Girl Y/N meets Troubled, but Cute Bad Boy" is a common plot of original reader-insert stories.
• Assuming the Audience's Age: Y/N is usually around the same age as the character they're shipped with, regardless of the reader's age in real life.
• Conveniently an Orphan: That way, the author doesn't have to worry that Y/N's parents differ from the reader's. Also creates some easy angst.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Y/N is often written this way.
• Deadpan Snarker: Y/N often has a lot of snappy comebacks.
• High School AU: Many Reader-Insert stories take place in high school, because the authors and the readers are usually teenage girls.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: If Y/N is female, she is usually described as much shorter than the male love interest.
• "Meet the Celebrity" Contest: This happens a lot in Real Person Fics.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Y/N is, in high school settings, usually either the most bullied kid in the school (who just happens to have a secret power/curse/magical bloodline), or a perfectly average student with no notable traits.
• Shrinking Violet: This is one of the most common personalities for Y/N.

Combine this with Sturgeon's Law and the fact that these stories are usually written by young and inexperienced writers, and parodies of reader-inserts and the expected tropes that come with them abound. In fact, Reader-Inserts are a bit of an Undead Horse Trope, as they continue to be produced in large quantities despite the amount of mockery they have received.

These stories are extremely popular on Wattpad and Archive of Our Own, but are expressly forbidden on FanFiction.Net.

A similar story format was developed independently on 4chan, where the reader is called Anon. Unlike the usually female, attractive, and likable Y/N, Anon is often depicted as a pathetic, nerdy, often perverted Basement Dweller. Due to My Little Pony's popularity with 4chan users, Fim Fiction Dot Net has a whole category for "Anon" fics.

Compare and Contrast Real-Person Fic, Self-Insert Fic, Author Avatar, Relationship Sue, Lead You Can Relate To, Original Character, Escapist Character, Wish-Fulfillment. If Y/N is a nerdy/outcast character, compare This Loser Is You. This is also a subtrope of Hello, [Insert Name Here] and Audience Surrogate. See also Perverse Sexual Lust and Celeb Crush, the reason why many of these stories are created.

As per Wiki rules, do not add any examples that are Porn Without Plot.

Note: There is a category of custom-made books for young children where the story is personalized with the child's name and a simplified illustration of the child. These are usually purchased by doting family members as gifts for birthdays or holidays. Needless to say, this trope is not about those.

Examples:

Fan Work Examples (Sorted by Source Material)

Crossovers

• Do You Want To Explode: Subverted. The first book starts like a rather typical y/n story in which you, the reader, are the one experiencing the plot's events. Near the end you are revealed to be an actual character — a girl who falls in love with Dr. Nefario. After that, the narration is no longer in second-person but sort of a more traditional third-person.

Anime & Manga

Films — Live-Action

Music

• BTS:
• One Direction:
  • Which One Direction member will kill you?: All five fics are told in second-person and some of them have "(your name)" placeholder text for the reader's name.

Canon and In-Universe Examples

Anime & Manga

• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Iino is mentioned to be a big fan of these types of stories, regularly reading them to fuel her desire for validation. She initially focused on Harry Potter stories, but these days she prefers Real-Person Fics.

Literature

Video Games

• Guild Wars 2: There is a writer in the world of GW2 called Snargle Goldclaw. He writes, and publishes, romance novels. The least ridiculous of them are about original characters in bizarre interspecies relationships, such as a norn falling in love with a dredge. Then there's the thinly-veiled Real-Person Fic, the not-at-all-veiled real-person selfcest fic, and the one with Lord Faren and Mordremoth — which, according to the flavor text, Faren himself apparently commissioned. Excerpts from all of them are present in the game as of the "Steel and Fire" update, and you can get an achievement for collecting them all. If you do so, he gives you a copy of his latest masterpiece: the one that pairs whoever's reading the book with you.

Visual Novels

• BAD END THEATER plays with this trope in a few ways, lampshading it, subverting it, and inverting it. After finding the Maiden's True Ending, you go into the post-game, where the game outright tells you that you insert yourself into the story to save the characters from the burning castle they're all trapped inside. Notably, your depiction in-game is naught but a black silhouette with eyes, and a dialogue box even comments that you think this isn't the best representation of you. You're stopped by the eponymous theater's playwright, TRAGEDY, who claims to think that self-insert stories are passé, and challenges you in a boss fight. After the boss fight, you're treated to the credits, images showing you've truly given everyone the happy ending they deserve, but depending on if you've completed the game's entire 41 Downer Endings ranging from terrifying, to gory, to depressing, you get to see a post-credit Omega Ending revealing that you're not the self-insert character; the Maiden was TRAGEDY's self-insert character. Instead of yourself, you've been playing as TRAGEDY's lost love, the one that she created the theater for in hopes of meeting again, and this lost love is also what seems to have inspired The Overlord's likeness.
• Somethings Wrong With Sunny Day Jack: As a Dating Sim, you, the player, are the direct protagonist, which results in your PC not having any canonical, distinguishing traits, and always being referred to as "y/n".
• Your Boyfriend: The Featureless Protagonist is meant to represent the player of the game, whoever you might be, so they are referred to as Y/N. Their only canonical trait is that they work at a diner.

Web Video

• Who Killed Markiplier?: What with it bordering on Alternate Reality Game, all messages, clues, and videos address the viewer in a second-person P.O.V and refer to them as "Y/N".

Parodies

• Y/n Slander: As a very fittingly titled parody, it absolutely skewers many of the cliches of reader-insert stories as well as Wattpad young adult fiction in general, such as excessive stuttering, wild teen parties, and unnecessary description of Y/N's appearance.

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