I've only been on web novel for a few months, but I feel like I can summarize most of the CEO Romance novels here. Most of the stories are generic, predictable and frankly, boring. There's nothing wrong with enjoying them, I've enjoyed a fair few myself, but it's becoming a problem when 2/3 and sometimes 3/3 of the choices to vote for are. I'm tired of these. I want something interesting. I want something unique. (Feel free to recommend me some good ones)

I've listed some trends and problems I have found below. If there's anything I missed please tell me.

The male lead is a tall, domineering, super cool, super powerful CEO with an incredibly handsome face. He radiates a cold aura, has a low EQ but high IQ. Mostly upon meeting FL says something along the lines of "what an interesting girl, how interesting etc.". People think he's gay because he doesn't keep female company. Often a rapist, sexual harrasser(I really hate this, it's basically encouraging this. What I hate more is all the comments fangirling about it like: 😍😘😎😋💕😊😆☺️♥️🤗😁 aaaaaahhh boss (insert name here ) super cool 😎, go get ur wife. I have nothing against fangirling but it's pretty screwed up when someone just got assaulted. Also, how is that romantic???? Sorry, got off track.

The female lead is incredibly cute / pretty/ beautiful. She has an air of elegance and maturity. She's also super smart and an amazing, capable, worker! That is, until she meets ML and needs him to rescue her all the freaking time. FL, like her husbando, attract love rivals like light does moths. Sometimes really likes food, or is a genius with weapons etc. R/not like othergirls

Did I mention they all have smooth, crystal clear, snowy, jade like skin that is unbelievably pale because beauty standards? They both are really good cooks BTW. Also they both smell ah-mazing, even though the ML smokes a ton (he has a cool tobacco scent). Like, do they have to smoke? Surprised an FL hasn't died from second hand smoke yet. Lung cancer is REAL y'all.

And don't get me started on the lower-than-average IQ supporting cast. Why is everybody so DUMB? Let me guess, FL's BFF is actually a total btch who's been seeing with her fiancé, who crawls back like a slug once she reveals gasp she isn't a total idiot. Fl face slaps everybody and everybody is shocked when ML reveals he likes FL.

Also, for some reason they must have cringey names like: the devilish ceo's wicked wife(I swear, if that's an actual title-).

Something that makes me uncomfortable is when the ML says "Be my woman" it "She's my girl". It sounds like they're being treated as objects, possessions. Like, girlfriend is way more romantic than woman.
Sorry for the rant, and thank you for reading! Have a wonderful day! 💕

    Totally with you on this. However, as discussed in another thread on the kinds of stories that Webnovel picks, these stories make money so Webnovel has no intention of changing this. They target new users who are more likely to spend money. It sucks, I know.

    Frankly, I'm sick of the rape and the abuse, and I am appalled that people actually like these themes, if we are to believe Webnovel.

    Some of the better novels (not too cliche) that I've read so far:
    Fox Life
    Our Glamorous Time
    When a Snail Falls in Love
    My Dad is the Galaxy's Prince Charming

      😂 Now I'm tempted to write something like "The Not Generic CEO" novel 😝

      🤔 Well it's a matter of preference, and yeah there's loads of romance novels that don't use the CEO theme. Like myself, all my novels the FL and ML are in their teens. Prefer writing teen romance novels, and you do get quite a good selection of those if you search 😅 hard enough. I think WN needs to sort out the search for new novels 🤔

        haha. Well, you'll find some really nice plots. There is fantasy romance also. Have you seen the non-CEO romance novels?

          XOMatsumaeohana same. unfortunately, you can't remove the main characters physical appearance to be attractive.

              XOMatsumaeohana Lol same. Sometimes for a brief moment I think to myself that one day I'll write a romance that is the complete reverse of CEO stories by having a plain looking FL and ML who are ordinary people who fall in love, get hurt, and learn from their shortcomings and draw closer together, becoming stronger for it. I honestly don't know why a story like this doesn't exist already because I would think it would be highly relatable. But I guess, it's not interesting enough in that it doesn't stimulate the imagination of finding a dashing prince or something....

                  Chryiss

                  Arguably most western and Japanese romances features a reader proxy (your average guy/girl) who for absolutely no sane reasons at all go after a representative of the stereotypes listed here.

                  If such a story is done into a film and the reader proxy is girl you always have to remove a pair of glasses to turn plain Jane into the next miss Universe.

                      StenDuring And there's that cliché too, sigh. The funny thing is that would more 'original' on this site because of the lack of it here. :joy:

                      It's not that we shouldn't have standards, but sometimes I wonder if stories and media are the reason why relationships fail or are fleeting or difficult to start/develop for young people these days. I'm contemplating a broad, generic statement without anything to really back me up except my observations and overall feeling/conceptions. But certainly when I see abusive relationships or ones where the ML acts like a prince, and the FL is an innocent little flower, I can see how it creates misguided impressions and behaviors....

                          I totally see your point about how every novel seems to be the same. Personally, I hate the cliché stereotypes you listed, and for once why can't we have a main protagonist that isn't extremely beautiful? That is why I like writing my own stories about things I actually want to read that features realistic characters, with a main character that isn't beautiful. Some say she isn't even attractive.
                          I would recommend giving authors who are new a try. That's what I like to do. Most of the newer novels are original and do not follow your typical cliché story.

                          Cliches definitely have a market. I love my cliches, I love my kinda guilty cheap reads. I especially love my happy cliches with a twist!

                          But what WN floods us with, especially the newer romances is pretty....awful yeah. They're not cliches at this point they're just....bad writing. Not blaming the translators, I feel like the original content is just part of the cookie cutter flood of generic to bad novels to fill up the virtual shelves.

                          They feel like the Chinese versions of mass printed harlequin romances that make up that aisle of supermarket book shelves. You know the kind of cheap paperbacks read primarily by bored middle aged housewives. IT's filled with the same swooning women, perfectly handsome rich men, questionable content, and some pretty awful 'sexy' scenes. Oh it's just all variations of 50 Shades of Grey.
                          Hopefully no one acts out or accepts these dangerous behaviors/relationships in real life.

                          As much as I agree, I hate this stuff, this is apparently what's making WN their money. I sure would appreciate them picking up better quality stories, different genres, or refocusing on older unfinished projects. But hey I don't know what's paying the server bills back in the WN main office.

                          Chryiss

                          Well, since I decided to dabble in high school romance I'm a little more aware of the tropes associated with that genre.

                          To be honest I'm pretty clueless about what goes for for the stories aimed at an adult female readership.

                          Anyway, the main difference between Japanese (manga) romance and its western counterpart is that there's basically no western market for shounen/seinen romance (or whatever such stories would have been labelled as if such an English reading market existed), I haven't encountered once since the Can't buy me love movie from the late eighties.

                          Let's assume, for a moment, that it did. With a male audience your male MC will act as the reader proxy. So you have an 'average' MC with or without a harem. Slapping your love interests around ceased being cool since James Bond did that during the sixties and early seventies. Raping them wasn't cool even then.

                          Why it's supposedly ok in shoujo/josei (and their western or Chinese counterparts) is beyond me, but it's definitely not specific for this site. The entire Bad Boy subgenre takes flight from this setup, no matter if said Bad Boy actually acts abusively or not in the story. Add that every "let's have a bet about turning the female geek into a prom queen" -story basically depicts a first class jerk as a love interest. Yeah, yeah, he changes his mind, regrets everything and buys a new personality at Walmart and ends up perfectly lovable a few weeks later...

                              StenDuring Well said. No matter the form or the circumstances of the bad boy aka simply jerk, the MLs are the same regardless if the story is from the FL perspective or the ML is the MC instead. I suppose very country and culture has their own version of this character (and vice versa of the girls).

                                  StenDuring Sensei! You just summed everything up in one neat package.

                                  Actually... boys love can fit into this mould too since some stories just tend to swap the gender not the personality or characteristics. The cliches are a lot more obvious in boys love, and cheesy.

                                  That's why I attempted a boys love CEO romance using as much of my own corporate knowledge as possible. At the end of the day, I like writing fighting action so stuck with historical fantasy/action adventure with boys love as a side dish.

                                      Veronica8

                                      Ah much agreed, though the boys love genrecan bewhole different matter. It's kind of a mixed bag. It flies under the radar a lot due to the support from readers/target demographics. There's a lot of deep heart touching stories in this genre but they're also swimming in the sea of cliches and generics.

                                      BL seems to get a mere slap on the wrist towards both harmless cliches and abusive content. As if just bc it's LGBTQ then it's okay. I partly agree (I want all the cheesy LGBTQ romances, hit me with every pure happy cliche in the books. Pls I'm so tired of the ' bury the gays' trope in mainstream media). Again it's a different discussion and depends on the author and their intent.

                                      Back to mass release of cookiecutter 'bad' novels, here's a substantial market so the mass productions is just supplies to meet the demand at the cost of quality. Cheap but effective thrills often means a lot of stories containing abuse/rape and very one dimensional characters being overly romanticized. That applies to the CEO genre too- mass releases to meet reading demands.

                                        Chryiss

                                        Well, the shounen/seinen romance actually differs (or rather swaps roles). Since the reader proxy is male he's supposedly your average Joe. Slapping girls around simply won't work with that setup (ie not very average Joe).

                                        Arguably the main difference as far as depictions go is that he won't turn into the school prince by having his glasses removed. The secondary difference is that he also gains a (pontential) harem for absolutely no valid reason at all and in difference from most female counterpatrs (as in female leads) wavers horribly. If seinen it's common that he'll bed just about every love interest before he makes his bloody mind up.

                                        The harem romances are almost always running with a male lead. It's common enough that stories with female leads are called reverse harem, which in turn says just about everything depressing you didn't want to know about the gender views used as a norm for the readers.

                                            StenDuring The harem romances are almost always running with a male lead.

                                            My mind went straight to Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches when I read this for some reason.

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