There is a class of books across a lot of genres that follow an interesting structure. These are series by authors who seem to churn out books monthly. These books don’t follow a normal character arc, and in fact, the protagonist never grows. Yes, they can get stronger, but they don’t grow in character, they don’t change. The books can have a three act structure, or not. But what they have in common is what I’m calling a “game loop”. If you’re familiar with game development, you’ll understand the reference. In these books, each book in the series follows the following structural formula:

— Drop the protagonist into a “situation”. Often, there is no character introduction.

— The protagonist goes about their daily schedule, which includes eating, sleeping, talking to friends and allies.

— The protagonist gets an idea about how to resolve the situation.

— The protagonist again goes about their daily schedule, while the parts of his plan fall into place.

— The protagonist resolves the situation, either personally or with the help of anything from friends, to robots, to “gods”.

— End book.

The character doesn’t grow as he solves the problem. Often, he’s not even in any real danger.

It’s an interesting formula. Some authors have 30+ books in a single series where each book is like this. Read that again. Thirty-plus books in a single series! There is no personal growth in the protagonist between the first and last books.

So, why would anyone read these books? After all, people like reading about people overcoming problems and growing. Or so authors have been told.

Here are my thoughts.

— The books are formulaic. So, is the typical character arc. This is just a different formula. Being formulaic, people know what to expect when they pick up a book. It makes them feel comfortable.

— The books, despite being predictable, are fun. They are like chewing gum for the mind. Reading them gives your brain something to do without having to deal with problems. They do have some interesting situations and ideas.

— The books tend to be pulp-like in that they are action driven. They are not pulp, because even in pulp, characters change and evolve. Humans hate change, especially nowadays.

— Something other than the protagonist controls and resolves the problem, but the protagonist is what the books are about. I’m not sure what this says about the readers. Maybe they want a God/AI to solve their problems but want to feel like they play an important part? I don’t know.

—The books are easy to write. Going back to being formulaic, an author can churn a book out every month if the characters don’t have to change, and the structure and genre remain fixed.

Yes, I’ve read some of these. As I’ve said, they are fun. But I wouldn’t want to write them. If you’ve read one, you’ve read them all. If you’ve written one, you’ve written them all.

Word up!