Full transcript
0:00Hello, welcome to season 1 of Story
0:01Chef, where we dive into different
0:03genres and discover what makes them
0:04tick. Today, we're talking about how to
0:07write dark academia.
0:09Now, if you're unfamiliar with this
0:10series, I've gone and used AI to do this
0:13big analysis of bestsellers and I've
0:15identified 200 genres now through hours
0:18and hours of Amazon research, actually
0:20going through scene by scene and
0:21identifying all the tropes, the plot
0:24mechanics, the character archetypes, and
0:27much more. So, I've gone beyond just
0:28asking ChatGPT like, "What are the
0:30tropes for dark academia?" because it
0:32could hallucinate or get things wrong or
0:34in some in the case of some genres, the
0:36trends could be so new that it might not
0:37even know what they are. And when I do
0:39it this way through actual AI analysis
0:41of actual books, we are getting far more
0:43accurate data. So, with that in mind,
0:45let's dive into dark academia. This is
0:49one of those fun genres that gets very
0:53dark and emotional and often very spicy.
0:56It's a spin-off
0:57romantasy, although I don't think it has
1:00to be actually fantasy. Most of them
1:02are, but it doesn't necessarily have to
1:04be fantasy. You can just have a dark
1:07academy, but I could be wrong about
1:08that. Let's actually go through and see
1:10what this says. So, we're going to start
1:12with the major tropes. These are the
1:14things that you definitely want to have
1:16in some capacity in your dark fantasy or
1:18dark academia. And starting with the
1:21magic school setting. So, I guess having
1:24it be a magic school is a pretty big
1:25part of it. So, this is like think of
1:27dark academia as like an adult very
1:30adult Harry Potter type thing.
1:32The story takes place in an elite often
1:34gothic institution like a university or
1:36boarding school where students navigate
1:38complex hierarchies and often learn to
1:40control supernatural abilities within a
1:42restrictive environment. You got morally
1:44gray characters, of course. Your cash
1:46should consist of complex individuals
1:48whose brilliance or charm masks a
1:50capacity for cruelty, proving that
1:52intelligence does not equal morality.
1:54There is an outsider protagonist. So,
1:56the main POV character usually begins as
1:58an outsider, perhaps from a lower
1:59financial class or possessing a unique
2:01trait giving the reader a window into
2:03the corrupt privileged world of the
2:05school. There's usually some toxic
2:07friendships or found family. The
2:09protagonist forms these intense
2:10codependent bonds with a tight-knit
2:11group of peers creating a dynamic that
2:13oscillates between deep emotional
2:15support and mutual destruction. So you
2:16can tell we're getting really dark.
2:18There's a reason this is called dark
2:19academia.
2:20Then we got forbidden or transgressive
2:22relationships. This is romantic or
2:25sexual connection cross established
2:28cross established lines such as student
2:30teacher dynamics of relationships
2:32between enemies often complicated by
2:34power imbalances. Then you have secret
2:36societies or exclusive social circles.
2:39There is always almost always an inner
2:41circle of hidden group or hidden group
2:44operating with its own rules and rituals
2:46offering
2:47belonging at the cost of ethical
2:49compromise. There's an institutional
2:52>> [clears throat]
2:52>> corruption. The school itself is rarely
2:54a safe haven. It is often morally
2:56compromised prioritizing its reputation
2:58and power over the safety of students.
3:00Honestly, I'm not sure why anybody would
3:02want to be here.
3:03But then we have the pursuit of
3:05forbidden and dangerous knowledge.
3:06Characters are driven by an obsessive
3:08quest for arcane or esoteric topics. I
3:10guess this is why they decided to be
3:11there pushing boundaries that lead to
3:13psychological harm or catastrophe
3:15catastrophic conclusions or tragedy.
3:17Unlike genres that guarantee a happy
3:19ending, these narratives often spiral
3:21toward inevitable doom, murder, or the
3:23downfall of the protagonist due to their
3:25own fatal flaws. So these can end in
3:27tragedy, which is which is
3:30one of the big ways in which it differs
3:31from romancy which typically goes with
3:34the whole romance trope of
3:37of happily ever after.
3:38But then we have unreliable narration
3:40and narrative ambiguity. The story is
3:42frequently told by a narrator whose
3:43perspective is warped by trauma, bias,
3:45or lies leaving the turn of the truth of
3:47the events murky. Right? So those are
3:49the major tropes that you'll see in all
3:51in probably most of the dark academia
3:54and books that you read. Then we have a
3:55couple of common tropes. So these aren't
3:57necessarily like absolutely necessary,
4:00but you will often find them. So a lot
4:02of these are related to different types
4:04of romance that you might find in a dark
4:06academia starting with enemies to lovers
4:08and antagonist relationship transitions
4:10into romance fueled by high stress
4:12environment and intellectual rivals
4:14common in academic settings. We have
4:16hidden heir or the chosen one a
4:18seemingly normal student is revealed to
4:19have a powerful lineage or destiny
4:21placing them at the center of the
4:22conflict against their will. And you
4:24might have a bully romance. So a darker
4:27romantic dynamic where one partner
4:28engages in psychological or physical
4:30torment often recontextualized within
4:32the twisted social hierarchy of the
4:34school. There's also trauma bonding. So
4:37characters forge alliances not through
4:39shared interest, but through shared
4:40suffering or vulnerability creating a
4:42bond that is hard to break.
4:44This is a trope that I absolutely hate,
4:47but I've seen I've seen whole books
4:49devoted to this which is the stalker /
4:52mysterious protector. A character
4:54watches the protagonist from the shadows
4:56blurring the lines between a guardian
4:57ensuring safety and an obsession that
4:59threatens it. Might find body horror,
5:02joy.
5:03Unattainable love, romantic subplot
5:06where a relationship is continuously
5:07blocked by social standing secrets or
5:09the tragic nature of the plot itself.
5:11Then you have some like general plot
5:13rules here like Chekhov's gun,
5:14foreshadowing, red herrings. You have
5:16the mad scientist, a profession or
5:18professor or student researcher who's
5:21pursuing scientific advancement without
5:22ethical limits often experimenting on
5:24themselves or others. And there's
5:26usually some kind of class or wealth
5:28conflict. The tension between the
5:30scholarship student and the wealthy
5:31elite drives much of the interpersonal
5:33conflict and social commentary. So a
5:36really dark genre. Definitely not my
5:38personal cup of tea, but this one has
5:40been very popular on Amazon recently. So
5:42I had to cover it. But yeah, lots of
5:45stuff happening that's just like, dark
5:48trauma,
5:49tragic, all of that stuff. So, we we do
5:51have more in-depth sections on each of
5:55these tropes if you wanted to dive a
5:56little deeper. And these are, by the
5:58way, in I have a series of books called
6:00the Story Hacks, and Dark Academia is
6:02one of them that you can go and buy, or
6:03you get them at no extra cost when you
6:05join the Story Hacker membership. And
6:06just recently, we launched the Story
6:08Hacker OS, which is our own tool that
6:11lets you write with AI. And these
6:14templates are included in that tool, so
6:17you could easily craft your own Dark
6:19Academia book using that tool. So, if
6:21that is interesting to you, go ahead and
6:23check that out down below. But, in the
6:24meantime, let's jump to my favorite part
6:27of this process, which is the plot
6:28template. Now, there are a lot of
6:30chapters in an average Dark Academia
6:33my analysis put the average at 51
6:36chapters. And so, we're not going to go
6:40in too much depth on each of these, but
6:42hopefully from the title and just a
6:45brief overview here, you'll get a sense
6:47for what happens in each chapter. So,
6:49starting off with the arrival at the
6:51institution, pretty self-explanatory.
6:53Then they go through the first day and
6:55discover the they have to navigate the
6:57different social hierarchy and stuff
6:59like that. Then we get the encounter
7:01with the exclusive circle. So, they
7:03encounter like whatever characters are
7:06in this exclusive circle, whatever that
7:08is. There's a chapter just like general
7:11academic life and discovering forbidden
7:12knowledge. The protagonist settles into
7:14the rhythm of academic life, attending
7:16specialized classes that reveal the
7:18institution's specific focus, whether
7:20that's occult studies, classical
7:21literature, advanced sciences, or
7:22magical systems, et cetera. And then
7:24there's some kind of first test or
7:26trial. The protagonist faces their first
7:29significant challenge or test within the
7:30institution. So, this could be a
7:32academic examination, a physical trial,
7:34or social ordeal designed to prove their
7:36worthiness. And we have chapter six,
7:38forced proximity and developing
7:39attraction. So, the protagonist is
7:41forced into close proximity with a
7:42member of the exclusive group or the
7:44primary love interest through assigned
7:46partnerships, tutoring arrangements, or
7:48institutional requirements. So, we're
7:50forcing them into proximity with one
7:52another to generate sparks, right? Then
7:54we have a late-night gathering. You see
7:57this in a lot of academic stuff like
7:59where they
8:00have a late-night gathering of an
8:01exclusive group in a liminal space.
8:04There's some kind of bullying escalation
8:06and humiliation. So, things don't
8:07necessarily go well for the protagonist
8:10at first, right? Then we learn the
8:11mentor's true nature in chapter nine.
8:13The protagonist has a one-on-one
8:15encounter with their mentor or trusted
8:17professor seeking guidance or comfort
8:18after the previous humiliation. The
8:20mentor reveals contradictory qualities
8:22both offering genuine insight and
8:25manipulation, care and cruelty. During a
8:27private tutoring session or
8:28conversation, the mentor makes
8:30inappropriate advances demonstrating
8:32their own moral compromises or revealing
8:34knowledge of institutional corruption
8:36they choose not to address. So, by
8:38inappropriate advances that doesn't
8:40necessarily mean sexual advances,
8:42although it can and often does, but
8:44could also just reveal the corruption,
8:47right? So, from here we start the
8:48discovery of institutional secrets. We
8:50really start to dig deeper into this
8:54into what's going on in this academy.
8:56And we have the first act of complicity.
8:58Protagonist is pressured or seduced into
9:00participating in something morally
9:01questionable. So, this is where they
9:04start to get their feet a little muddied
9:06covering up an incident, participating
9:08in a ritual, keeping a dangerous secret,
9:10or enabling someone else's
9:11transgression. And this is going to
9:13cause some problems for them later on.
9:16Then there's deepening intimacy and
9:17isolation. So, they spend significant
9:19time with the one with a member of the
9:21exclusive group or the primary love
9:22interest. There's the midpoint
9:24discovery. So, this is an important one.
9:25The protagonist uncovers a major secret
9:28that fundamentally changes their
9:29understanding of everything that has
9:30happened so far. This might involve
9:32discovering the truth about their own
9:33parentage or heritage, learning the
9:35identity of a hidden antagonist,
9:38realizing the exclusive group's true
9:39potential. And there's some kind of
9:41confrontation and retaliation. There's
9:43an anonymous ally or warning that shows
9:45up, and then there's a ritual or occult
9:48ceremony ceremony where the protagonist
9:50either witnesses or participates in a
9:52ritual or ceremony that reveals
9:53supernatural occult or deeply
9:55transgressive nature of the exclusive
9:57group's activities. And there's building
9:59alliance with the outcasts.
10:01The physical or sexual escalation. So
10:04here we increase that escalation between
10:06the protagonist and the love interest.
10:08There might be discovery of a crime or
10:09major transgression, and the immediate
10:12aftermath and shock of that discovery.
10:15Then there's escalating paranoia and
10:16guilt, and an investigation begins. This
10:19external authorities or institution
10:21investigators begin looking into the
10:23crime or transgression creating external
10:24pressure on the anti-protagonist and the
10:26group, etc. There's betrayal within the
10:28group. The mentor there's some kind of
10:30big revelation or betrayal from the
10:31mentor. There's a confrontation with the
10:33anonymous ally, an impossible choice,
10:37and so on. And I think we're not going
10:39to get too far through all of this
10:42because I don't want to bore people
10:45watching this video, but you can go
10:47through all of these steps and find
10:49exactly what should happen step-by-step
10:51in a dark academia story, okay? Now at
10:53the end of this I do have some
10:54information about like what happens in
10:56sequels. So if you have a sequel to the
10:59book, obviously some things are going to
11:01be changed. You don't have to
11:02reintroduce a lot of the characters,
11:04stuff like that. So what changes, what
11:06stays the same in order to keep it
11:08consistent with the genre and not
11:10alienate
11:11readers.
11:12>> [snorts]
11:12>> But then let's talk a little bit about
11:14dark academia characters, okay? So
11:17characters we have different archetypes
11:19here. Starting with of course the
11:20reluctant outsider who is our typical
11:22protagonist. Typically beginning in the
11:24state of poverty, imprisonment, or
11:26grieving isolation, this character is
11:28forcibly thrust into the elite dangerous
11:30world of the academy. Initially driven
11:32by a desperate desire to escape or
11:34simply survive the brutal hazing and
11:35social hierarchies, she undergoes a
11:37hardening process where trauma strips
11:39away her naivete. Uh so, she goes on
11:42quite the journey there. Uh then we have
11:44the tormented Byronic hero, who's
11:46typically the love interest. Presented
11:48initially as an antagonist, bully, or
11:50cold authority figure, this character
11:52enforces the academy's cruel hierarchy
11:54to protect his own secrets or family
11:55legacy. He begins as emotionally
11:57detached or husked out, viewing the
12:00protagonist as a nuisance or a target,
12:01but develops an intense obsessive
12:03fascination with her resilience. Okay?
12:06Uh then of course we got the corrupt
12:07mentor, which we've kind of covered all
12:09already. This person is starts out as a
12:12nice person, but we soon learn is either
12:14corrupt or they have like inappropriate
12:17intentions for the protagonist, etc. We
12:20have the loyal companion, who is an
12:22ally. So, starts out as a misfit
12:24roommate or comic relief. This character
12:26provides the only source of warmth and
12:28normalcy for the protagonist. You got to
12:30have something in there. You got to
12:31throw them a bone, right? They
12:33frequently undergo a tragic loss of
12:35innocence, suffering severe physical
12:37harm, kidnapping, or death, real or
12:39faked. This serves as the catalyst for
12:41the protagonist's final transformation
12:42into a warrior. They evolve from a
12:44passive bystander into a fierce and
12:47capable revolutionary who anchors the
12:48protagonist's humanity. So, very
12:50important character to have in a dark
12:52academia here.
12:54Uh we have the innocent catalyst or the
12:55ward. This character is the reason the
12:57protagonist endures the initial torture
12:58of the story. They might be a younger
13:00sibling, a powerful a powerless friend,
13:03or a dependent who requires protection.
13:04Their arc is often one of corruption or
13:06tragedy. They are either kidnapped or
13:08forced to to force the protagonist's
13:10hand, or they are traumatized by the
13:11setting until they snap and manifest a
13:13dark power of their own. They transition
13:15from a burden to be protected into a
13:17tragic figure who has been irrevocably
13:19damaged by the protagonist's choices.
13:21This is a very tragic character right
13:23here. Those are the main characters that
13:25you will find. Obviously, you can have a
13:27whole cast of characters, but these are
13:28like the main uh archetypes that you
13:31want in a story like this. Next, we have
13:33the world building. So,
13:35this is a fantasy, so world building is
13:38important. But, world building is
13:39important is not just talking about like
13:41magic and stuff like that, but we're
13:42also talking about locations and
13:43settings. So, the number one most
13:46important thing here is the sentient
13:48isolated campus,
13:51because this is called dark academia
13:53after all. So, you must construct a
13:54setting that functions as a character in
13:56its own right, often acting as a prison
13:58or a crucible for your protagonist.
13:59Whether it is a fortress on a remote
14:01island, a castle in the highlands, or a
14:03school built upon the ancient ruins, the
14:05location should be physically cut off
14:07from the outside world by treacherous
14:09geography or magical barriers. Okay, so
14:12you know, basically it's a magic school,
14:14right?
14:15And we've got temporal ambiguity and
14:18aesthetics as well as a hostile
14:20geography. So, you know, this not a good
14:23place to be. There's whaling woods
14:24filled with monsters or treacherous
14:26cliffs or toxic waterways or
14:27fog-drenched moors that hide predators.
14:30Basically, you can't get out of this
14:32school because to do so would be death.
14:35Now, this does mention while your school
14:36may have modern conveniences like
14:38smartphones or social media, because
14:40this can be a more urban setting. It
14:42doesn't have to be an older romanticy
14:45type setting. The aesthetic of the
14:47school should feel trapped in a vague
14:48nostalgic past. So, generally, we kind
14:51of want to go for an older vibe, even if
14:53this is a modern story. All right. Next
14:55is the house or faction system. So, you
14:58should organize the main body into
15:00distinct subgroups based on arbitrary
15:02but rigid criteria, such as magic
15:04magical affinity, species, personality
15:06traits, or bloodline. So, we've got that
15:08house social So, we have rigid social
15:12stratification here. That's pretty
15:13self-explanatory. And the curriculum of
15:15danger, right? So, this means your
15:17academic courses should not be safe
15:19learning environments, but rather
15:21high-stakes trials where failure results
15:23in physical injury or death. Whether the
15:25subject is elemental combat, toxicology,
15:27runic inscriptions, or history, the
15:29pedagogy relies on survival of the
15:32fittest logic, and professors should be
15:33depicted as negligent or actively
15:35sadistic, right? Um as far as magic and
15:38technology systems, we got the cost of
15:40power in this genre. The magic or
15:42advanced science is rarely free. It
15:43requires a visceral, often bodily,
15:45sacrifice. We talked about the trope of
15:47body horror. Um
15:48magic should definitely be something
15:50that has a huge cost. Definitely fits
15:52with the sort of dark aspects of the
15:54genre. Uh there's suppression and
15:56awakening. So, a common element in this
15:57worldbuilding is the suppression of true
15:59potential, often through mechanical or
16:01magical restraints. Something to keep in
16:02mind. There might be species-specific
16:04abilities. If your world includes
16:07paranormal creatures, you must clearly
16:08define the biological or magical
16:10differences between species like
16:11vampires, shifters, fey, or sirens. Uh
16:14you'll see vampires and other uh similar
16:17like creatures, shifters, and things
16:19like that often in darker academia.
16:22>> [snorts]
16:22>> Um then we have secret societies and
16:24hidden power. So, there'll be some kind
16:25of shadow organization, often in the in
16:28school administration. There'll be
16:30corrupt authority in the staff. Kind of
16:32covered that already. There'll be some
16:33kind of rituals and trials associated
16:35with these organizations. And in other
16:36history and lore, we got the dark
16:38legacy. So, this relates to the
16:40institution which which must have a
16:42blood-soaked history that informs the
16:43present-day conflict and probably the
16:45corruption as well. This lore often
16:47involves a founding tragedy, a massacre,
16:49or suppressed war between magical
16:51factions that led to the current
16:52oppressive regime. Okay?
16:54And then of course we have forbidden
16:56knowledge and and archives. So, uh
16:59restricted spaces that the academy might
17:01have.
17:02Um so, beyond that, in this book, I also
17:05have information on the themes. Got some
17:08notes on writing prose in this book,
17:10what that looks like. Uh I even have
17:12suggestions uh like templates on how to
17:15create titles based on the best sellers
17:18in the genre as well as book
17:20descriptions based on what the those
17:22best sellers had for their book
17:23descriptions. If you want to get
17:24something that's similar, I've got a
17:26template for that as we here as well.
17:28Once again, you can buy this book on
17:29Amazon, but you can also get it at no
17:31extra charge through Story Hacker, the
17:34membership down below. And we also have
17:36our brand new Story Hacker OS tool that
17:39you can use to actually write this
17:41because these templates are included in
17:43that tool as context that you can access
17:46to actually write these books via
17:48automations and and in other ways. So,
17:51really great stuff here about dark
17:53academia. If this is something you are
17:54interested in, be sure to check this out
17:56and I will see you in the next video.