Whooo boy, talk about opening up a can of worms here. Though I'll say, as dicey a question as it is, it's one I've thought about with my own writing. On the one hand, I want to stay true to the original vision of my work, on the other, I want enough people to enjoy it enough that it not only gains popularity, but feels easily accessible to a large demographic.

Ultimately, at least this has been my experience, there's no such thing as omnipandering. I've never heard of a universal story that's beloved by all races, genders, socio-economic classes, and demographics on planet Earth. At some point, your art is going to appeal to one group more than others. The thing is, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Appealing to a niche audience can really work in your favor if you do it right.

That said, I always strive to make my work "inclusive". That doesn't necessarily mean I'm pandering to everyone. Not only does that sound impossible, it sounds highly impractical as well. But what I CAN do is strive to not exclude anyone from my work. By that, I mean, I do my best not to incorporate themes or ideas that make potential readers feel excluded, appropriated, or needlessly offended.

Ultimately, there's still going to be people who just flat out don't want to read my work. And that's totally fine. I can't appeal to everyone. I'm fully aware of that. If someone doesn't like Darker Fantasy, they're not gonna like my writing. If they don't like heavy romance and sexual themes? They're not gonna like my writing. Instead of trying to please everyone, I instead work to "include" everyone. Even if my writing isn't something someone personally enjoys, I still strive to make it accessible to all readers.

Ultimately, I'm not perfect. Far from it. And whether or not my writing will actually succeed in that is entirely up to the readers. But that's always been my goal with every project I've ever worked on.

Appealing to every demographic is almost impossible just as it is impossible to have a product advertisement targeted for everyone. Everyone has different experiences and preferences, it's not really a one fit for all so there's subgroups/niches being targeted even if it's in the same age/cultural/etc group.

I'm not sure what the question is here? I don't particularly get the connection with the following sentence as well? Are you asking if those kind of stories are appealing to straight women solely? :o

I don't think about appealing to anyone, at all. Doesn't matter their age, gender, race, whatever. I rarely describe a character. I tell the story that comes to me and let it loose in the world. One of my stories (which has been optioned for a screenplay) has no women in it. Well, the cat is female, and there is mention of one. Other than that, none. That's not how the story presented itself to me and, as I said, I don't write with an eye to whom the story might attract. When I was approached by the option folks they did ask me about making the lead female and I said no. Entirely different story.

As far as number of main characters I use as many as are needed to tell the story. The rest of what you asked about doesn't even occur to me. I don't actively think about those things.

I'm a straight female with a great love for martial arts movies and good old fashioned adventure and mystery and I'm not an exception amongst my peers.

Interesting thread.

Write hard, write true

You are better off researching a decent niche that is strongly supportive of writers who produce for it. Niche content is where it is today, and, most particularly on the net, because we fill in what doesn’t go on mainstream, good or bad.

The creative work consumers on the net are going to be female rather than male, with the exception of some sites like Royal Road that actively fights for that niche.

Once you have your audience in mind, speak to them, and if you are lucky, you will pick up some other demo on the way.

In terms of male gaze, either remove it or shine it on both male and female characters equally.

cute, no,. no romance, about an assassin hired to take out one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I don't write romance

Using manga categories as examples (shounen, shoujo, seinen, josei, etc), I don't think there's a single manga that will cater to everyone. Not everyone will like fights to the death, or thrillers, or romance.

For example, I make a girl's love comic set in space (despite my main influences being shonen and seinen mangas lol...but i'm making a shoujo ai) I have no clue what the demographic of my comic is, but some people seem to like it.

Why would you want to create a story that appeals to everyone? The pressure to keep it entertaining for that many people would be excruciating xD

Pure luck! That's the only way. You can look at what's mega-popular among all demographics in a certain medium and KINDA see what the appeal might be, but it is very tough. Something like the game Undertale, or the movie Knives Out, or the manga/anime Kimetsu no Yaiba; those are all broadly appealing to basically every demographic that encounters them, but what makes them do that? I have no idea.

John Wick is probably a better example of how to, over time, appeal more broadly. The first movie was a low-key small-scale sleeper hit that got very good reviews but went a bit under the radar and appealed mostly to action fans. Thanks to a growing fanbase over time, the sequel a few years later exploded and made double the original's money and got even better reviews. After that, the franchise reached such blockbuster heights that the third movie made double the second movie, plus a video game, a Fortnite tie-in, and all the kinds of stuff that ended up making John Wick an iconic pop culture character who will be remembered for decades to come.

It certainly helped, of course, that all three of those movies are absolutely great. While they weren't flash-in-the-pan like some of the movies I've mentioned, they follow a similar path in that the best way to broadly appeal is to just make something that's really damn good.

I've run out of likes unfortunately, but yes, absolutely. Stressing out over one hundred percent originality versus just making a story that's fun and engaging is, in my opinion at least, the key to success in a medium such as writing or comics.

I don't think you can do that at all cause what appeals to some people makes other people drop it. People say disney movies appeal to everyone but I haven't watched a movie from them since god knows how long. You can't get everyone.

As people have said, it's impossible to make something that appeals to everyone, but for the lols, if I was told with a gun to my head I had to make the most broadly appealing thing possible, here's what I'd make....

It's an adventure story set in a medieval sort of Fantasy world with a Lord of the Rings sort of aesthetic.
About an attractive young white man who discovers he has a great destiny and gets some kind of special magic sword or artifact.
He has a cool older mentor who is PoC because that's progressive, but not TOO progressive, wouldn't want to upset anyone, but this way nobody can say "all the important characters are white".
He's in love with a beautiful elf princess who can fight a little bit with her bow or magic, but not too well because that'd upset some people, she definitely needs to not be as strong as the hero and to need rescuing on exactly ONE occasion (because if she needs rescuing more than once, she "needs rescuing all the time" and is "annoying", but once is okay).
But while he has a clearly hetero intended main romance, he also has a male companion or frenemy who is super-hot and he has sexual tension with and it's totally shippable, but it'll never actually play out, it's just queerbaiting to keep the people who are into that reading.
He takes his shirt off at least once to show his amazing abs, so the people who are into dudes can ogle, but for people who aren't into dudes it's like... aspirational/power fantasy because this guy represents you!
There are lesbian minor characters to keep the lesbians happy and to make it lightly progressive, but they're both hot femmes and it has no story impact or social commentary so it doesn't upset anyone too much.
The bad guy is an evil lord of an evil empire that wants to take over the world and enslave everyone or something, nothing that might be politically outrageous to anyone. His army is made up of undead skeleton soldiers who are grateful to be killed because it's a release from service, so it's GOOD that the hero slaughters his way though armies, you can enjoy the spectacle of violence completely guilt-free without having to think!
There will be a SHOCKING twist where the hero discovers that he is in fact actually in some way related to the villain, let's go with... he was actually created as a magical clone replacement body for the evil lord and was spirited away by his mentor figure who was one of the evil lord's knights and has been trying to atone ever since. The mentor dies almost immediately after imparting this info.
In the end, the hero overcomes the villain partly due to the villain's own hubris and the oppressed village folk rallying behind the hero and he takes his place as rightful king and unites his kingdom and the elf kingdom and everyone lives happily ever after.

There is an actual industry term for this in Hollywood, called the four quadrant movie!

In essence, demographics are broken up into four quadrants: male and female, over 25 years old and under 25 years old. Movies will try to hit at least two of these quadrants, but the big blockbusters will try to hit all 4.

What’s the formula fo a four quadrant movie? Here are some elements from screencraft.org1

• A “high-concept” premise. Whether it’s a superhero’s adventures, an amazing fantasy, a sci-fi quest , or a compelling true story, four-quadrant films live in this realm: an irresistible story idea that can be grasped in one or two sentences.
• Heroes and villains. That doesn’t mean heroes are flawless or villains can’t have a sad backstory, but concrete-thinking kids struggle with too much complexity in characters. You have to find the balance.
• Plots filled with EMOTION, ACTION and DANGER; and yes, that probably means violence and/or death. The trick is to find the right edge without crossing into inappropriate territory. And thus comes another potential shocker…
• Chuck the G-rating! Unless it’s animated, nothing is perceived as more boring to the moviegoing kid than a G-rated movie. The film must have enough edge to go beyond, but again, not too far.
• Theme. Kids and adults both like a story that says something and has genuine resonance, whether they can articulate it or not.
• Humor. Comic moments always enhance enjoyment, no matter how serious the story might be.
• Kids in lead or major supporting roles. Including kids of course targets the “young” quadrant but also adds new levels of dramatic tension and/or comedy for adults. And let’s dump that “child protagonists can’t carry a film” idea for good! Harry Potter, E.T., Super 8, The Wizard of Oz and more say otherwise.
• A-List stars in some roles. Stars still open movies, particularly with the right packaging.
• Hints of romance. Except for the rare, truly committed misanthrope, everyone responds to a well-done love story; it’s universal. Even 9-10 year-olds (particularly girls) enjoy a bit of titillation here, and the adult quadrants love it, but again, striking the right balance re tone and content is important. Stop at innuendo and kissing.
• “Big-budget” not necessary; in fact, five of the above films were made for $50 million or less, and three of those for under $30 million.

Of course, just because you hit all these elements doesn’t equate automatic success, as many a blockbuster flop can attest to. There are also exceptions to the rules. Still, this is a general guideline if you’re looking to make a broadly appealing work.

I don't think it's possible.
Best you can do IMO is included as much as possible without reliance on cliches tokenism by investing in characters and situations as best you can, whilst leaving plenty of room for suggestion in other areas to keep people interested and guessing, then offer plenty of material that's stand alone in it's own right, so people can pick up at any time without returning to the start, like a soap opera?

Interestingly, this question actually fits me a lot I do actually try my best to appeal to as many readers as possible. Do I have more than two main characters? Yep! I have 20 lol! All are very diverse and unique. And while the first book heavily focuses on one character, slowly as the books come, they all will get their time to shine. I honestly believe that representation is really important in story-telling, especially in this time and age when everybody is so divided. It's really important to show that everyone matters. Plus the diversity in my story isn't forced either. It makes canonical sense why everyone is the way they are. Plus, the power system in my story "spirit" heavily enhances their "Individuality" hence the title of the story but I do not like to call it "pandering". Calling it that is actually pretty offensive to someone who genuinely cares about inclusivity. I am not pandering to anyone, I am merely writing what I want. Not sure if you are interested but if you are, here it is.

I don’t think a long form story can do this. Too many opinions, and characters, actions or personalities are likely to turn some people off. But typically a short story, can have a very wide appeal. Certainly nothing can appeal to everyone. But something like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is fairly well known, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but people usually will read the whole thing, and want to talk about it, which is appealing in and of itself. Since you can’t appeal to everyone at least make something worth reading, discussing and that you personally like.

I didn't say that anybody was calling me out. How would they? I'm not well known here or anything 🤣 I am just saying my opinion on the matter. And since the word pandering was mentioned, I just said what I thought about it. And yes indeed, that is how "being offended" works. Not everyone is offended by the same thing, which BTW, I am not offended if you think that is the case. But if someone were to point at me directly and said I was pandering than yeah, I wouldn't like that. That was the point I was making.

Oh and yes, there is a lot of bad in the core of pandering. Just by the definition, it's an immoral or distasteful thing to do. So not sure what you were trying to say there.

You don't. You make what you like, and target it at people who like what you like.

If you make a story containing homosexual characters, homophobic readers will be turned off.
If you make a story without homosexual characters, homosexual readers may feel disinterested to read it.

If you make a story without violence, gore fans may get bored.
If you make a story with violence, readers who only like romance and comedy will be disinterested.

If you make a story that has everything, it will only appeal to people who have no problem with anything. And those aren't everyone.

So, theoretically, while you CAN have everything in your story, it won't catch the interest of everyone, because some readers do NOT want a story to have everything. Remember that 'a jack of all trades is a master of none'.

Also, if you DID make a story that has everything and everyone would be inclined to read it, you need to have the appropriate quality to keep their interest.