Small Name, Big Ego/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A creator develops an oversized ego as a result of their creation becoming successful and gaining a fandom.

  • Straight: Bob writes a novel, and its success goes straight to his head, prompting him to act in an egocentric and arrogant fashion to those around him.
  • Exaggerated: Bob writes a novel, and its success goes straight to his head, not only prompting him to act in an egocentric and arrogant fashion to those around him, but also he demands taking down bad reviews of his work, does not admit making poorly-recieved novels he made before and unpersons everyone who has done something him which he does not approve.
    • Or, every novel he writes is poorly received, but Bob still defends every one of them as masterpieces of literature that are just misunderstood by the masses.
    • Bob writes a novel, and only one person said it was decent, and the popularity rushes to his head, giving him a God Complex.
  • Downplayed: Bob is genuinely competent, but his ego still outstretches his actual level of ability; he sees himself as the best writer in all of history when he's just a good writer.
  • Justified: Most people who succeed in the creative arts are required to have a big ego, and Bob is no exception.
  • Inverted: Bob, normally a very egocentric person, writes a novel which becomes successful... and the success makes his ego smaller.
    • Alternately, because Bob knows that fame is fleeting, he feels a sense of dread that his book is selling so well. Soon the fans will demand another book, and then maybe another one after that, and then a movie will be made, which may or may not totally suck, which would break his fanbase...
    • Or...Bob writes a novel that becomes a best seller and is adapted into a famous movie and virtually everyone in the whole world knows his name and his work...but he is incredibly humble about it to a fault and claims the key to his sucess was his fans all along.
  • Subverted: Bob's novel is successful, and while his blog posts make it seem like he has an inflated ego, a second look makes you realize he's writing them as parody.
  • Doubly Subverted: For a while. Then the cracks begin to appear, and he starts using them as a place to filibuster.
  • Parodied: Only one person has bought Bob's book, and they didn't like it that much. Bob still sees this as sufficient justification to throw his weight around, and he does so in a drastically over-the-top fashion.
    • Bob writes a novel, and it's success prompts him to dress like a king and hire some of his fans to carry him around on a throne. He demands that everyone refer to him as "Lord Outstanding The Amazingly Creative, Inspirational And Virile" instead of 'Bob'. He commissions a statue to be built, with an inscription describing in detail how he is the greatest author who ever lived.
  • Deconstructed: Bob's ego is an expression of deep-seated insecurity and abandonment issues which have seen him yearn to be accepted and appreciated for his art since childhood. Since gaining this acceptance, he doesn't know how to really handle it, and so has reacted in an overly egotistical fashion as he receives the validation he has been yearning for since childhood.
  • Reconstructed: Bob does indeed have insecurity and abandonment issues, but he's still an arrogant, egotistical douche despite them, not because of them.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob flipflops between preening arrogance and frantic insecurity as a result of his success.
  • Averted: Bob is a sensible man who understands that, although he has every right to be proud of his work and its success, that doesn't give him the right to throw his weight around.
  • Enforced: "I am a published writer! That means my work is UNQUALIFIED GENIUS!"
    • Or Bob's literary agent and publishers have told him that "confidence" is the mark of a really great writer, so Bob is forced to throw his weight around and act like an arrogant jerk as a result.
  • Lampshaded: "Wow, Bob's head has really started to swell since his book came out."
  • Invoked: "My work is a modern classic! All the critics agree that I'm the best writer in the world -- and I am! I'm entitled to my ego!"
  • Defied: "It's just a book; it's not like I've cured cancer or anything."
    • Alternatively, Bob, before publishing anything notable, goes through serious training, publishing unpopular things and getting used to negative reception and backlash towards him on a smaller scale before becoming famous so he'd be ready to accept that not everyone may not like him.
  • Discussed: "Creative types always seem to go mad with ego as soon as they're successful."
  • Conversed: "Wow, egocentric creative types annoy me. It's not like they've done anything that amazing."
  • Plotted A Good Waste: Bob deliberately presents himself as egocentric and arrogant as part of a project to make a statement on creators who let their egos get away from them.
  • Wasted A Good Plot: Bob becomes successful and egocentric, Charlie wants to chew him out for it, and Bob is only egocentric because of his abandonment issues. Weeks pass in universe and Bob never learned a lesson, Charlie never stood up to Bob, and Bob's abandonment issues remain or are never discussed again.
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