I’m reading the Super manga. To be honest, I got turned off by super from the launch of Battle of Gods and haven’t really gotten into the anime since. Nothing major against it, I just wasn’t hooked by the first few episodes. The pacing of the anime was slow at a time where I was low on entertainment time and craving more high-octane storytelling, as well as craving more non-fiction.
Anyway, I’m reading DBS against the background of me thinking about what I should write next. I’m just coming back from a hiatus of a year without writing fiction, and I’m eager to get chipping at my next story, but I seem to be having trouble zoning in on what exactly said story should be about.
Part of me wants to pick up right where I left off, while another part wants to move on to new stories. To leave behind every single world, character, and story I’ve ever told and start fresh with new content, unburdened by legacy and ideas of the past.
Yes… yes, I should do that. I’m thinking as I write this, if you haven’t realized. That’s why this blog exists. As I wrote the last paragraph my doubt washed away. I took a gap year from writing so that I could achieve two things: grow as a person in the real world, and get some distance to reassess and break some of my bad writing habits.
The latter is much harder to do if after a year I went back to pick up the pieces of my previous broken stories. I can — and perhaps should — go read what I had been writing through my whole career, compare it to what I’m reading to see what mistakes I’ve been making.
However, writing in the same canon with the same characters is a recipe for falling back into old habits. So let’s switch things a bit.
I want to do something inspired by Dragon Ball, and super-hero stories. I want a good guy beating a villain and stopping crime with some interesting super-powered actions. But first of all, I should write myself an origin story. Or at least outline one; I understand we are sometimes introduced to the hero fist and the origin later.
So, I guess that’s my homework for now. Reading up on the super-hero genre. I want to start with something specific and steeped in tradition, and its also something I’m familiar with and have consumed a lot of. The hero stories I end up producing may not be the most original, but as long as I enjoy making them and they help me grow as a writer, being unoriginal is alright. It may be just what I need to make my more outlandish ideas work later on.
Hm. I’d usually check out YouTube videos on the topic at this point. But I blocked that site for the week as well, part of my pledge to change how I spend my hours. I guess I’ll need alternatives.
But hey, good news is: I can probably spend a whole month reading super-hero theory and not be bored, so that should be fun. I’ve long felt I had to get better at doing this sort of research if I wanted my writing to go anywhere. I want to get a better hang on the elements of fiction – action, drama, comedy – before I move on to anything more advanced or complex.
Speaking of analysis, I felt curious to take a look at the main types of villains we get in shows like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, and Hero Academia. I figure the main types are: criminals, unknown competitors, and friendly competitors. The goals will tend to be win, defend, and attain.
Current villain Moro is a criminal looking to get the Dragon Balls and who is now looting power across the universe. Both variations of “attain”. Kinda, I don’t know.
Criminals are suited to stop stories. Competitors are suited to win stories. The latter usually involves less killing. Tournament arcs are all about competition.
Something along those lines. This is a rough draft, I’ll work harder on defining these ideas later. For now, I’m going back to Super. I also have other duties to attend to.
Writing 4 Real 