Help Write a Book/Anime
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OK I can see a lot of the Elfen Lied, Night Angel influence there.
I'd refrain from using 'good' and 'evil' terms as it will railroad you in the wrong direction. Why not try a Law/chaos balance instead. that way both factions will have good, evil and everything between involved.
when you say demons it conjures very diabolical creatures I suggest a parralel worl where history has divided the culture into these 2 warring groups (law and chaos again) the world this takes place in would then display strong signs of Neutrality. Chaotic Neutral side with Chaos (Cyalithe's side), Lawful Neutral side with Lawful (Govt etc.)
Cyalithe could then be the child of both sides raised by the law side then abandoned once her chatic side could not be completely supressed.
possible urgency created by destabilizing between the 2 worlds and sides must return to restore stability (earthquakes, volcanoes)
I'd refrain from using 'good' and 'evil' terms as it will railroad you in the wrong direction. Why not try a Law/chaos balance instead. that way both factions will have good, evil and everything between involved.
when you say demons it conjures very diabolical creatures I suggest a parralel worl where history has divided the culture into these 2 warring groups (law and chaos again) the world this takes place in would then display strong signs of Neutrality. Chaotic Neutral side with Chaos (Cyalithe's side), Lawful Neutral side with Lawful (Govt etc.)
Cyalithe could then be the child of both sides raised by the law side then abandoned once her chatic side could not be completely supressed.
possible urgency created by destabilizing between the 2 worlds and sides must return to restore stability (earthquakes, volcanoes)
I am right now working on a Horror story myself right now.
But I'm having trouble with the tone, it keeps shifting from true horror with elements of Lovecraft, Body Horror and surreal images and a somewhat Dexter-ish pitch black comedy tone.
But I'm having trouble with the tone, it keeps shifting from true horror with elements of Lovecraft, Body Horror and surreal images and a somewhat Dexter-ish pitch black comedy tone.
I'm not sure I see how that would be any better. See, it strikes me as the conflict between the two demon factions isn't based on anything like two opposed 'morality constants'. It might be more interesting if the conflict between them was like a real-world war, being motivated by more pragmatic/varied factors than a simple 'opposed poles' approach. Maybe the world they come from is dying, or at least sufferring from severe shortages?crotalidian said:
I don't think there's much risk for using the terms either. The 'evil' side are considered such mainly because their end goal is conquest and subjegation of earth (but maybe some of them aren't that keen on wiping out all human life violently? Maybe because a full military invasion would be too costly in their own lives, or there's too much risk the humans would adopt scorched earth tactics rendering victory empty? Maybe they think 'farming' humans would be better than a full slaughter - not wanting to repeat mistakes they made back on their own world? Maybe even some of the demons on earth-side are showing signs of 'going native'?).
The 'good' side are only called that because they don't want their enemies taking over earth, but who says they care about what happens to the humans beyond just stopping their enemies? (might explain why they just abandoned Cy with humans instead of imprisoning her somewhere) One idea: some of this faction - maybe having noticed earth's rather large stockpile of nuclear weapons; maybe having a hidden ace up their sleeve - are actually banking on the demon lord coming through so they can kill him. Maybe this group are the ones responsible for bringing Cy through, and have kept her alive as bait - rather than simply decapitating her and having done with it?
Even barring that, there's the implication that even if the 'bad' demons are stopped/killed the 'good' ones might well make a power-grab of their own. Maybe the pickings on earth are quite tempting. Perhaps there's even some collusion with a few of the more open-minded/ambitious 'evil' demons - shut-off the gateways and share rule of earth rather than simply spend your life as a subbordinate to the demon-lord (who maybe hasn't been listening to your advice and reports much). Maybe an arrangement like this is why Cy's still alive?
Not sure if any of these ideas grab you at all (some may well not be in keeping with your vision) but it's the best I can do at short notice. I might have some more character-related input later.
I have something more than this to add, but I'm strapped for time, so I'll add what I can.
Scrap the premise of "Good vs evil" or "Order vs chaos". Give you villains a reason to be pricks. Dirty your protagonists hands. Make these characters appear as people and your readers will be able to remain attracted to the story in general.
The main thing that attracts people to Elfen Lied is the fact that Nyu/Lucy, while destructive, is they represent a person's light and dark halves, respectively. While her struggle is one that becomes far more apparent as the story moves on, that's something that we all deal with and we all can relate to. Furthermore, the dichlonii are also persecuted simply due to the premise of them being different and potentially dangerous. Any of the target audience can relate to that.
Scrap the premise of "Good vs evil" or "Order vs chaos". Give you villains a reason to be pricks. Dirty your protagonists hands. Make these characters appear as people and your readers will be able to remain attracted to the story in general.
The main thing that attracts people to Elfen Lied is the fact that Nyu/Lucy, while destructive, is they represent a person's light and dark halves, respectively. While her struggle is one that becomes far more apparent as the story moves on, that's something that we all deal with and we all can relate to. Furthermore, the dichlonii are also persecuted simply due to the premise of them being different and potentially dangerous. Any of the target audience can relate to that.
I've been brainstorming ideas and working on a really good book/screenplay for a long time now and so far i've got some good ideas. I will tell you this if you want to be respected and and not mocked take your work seriously(not saying you aren't just saying take it seriously) and if you're going to make something CRAZY and spectacular make it serious. don't have any point where it drops and mocks it'self. I'll give you the best 2 examples i can give and they seem a little cliche'. The Dark Knight and Inception. ok the Dark Knight, most super hero movies tend to go off to this place of well unrealism where it mock's itself and says to it's audience you know this isn't real and so do I. Now i know you're writing a book but same concept. Now The Dark Knight took something like Batman and made it believable by making it ultra realistic. If you don't want to take that route go the Inception route. Now even though it wasn't a super hero movie it still had a really really really outrages plot and story. Now though it may have done more than one thing right the biggest was it took itself seriously(i'm referring to Christopher Nolan) and never told or hinted that this world or Leo's abilities were infact fake or movie magic and in a way made alot of people think hmmm is that posssible because even though truly impossible it made it believable because it took itself seriously. this is the greatest advice i can give a fellow writer.
No problem.Niagro said:
Yeah... there's a bit of a problem on the horizon here. Now, Faction A kidnapped her as an infant to begin with (possibly as a hostage?) and brought her through the gate to earth (or maybe they didn't know who she was when they brought her through? Something to consider). Given that they probably must be aware of the effect her presence has, I don't see why they'd just abandon her. True she's near invulnerable, but that's not quite the same as being completely invulnerable. Even if they couldn't kill her, why not just keep her locked-up somwhere? Or indeed just raise her as one of their own as A and B don't appear to be different species (or maybe someone did try, abandoning her to try and protect her maybe?).
Point being, just up and abandoning her seems a very strange thing to do.
Maybe someone (or someones) have been secretly helping her? Maybe some of her powers (latent perhaps?) could be put to other uses beyond just opening the gate?
I'm also wondering which country this is going to be taking place in. It's not hugely relevent, but it might help in coming up with character suggestions and especially names (the protagonist is meant to be part of a group of friends after all).
Speaking of whom (he kind of needs a name btw, I'll refer to him as 'P' for now), we have the relationship with his parents - note: I'm not a fan of the 'invisible parents' trope that a lot of 'high school' settings use so this may not be entirely applicable. Given that his parents are now on opposite sides (or are they? maybe one's loyalties lie with the other side) they probably aren't living together anymore (unless there's some really elaborate deception going on), which would probably mean that P has spent more time (relatively speaking) with one than the other. I'd be inclined to assume that it's his father who he's been with since the split (maybe not though, depends on how skilled the resistence is). Probably doesn't share his father's loyalties to the government (if not, maybe his father is protecting him is he's ever vocal about his views? Or maybe he isn't that opposed to the government in principle after all?). As he gets dragged into events surrounding the demon war, maybe has a reunion with his mother (affectionate? Strained? during a conflict on the same side? During a conflict on opposite sides?). Probably not that close to his father to begin with, relationship worsens as the story progresses (or maybe it gets repaired? Just who's side does he end-up fighting for, if any?).
I'm trying to write a superhero novel (it's actually a mash up of DC, and Bronze age + recent super hero novels with a dash of Edios's Hitman series) and what I noticed is that you going to need a theme...like, War is bad, or we need peace.
Something like that.
Another thing I think you should do is avoid posting information like that online, since it's very easy for people to take it.
I hope you are able to bring your work to life.
Something like that.
Another thing I think you should do is avoid posting information like that online, since it's very easy for people to take it.
I hope you are able to bring your work to life.
Can I just give you some generic but useful advice. Don't be afraid to kill your babies, if something doesn't work scrap it.
Just a note, demons can work as chaotic evil, it's usualyl better to give things degree of morality but Lovecraft works just fine as does Tolkien.
How likely do you think an anime is? Far better to think of a comic book/ graphic novel/ manga as that is hard enough (that assumes you can draw or can find a partnership with someone who can)
Just a note, demons can work as chaotic evil, it's usualyl better to give things degree of morality but Lovecraft works just fine as does Tolkien.
How likely do you think an anime is? Far better to think of a comic book/ graphic novel/ manga as that is hard enough (that assumes you can draw or can find a partnership with someone who can)
1: Those are morals rather than themes (specifially: a moral is a message that a work tries to impart; a theme is an issue or topic that a work explores)Dr. wonderful said:
2: Having a moral isn't necessary for a work to be good
3: The concept as it stands is suited to several potential themes anyway.
It's not bad advice, it's just a not necessary IMO.
I wouldn't think many people would be planning on plaragiarising this, as it's barely even a skeleton structure of a story.