I Failed…

[Arch9CivilReactor]

You know how I was so proudly saying I’d write something dark. Turns out depressing content makes me feel bad. Crazy, right? You’d think I would’ve figured that out earlier. Not that I’m completely revamping what I currently got.

I’ve been inspired by games like Honkai (both) and manga like Ragna Crimson to write a more typical ‘Hero’ story. Currently sorting through various ideas that fit with the current power system I made in the ‘Architect Progress: Magic System’ posts. I’ll just put the darkness to the back and focus more on the Heroism themes.

The current idea I’m working on is having Lyla Walker the vessel for the real 13th Zodiac while her companions contract his two wives. She doesn’t gain the same level of strength as her peers but the god she contracted is a fighter.

He personally teaches her martial arts instead of leaving it as merely an ability for her to inherit.

Anything past that is undecided right now because I got a lot of endings to sort through and how it will connect with the initial premise of “heroes summoned to save the world”. Thinking of deconstructing how messed up it is for heroes to be possessing living people (Fritz Lazrik) and how a flawed sense of heroism can be a disaster.

Definitely want the struggles to be meaningful instead of suffering for the sake of it. Lyla will definitely be going through some of the typical hero’s journey tropes and subverting them a little.

An example is having her immediately set off to scour the final destination of her journey (basically what you’d call the Dark Lord’s Tower or Demon King’s Castle) and having her understand truths that would’ve been revealed sooner than what was expected of her.

The plans laid down by the dead heroes turns out to be incomplete. She and her companions to find a better solution for this mess.

That’s the base of the idea right now. Will be updating on where it will progress.

Let’s see where this goes…

 

[HouseDelarouxScribbles]

You are quite right that writing depressive stuff tends to affect mood; even while working on a never-released concept of a 'big comedy, big tragedy' story, I felt the pull of the tragedy part to be far too strong and stopped writing it because it made me sad.

If you ask me, the 'tragedy' part of Honkai is planned, but quite incidental to the series. You wouldn't dwell on it too much as a new player, even if being Kiana (or just having the family name Kaslana in general) is suffering. The players fall in love with Bronya, Kiana and not-Raiden-Shogun and their interactions far earlier than the suffering parts, it only really hits the player when tragedy hits the main players. Wendy was sad, but you didn't really feel that strongly for her until you realize its a whole loop (heh) that foreshadows what happens to Kiana.

I guess the thing about writing a tragicomedy is that 'you gotta have the sad parts, but you gotta have the happy parts too'. The happy parts keeps the readers coming back and invested in the story before the sad parts I think.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I had a horror story I lost to a hard drive crash that I kept having to step away from because it got so dark. Was about 2/3 done when I finished it and I keep wanting to go back but the darkness is a little scarier than the story itself...

 

[A_veil_of_red_ink]

Well, I read a dark novel or manga(like Berserk).
And get back to work. It gives great inspiration. (though I'm in my writer's block—not posted for a month).