Write a shonen-style anime script about writing.

[Jemini]

I just got this idea from a little rant I got triggered into by someone trying to complain about it being too hard to improve their writing past certain issues, even after I told them the exact method I used to get past the same issue.

The line in particular that got me going off was when I never once said the solution was easy. In fact, I made it pretty clear in my advice for the issue that the process was rather involved and pain-staking, but I was just offering direction that would keep them from uselessly bashing their head against the wall.

Their response was something along the lines of "So you're saying that it's easy?"

So, this set me off on explaining that this process of improvement of your craft is really something more like the plot of a shonen anime. The important points are that you never give up, and you accept help from your mentors and your friends.

The road to improvement in any life path is like this. It is something Japan got very right with their Shonen anime plots. If someone could ever write a plot like that about improving your writing skills though, that would be meta to the most epic level imaginable and might be quite inspiring to anyone who is struggling with all the various issues writers face on their path to improvement.

The only question is, how to add enough engagement to such a plot to bring a reader/viewer along for the ride? I was inspired by how relevant an analogy it was, but I would have absolutely no clue as to how to overcome this hurdle. So, thought I would throw it out to the community for some ideas.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I just got this idea from a little rant I got triggered into by someone trying to complain about it being too hard to improve their writing past certain issues, even after I told them the exact method I used to get past the same issue.

The line in particular that got me going off was when I never once said the solution was easy. In fact, I made it pretty clear in my advice for the issue that the process was rather involved and pain-staking, but I was just offering direction that would keep them from uselessly bashing their head against the wall.

Their response was something along the lines of "So you're saying that it's easy?"

So, this set me off on explaining that this process of improvement of your craft is really something more like the plot of a shonen anime. The important points are that you never give up, and you accept help from your mentors and your friends.

The road to improvement in any life path is like this. It is something Japan got very right with their Shonen anime plots. If someone could ever write a plot like that about improving your writing skills though, that would be meta to the most epic level imaginable and might be quite inspiring to anyone who is struggling with all the various issues writers face on their path to improvement.

The only question is, how to add enough engagement to such a plot to bring a reader/viewer along for the ride? I was inspired by how relevant an analogy it was, but I would have absolutely no clue as to how to overcome this hurdle. So, thought I would throw it out to the community for some ideas.

Off the top of my head, probably something like Bakuman? Pretty meta and technical wrapped inside the tropes and story beats of a pseudo-sports anime.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

Fantasy stories are pretty popular, specially those with god-like OP MCs. So why not make an MC who's a literal god? Like they're omnipotent and are the creator of their own universe, their conflict is building their universe in a way that they get 'tourists'(basically readers) for some god premium currency. Sprinkle in some meta jokes here, some moral dilemmas there, and make some analogies to writing. Like the mc fucking up their world thanks to a bunch of plotholes and now they have to rewind time to fix it. Where the god mc has to practically rebuild(rewrite) their world(story) and all the people(characters) because reality collapsed(the plot was shitty).

I just got this idea from a little rant I got triggered into by someone trying to complain about it being too hard to improve their writing past certain issues, even after I told them the exact method I used to get past the same issue.

The line in particular that got me going off was when I never once said the solution was easy. In fact, I made it pretty clear in my advice for the issue that the process was rather involved and pain-staking, but I was just offering direction that would keep them from uselessly bashing their head against the wall.

Their response was something along the lines of "So you're saying that it's easy?"

So, this set me off on explaining that this process of improvement of your craft is really something more like the plot of a shonen anime. The important points are that you never give up, and you accept help from your mentors and your friends.

The road to improvement in any life path is like this. It is something Japan got very right with their Shonen anime plots. If someone could ever write a plot like that about improving your writing skills though, that would be meta to the most epic level imaginable and might be quite inspiring to anyone who is struggling with all the various issues writers face on their path to improvement.

The only question is, how to add enough engagement to such a plot to bring a reader/viewer along for the ride? I was inspired by how relevant an analogy it was, but I would have absolutely no clue as to how to overcome this hurdle. So, thought I would throw it out to the community for some ideas.

Actually, I just realized, I already have a draft that somewhat fits the bill. It's called Planeswalker's agency, and the MCs are two planeswalkers who take requests from gods to fix whatever is wrong with their worlds. They do it in a very roundabout manner that involves using only in-world powers, though.

 

[Jemini]

Fantasy stories are pretty popular, specially those with god-like OP MCs. So why not make an MC who's a literal god? Like they're omnipotent and are the creator of their own universe, their conflict is building their universe in a way that they get 'tourists'(basically readers) for some god premium currency. Sprinkle in some meta jokes here, some moral dilemmas there, and make some analogies to writing. Like the mc fucking up their world thanks to a bunch of plotholes and now they have to rewind time to fix it. Where the god mc has to practically rebuild(rewrite) their world(story) and all the people(characters) because reality collapsed(the plot was shitty).

When I first read this, I thought it was an interesting and entirely viable idea, but not quite a direction I could wrap my head around or be comfortable in. Then... I remembered Tale Foundry's piece they did on Terry Pratchett. Using Pratchett's approach of keeping the entire narration conversational as though it is a story being told by a person the reader is sitting down with in a room somewhere could make this a very viable approach, especially if you add in another aspect of Pratchett's approach where the narration sounds like it's being told by a drunk man searching for the correct term to use and always stammering and stuttering as the story is being told.

You could write with your normal voice while introducing the character's powers, and then shift into a Pratchett-esque voice as soon as you shift into the part where it's giving your MC's story.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Off the top of my head, probably something like Bakuman? Pretty meta and technical wrapped inside the tropes and story beats of a pseudo-sports anime.

literally, my first thought when i read the post

I just got this idea from a little rant I got triggered into by someone trying to complain about it being too hard to improve their writing past certain issues, even after I told them the exact method I used to get past the same issue.

The line in particular that got me going off was when I never once said the solution was easy. In fact, I made it pretty clear in my advice for the issue that the process was rather involved and pain-staking, but I was just offering direction that would keep them from uselessly bashing their head against the wall.

Their response was something along the lines of "So you're saying that it's easy?"

So, this set me off on explaining that this process of improvement of your craft is really something more like the plot of a shonen anime. The important points are that you never give up, and you accept help from your mentors and your friends.

The road to improvement in any life path is like this. It is something Japan got very right with their Shonen anime plots. If someone could ever write a plot like that about improving your writing skills though, that would be meta to the most epic level imaginable and might be quite inspiring to anyone who is struggling with all the various issues writers face on their path to improvement.

The only question is, how to add enough engagement to such a plot to bring a reader/viewer along for the ride? I was inspired by how relevant an analogy it was, but I would have absolutely no clue as to how to overcome this hurdle. So, thought I would throw it out to the community for some ideas.

bro we have so many examples of great writing from author talented, famous authors that if there's something you don't like about your own writing, there's literally no excuse to not go and read some more stories and learn how other people do it.

Now this might be hard if you only read certain types of stories. Why? Because there are clear differences between stories written by people of different cultures.
Japanese stories, for example, are more dialogue heavy but bare bones in descriptions with exaggerated reactions from the characters. And the characters are often not very complex, or rather not deeply explored.
Meanwhile hard or soft cover stories written by people of western countries tend to have less dialogue but more descriptive and the characters are the main focus. Their personalities shine through better as they are developed better, and the story-telling aspect is also usually better. In short, the world feels more immersive and full compared to japanese stories. This isn't always true, as I've read some great japanese works, but that's just the general rule of thumb.

So if you ONLY read a certain type of novel, its going to be hard to learn other skills when it comes to writing. Hell, I've gotten used to writing a certain way too. But its not like i cant go back and read my favorite western stories if my goal was to write a western-styled story. (i don't like using the word western like this tho cuz i feel like people are gonna think about cowboys and gunslingers.)

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

When I first read this, I thought it was an interesting and entirely viable idea, but not quite a direction I could wrap my head around or be comfortable in. Then... I remembered Tale Foundry's piece they did on Terry Pratchett. Using Pratchett's approach of keeping the entire narration conversational as though it is a story being told by a person the reader is sitting down with in a room somewhere could make this a very viable approach, especially if you add in another aspect of Pratchett's approach where the narration sounds like it's being told by a drunk man searching for the correct term to use and always stammering and stuttering as the story is being told.

You could write with your normal voice while introducing the character's powers, and then shift into a Pratchett-esque voice as soon as you shift into the part where it's giving your MC's story.

You know what, fck it, I'm gonna go for broke! I'm only writing one story rn, so I may as well do a side project, I hope you don't mind me using your idea and twisting it around a little. I've already got the basis of the story down: A recently ascended god who's bored and wants to make a world, he seeks advice from his friend group on how to make it better, but he's conflicted if he's truly making the world he wants, or a world that only appeals to others for the clout.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

You know what, fck it, I'm gonna go for broke! I'm only writing one story rn, so I may as well do a side project, I hope you don't mind me using your idea and twisting it around a little. I've already got the basis of the story down: A recently ascended god who's bored and wants to make a world, he seeks advice from his friend group on how to make it better, but he's conflicted if he's truly making the world he wants, or a world that only appeals to others for the clout.

have him lace the atmosphere with trace bits of ecstacy and see what happens 0.o

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

have him lace the atmosphere with trace bits of ecstacy and see what happens 0.o

MC: Oh sounds hella fun. Wait what about the children-
IBI(Interdimensional Bereau of Investigation) OPEN UP!!!

 

[SakeVision]

I just got this idea from a little rant I got triggered into by someone trying to complain about it being too hard to improve their writing past certain issues, even after I told them the exact method I used to get past the same issue.

The line in particular that got me going off was when I never once said the solution was easy. In fact, I made it pretty clear in my advice for the issue that the process was rather involved and pain-staking, but I was just offering direction that would keep them from uselessly bashing their head against the wall.

Their response was something along the lines of "So you're saying that it's easy?"

So, this set me off on explaining that this process of improvement of your craft is really something more like the plot of a shonen anime. The important points are that you never give up, and you accept help from your mentors and your friends.

The road to improvement in any life path is like this. It is something Japan got very right with their Shonen anime plots. If someone could ever write a plot like that about improving your writing skills though, that would be meta to the most epic level imaginable and might be quite inspiring to anyone who is struggling with all the various issues writers face on their path to improvement.

The only question is, how to add enough engagement to such a plot to bring a reader/viewer along for the ride? I was inspired by how relevant an analogy it was, but I would have absolutely no clue as to how to overcome this hurdle. So, thought I would throw it out to the community for some ideas.

ah, can't wait until my writing gets a sudden boost when a childhood friend gets murdered in front of my eyes

or when my friends come cheering me up by leaving fake positive reviews and it will make me breakthrough the writers block and write over 9000 words every day

last but not least, there is nothing quite like surpassing your writing rival and then they become your subscriber and give up on their own book to bump yours

 

[Aoi_Sora]

"Writing one shonen-tyle" anime scene"

Kills important character > MC rages > MC charging up a powerful attack > Write a flashback that will run through 100 chapters, 2k words each about MC and that character's history > Goes back to present > Write a scene in another place that will run like 50 chapters > Goes back to the fight > MC throws that attack...

Wait... did I just write some bootlegged Naruto x Dragonball fanfiction story concept?

 

[Jemini]

ah, can't wait until my writing gets a sudden boost when a childhood friend gets murdered in front of my eyes

or when my friends come cheering me up by leaving fake positive reviews and it will make me breakthrough the writers block and write over 9000 words every day

last but not least, there is nothing quite like surpassing your writing rival and then they become your subscriber and give up on their own book to bump yours

You know the scary thing? That's literally how it actually works. The best artists are always the one who have a ton of pain in their real lives. (Especially in the area of music.) So, painful experiences actually DO boost your writing ability.

Goodness. I think I am actually starting to see where a lot of the shonen tropes come from.

bro we have so many examples of great writing from author talented, famous authors that if there's something you don't like about your own writing, there's literally no excuse to not go and read some more stories and learn how other people do it.

Now this might be hard if you only read certain types of stories. Why? Because there are clear differences between stories written by people of different cultures.
Japanese stories, for example, are more dialogue heavy but bare bones in descriptions with exaggerated reactions from the characters. And the characters are often not very complex, or rather not deeply explored.
Meanwhile hard or soft cover stories written by people of western countries tend to have less dialogue but more descriptive and the characters are the main focus. Their personalities shine through better as they are developed better, and the story-telling aspect is also usually better. In short, the world feels more immersive and full compared to japanese stories. This isn't always true, as I've read some great japanese works, but that's just the general rule of thumb.

So if you ONLY read a certain type of novel, its going to be hard to learn other skills when it comes to writing. Hell, I've gotten used to writing a certain way too. But its not like i cant go back and read my favorite western stories if my goal was to write a western-styled story. (i don't like using the word western like this tho cuz i feel like people are gonna think about cowboys and gunslingers.)

Err... was that directed toward me, or in co-miseration with me? I do hope you realize that my issue was about another author wanting to just complain about it being hard even after I offered them a solution.

The whole idea I posted in the OP is in hopes of having some kind of story out there that might inspire people toward improving their writing in particular, and create an entertaining guide to help them conceptualize what the process of improving your craft really looks like and how hard it actually is to go through each grueling step on the path to improvement.

You know what, fck it, I'm gonna go for broke! I'm only writing one story rn, so I may as well do a side project, I hope you don't mind me using your idea and twisting it around a little. I've already got the basis of the story down: A recently ascended god who's bored and wants to make a world, he seeks advice from his friend group on how to make it better, but he's conflicted if he's truly making the world he wants, or a world that only appeals to others for the clout.

Dude, we were literally just bouncing ideas off of each other. It's just as much your idea as it is mine at this point.

You can go ahead and use the aspects of the idea that are mine if you don't mind me maybe someday going my own direction that will likely make use of the aspects of the idea that were yours as well.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

Dude, we were literally just bouncing ideas off of each other. It's just as much your idea as it is mine at this point.

You can go ahead and use the aspects of the idea that are mine if you don't mind me maybe someday going my own direction that will likely make use of the aspects of the idea that were yours as well.

Yeah, feel free to, I mean I literally put my ideas up for all to take in the forum because I don't have time to write all of em.

 

[SakeVision]

You know the scary thing? That's literally how it actually works. The best artists are always the one who have a ton of pain in their real lives. (Especially in the area of music.)

painful experiences in the area of music? like slamming your head against the piano in frustration and breaking your forehead, getting blood all over the keys as your double vision fades away?

 

[Cipiteca396]

I'm not a hundred percent certain about this... I didn't watch it after all. But anyone interested in this concept might want to watch the anime SSSS.Gridman.

I saw a summary of it on YouTube, and despite the seeming lack of relation to the topic, just go with me on this. Or watch a summary like I did, if you seriously don't want to watch the real thing.