I just started writing recently, started out with boredom but now im enjoying it. The problem is, somehow i made a somewhat OP character and i didn't knew that i did it right. Also i'm afraid that my MC has too many generic MC tropes on him. So he's a man thrown away by his parents in a forest due to his physical deformity (his left eye is pitch black), and was adopted by a poor old Vietnam veteran. He somehow turns out to be a brilliant scientist as a child, but his deformity turns all his schoolmates to his bully, all except one girl named Sarah. After the death (and a fate worse than that) of his father due to a disease he spent his entire life trying to cure, he suffers panaroid tendencies, thinking that he should purge the world by killing all the "evil" person on this planet so Sarah wouldn't share the same fate. But as he was one button away from killing everyone on his list, something happened and now he have to save the world that he despised. He's a scientist, and also a combatant. He made a gadget that could extract antimatters for usage, using "human emotions" as the source. He could use that to either just blast things with it, or to construct something like Green Lantern. That means he could create weapons out of nowhere, with limitations of course. He also could teleport himself or others with his gadgets, but not freely, only to a designated route set before. He also have thousands of followers, consists of people he have "saved" throughout his journey. He also has a unique medical condition that could be both a strength or weakness: he have more sensitive nerves than normal humans. Positive side, he sees and hears thing clearer, but the negative side, sensation of pain inflicted to him would be multiplied (what should feel like a papercut to everyone else would hurt him like a fruit knife, for example) I tried to put in some weaknesses on him. Besides the "multiplied pain", his nerves also somehow makes his brain correspond to anger in a unique way, in which he could lose control over himself and be a full-berserker guy once he see Sarah gets hurt (he won't turn to Hulk-like creature, his appearance won't change at all). More than that, his enemies aren't thugs or mafias or bribed polices like what he used to fight, since he will defend the earth from Demons of hell. Also, he he convinced all his followers that he is not God or the one He chose — though a lot of people think so, i just want to make him as human as possible. Im not even sure if im doing writing right, because sometimes i reread the script i just wrote and cringed myself.
I hate to say it but it sounds like a pastiche of Phantom of the Opera, Tarzan, Darkman, amongst others. However... It's all in the execution, as most people here will tell you. It's how you tell the story that will make it unique. Every trope has been done at least 6438.7 times.
Hi there, and welcome to the forum. I see you're brand-new here. The clue to your dilemma might lie in the title of this thread. "Over-powered." Maybe you've given this character too many special powers ...to where he's having an awfully easy time (angst aside) getting through the problems you're setting for him. Just tacking on a couple of 'weaknesses' just so he's got some can seem artifical. Maybe take a few of the special powers your character has and explore what the dark side of these powers might be. Okay, they make certain things easier for him than normal people, but they might also make other things more difficult? (For him AND for normal people.) You've touched on this idea with his medical situation, but try to apply it to his other powers as well. You might find the core of your story, just exploring the consequences of his special powers. They will certainly have consequences.
Thank you. That's what im currently working on here. His "antimatter generator" was actually not his powers; it's a gadget that he created, and of course it comes with consequences. The generator is acactivated by biological changes happened to human body due to emotions (mostly negative ones like wrath or grief, since they're stronger), but using too much of it would harm his body, or even death. Also, his "weapon making" also have some limits. He could create things like swords, shields, spears, or hammers, but a complicated weapon like guns or rocket launcher is harder, although not impossible, and with more risks of death to the user. And with the "berserker mode", it is his main weakness. First, he feared that he could hurt Sarah in that wrathful form if she's around, so he tried his best to control it, or get rid of it if the first one is not possible. Second, the main villain will use this for his own benefit — spamming his worst fears on his face so he could achieve this mode, losing his control, and thus his intelligence.
I'm only worried that the "orphaned and bullied MC" tropes would bore my readers during the first few lines or the story. Although he never cared of his biological parents' identity, he'd still eventually find out why his parents would dump him, though he never wanted to know. I don't know, sometimes i think like im writing the best thing i've ever created while the other times i'd feel like writing a horrible Twilight fanfic.
Yeah. When you feel as if you're sliding down into a hole you don't really want to visit, climb out and try something else (by thinking, not necessarily changing what you've written ...till you're sure.) Give him a different start, maybe? No bullying. No dead parents? Ask yourself a lot of 'what-if' questions. The fact that you recognise this scenario you set up MIGHT be a bit of a cliché is reason enough to examine it. Closely. And experiment with something else.
If your character's parents were shot to death in an alley after going to the theatre, and that makes your MC want to dress up in a mammal-related costume and beat up individual muggers and thieves, then you know you probably need to start again.
I really appreciate this. I tried to twist the tropes a bit instead of changing them, though i don't know how this would work out. Example: he actually don't mind being bullied. Not that he's not sad about it, it's just that his father always taught him to mercy his opponents, so he let them to mock himself (sometimes he baited the bullies onto him so they could stay away from Sarah, he just don't want her to get hurt). But up to a certain point, there was an act where he finally stood up and said "it's enough", where he finally dumped his father's teachings, as he thought he won't be able to protect Sarah, and avenge his father with his "good guy" principles. And he also accepted his father's death. That old man died of disease, and thought he couldn't find a way to cure it, he is happy that his father no longer suffers. But two months later, the bullies pulled him there just to trash away his grave, and the main bully even pissed on that grave only to assert his dominance. That's his turning point, so i don't know if i could remove the "dead parent" trope from him.
Im lucky that i don't know how to draw because if i did i probably gonna draw him this way. Except he lived his childhood in poverty so i thought they won't go to theatre.
Just thinking a bit. What if, instead of being a orphan, he has only lost one parent? (That way you can play with the pathos of losing a parent without making him an orphan, with the ensuing identity issues.) And maybe the surviving parent one is so proud of his achievements and powers that he (or she) smothers him and pressures him into doing things he isn't comfortable doing? Think 'child musical prodigy made to practice the piano all day long.' or the good looking child entered into umpteen beauty contests, or the smart or athletic child forced into competitions, when, in fact, they're not all that competitive. What if, instead of being bullied, he's actually revered, and his peers follow him around like puppy dogs wanting to see what he can do, and everybody wants to be his best friend? And maybe they not only drive him nuts, but drive him away? What kind of effect would these things have on his character? And how would they affect his 'present' outlook? And the things he's working on? If he grew up in poverty, how does that affect his outlook? Or you could give him a comfortable background, but with these powers he's got, he can't actually settle and live that kind of life. Either he is restless himself, or other people need what he's got and won't leave him alone. Play around with the ideas until one hits you as right. It's great advice, I reckon, never to take your first story idea and get stuck with it. It more often than not DOES stem from something you've heard before. I'd say it settle and push it around a bit. I'm not criticising your story at all, by the way, but responding to YOUR concern about it. You're the one sensing it needs something else. So go ahead and play around with what you could change. Yes, it might end up meaning a major rewrite. But if the alternative is clinging to something that's not working very well, just because it's there, it's certainly an idea to consider. Nothing you write is set in stone ...at least not till it gets published.
I really like all those idea. The problem is, i don't know if i should give that old Vietnam veteran a wife, since he was supposed to be old and lonely till he found baby MC, which is his new source of happiness. Also i want him to hate mostly everything in his life. God, world, his bullies, simply anything he deemed "evil". I want those bullies to treat him like a lowest scum on the history (simply because he's short, poor, physically deformed and also a big nerd), thus growing with a tall-stacked hatred that explodes once the main bully pissed on his dad's grave. The main bully will also play parts in the movie, growing a frenemy relationship with the MC, where MC finally accepted the fact that he should set his hatred aside till he's done with the demon businesses. I want his school life to be a hell simulator, not just because it's annoying him, but because of how he have to endure all the physical and mental pain people inflicted to him just for fun. I'm fine if you really want to criticise my story. I know i need that to improve not just as a writer, but also as a human being. Since it is my first time writing, i just like to hear the insights from other writers who are definitely more experienced than me so i could write better stuffs in ththe future, and/or making the one i'm writing now better.
