Having trouble developing ideas for my stories

Hi everyone, I am new to the forums and I would love to hear some of your opinions on how I can help getting a little head start on how I can get the plot of my stories so they make more sense and the rest I can figure out on my own. It is a sci-fi story plot but I also want it to have some realistic and reality base to it.

Ok, here's some of the basics ...one is a story that has to do with a young boy (about in his teens) who starts out as a young martial arts student that enters a martial arts cage fighting tournament in order to protect his families home, he has to win in order to keep his family safe. He surprisingly wins but due to the boss and organization that held the fights being so impressed by his winnings and fighting skills, they kidnap him to a military base where he is unwillingly forced to become a young soldier along with other young soldiers like him who are taken and brought into this facility.(e.i think the movie Soldier or Halo's plot with kids trained into Spartans) The leaders of the facility would actually be bad and as he gets older later on, he would be facing off against the head commander leader who would be one of the main villains later in the plot when the boy is grown up. I was thinking if it would fit better if the bad guy leader would be some kind of general commander/military colonel of some sort cause it would be a military/combat base setting he was taken to with tons of weapon armory/firearms training, or if the villain leader at the base was some kind of ninja/martial arts modern warrior master and the facility would be more of a ninja, karate combat and martial art fighting secret based facility with martial art weapons training and such?

My other main plot is trying to figure out how my story can make sense with being a samurai themed character in a modern day world. Either I go the sci-fi route and he just has the concepts of a samurai warrior using modern technology (like an enhanced high tech katana) or a samurai warrior from the past that is now living into the modern world by some mystic device that brought him there? Of course he would be using his medieval Japanese weapons and training from his own time period.

I would appreciate any help or advise, thank you.

 

Brandon Sanderson (Mistborne series and Stormlight archive) did a lecture series at Brigham Young a while back. Videos of those lectures are available on you tube. You might be able to find some answers there.

 

Okay, so let me get this straight. Your main character is a younger-to-older teen who has to enter into a martial arts tournament in order to protect his family. He wins and his performance is so impressive that the organizer of the tournament, an evil military commander, has him kidnapped and taken to a training facility to be forcibly trained as some kind of Haloguy Space Marine.

Well it looks like your basic plot leaves a lot of room for some world building. You should expand who this evil army is, how they maintain control and what their extent of control is. Is the military a ruling government in itself, or is it a military sub-branch of another government? Is this evil general character the de facto leader of the country/world, or is he a subordinate to someone else? Someone else in the military or some kind of President or something. If he's not a de facto leader, are his actions and plans known or approved by his superiors? Is he acting rogue, and if so, why?

Your story can make perfect sense with samurai themes in a modern/futuristic world. You made up your own answers, even. They can be like modern day "cyber samurai" (think maybe the character Genji from the game Overwatch, if you can stomach thinking about Overwatch for any longer than a few seconds). Alternatively, a samurai from the past is brought to the present through an unexplained technological or scientific means will also work fine (you don't necessarily need to explain how this worked on a logical level, you can just write "the time machine brought the samurai to today" and it'll be good enough, though some may criticize such a shallow explanation).

 

Thanks, I will look more into that.

 

Yes, that's the basic premise of what it would be starting out as.

I would have it that the evil corporate/organizer would be responsible behind closed doors for the tournament and the military that is run by the evil commander, which has the boy kidnapped into. The military would be a separate organization run under the evil corporate. I haven't decided if this military would be run by a corporate tied to the government secretly, be it's own private military gone rogue that the evil general would run privately but I'm thinking ties to a government of some sort or a mix of both. I was thinking of making it a secret martial arts base and the evil commander being an evil martial arts ninja instead. Would that be a little too far fetched and seem too out of place? Would love your opinion. Thank you.

That might work, thanks. Yeah I was thinking just now how Overwatch how they do have a cyber futuristic samurai. I was thinking of maybe merging the "future cyber samurai" plot with the kidnapped soldier boy or just keep the cyber samurai on it's own and still have the "past samurai" story be used but now a past samurai could work with a time machine but explaining how a modern cyber samurai knows how to use feudal samurai combat skills may be a little harder, considering samurai training is no longer used in the modern day world compared to combat training today.

 

There's nothing wrong with this evil commander guy also being a ninja martial artist dude. Maybe his proficiency in martial arts is kept hidden and whenever he appears in public, he seems no different than an average man.

A modern-day 'samurai fanboy' can still study antiquated manuscripts written in in the feudal era that describes how people fought using weapons like a katana blade. Maybe this character is so in love with samurai that he's forced it as a kind of new way of combat that everyone must adhere to. Some sort of ultra-dictator who has conquered the world and does away with powerful firearms and other advanced weapons, and now the law is that everyone must fight with only melee weapons and study 'the samurai way'.

 

That could work too. He would have to be very imposing and intimidating looking while still blending in when in public. Thank you for the input.

This sounds good. Do you mean the fanboy being the villain of the story and forcing the hero to adhere to the old ways? Or the hero himself being the one responsible for it?

 

I mean the villain might be the 'super fanboy' who has somehow conquered the country/world/whatever, and has revoked all modern firearms and weapons, forcing the world the hero lives in to devolve back to the age of swords and melee weaponry/hand-to-hand combat.

 

Sounds good. After reading this it actually reminded me of a similar idea to the show, Into the Badlands which is pretty cool.

 

Somewhat unoriginal premise aside, I think the martial arts stuff is okay. Martial arts is kind of in that "classic" territory, like westerns or vampires or whatever. What I think might help greatly alleviate the very cliche nature of the hero being forced to fight in order to save his family is if it's more like the hero signs up to fight on his own volition, in order to win some kind of prize money or reward or whatever. His skills catch the eye of the villain, and he's kidnapped.

To be brutal, it's a pretty unoriginal concept either way, but SilentWave can still have fun with it. Writing and working with an unoriginal idea is a great way to make mistakes that will help you learn. If he goes with an angle of 'super powerful dictator outlaws all modern weapons and forces everyone to be samurai', he has the basis of at least an interesting concept.

 

True, it does sound a bit of a cliche plot with the whole "Karate Kid" thing, (young hero trying to fight to win in the tournament for the good of his friends and family) but it would only be a beginning part of his life in the story like an introduction to further enhance the plot. I do see what you're saying though. Maybe I could have it that he lost his family and everything so the only way he could survive is to enter the tournament an then gets kidnapped? Or I could do is have his skills got noticed by a martial art instructor at like a dojo, fighting gym, sparring or some other competition and he was lured in by this trainer ( who is secretly working for the organization as an undercover spectator), telling the boy how his skills look amazing and he should join the tournament. He joins, wins gets noticed by the leader who runs it and has the young teen captured into becoming the brainwashed soldier? Or just go with him being interested in joining the tournament for a prize, test his skills, etc., gets noticed and then kidnapped?

Well I would have him probably fighting from a background of some sort of mixed martial arts training, maybe some Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo and other styles mixed in his background that prove usefulness on the battlefield . Plus he'd be learning much more through the years in combat.

I was actually considering that. If it works to make the story's concept fit better then I may choose that path.

I can't say I have lots of knowledge, though I do have some knowledge and understandings of it, but I'd probably have to do a lot more research myself, considering it would have to make sense why they would choose this boy into their military zone since he would have to show some sort of skill or toughness that they would want to recruit him. Or they just see him as an easy catch so they could get more brainwashed numbers to do their shady missions for them.

 

I agree and I do not mind the criticism since any feedback that any of you guys have I am thankful for. The idea of him joining for a prize/reward has crossed my mind. Though I really did want it to seem like it was done intentionally by someone else to get him to join so they could catch him or did it for very reasonable motives that were not based off of fame, which would make him different and maybe give the military/organization even more reasons to want to capture and break him.

I still find that concept interesting. Are you saying it could make sense if I merge that story with the fighting soldier plot? Cause maybe that could help the story out more, or I'll just keep the modern/samurai dictator plot a separate story that's mainly focused on the "samurai" world.

Thank you guys for your advice and feedback.

 

I think you could merge them, yeah. An insane dictator somehow takes control of the country/world, forcing everyone to use melee weapons (such as samurai swords). MC enters a tournament for whatever reason you decide, wins it and is kidnapped to be part of this insane dictator's "honor guard" force, where he's trained in the dictator's skewed version of the samurai code. MC escapes. That's a premise you could have some kind of fun with.

 

That's a great possibility. So being that he would force the world into only using melee weapons, maybe it could be that he not only enforces the samurai code but other forms and type of styles of melee combat existing throughout the world that dictator would also have enforced and have training in? (e.i claymores, broadswords, viking axes, knight codes, etc) or does that complicate things and just sticking to the world follows the "samurai code" keep the plot more balanced?

I was thinking that the MC would have ancestory or some family heritage that trace back to the old days of samurai and one of his relatives has trained him into the martial art skills which the dictator commander noticed at the tournament and got influenced by the MC skills and heritage, convincing himself to want to emphasize more on the samurai ways and honor, adding to his already melee weapons society (considering the dictators already obsessive with being a martial arts, military, melee swords fanboy) is that displaying too much at once?

I appreciate all the help. I'm just trying to make it have sense with some reason.

 

If you've ever read Dune, one of the premises of the setting is that energy shield technology can provide a near-impervious defence against ranged weapons, but provide less protection up close, because the shields don't block attacks below a certain speed. Something like that could give a rationale for why melee combat has made a resurgence in the setting. Alternatively, perhaps mystical elements (or the scientific unlocking of previously mysterious "chi") can give martial artists an edge against ranged attackers--for example, they can sense where the enemy is going to attack and dodge even before they take the shot, or can use super-speed or invisibility to close the gap.

Don't worry too much about being "unoriginal". Originality is good, but don't get hung up on it if you just want to do an old story well. I'm a firm believer in execution trumping concept every time, and cliches became that way for a reason--people like them, and usually only protest when the cliche is obvious or badly handled enough that it distracts from the story.

 

This would be a good explanation as to why all the melee weapons/swords have become superior in use. My question on this is how could I make it so both melee weapons/sword fighting and firearms coexist together in a world where melee has outlawed guns and such? Or just stick with an all melee weapons/swords society? Maybe I could have the evil commander villain only allow the use of enhanced firearms and ammunition combined with the melee to be used only for his most loyal henchmen/soldiers/authorities, etc and have others not as loyal or those he could care less about only allowed melee weapons?

I agree I just don't want it to sound too cliche where it's dry and overused. I know I could easily figure this one out as I put more work into it. My one concern is my main hero's background heritage. I thought of having him being Caucasian mixed or South American mixed. Some get annoyed when a martial arts/samurai sword wielding character is non Asian. I did think of making him Japanese but would making him non Asian or white be too cliche as in white washed?

Thank you.

 

I'll look into this as well since I've heard great things about "The Last Colony" as well as "Dune"

 

Thanks, I will do. Sorry for going on so much. Just that I've been criticized a lot before with my writings.