The bullys appearance in my story.

I have a few different stories I'm putting together all within the same arc or at least closely connected on the same universe.

This specific story is supposed to be about an MC that had gone through being bullied as a kid, learned martial arts, and many other styles combined later on, discovers a deep connection to the martial arts that leads to some ancient underworld, which he learns of these powers he develops and will face these antagonists, eventually teaming up with others.

There's 2 ways this story path can go with how it all begins, which is what I need help deciding.

 

Interesting! I hope you are getting some words on the page already.

 

I'm trying but I can't seem to figure out which path to go

Either I make the MC more like the karate kid/Luke Sywalker bullied high school kid victim who met the Miyagi/Yoda old mysterious master trainer and MC learns to fend off the bullies in high school and ends up facing other foes as the rest of the story leads from there?

Or more like the guy who was bullied and left out as a little child until age 12, his dysfunctional parents, the mom specifically who had enough of her son having no friends and mocked to death, signed him up for martial arts school which was lead by the bad trainer like Palpatine, which made the MC as a young teen partially a bully himself only for his life to be ruined and became reckless and had spiralled down over the years, when he was older, he realized the bad trainer had been trying to make him into like a Darth Vader and caused his life to flop and wants revenge on the bad trainers evil causes and evil training methods and facing other foes? And the rest of the story leads from there?

Which sounds like the better path?

 

Stop. Don't ask me how to write your story. Start getting words on the page and then come back to the forum! You have to just start writing. Draft out some idea in Word, or whatever other word processor you use, write some characters down, hash a couple details out and then start writing your story. You can't have everything worked out before you start writing, in my opinion. Part of writing the story is finding out what comes out of you as you begin putting words on the page.

Good luck!

 

Okay you're right. After I write it out more and get a better description I can come back to the forum?

 

Well, it was a figure of speech! LOL! I'm sorry haha. You're welcome on the forum even now. I'm just trying to get across to you that, at some point, no matter how much planning and everything else you do, you gotta' start writing!

Don't get yourself into the trap of wanting your first draft to be so perfect that you never end up writing it. At some point, you have to just start banging those keys out.

Of course you're always welcome to ask questions here, and feel free to message me directly if you have specific questions or need any help.

But, like I said, and I'll say it again, at some point, you gotta' just start writing. Good luck!

 

Thanks I appreciate it! Oh yeah I figured it was a figure of speech so no worries

I was just figuring if I should wait until I have at least some form of a draft written. But any help I appreciate so if I have any questions I'll be here to ask!

 

It's not particularly uncommon for new members to pop up and make dozens, sometimes hundreds, if threads asking about the minutiae of their story. Every little plot point or character or piece of description.

Often they never actually write anything, rehash the same questions over and over until people get tired of it and stop being entirely polite and leave in a huff.

The moral of the story is that only you can write your story, you don't need our permission to do it, and only writing gets it written. We can give you critique, but only on a story that already exists.

 

Also be aware that a bully doesn't have to look a certain way. Thinking they do is where a writer can stray into cliché.

 

Well I don't wanna end up that way lol. I'll do my best to have something well written. Then come back with any questions that need some critiquing. It may not be a complete story though, is that okay?

Agreed. Which is why I'll be having more than one bully and each one will have a different appearance, whether tall, slim, big, small, skinny, fat, what will matter most is their behavior, actions and personality

 

That's what I'm hoping for. Unless they are members of a gang with a dress code, their physical appearance isn't necessarily a clue to their nature.

 

Could be one group that are members of a gang like thugs, another one would be a group of jocks, another a group of nerds, etc, each with their own leader, so depending on the group they would have a particular appearance. But even so they would be varied, like jocks could be big, tall, slim, short, white, black, Asian, etc.

 

Well, unless they're tall or physically bigger in stature, making them a more difficult foe, should there be a fight scene.

But I agree, getting into that cliche of describing the archetypal bully can go wrong.

 

Yes, that's what I was planning on have happen.

EDIT: Sorry I wanted to fix what I said.

So what exactly is the archetype bully? Does the appearance or their status matter whether they are a skinny little nerd with glasses, to a 6'3' jock, to a social prominent rich popular girl, to the one who's the drug dealer? Can't any of these be bullies but their actions make them a bully archetype?