Critique my story ideas

I draw manga (typical, right?), and I want to write a bit of a story on my free time.
It won't be anything serious, probably, but I want to hear your opinion on the ideas.
Some are pretty mediocre.. in fact, they all are, but still.
Which should I use?

#1- Set in an MMO. An unsuspecting gamer gets sucked in, but unlike other manga, it's just him.
He can break all of the rules of the game, and has no limitations. The problem is that his physical condition isn't fit to fight in game enemies.
Therefore, he of course goes on an adventure with others.

Note: I noticed I contradicted myself there ^, He's the only one to get sucked in, but he still has to work with others.

#2- Set in the real world-ish. Some no life (main character) just got to the max level in his favorite MMO (he's the very first).
As a reward, he got to meet with the creator's in game character. The creator offers to "revive" him, as a new character, allowing him to keep certain skills as well as one item.(yet to be decided).
Problem is, when he accepts, the revival turns out to be in the real world. The game overtakes reality and tons of innocent lives are being lost to the in-game monsters.
He has to stop them, he is the best player after all.
But of course, he needs help from others, blah blah blah.

#3- An art addict gets sucked into his own sketchbook, forced to fight against his own creations and emotions he's poured into it. It makes him a better person towards the end.
And other people, duh.. people he drew.. I guess.

#4- None of them, and I think of something else completely.

February 12, 2013

11 Comments • Newest first

Doutei

examples please.

Reply February 12, 2013

BrandonIsBack

[quote=NyanNyanLord]First 2 were generic and sucked, it also screamed "Gary-stue" main characters, it was also more than likely a fanfic portraying yourself as a hero of some godly sorts.

#3, that's actually not a bad idea, but you're going to need a strong reason as to how or why the crap happens. Not to mention worry about not turning it into another generic shounen adventure series. One way of preventing that is to not add any side characters that will accompany him, if you do make sure not to include a generic fan-service girl of the main character's dreams heroine.

As for your comment "I could probably find a way to make it unique though.", that is a stupid thing to say. It's like saying "I'ma take the car and make it unique!" No, you're just going to re-skin it like every other teenage wannabe mangaka, or if you do make it "unqiue" by making it something else then it's something else; turning a normal car into a flying car makes it so it's not a normal car anymore but instead a flying car. So it'd be better to just think of something else rather than wasting time on the idea. If you really wanna do something like it, then don't bother making it a special little snowflake, focus on making it good. Make sure the basis of the story is good, strong beginning and development. Avoid cliches, not tropes though just the cliches.

Now if you listen to what I said and go with #3, don't be an amateur or a plain dumbass and make the focus of the series revolve around action and the main character powering up or something, or anything generic along those lines. Instead focus on the story that it could tell, make it so when he fights an enemy don't make it so just because he drew up his dream-self he'll become it, make it so he has no powers or something and has to do something along the lines of overcoming himself. The line "and emotions he's poured into it." is something that should be the focus of the idea". You can use this as a way to tell the story of a depressed child, social outcast, or something along those lines and why he's like that. Drawing his pains and emotions into a little sketch book. Where he ends up facing them and having to over come them through maturing rather than guns'a'blazing. A starter for the series could be the main character going through a disruption in his daily life, better explained would be that if he had a daily life routine where he just got up and everything repeated itself, something happens like a confrontation or a disastrous event. He ends up escaping into his fantasy world which is made up of his drawings, but literally escapes into it. "Sucked into" the fantasy world he drew, he would confront his problems, and the end would be him waking up and that it was all a dream. That seems kinda BS, so maybe you could do something like him waking up after facing one enemy. But as soon as he goes back to sleep he goes back into his fantasy world, so the course of him maturing will occur separately, half in the fantasy world and half in the real world where instead of confronting his problems he confronts actual people from his past and such; maybe bullies or something.

All of this was typed without a single thought of organization, don't feel like going back and organizing so I most likely repeated some stuff or said some stupid stuff.

Edit: As you can tell I really like your third idea, unlike the other 2 which just plain sucked. Hopefully you will work on it and I'd love to read it, but if you mess-up I will be harsh. The only thing worse than making a bad series is ruining a good series.[/quote]

Lol I really appreciate this wall of text, it's the best I've read in awhile.
As for the content of the text, all I can say is- If I decide to go with it, I'll definitely try my best.
And I agree, I definitely prefer a manga with a good story rather than lots of action.

Reply February 12, 2013

BrandonIsBack

[quote=TheDStar]Sai is a character from Naruto who is an artist, and uses those art to fight enemies.[/quote]

Ahh I see.
I guess that does kind of relate to my idea 3, but not too much.
Thanks!

Reply February 12, 2013

TheDStar

[quote=BrandonIsBack]Yeah, I realized that soon after thinking of them.
I could probably find a way to make it unique though.

@LazyLazyLazy: I haven't watched Naruto in awhile, who's Sai?[/quote]

Sai is a character from Naruto who is an artist, and uses those art to fight enemies.

Reply February 12, 2013

BrandonIsBack

[quote=ExpiredMilk]These ideas sound like something set up for cliche and overused archetypes. No offense, but it's hard to judge how well you'd do with these ideas if we don't have a sampling of the kinds of things you write. Personally, I find all these ideas boring and uninteresting. (But that may be my own bias). I personally enjoy a story more if it were shaded grey and not black/white between the protagonist and antagonist. Plot is important, but if you don't have great characters to back it up, the story won't hold itself up. (By this I don't mean make Mary Sue characters).

My suggestion is to think of a theme you want to portray in your story and make an idea based off the theme you're portraying. Most manga you read drag on and become boring real fast because it's just a bunch of action, dry humor, and random characters and dialog without any depth or layers mask onto the story.

edit: My post sounds a bit rude...sorry. I just have a low tolerance for cliche. [/quote]

I actually agree and thank you for the criticism.
If I put more time into the ideas, I'll probably think of something good, so I guess I'll think of some new ideas and do a final vote.
I'd still appreciate a vote on the existing ones, so then I can put more depth into the most voted idea.

Reply February 12, 2013

ExpiredMilk

These ideas sound like something set up for cliche and overused archetypes. No offense, but it's hard to judge how well you'd do with these ideas if we don't have a sampling of the kinds of things you write. Personally, I find all these ideas boring and uninteresting. (But that may be my own bias). I personally enjoy a story more if it were shaded grey and not black/white between the protagonist and antagonist. Plot is important, but if you don't have great characters to back it up, the story won't hold itself up. (By this I don't mean make Mary Sue characters).

edit: My post sounds a bit rude...sorry. I just have a low tolerance for cliche.