I would like to do more romantic comedies but they are such a balancing act. You need to hit all the right notes to be good. If you follow the standard tropes too much, it can be toxic and problematic, if not, cheesy and cliche. I'd really like to take a page from the old Doris Day romcoms in the 60s. The guy tries to pull something over on her: she leaves him buck naked on the beach in the middle of nowhere, she puts her foot down and leaves him (same movie - he gets her pregnant AFTER the beach scene and she still leaves). They're all cute and campy but she has a backbone which I love.
In college, I did a pitch to have Othello done as a space opera. My professor loved it and I was the first freshman whose final project he kept as an example. A lot of the elements work if you think of the story as less "hard scifi" and more opera set on a different planet.
But speaking of operas, I thought it would be cool to do an adaptation/reimagining of this opera loosely called in English: "The Sleepwalker". It's a story about this girl accused of adultery when in reality, she's a sleepwalker. It's pretty neat.
My first story idea would have followed a female space bounty hunter named Bubblegum, but the aesthetic and tone would have been like 1970's blaxploitation movies, though a much less problematic version of course. Like Metroid meets Shaft. Spaceships would look like big old cars, clothing and hair would be very 70s inspired, etc.
However there is A TON of worldbuilding required for sci fi. I think more than I'm capable of as a writer.. Maybe someday I'll collaborate with a writer on it and just provide the artwork and character designs.
I kinda jumped straight into the deep end with Engram (non-chronological sci-fi mystery....) so there's been a lot of plotting things that had to be "my wheelhouse" pretty quickly, haha.
There are two stories I want to work on, which I do lack expertise for though:
- I want to make a big ensemble cast political sci-fi, going through a revolution from multiple perspectives. Expanding character casts has been really confusing, because so far I've only worked on really tight stories when it comes to characters (usually only 1-2 people truly central to the plot).
- An incredibly slow-burn romance between two idiots who played on the same team together in high school, one of whom becomes a star athlete, and the other his coach (I'm talking like, "multiple books slow" where they mutually agree to only interact professionally for the sake of their careers, except of course they're just so in-tune in their understanding of one another that it's pretty damn obvious no one else can come close). I definitely know I lack the expertise to write the relationship between a coach and a player who play a sport at the highest level. I just... don't have the in-depth knowledge to make it authentic, and I wouldn't want to attempt it if authenticity were to be called into question.
Hmm, a story I would want to write but would have difficulty doing so...
Normally if I want authenticity, I search the net for as much information as possible and give it my best go. I'm not too concerned with being 100% accurate with everything I make, cause that would be impossible. For the most part I try to have fun with it.
But if there was a story I'd want to make that I'd have difficulty making on my own despite this... It would probably be any story involving music and song. I... absolutely fail at coming up with my own songs, and I have tried with very little success.
I guess if I wanted to do that, I'd just have to put music notes everywhere using a brush to let people know music is happening and maybe make up a few easy lyrics the character is singing and let the audience use their imagination on how it sounds. That's, probably the best I could do at this current time. ;u;
I saw this old Italian movie called "Senso" about this soilder who manipulates this rich socialite into giving him lots of money so he could bribe his way out of having to fight in a war. It was epic, beautiful and sensuous and cruel. I always wanted to write a story that had a sweeping epic feel like that, but halfway through starting it I'm always like I need super powers and explosions.
honestly the first thing that comes to mind under this umbrella was a story i'd wanted to develop with an old oc years ago. there were meant to be folks from a lot of different backgrounds living in a culturally diverse city doing college kid/young adult stuff and i'd wanted to find ways to include that but also ensure i wasn't getting things wrong especially in terms of language for bilingual characters. I think if i could afford to properly compensate sensitivity readers and language assistants i'd go back to it but for now it's just a fun concept to think back on.
I've had this idea of creating a series of short stories that reflect different aspects of life and it's challenges. For example, I got a story about a young girl that is so attached to her cellphone that when she loses it, she is suddenly trusted into a world without any digital connection and only relying on social interaction can she able to make it home.
I hope you can get to the point where you can draw it. Cuz that concept sounds kind of hilarious and Lemur isLand is a very catchy name.
@Lazy-Gamer yeah that sounds like a big project. Doing music or comic by themselves is enough work, but maybe you can find a collaborator
@Fuzzyman818 that sounds like a super cozy series!
I'm currently writing a romance and it really is difficult having to balance the budding romance with her love interest and her relationship with her friends. If she spends too much time with her love interest, it'll seem like her friends don't matter. And if she spends too much time with her friends, then her love interest becomes an afterthought. On top of that the audience might think a different ship is end game.
I'm currently watching Skip & Loafer and it's such a sweet show. I'd love to be able to write a story that'd make me feel the same way.
Romances are definitely tricky to write well. If I end up writing more romances, my biggest thing is to make the romance feel secondary. The vintage romcoms that I love always have a major plot that isn't "relationship". In one movie, the FMC was trapped on a deserted island and the day she gets back, she's declared legally dead. Her husband has to choose between his wives and try to avoid getting arrested for bigamy. There's more there than silly tropes.
I can write about any topic in any genre.
I was not trained as a writer nor did I have a literature education.
After finishing school I started self educating myself in anything new I wanted to learn.
What do I mean?
In cheerleading I started studying videos in slow motion to learn the techniques. I have always had a keen eye in noticing the small details.
It got to the point that I was able to become a quality checker.
I have years of experience checking for the smallest details and errors. In my line of job one error could cost millions of dollars and in my hobby as a safety judge one error could cost the life of someone.
I used those same skills to learn and self study how to write a different genre. How to conceptually design characters and backgrounds. Among many other things. You could say that the best way to write about a certain topic is by analyzing and learning from what is popular in that particular genre.
I love cliches but at the same time I like originality that is why I love doing satire. Romantic comedies come natural to me since I have been reading/ watching them since I was small. Psychological genre and horror are also one of my favorites to read/ watch. I don't like nor watch horror movies much anymore since the whole genre became super predictable to me. When I go to the movies I usually laugh at the bad movie effects. When I watched Alien with a friend we just laughed at the guy in a costume. What I do enjoy are horror games. Those are a little less predictable than movies.
As someone who has written multiple genres the hardest one is action. That was a hurdle to pass when I started writing. Action needs lots of vocabulary. You can't simply write "(s)he threw a punch" 20 times. You have to write each time like it was something unique and new to avoid repetition.
When something is hard I simply read multiple examples and self study how a certain genre is.
Having said that, I like having my own unique style which breaks many cliches and also uses those same cliches in a satiristic way. I could easily write something many would love by using generic cliche formulas but as a writer I prefer being satiristic and original. I am basically writing new material to entertain people like myself who are tired of reading pretty much the same in multiple stories. While keeping some cliches that are needed/liked but with a sense of irony.
I always wanted to write a story which combines humour with mature content (erotic)
There are not many good examples of stories / comics which are like that, so I don´t
have any reference and that´s what makes it very hard. There is one webtoon called
"Oglaf" which goes into a direction I have in mind. It´s funny and it´s not against
my moral values. It´s a tough job to write something like that because I don´t want
to put out something that I will regret
For stuff like food and medical things, I'll just set stories based around those in a fantasy world so I can make up whatever the heck I want XD (Psychological/mental health stuff is harder to cheese like that though :P)
Sames Mystery and political shenanigans have an inherent complexity to them that I can't just cheese with a setting change :'D