I need help with something... please? MENTAL BLOCK!!!

This isn't a thread of great importance. Well... it is to me, but...

Anyway, I am a manga author/artist, and I'm about to start another story that's been in my head for quite a while now, and I really want to draw it.

It's got a survivalist theme to it, like High school of the dead. For those of you who never saw that anime, the storyline (beyond all the scandalessness) is based around this group of misfit teenagers who survive a zombie apocalypse and have to fight their way out of the school, and the story is about their struggle for survival in a falling apart world (a SHTF world).

My story is similar, only there won't be any fan service (ahem). Also, it's going to take place in America, and it won't be a zombie apocalypse. It will be a pandemic, the spreading of the Insanus virus--a virus that makes you lose your mind and attack people. It kills most of the population, and get this--no one knows how it spreads.

So, Sandra, a goth/punk girl in school who has no real friends, who is a real hard ass, and who is a conspiracy theorist herself (yes, she's pretty much me), is caught in the middle of the outbreak while she's still in school.

With everyone in the school, and out in every other part of the world losing their minds and dying, Sandra and a select group of teenagers manage to fight their way out and survive, and Sandra becomes the leader of this rouge group of survivors.

But, that's all I've got so far.

I have no ideas for other events taking place after the school part.

I still need ideas for the other characters, Sandra's group.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this story? I'll listen to anything!

I'm having a serious mental block here...!

...or you could choose to do something original.
Dont mean to be harsh here, but you're doing a story told many times before, and the manga schoolkids bit just seals the lid on the "unoriginality" box.

How about instead... something new?
I think the world needs more stories about Gnomes.
Perhaps, one that is bored of life in the garden and wants to run away and join the circus, but instead gets caught up in a conspiracy and free energy machines... at a circus. With a kindly banker and an evil Jewish person.
(those last two have never been done)

Edit- just looking at your last thread with the artwork. I saw that when you posted it and I was thinking the same thing then. Really lovely art, lots of talent... but in a completely unoriginal derivative "done a billion times before" manner.

reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX


Dear XxNightAngelusxX,

What is the truth you wish to tell, that determines the story. You are not writing to zombies, you are writing to humans, what is the moral of your story, the rest writes itself.

a regular joe and his girlfriend(whos a b*tch and dies so he can hook up with the goth girl at the end), a greaser form shop class, 2 doofy stoners(who dont get introduced until a few pages in because they are busy wasting some time) a quiet nerd and a principal who sacrifices himself at the end.

I'm not exactly a manga writer type, and I went to an unconventional highschool, but I'll give my advice being 4 years out of H.S. and a ATS regular.
1) center your virus conspiracy around the U.S. government. Enough people think that H.I.V. is a govt funded project that it will fit well enough. Plus the "evil corporation" angle has already been covered. *cough* umbrella corp(RE series)
2) avoid typical high school archetypes(Jocks, cheerleaders, band nerds)
3)have a friend who is involved with conspiracies. Gives an easy-out with describing what may/may not be going on.
4)Draw from your own experiences. Real life people are usually more 3-D than falling back on archetypes(see 2)
5)Use your imagination. Coming up with something on your own is worth twice as much as an idea or theme that you borrow from existing material.

I've been drinking, but my suggestions stand.
I wish you the best of luck, and I'd appreciate a link when you get where you feel like you work is worth sharing.

Originally posted by XxNightAngelusxX

So, Sandra, a goth/punk girl in school who has no real friends, who is a real hard ass, and who is a conspiracy theorist herself (yes, she's pretty much me), is caught in the middle of the outbreak while she's still in school.

Wow, that sounds familier, and I swore I read it here on ATS. (It's getting late/early where I am so I'm not going to do a search), but will ask, didn't you write a short story alomg the same lines?

Now you want to make a graphic novel? Cool.

Just to add to the mix,

A small group of high school students build a working model of a 10Kw free energy device based on Tesla. The feds arrest them and their teacher. They break out of the FEMA camp and go underground with rotating FB accounts and the public eating it all up in real time.

Put some love interests in and kill the teacher. The head master is a bad guy.

If you can't do something original then you are doomed. Any idiot who can draw can do a knock off.

P

Thanks for the replies guys

I don't like gnomes :/

Honestly, I thought my story was pretty original... my characters are American.

It'll have a story basis kind of like The Boondocks. Not Japanese at all, totally American. The Boondocks is the only other anime that's ever done that.

I think I've figured the characters out.

Sandra, of course. The goth/punk thug chick, who's not used to caring about people and who's known for rebelling, and who ends up as the group's leader. She grew up in states custody, and has no family.

Luna, a girl who's pretty much opposite from Sandra. She likes to look cute and wear pigtails, and her emotions are rather extreme, and she, unlike Sandra, is okay with expressing emotions outwardly. She grew up with her single mother, who died recently.

Ganti, a sort of nerd/emo kid, who's into guns, weapons, and video games. He's got green hair in the "emo" style, and he has a history of being bullied. He can be rather pessimistic, but he's still pretty useful, with his knowledge of guns and everything...

Abel, a slender, kind hearted guy who was an outcast in school. He grew up with a single mother, no father, and he never saw his mother much, because she works for a very high-up organization, and she's always gone. He's quite used to being alone. He has a thing for Sandra.

And Lenard, a thuggish black dude with long dreads, who likes to smoke out, and he's a rebel himself... he was known in school for getting into fights, and always being suspended. He's a bad boy with a good heart.

I know a lot of storytellers like to lump a lot of misfits together like this, but that's always been my favorite type of storyline, when a bunch of misfits come together and become a family, and I still don't have a story like that. And, since the story is American, it's different from most other anime's... I want it to be similar to The Boondocks, as far as what's considered normality.

There won't be any Japanese customs in this story, everything will be all-American.

It'll be a blunt story too, with cursing and violence and such (not too much, but enough to seem realistic).

Problem is, I need some driving force to keep them going. Not just survival, but some ideal event they all need to go for, some massive goal that they're getting closer and closer to in the story.

That's gonna be the really original part.

That's why I'm having trouble coming up with it.

It's gotta be juicy, exciting, and hopefully something that hasn't been done before.

I guess that's the part I need help with.