Day 14 - what makes a good story?

 

Day fourteen!

 

Quite a lot of media recently advertised My Hero Academia to me and I finally decided to give it a try. I find story to be quite fun, though I would most likely never write something like this. I don't like arbitrary "super-powers lottery" magic systems too much. I find systems that have rules much more interesting and elegant. 

 

 I sometimes wonder whether what I write is good or not. And I wrote a lot in my life. There was a meme I liked some time ago. It went like this "every story includes authors core political views, at least on of his fetishes and one of his traumas". And honestly, this speaks to me quite a bit. I could find those things in my stories. Like the character I most identify with will end up with a girl matching my preferences, even if they are just background characters. Trauma from my first love led to at least three different stories where at some point hero is betrayed by his special other. And don't get me started on politics - I portray every single form of government in the worst light possible, drilling the idea that people will cause each other to suffer no matter the system they live in. Of course with time I learned to suppress that. I started adding genuinely good leaders to my stories, no matter how their political position works. I learned to let go of some of my traumas from the past and write different kids of relationships. It took time, but I got there. I can also attribute this to my wife, who talked some sense into me on topic of never finishing the books. Without her I would probably never write my first full book (something I will never release since I do not want legal trouble with D&D owners). By writing the whole book from start to finish I slowly got better at story-writing. The technique was almost unrecognisable between first and last chapter. Then again - I wrote this book for two years straight, at least five hours a week. 

Now I write fantasy slice of life. Focus of my work is on relationships, everyday squabbles and misunderstandings, honest work and cooperation. Whether the world is magical or science fiction is just a background. I could use the same characters and tell the same story in every world.