A story baseline

carcharion

Greetings.

Just a small question, folks.

Which baseline do you think is more suitable for an interesting story. These will be specifically about the main character design:

1. A weak main character who fights his way with all he/she has, and develops a long the way. He/she is fully aware of his weakness

2. A very powerful main character who isn't even aware of how powerful he/she is. Instead of the character against the world, it's world againts the character. The character doesn't have a single idea about it.

I know that the first one is basically a cliche in fictional stories of all medium. My question is which one is the best to use, and if you choose both, can you tell me how should I improve them?

nweathington

I think it depends on the type of story you want to tell, and the type of character you want to write about, the themes you want to explore, etc. I mean, the first idea is a more natural fit for a story about determination, or corruption, or revenge—it’s going to be a bit more grounded more often than not. The second idea is a more natural fit for a story about self-discovery, or responsibility, or coming of age—it’s going to be more in the realm of fantasy in most cases. But you can do a lot with either choice. With the second option you could do Harry Potter, or you could go in a very different direction and do One Punch Man, which is basically satirizing the very concept of the power-fantasy. Both are quite interesting in their own way.

One option isn’t any better than the other except in the way it will help you or limit you in how you tell your story. And sometimes limitations can be used to your advantage by turning them on their head, as in the case of One Punch Man. Or look at Scott Pilgrim, which is basically a bit of both option 1 and option 2. His weakness isn’t really in his fighting ability, it’s in his self-awareness, and his heart. Once he realizes that, he unlocks his full power.

But at the end of the day, it isn’t so much the underlying structure of the journey that’s interesting, it’s the characters and their world, and how they interact.