An unedited rambling

Around 18 months ago, 3 guys sat down in a coffee shop and started to talk shits for 2 hours straight. One thing led to another and I found myself in a basement in a shrimp costume that was too tight around the crotch... Oh wait, wrong story... One thing led to another and the first chapter of I Am A Hero was completed. Why am I writing this? Well that's because this current run is at the end of the line and I want to ramble a bit about this short journey.

The end

First of all, why is this ending? That has to do quite a bit with the story creation... which were only vague ideas and concepts. This soon evolved into a start and an end, but what of the middle? That was a problem. Due to a lack of planning or anything, the foundation for this story was rather shaky. Things like monsters and masked people got introduced only to get sidelined, constant escalation and introducing way too many characters. The long version is winding and the short version is that we had no idea how to pace a long term story.

That's why we are ending this run. Maybe we would return with a reboot of this ideas, that's in the work with a much better skeleton. But another reason for this end is scheduling. Works and promotions and shift changes meant me and the boys could sat down again in a coffee shop less and less. While I have written other works by myself, this was something we made together and I want to keep it that way.

My journey

Flashback to 18 months ago. Writing was something so distant I could not even hope to imagine it. To be honest, I couldn't even remember what happened while hanging out with my mates, we decided to create a story. After 2 hours of work, the three of us made 10k words of babbling that would eventually become... A Picture Of. Yeh, that actually came first, but in an incredibly rough form. I would mostly work with TH on that one and eventually he became the busiest in all of us, so we decided to make one complete part of that and post it online. But that was later on. Before that, I would meet up with TD and we created I Am A Hero, TH would also join us on that one occasionally.

As anyone who made it here have probably guess, I do not write, nor do I even read that often. Hence why the tenses and writing styles between my works and different parts of I Am A Hero seemed to change quite a bit. Neither TH or TD write or do any creative work at all, so this is a classic case of the blinds following each other. Yet, speaking for myself, I have had tremendous fun doing all of this. I have learned through trials and errors many lessons and I feel like my writing has improved (hopefully).

If there's anything I am still hung up on it's the grammar mistakes and the likes. Due to my way of writing, I tend to rewrite parts or whole chapters constantly instead of going and fixing or adding details. This is my way to preserve a flow but it is also incredibly time consuming. As life goes on and my free time dwindles, there was no time left for editing. This was while I temporary discontinued The Vacuous Doctor while writing this, although that one should resume now. I could push my schedule more apart, two weeks a chapter. But that I feel like would be two long for 2000 words, besides, there's also a problem of me making this feel like a second job and that's the last thing I want. All of this doesn't mean anything I have given up on fixing my works, I will try my best to improve and make the experience smoother for y'all.

I Am A Hero

The idea to make this story came from TD, who wanted to make our own spin on the story of characters being taken to another world. Apparently this was all the rage, or maybe it still is, I honestly do not know. He enlisted me partly because of my lack of knowledge on the subject and together we worked out three major things:

- The world (this was mostly my creation yayyy).

- The characters MUST interact with their original world and timeline as a major part of the plot.

- The main character MUST have an illusion of strength.

That 3rd point maybe a bit abstract so I will elaborate more on it. One thing TD wants is to make the main character, Hiro, a weakling. But we also wanted him to be special since he's... the bloody main character. And thus, Hiro gained a very unique power that makes him a big deal. This story will continue to have people build him up as someone formidable even though it is not the truth. Willow follows him out of her fanaticism, Malcolm and Fleur hype him up to divert attention from themselves, Eikichi idolises him for misguided reasons. Throughout the story, Hiro will be propped up as the HERO the world needs. But in truth, the one with true heroic qualities lie within the unexpected places like the supposed enemy Four, the mentally stunted Conrad and others.

Of course, eventually Hiro's flaws, which are buried underneath the title of 'herald' will surface with devastating consequences. Then he will be forced to stand up and become the 'hero' he is believed to be. That's all the original plan anyway, which I hope would one day see the sun.

Anyway, this has been an enlightening ride and I certainly enjoyed every moment, every stumble.

(Just a tidbit, Hiro was originally called Hideo but the night we created the story, TD messaged me that there is a zombie comic also called I Am A Hero with a guy called Hideo as the main character. Talk about a coincident!)

The end (for real)

I had intended to ramble on more but there must be a limit, this should be it. Thanks for getting this far and I hope you enjoy what you see. I fully intend to continue writing till... when I do not know. I hope to see y'all again and I welcome all feedback no matter how insignificant, just a comment would be great.

Feel free to contact me on: majortomnal