11/10/2021
This is my way of helping myself recollect my memories of how I got into storytelling. In a way this is a therapeutic session for me.
Enjoy!
Space man book
I was very young probably 6 or 7 and I decided that I wanted to make a book. I studied the design of books from primary school but I couldn’t work out how to staple the pages together from the middle so that it folds nicely. So I ended up folding the A4 paper in half then stapling the ends together. Obviously this isn’t the way official books are stapled together and I was very aware of it. It actually bothered me but there was nothing that I could do about it. (Later on I discovered that the cheaper way for me to have done this was to have used a longer stapler).
The inspiration for this story stemmed from different angles. The main one was from a toy that was bought at a local news agent by my dad. The toy was off a spaceman and an alien. The other inspiration stemmed from a child craft book about space that I was always fascinated about. Space was ‘alien’ to me and different from the world we live in. Reading about different planets always peaked my interest back then. So from there I thought let me write a story about a spaceman. It was a very simple story but a very proud achievement in my life.
Writing stories in primary school
During (I believe) English classes in primary school we would be told at times to write short one paged stories.
Jill’s writers
During (I believe) English classes in primary school we would be told at times to write short one paged stories. I can’t remember specific details at this stage in life but I remember the story being well received and my name was recommended to an external extra curricular group known as Jill’s writers. Jill was a journalist if I remember correctly it’s been over a decade. Her mission was to find the next young gem of writers in our primary school. I was aware that it had gone on for at least a year before I joined. The club was open to those in year 4, if they’re exceptional but it was mainly for kids in year 5 and 6. That was the time that I really got into story writing.
Note taking
I kept writing books to draw and write down ideas during my good days of writing stories. This helped me to visualise what I wanted from the story and bring my imaginations to life. I’d say from year 6/7 onwards is when I cultivated this habit.
5 Star Bash
Heavily inspired by Kids Next Door. I wanted to create my own version and so I did. It initially started from a story done for Jill’s writers but I fleshed out the idea a little more in my head. It was about a group of spy kids that go on espionage missions and fight crime.
During my times in secondary school there were a few story ideas that floated between my brother and I. However nothing quite stuck like one idea in particular.
Mega Mania
Mega mania was the first story/ series that really got me into storytelling and wanting to do animation. It was about these anthropomorphic animal heroes that save the city from some villains. I’d say the main inspiration at the time was power rangers. Other cartoons contributed too like justice league, tmnt, dexters lab and a few others. However these were stories that my brother and I came up with and discussed. You know how creative kids get when they play with toys. We always had this idea in our heads that it’ll become a cartoon soon enough on Cartoon Network. Ideas and writing the story really kicked off from when I was in years 6/7 but more year 7 and the story writing came in year 9/10. I think I had written 3-5 episodes at the time. During year 7 sonic riders had been released on ps2 and the game booklet had the character profiles in it. From there we took inspiration to draw these anthropomorphic animals and make them look like characters h the at could appear on tv. So character design wise, sonic was a heavy influence on it.
There was a short manga/ comic books hey I did during year 9 which didn’t really have a name but I’ll call it the Twin blade Chronicles. The reason for the makeshift name was that I was heavily influenced by Naruto Shippuden at the time and this meant Naruto wind chronicles. The story was a random freestyle series on an adolescent called Tyson. In the story he was fighting in every chapter, there was nothing special about the storyline. I guess I was trying out my hand at creating my own character with abilities like they do in anime.
VN Servers
VN (Virtual Network) servers was a series I wrote between 2005-2009. It was inspired mainly by mega man nt warrior. Realistically it was actually a rip off of it. However now I would have deemed it as loose fan fiction of mega man. More accurately it was like mega man meets sonic the hedgehog. Funnily enough both are products of Sega.
VN servers like many other stories/ ideas written in the past will be addressed in a separate post. Briefly covering it though, VN Servers like Mega Mania was set in an anthropomorphic animal world. So they all lived like humans. Thinking back on it I think all the characters were vegetarian, coz I couldn’t sort out the diet for them since they’re all animals. The story was about a group of adolescent animals that play with a device called VN Pads. Think of it like a game boy but more advanced. So it was like today’s phones in a way except it’s not full touch screen. There were personal characters contained on a VN card that each character had. In mega man it would have been a net navi. Think of it like Siri or Alexa in our devices but with an avatar to match the voice.
I wrote like 30+ episodes. An episode was done on lined paper (that I used to take from my RS class in year 10) and on average I used 4 sheets so 8 sides of writing. If it was an epic episode it was longer so probably 6 sheets worth and if it was a dry episode it might have been 6 sheets or barely 7 sides. All of these were contained in a blue folder (again taken from school). I wrote all the stories off the top of my head. I never planned it. All my planning was done on random papers I had about for the characters. It was a double edged sword. It meant it kept my creativity high but the lack of planning was detrimental to the overall layout of the story. Unless I was a genius writer there was no way I could pull off a great story. Even the greats plan out what they do. After this I had gone to 6th form college and I lost the spark to keep on writing. Of course my lack of planning didn’t help either. So the story was in limbo for a year until I had came across a video online. Due to my beliefs in Christianity I had to quit the story as I realised that my inspirations mainly drawn from mainstream TV and anime had heavily influenced my story. Some beliefs/ ideologies were mixed into the stories being told through these shows. The cliche trope mixed into action/ hero shows were the use of elemental powers which stem from eastern mysticism. This was a huge clash with my beliefs so I had to stop in my tracks as this was subconsciously leaking into my stories. I ended up getting rid of the stories and the concept images altogether.
Kobushi Fighters
Right after this I had a period of creating animated content with a stick figure program called pivot stick figure animator. Through that experience I had attempted to start a series that I wanted to take beyond Pivot. I had already noted down ideas pertaining to it and so I carried on. This was around 2009 initially. The series was called Kobushi Fighters. It was a series about a fighting tournament. To be honest almost all content on pivot that circulated on YouTube was about fighting in some way. Most of them inspired by Naruto and Bleach. I had made two episodes and was working on the third episode. At this point I felt the ideas were too good to be done through pivot. I had already begun using Adobe Flash to aid my animations on pivot and to draw as well. So I decided to go fully into it via Adobe Flash. This way I could animate it.
Within this period I had also drawn a comic/ manga on lined paper for it just like the chronicles of Tyson. I had made a switch to blank paper but then I quit it for the same reason as VN Servers. This was all around the same time.
S.W.O.R.D
Fast forward to September 2010 I had gone through a phase of regret for getting rid of my previous work. I had a fresh new way that I wanted to present Kobushi Fighters and gave it a new name called sword. This time it would be based on a military organisation that helps fight terrorism and villainy. This was during college days so I would have a Friday off in the week. On the bus I would have my notebook to plan out the episodes and other story details like characters and etc. During schooling hours, in between ICT and Maths classes there was a 2 hour gap on a Thursday. I would go to a small Internet cafe around the school and pay £1 to use the computer for 20 minutes to an hour. My memory is hazy on the pricing and times. So during that time I start off the story then save it to a usb. When I get home I would continue it then on Friday is when most of the story gets written out. Saturday and Sunday is when I finish it off. Then Monday comes and planning on the bus starts again all the way till Thursday. Then it was rinse and repeat. That was my best moment I would say in terms of practicing the art of storytelling. I think that’s what helped organised me and give me the little structure I have in planning, today. The story lasted till the end of the year then I lost steam. Exams and coursework took a part of it away. The other thing was I realised that I need to do more extensive research into environments and backgrounds. This was so that I could imagine the scenes that the characters were set in. This large break away was the genesis of a concept that I would later come across called world building.
This wraps up my story of storytelling. The latest idea I have brewing is The SOEjourner and I feel it’s going to encompass all my experience so far and allow me to produce a masterpiece. Stay tuned.
Wealth of SOE 