Raleigh Daniels's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"
Origins of The God of Alpha
When I was in third grade my teacher assineged the class to write a short story. I was excited because I always wanted to write a book. Problem was, I didn't have characters nor did I know how. So my teacher told me to use our imagination, so I looked around and I saw a string on my head and saw a mop from across the room so with that I took the name String and Mop and added the "Y" in the end because why not.
My first story Stringy and Mopy were about these two characters in Africa dreaming for a better life so Stringy built this airplane out of garbage and they flew all the way to Oklahoma City (I was 9 years old). So For years I stuck with that idea until 2008 when my suster came to help. She told me that I should reboot and I did. She wanted to know how they met so she and I temaed up to create an origin story, "Stringy and Mopy: The Adventure Begins". The story was about Mopy being bullied, getting saved by a special girl, and teaming up to stop Lightning Head from taking over the world. At first they were super spies back in 2008. They traveled alot, I was more into Geography back then. Yeah I was a Geography nerd. Stringy and Mopy were more like carbon cutouts than they were characters....until 2011.
A friend of mine sat down with me and told me of a show called Ben 10. A show about a kid with an alien watch who can transform into 10 sets of aliens. So he and I watched the show together and he asked me do I have superheroes of my own. I said no, but he mentioned Stringy and Mopy. I told them that they were super spies, but then insisted of me having them have superpowers. I was against it at first because I wasn't into superheroes. It wasn't until I watched Ben 10: Alien Force, Justice League, and Teen Titans. So we sat down and we thought of ways to give Stringy and Mopy super powers.
We couldn't use a watch because that will rip off Ben 10.
We couldn't use a ring because that's been done already.
We couldn't use enhancers because, that's been done already.
And we couldn't use diamonds because, that was used already.
So I was stuck. I wanted to have my characters stand out so for awhile I was pretty stuck. Until my friend Tyler told me about badges. Turning badges into weapons.
It seemed interesting but I didn't know how to pull it off. I mean I wasn't sure if Magical Badges existed in mass media. If they were then they were pretty rare. So he and I designed the badge together. It was a circular object with a yellow ring around it with a vertical, yellow rectangle on the center.
We got the design, but the badge was missing a few things.
Powers.
Powers varied, but I had an idea on having the badge letting Stringy ad Mopy to fly, having enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and senses. Not only that but I had to change their names from Stringy and Mopy to Samantha and Michael. Stringy and Mopy were to be their superhero aliases for now on.
For the past 4 years in my high school career, I have read plenty of classical novels, one was The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. And both of which gave me plenty of ideas for a Stringy and Mopy origin story - Mainly Invisible Man.
For four years I have studied literature even on breaks by marathoning these two books. Not only that but I have came across classical plays such as King Lear, and Hamlet. For our final exam I personally chose Othello and studied its tragedy within the pages.
During my time in high school, I finally wrote Stirngy and Mopy: The Adventure Begins. And boy let me tell ya, it was horrible.
Stringy's story was all over the place. She was more bitchier than ever before and Mopy was Batman 2.0. He was brooding more than the caped crusader. And that's not good lol. The badges were overused and overpowered. There were no limits. I did not go over what makes the Badges powerful at all. Plus they were the Deux Ex Machina of the story and again, not good.
The original story starts off with, "When an ancient evil kidnaps the only family he had, Mopy Gilliganson goes to another dimenion to join forces with a zany superhero to rescue his mom from the clutches of Lightning Head."
That was the premise. I kid you not.
Last year I started writing Stringy and Mopy again...this time without Stringy. The God of Alpha was mainly Mopy's origin story and instead of having him to save his mom from an ancient evil, I had him set in the 1920s. The book is not as innocent as the previous incarnations, this book is a lot darker, grittier, and brutal. It addressed a lot on racism and sexism in that era. Stringy was never mentioned nor was introduced in the first book.
I planned on writing Samantha's origin story in the second book and then they would come together in the third and so on.
So if you're interested in checking out The God of Alpha, you can click on the link below and until then, I'll see you guys next time.
Thank you. :)
The God of Alpha
http://www.amazon.com/God-Alpha-Sky-T...
My first story Stringy and Mopy were about these two characters in Africa dreaming for a better life so Stringy built this airplane out of garbage and they flew all the way to Oklahoma City (I was 9 years old). So For years I stuck with that idea until 2008 when my suster came to help. She told me that I should reboot and I did. She wanted to know how they met so she and I temaed up to create an origin story, "Stringy and Mopy: The Adventure Begins". The story was about Mopy being bullied, getting saved by a special girl, and teaming up to stop Lightning Head from taking over the world. At first they were super spies back in 2008. They traveled alot, I was more into Geography back then. Yeah I was a Geography nerd. Stringy and Mopy were more like carbon cutouts than they were characters....until 2011.
A friend of mine sat down with me and told me of a show called Ben 10. A show about a kid with an alien watch who can transform into 10 sets of aliens. So he and I watched the show together and he asked me do I have superheroes of my own. I said no, but he mentioned Stringy and Mopy. I told them that they were super spies, but then insisted of me having them have superpowers. I was against it at first because I wasn't into superheroes. It wasn't until I watched Ben 10: Alien Force, Justice League, and Teen Titans. So we sat down and we thought of ways to give Stringy and Mopy super powers.
We couldn't use a watch because that will rip off Ben 10.
We couldn't use a ring because that's been done already.
We couldn't use enhancers because, that's been done already.
And we couldn't use diamonds because, that was used already.
So I was stuck. I wanted to have my characters stand out so for awhile I was pretty stuck. Until my friend Tyler told me about badges. Turning badges into weapons.
It seemed interesting but I didn't know how to pull it off. I mean I wasn't sure if Magical Badges existed in mass media. If they were then they were pretty rare. So he and I designed the badge together. It was a circular object with a yellow ring around it with a vertical, yellow rectangle on the center.
We got the design, but the badge was missing a few things.
Powers.
Powers varied, but I had an idea on having the badge letting Stringy ad Mopy to fly, having enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and senses. Not only that but I had to change their names from Stringy and Mopy to Samantha and Michael. Stringy and Mopy were to be their superhero aliases for now on.
For the past 4 years in my high school career, I have read plenty of classical novels, one was The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. And both of which gave me plenty of ideas for a Stringy and Mopy origin story - Mainly Invisible Man.
For four years I have studied literature even on breaks by marathoning these two books. Not only that but I have came across classical plays such as King Lear, and Hamlet. For our final exam I personally chose Othello and studied its tragedy within the pages.
During my time in high school, I finally wrote Stirngy and Mopy: The Adventure Begins. And boy let me tell ya, it was horrible.
Stringy's story was all over the place. She was more bitchier than ever before and Mopy was Batman 2.0. He was brooding more than the caped crusader. And that's not good lol. The badges were overused and overpowered. There were no limits. I did not go over what makes the Badges powerful at all. Plus they were the Deux Ex Machina of the story and again, not good.
The original story starts off with, "When an ancient evil kidnaps the only family he had, Mopy Gilliganson goes to another dimenion to join forces with a zany superhero to rescue his mom from the clutches of Lightning Head."
That was the premise. I kid you not.
Last year I started writing Stringy and Mopy again...this time without Stringy. The God of Alpha was mainly Mopy's origin story and instead of having him to save his mom from an ancient evil, I had him set in the 1920s. The book is not as innocent as the previous incarnations, this book is a lot darker, grittier, and brutal. It addressed a lot on racism and sexism in that era. Stringy was never mentioned nor was introduced in the first book.
I planned on writing Samantha's origin story in the second book and then they would come together in the third and so on.
So if you're interested in checking out The God of Alpha, you can click on the link below and until then, I'll see you guys next time.
Thank you. :)
The God of Alpha
http://www.amazon.com/God-Alpha-Sky-T...
