I'm creating a story based on martial arts ...

[Lotuswheels22]

Probably not on a local level.

Maybe I'll go the more fiction route like they did in Karate Kid/Cobra Kai series.

How do you get a writer to never speak to you again?

Tell him "This is great! A few suggestions..."

No one wants to speak to me now?

Honestly, I think that making up a fictional martial art style is probably your best bet. If you use a real martial art style and depict it very inaccurately, then people who actually do that style will complain or laugh at you (see: the recent Nicholas Cage "jiu-jitsu" movie, which BJJ people were making fun of for months). But if you make up a fictional style, then you can take more artistic license. I think it's still good to ground it in reality and draw inspiration from real martial arts training and tournaments, if the story is supposed to be somewhat realistic. (Heck, even if it's more of a superhero/fantasy thing, it's still good to have some realistic aspects, to make the fantasy elements more believable.)

I think I will, afterall this is still fiction. The Cobra Kai series has done a good job of doing it. I thought about adding fantasy elements but that might make it feel less grounded and I'm not sure how the martial arts communities would react to it. There was going to be supernatural elements with the mascots of each schools like a lion spirit, wolf spirit, viper, chimera, etc. But if I make it based off of real martial art rules but with made up styles mixed of different skills, I think it will work.

I heard a lot of martial art schools aren't doing much competitions now or even teaching at clubs like regular classes. Is this true? I can set the story pre-covid or just a different universe.

 

[Flying Crane]

There is no group of people in the world that disagree more about "what is" and "what isn’t" than Martial Artists. And there sure as hell isn’t a group that even comes close concerning “what was” and “what wasn’t”. Not even in politics or religions will you find more divided groups than in Martial Arts.

This is utter BS. Where do you come up with such dreck??

 

[drop bear]

Maybe I'll go the more fiction route like they did in Karate Kid/Cobra Kai series.



No one wants to speak to me now?



I think I will, afterall this is still fiction. The Cobra Kai series has done a good job of doing it. I thought about adding fantasy elements but that might make it feel less grounded and I'm not sure how the martial arts communities would react to it. There was going to be supernatural elements with the mascots of each schools like a lion spirit, wolf spirit, viper, chimera, etc. But if I make it based off of real martial art rules but with made up styles mixed of different skills, I think it will work.

I heard a lot of martial art schools aren't doing much competitions now or even teaching at clubs like regular classes. Is this true? I can set the story pre-covid or just a different universe.

You can write it and then re write it.

Just because you put it on paper doesn't make it cannon.

So put the ideas together. And if you find parts are not working. Go back and change those parts.

 

[drop bear]

There was a very old cartoon called around the world in 80 days. And the main character would start each episode getting his offsider to buy a few random items.

And in the course of that episode those random items would be vital to complete their mission.

Which was the first time i realised stories are not written chronologically. But the encounter this problem. Then write in the solution earlier.

And so the same. If you get to a point where the all valley karate tournament doesn't make sense for what you are trying to do. You can change that to have been something else all along.

 

[Buka]

This is utter BS. Where do you come up with such dreck??

Why, with American Karate, of course!

We are, after all, the DeRegulated Evolving Contact Karate guys. Dreck heads for short.

 

[Lotuswheels22]

And so the same. If you get to a point where the all valley karate tournament doesn't make sense for what you are trying to do. You can change that to have been something else all along.

I could do that. It light even end up being something similar to where it's fiction but blends in other styles with a more mixed-setting of their rules. Think Karate Kid but with throws aloud like in sanda with any type of punches and kicks from any styles from other martial arts. I think this will be acceptable for a fictional competition?

Why, with American Karate, of course!

We are, after all, the DeRegulated Evolving Contact Karate guys. Dreck heads for short.

What do you think of my idea of the martial art tournament being like Karate Kid's All Valley but with throws/take downs allowed, any martial art background with kicks and punches like in kung fu, karate, capoeira, kickboxing, taekwondo, etc, and take downs allowed, but no hitting them when they hit the ground, no joint locks or pressure points or punches to the face allowed, no cheap blows either. Everything else allowed is full contact and the teens of course wouldn't wear any protection like in Karate Kid, maybe wear a pair of small gloves. Of course there would be those who fight dirty, breaking the rules in the story.

Will this upset any martial art enthusiasts?

 

[Buka]

I could do that. It light even end up being something similar to where it's fiction but blends in other styles with a more mixed-setting of their rules. Think Karate Kid but with throws aloud like in sanda with any type of punches and kicks from any styles from other martial arts. I think this will be acceptable for a fictional competition?



What do you think of my idea of the martial art tournament being like Karate Kid's All Valley but with throws/take downs allowed, any martial art background with kicks and punches like in kung fu, karate, capoeira, kickboxing, taekwondo, etc, and take downs allowed, but no hitting them when they hit the ground, no joint locks or pressure points or punches to the face allowed. Everything else allowed is full contact and the teens of course wouldn't wear any protection like in Karate Kid, maybe wear a pair of small gloves. Will this upset any martial art enthusiasts?

Bro, I'll address your two posts tomorrow. We're about to cook up a storm and the prep is a pain.
Don't worry about anything, just write, create. You'll be fine, it's a cool concept.

But @Drop Bears above post is key. In it he says ....

"You can write it and then re write it.
Just because you put it on paper doesn't make it cannon.
So put the ideas together. And if you find parts are not working. Go back and change those parts."

What he says is KEY, absolute Gospel.........Rewriting. ALL writing is Rewriting. Many times. Anybody that tells tells you different doesn't know anything about the writing world. Honest. No foolin'.

 

[Buka]

I could do that. It light even end up being something similar to where it's fiction but blends in other styles with a more mixed-setting of their rules. Think Karate Kid but with throws aloud like in sanda with any type of punches and kicks from any styles from other martial arts. I think this will be acceptable for a fictional competition?



What do you think of my idea of the martial art tournament being like Karate Kid's All Valley but with throws/take downs allowed, any martial art background with kicks and punches like in kung fu, karate, capoeira, kickboxing, taekwondo, etc, and take downs allowed, but no hitting them when they hit the ground, no joint locks or pressure points or punches to the face allowed, no cheap blows either. Everything else allowed is full contact and the teens of course wouldn't wear any protection like in Karate Kid, maybe wear a pair of small gloves. Of course there would be those who fight dirty, breaking the rules in the story.

Will this upset any martial art enthusiasts?

Lotuswheels, I don't think you should worry about upsetting anyone. I also don't think you should limit your story to a target audience of just Martial Arts enthusiasts. For every Martial Artist there's probably twenty people who always wanted to study Martial Arts but never got around to it, that really like watching Martial Arts themed film/stories/comics/whatever, even though they've never actually done any.

Again, you are going to create the world of your story. The clay is in your hands. You can do this anyway you want. And that's a great thing!

I suggest the first thing you do - write out a rough draft of the story. Not a detailed one, just a "there's this event that's happening yada yada" and the event is made up of....yada yada.

Then write out a list of characters, major characters and minor characters. Take that list and write one or two paragraphs about each character. Give them a rough back story. Your story will be far better served if it's based on the characters and their "arcs". (how they change over the course of the story) rather than on plot. Stories driven by plot are boring, especially if they don't have compelling characters.

Viewers won't care about the rules of the event, or the gloves they wear. They'll care about the characters if you make them do so. And every character has a flaw. Every one.

So....have you done a rough draft of the story yet? If not, watchu' waiting for?

As Stephen King says, the secret to writing is "Bum Glue". Glue your ash to the chair and just write. Don't go pat the dog, don't answer the phone, don't look out the window, just write.

So get going!

 

[Lotuswheels22]

Lotuswheels, I don't think you should worry about upsetting anyone. I also don't think you should limit your story to a target audience of just Martial Arts enthusiasts. For every Martial Artist there's probably twenty people who always wanted to study Martial Arts but never got around to it, that really like watching Martial Arts themed film/stories/comics/whatever, even though they've never actually done any.

Again, you are going to create the world of your story. The clay is in your hands. You can do this anyway you want. And that's a great thing!

I suggest the first thing you do - write out a rough draft of the story. Not a detailed one, just a "there's this event that's happening yada yada" and the event is made up of....yada yada.

Then write out a list of characters, major characters and minor characters. Take that list and write one or two paragraphs about each character. Give them a rough back story. Your story will be far better served if it's based on the characters and their "arcs". (how they change over the course of the story) rather than on plot. Stories driven by plot are boring, especially if they don't have compelling characters.

Viewers won't care about the rules of the event, or the gloves they wear. They'll care about the characters if you make them do so. And every character has a flaw. Every one.

So....have you done a rough draft of the story yet? If not, watchu' waiting for?

As Stephen King says, the secret to writing is "Bum Glue". Glue your ash to the chair and just write. Don't go pat the dog, don't answer the phone, don't look out the window, just write.

So get going!

I agree with you! I'm starting it now. My biggest concern really was if it was going to seem like a straight up rip-off of Karate Kid/Cobra Kai series with all the character interactions and similar tournament setting and my worry of having a bad instructor that teaches martial arts with some tang soo do mixed in there, with a viper snake as the mascot. I don't think martial artists would care so much but Karate Kid fans would but the bad guy having a viper mascot I really wanted to have in because of his military background and the snake represents a lot of various kung fu forms.

 

[Buka]

I agree with you! I'm starting it now. My biggest concern really was if it was going to seem like a straight up rip-off of Karate Kid/Cobra Kai series with all the character interactions and similar tournament setting and my worry of having a bad instructor that teaches martial arts with some tang soo do mixed in there, with a viper snake as the mascot. I don't think martial artists would care so much but Karate Kid fans would but the bad guy having a viper mascot I really wanted to have in because of his military background and the snake represents a lot of various kung fu forms.

Shouldn't worry about that. There's only seven to twelve story lines (maybe a couple more, depending on who you read) in the history of story. Just go gettum', go write that sucker.

 

[punisher73]

There used to be a huge tournament in California, Long Beach International Karate Championships, that was run by Ed Parker before his passing.

It advertised as a "karate tournament" but had all styles including Kung Fu. In fact, it was at this tournament that Ed Parker introduced Bruce Lee and he gave a demo.

 

[Lotuswheels22]

Shouldn't worry about that. There's only seven to twelve story lines (maybe a couple more, depending on who you read) in the history of story. Just go gettum', go write that sucker.

Okay, I'll keep the snake motif going and hopefully the martial art styles I use won't be an issue and hopefully you'll get to read it one day!

There used to be a huge tournament in California, Long Beach International Karate Championships, that was run by Ed Parker before his passing.

It advertised as a "karate tournament" but had all styles including Kung Fu. In fact, it was at this tournament that Ed Parker introduced Bruce Lee and he gave a demo.

Thank you for letting me know. I was looking up tournaments that had a variety of martial art styles in different states and I think I can have this take place in California now, and even call it a karate tournament. Not to sound too much like 'Karate Kid' (especially since the bad school will use a viper snake as it's mascot), which many will view it as a copy cat, a fictional location similar to Long Beach Cali should make sense with a huge competition setting. I was going to say Florida or NY but I dont feel it would convey the atmosphere I'm going for. Hopefully I don't get canned as a rip-off lol, but this setting in Long Beach would be perfect with the martial art I'm going for.

 

[KenpoMaster805]

Welcome to MT

 

[Lotuswheels22]

Thank you. Do you like my martial arts story idea? Even if it's not a 100% legit style?

 

[WaterGal]

I heard a lot of martial art schools aren't doing much competitions now or even teaching at clubs like regular classes. Is this true? I can set the story pre-covid or just a different universe.

It depends on how strict the Covid restrictions are in their location. Where I live (eastern US), I don't think there are any local tournaments going on, but we're still able to have classes as long as class size is reduced and people wear a mask. But I've heard there are some places where things are basically going on as normal (either because they've gotten the outbreak mostly under control, or because people aren't taking covid seriously and think it's a hoax), and other places where they can't even have in-person classes. So it just depends.

I do expect that things will pretty much return to normal by next year, so maybe just set your story a bit in the future, or a bit in the past.

 

[Lotuswheels22]

It depends on how strict the Covid restrictions are in their location. Where I live (eastern US), I don't think there are any local tournaments going on, but we're still able to have classes as long as class size is reduced and people wear a mask. But I've heard there are some places where things are basically going on as normal (either because they've gotten the outbreak mostly under control, or because people aren't taking covid seriously and think it's a hoax), and other places where they can't even have in-person classes. So it just depends.

I do expect that things will pretty much return to normal by next year, so maybe just set your story a bit in the future, or a bit in the past.

Thank you for that info. I was originally going to set it in the future. But I might reconsider and set it in the past, few years ago or just right before the pandemic outbreak.

I'm thinking of California around Long Beach will be the best setting, but I still think there's a lot going on at the moment still for dojos with the Covid.

 

[Lotuswheels22]

On a side note, does anyone here know what type of martial art was used in competitions in the 1980's military branches? Like did they have karate champion fighters? Or taekwondo matches to compete in? Or some kind of kickboxing competitions? It's important as it will be apart of my storyline, thanks.

 

[Buka]

Thank you for that info. I was originally going to set it in the future. But I might reconsider and set it in the past, few years ago or just right before the pandemic outbreak.

I'm thinking of California around Long Beach will be the best setting, but I still think there's a lot going on at the moment still for dojos with the Covid.

Might want to consider a generic location, purposely vague, never stipulating exactly where. Might draw more to the story. Maybe.

 

[Lotuswheels22]

Thank you for the advice. I probably will pick a vague location and not specify where exactly.

Do you also know if there were any martial art competitions happening in the military? Even during the 1980's? Thanks again.

 

[drop bear]

Thank you for the advice. I probably will pick a vague location and not specify where exactly.

Do you also know if there were any martial art competitions happening in the military? Even during the 1980's? Thanks again.

Boxing definitely.