Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business The Writers' Discussion/Ideas Thread

Yes i was. i got distracted while posting and didn't phrase that right.
Thanks Klar! i totally forgot about that thread and any you want to toss my way and let me look at would be greatly appreciated.

And thanks Not-So-Bad-Lad. those are some good ideas to help come up with some more OC's.

I'm trying to keep my cadet program diverse. So between your suggestions and Klar's reminder of the thread for Heroes of other worlds i may bring some new ideas.

IB and Harbi, having a check list is a really great idea for keeping track of how often you use characters.

Omni, also take a look at these alternate hero groups:

1) The Silver-Age Wanderers
2) L.E.G.I.O.N. and R.E.B.E.L.S.
3) The Omega Men
4) Amethyst and the Mages of GemWorld
5) The Space Canine Patrol Agents. Yes, I mean really. Stop laughing. I'm serious.

Good call, Klar!

Also, Omni, you could check out the obscure Knights of the Galaxy, said in some of their appearances to share a century with the Legion. Also, on diversity in the Cadets: The Green Lanterns helped me wwith a lot of alien races I'll be using (I got a Xundarian girl that spins! Woo!), and also a lot of the early Justice League baddies like Kanjar Ro and Despero come from planets that would/could still be around in the 30th Century!

I think the Green Lantern Corps would be a good starting point as well. Lots of amazing alien races out there. Same with the other Corps (Red, Blue, Sinestro Corps, Star Sapphires...)

Thanks everyone for the suggestions i'll look into all of them. I did find one already who maybe coming into play soon.

Since IB was kind enough to start off this discussion on how we choose our line ups i thought maybe i could pose another.

I've been struggling with coming up with missions for my teams and i was wondering how do all of you come up with mission ideas?

Do you think about politics of the team? Politics of the mission and how it will affect the u.p. and the legion.
What demonstrates powers well?

Thanks for adding another discussion point, Omni. I'm glad we're all sharing ideas on how we develop our own stories.

As of now my fanfic Volumes have had a defined beginning, middle and end (how to gather the scattered Legion, recreate their universe, and have the Legion retake Legion World) so I haven't had to think about mission ideas yet. Although, when breaking down the "retake LW from the bad guy's army" story into bite-size chunks, my main criterion was how to break my massive (40-plus!) team into smaller groups and show off both powers and personalities.

I find though that it's not necessary to really think about showcasing powers, as it isn't all that hard to do with any given mission. When thinking of new missions/cases for my Volume 4, I mostly went with loose ends or elements from the Postboot canon or that I introduced in earlier volumes, and then thought about how I could take them forward. Other ideas I thought of are whimsical and tie into my own real-life experiences.

In the end I think it's about stepping back and just looking at the forest rather than the trees, and seeing what ideas pop up. I find that picking who goes on missions is a more "scientific"/checklist type exercise than thinking of what missions to come up with.

Another great topic! Fab!

IB uses a great analogy there about stepping back and focussing on the forest not just the trees.

Usually I have a general master plot for each arc, for instance I created the Shadowmancer as a new villain, so thought about his situation: how does he get his victims, if he's been around for centuries does he have supporters, how will the Legions story interact with his? As it involved pirates I knew Jan had to be in there, and I needed two uniques so Dawny and Drake were in, also the espionage squad needed something to do so Tinya was in, then I wanted a small moment planned between Doug and Troy to show their personalities so that a them in, and I wanted Wonder Woman to kick ass so that was the initial team. With my team being so expanded it was the perfect opportunity to have a gaggle of underused others join in, so that was my initial plotting for that storyline in one paragraph. Oh and Gazelle really needed to fight ninjas, don't ask why as I don't know, but I just knew it was overdue.

In LW4 I'll be introducing a brand new team of villains, a nasty war and a mystery to be solved, as well as the usual random interpersonal moments to keep the characters moving forward. I've plotted our the first arc fully and have the second part fairly well thought through. One of the opening scenes, between Harmonia and Backlash was written over a year ago but haven't had the opportunity to use it until now. it dovetails nicely though so I tweaked it a little to fit in.

I try not to repeat basic stories and shift focus from action to mystery to interpersonal moments quite quickly so it keeps the arcs fresh for the reader.

As for how do I come up with the big ideas? Sometimes it's the characters themselves, there's a biggy coming in LW4 that will surprise you (i hope), or the story idea comes from a general idea - again in LW4 there's a planetary war to stop so that was the starting point, or it could be I want to work with certain characters so figure out a way they can get together. Sometimes it's a silly idea and it entertains me so I run with it - Orange legionnaires against the world and also a space Dragon trying to mate with a space factory, both perfect examples. I also try to sabotage the usual writing trope, for instance they team all get along with each other... Ummm no. Not at all. Oh kinetix is power hungry.... Nope, actually she's being helpful... Etc.

from my experience you shouldnt throw away ideas just because you can't use it right now as it will find a home eventually if you wait.

And play, creativity grows when you release the urge to nail it down. Don't be scared of being silly, don't deny the most outrageous idea. They will keep you going as you have the work to do writing them out properly.

Harbi, you said it so well! A lot of my ideas came to me when I was actually writing the posts - bits like Brek's crush on Zoe and Ferro's crush on Mentalla, for example.

Others came to me suddenly when plotting, like when I decided to give Condo his Chemical King powers instead of Element Lad's transmutation, then I thought, what a shame we no longer have a transmuter... but I can't resurrect Element Lad as he was too far gone as the Progenitor... then BAM! Wait, Monstress died in a way that I can bring her back like how Garth was brought back, AND she retained her personality at the end.

Another is Kono, I wasn't planning to use her at all in my Volume 4 then I realized how much I was harping on and on about Dragonmage not joining the Legion because of what happened to Gil'd and Dryad, then I realized that Sklar was destroyed too so what must Kono feel about that... then boom! (And I mention Gil'd and Dryad in the same sentence, that's significant, hint hint).

So Harbi is right, never throw away an idea but write it down and who knows, an opportunity to use it may come in!

This is so much fun, I love sharing ideas and reading all of yours. As Harbi said, what a wonderful topic, Omni!

Something else else I meant to add is despite plotting out stories before I write them I always give myself room to adapt as the characters all vie for attention so there's likely to be parts that take detours before getting to the punch line.its fun to see what comes out of these flashes of inspiration, as IB so rightly said above, you can be writing a part that you know exactly what's happening and suddenly a character speaks up and you're off on a tangent. IB returning Candi as Element Lass was one such inspired intervention, and im sure you have had a few moments like that too, we all probably have, tthough a tip is don't post these parts until you know where they're going or you'll be stuck with a loose end that'll nag away at you. I've written out a start of a storyline that is really dramatic but I don't know where to take it next so I'll just sit on it, who know maybe that'll be the arc for LW5.

Something else else I've learned from reading other stories here is not to spell everything outright from the start, allow moments, especially the interpersonal ones, to have the space to grow. A prime example is the way Raz writes Comet Queen and Quislets friendship, he's never outright said they are friends but the relationship is there to be enjoyed when he posts it.

But to get back to the initial question, where do plot ideas come from, well look around you - sadly disasters and war, terrorism, ecological mishaps, accidents and general criminal and corrupt behaviour are there to be explored. If you can marry an idea with a long standing characters established story then all the better.

Good luck Omni, you already write brilliant tales, hopefullythe suggestions we can come up with can help you carry on sharing them with us.

I think pretty much all of my plot ideas come from wanting to use specific characters, either Legionnaires or bad guys...looking at their motivations and tapping stuff from their background which hasn't been explored a lot.

Good example is the recent adventure with Fearstorm. I wanted to use Fearstorm again, I have been wanting to touch on Infectious Lass's feelings about Diamond Damsel, I wanted to show off Blok's new enhancements and I wanted to do something with Quislet. The fun part is putting it all together as a coherent bunch of ideas.

I have heaps of storylines that I never have time to get through....there are individual storylines with Tellus and Wildfire I really wanna do soon, I want to touch base with some of the ex-Legionnaires we've not seen for a while, and somewhere in the back of my head Mordru is trying to get an epic storyline happening too. For me, I find that letting the characters kind of dictate where they want to go is the easiest way for me to plot.

I think Harbinger had a really good point too with letting characters have some space to grow in between massive events (and thanks for using Grava & Quislet as examples, I like those two!)...I kind of think about what characters would naturally be drawn to one another (or against one another) and that helps with putting everything together too even if it's not something which is outright driving a story a lot of the time. A fun thing I like to do is sit down with my cast and just think about who'd have a better friendship with whom, and which characters would have weird stuff in common.

Great prompt!

I agree a lot with what ya'll have said: sometimes (like Harbinger with the "Gazelle must fight Ninjas") there is some stuff that just sounds too awesome not to have: I had a note a scribbled down at some point that just said "Chuck and Tenzil fight a Daxamite and WIN." and I knew it had to go somewhere.

And IB raises a great point with Element Lad/Monstress: Sometimes you've got the start of something, but you need that other piece to pop up to make it perfect.

Sometimes like Raz says you just shuffle together a lot of parts that you know you wanna hit! And I gotta agree that you _never_ throw an idea out, cause who knows where it'll work, you know?

What works best for me is scaffolding: I know, more or less, the 'arc' of my Legion from their founding through to their second big class of cadets. There's big tent poles in the middle that I know I want to hit in some form or fashion (like the betrayal of the team by Superlad and the rise of Darkcide) and knowing I want to hit these helps me keep the plot moving forwards but also gives me enough room to be surprised at what shakes out that was not part of the plan whatsoever (Brek has a crush on Jenni, she doesn't reciprocate, and he moves on juuuuust in time for her to realize she wants him). And the big events can of course move and change and shift as you go!

On the missions themselves: I like to try and figure out who was sitting around the HQ at the time, and could respond, and one of the coolest things about the Legion are their size: you could have three or four 'missions' going at any given time and still have Legionnaires to spare! One way I've found that helps me think of missions is what's happened in the story so far and try and contemplate how that would affect the galaxy at large. For example: McCauley is made nervous by the Legionnaires mandate and how it could expose some of his shadier practices, so he founds the Workforce. The problem is he starts with a bunch of superpowered thugs like Flare and Caress he hired just because he found them attractive (cause he's a schmuck). Now they decide they don't just want to sit around waiting to try out their skills around the Legion, so the Workforce decides to stage an Emergency on one of McCauley's factory-planets and the Legionnaires of course respond, leading to a scrap between the two teams.

THIS. This is what helped me plot out and structure my Volumes 1-3, and this is how I'm plotting my Volume 4 too! A lot of the details and smaller events though just kind of come out as I'm writing.

Agreed!

And LOVE the name Darkcide! Can't wait to read your stories NSBL

Thank ya'll so much! And I'm working on the intro now (The Legion forms when their first dozen members repel basically a small army of Mercs from UP HQ) and intros _terrify_ me cause I'm so worried about mucking them up, so it's taking longer than I'd like.

One question I'd like to ask everyone about is Romance: It's a big part of Legion Lore, and how do ya'll go about figuring out how it shakes out in your stories? I just read IB's Ferro starting to notice Mentalla, for example: do you all feel it just happens organically as you write out the characters, or is it something you all feel you need to plan out beforehand?

Most of my romances came about through inspiration. Ferro noticing Mentalla came about because I had Mentalla take control of his body, and then had them paired up on one of the subteams. Ferro used to have a crush on Violet but never acted on it, so that opened the door.

Insect Queen and Particon was inspired by their (undocumented) time together as Amazers, but more because when I was writing them I found they had such synergy.

Brek's crush on Zoe was a sudden dash of inspiration that started when I had them working together to create a shield. I thought about how their personalities would mesh.

M'Onel and Shvaughn came about because of her admiration for him, and I figured out she would be smart enough to figure out his identity as Valor. The real seed was their scene in Legion Worlds 1 where there was a very mild hint of flirtation.

So it is really a combination of their pasts (established canon or otherwise), how I feel they will mesh as a couple, and sudden bursts of inspiration.

PS: looking forward to your stories! Sounds like you have a large and exciting team

Romance, and the flip side of antipathy are dictated by the characters themselves I find. Brin and Laurel Kent made perfect sense, he's trying hard to be an alpha male but is too sensitive to ever pull it off while she's all front and dreadful insecurity underneath - a perfect match I thought. Several others just wrote themselves. Ultimately these are a group of late teen and early twenty something athletes so I imagine they'll be at it like rabbits given half a chance. Just saying...

Defintiely. They're the 'teenagers' of their era-a socially liberal, progressive/permissive era more often than not, from what I can tell-and a lot of them physically empowered, and thrust into positions not only of authority as Law Enforcement, but also dangerous predicaments where they never really know if they're coming home. They almost certainly are going at it whenever given half the chance

Life is short, and sadly some Legionnaire lives are pretty short too I like how Harbi put it - most of them just wrote themselves!

Romance! Some of my romances are callouts to bits of Legion lore that I like....I always thought Infectious Lass & Jacques were cute in the 5YL Legion for example, and I don't think I can see a situation where I'd ever want to break up one of the classic couples permanently either...I wrote a subplot with Chuck and Lu where there was some tension for a bit but I never would have considered splitting them up, and I made a point of getting Cosmic Boy & Night Girl back together again in my fic too.

Some of my same-gender couples I have put together just to have some diversity...eg Power Boy & Dev-Em, Vi and Calorie Queen

Some of them write themselves as you guys have mentioned for your own characters....Blok and Diamond Damsel's very slow journey to relationship-dom is something that both characters have just kinda made happen for themselves, and when I came up with Light Lad I didn't see him hooking up with Ayla, but it just kinda made sense as it happened...Supergirl and Shadow Lad getting close is another example of something I never really consciously planned on, but once I saw it happening I kind of liked how their attraction brings to mind a gender-reversed version of Mon-El and Shadow Lass

Raz's point about gender diversity made me think that most of us have taken characters whose sexual orientations were never really revealed, and made them homosexual/bisexual.

With me, there's Particon and Insect Queen (and depending on how you look at it, Lyle and Condo).

NBSL had Jacques.

Harbinger had Kent Shakespeare.

Raz has Calorie Queen and Dev-Em.

Pretty cool, I think.

Power Boy and Dev-Em...Raz I hadn't thought about that before, but it sounds like it could be cute as hell! And I gotta see your Taryn And IB: _anything_ with more Insect Queen is work my time

And IB is spot-on with the diversity; one of the coolest things about the Legion is just how diverse it already is,not only in romances, but different races and species as well, and almost all the good fanfics I've read about the team just expand that further!

Does not hurt that all of us have upwards of 3 dozen members on our teams

Very true XD But the Legion should be that size, you know? They patrol dozens and dozens of _planets_; I personally love the idea of the Legion being able to break down into like four or five more typical superhero teams, or just dogpile on top of threats like Darkseid or Mordru (which illustrates pretty well, I think, just how hard the villains need to be for the Legion: The Fatal Five, for example, have to be worth almost 10 Legionnaires per member!).

Tharok, the Emerald Empress (and Eye) and Validus are worth way more than 10 Legionnaires each I think. Mano and Persuader maybe not quite as much...

It CAN be hard to think up of threats for the team though. Which would make a nice new topic - how do you guys think of villains, or use existing villains, for your teams? I've only created one new big villain for my team, and maybe one or two minor ones.