The Importance of Inspiration and What Were the Driving Forces Behind Age of Heroes

Truth be told, there was a lot that inspired the Age of Heroes series. For starters, if you'd be willing to hear this without judging me, what set me on the path to writing it was the simple fact that I didn't want to spend a summer working at Wal-Mart. You know how they say necessity is the mother of invention? Well, my young and desperate college-aged mind saw it as a necessity to avoid working at Wal-Mart during the summer of my Sophomore year at Drake University. Instead, I spent the summer working at a catering business, where I'd have enough free time to start brainstorming and writing what would eventually become Age of Heroes. And eventually, I'd publish the first book in the series: The Hero and the Disciple But enough about that, I want to use this as a moment to just tell the people a bit more about myself, my writing process, my thought process, and hopefully I can inspire some new writers out there who are struggling with inspiration on their end.

For starters, I had always loved books, movies and TV shows set in some sort of alternate world; a new planet, a fantasy kingdom, a galaxy far, far away, you get the idea. To me, that was the pinnacle of human creativity: crafting a completely different world from their own minds. The Tolkiens, the Martins, even the Rowlings, even though there was a hint of the 'real world' in the Harry Potter books; those were the kinds of authors I admired the most. Now, that's nothing against writers who set their books in a place like New York. I just prefer the kind of stories I had described earlier. Anyway, I wanted to do something just like that. Of course, besides the desperation to avoid working at a place where all my time would be taken up, I needed works to draw inspiration from. While I certainly kept the classic fantasy novels that are near-universally loved close to my heart, I needed something that also catered to my own style as a writer. I ultimately ended up turning to anime and manga, which had been the biggest source of inspiration for me in recent memory.

Hearing it straight from the source of it all, if you do go back and read The Hero and the Disciple, you can definitely see that I'm a fan of the genre. When I look back on what has inspired me the most, I can definitely point to a few series in particular. The adventure-fantasy manga about hunting for rare ingredients, Toriko, by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro is one that immediately comes to mind. I drew two particular things as inspiration from that particular manga. Toriko also uses a sort of 'threat level' system for dangerous beasts, much like the threat level system I use for monsters in Age of Heroes. In fact, assigning threat levels or power levels has always been a common theme in a lot of manga, from Dragon Ball (power levels) to One Punch Man (the threat levels of monsters and criminals). Showing the skill and strength of protagonists is important in establishing their effectiveness, so I wanted to design a system that could show exactly that. For example, very early in the book, Simon kills a monster strong enough to fight an entire squad of knights.

The second point of inspiration I drew from Toriko, and this is a pretty obvious one, is that there are two main protagonists. You have the experienced protagonist in the form of Simon. And then you have the 'viewpoint' protagonist who's basically the group's 'heart' in the form of Robert Bunker. We see a very similar situation in Toriko. We have our experienced protagonist in the gourmet hunter, Toriko, and then there's Komatsu, his best friend who's also the everyman who acts as the audience surrogate. While both Simon and Robert will grow plenty throughout this series, what I hope people see is two young men who fit their roles as 'heroes' in their own special ways. The point is, I took a story I loved, thought of the parts I liked specifically, and used those as a template for parts of Age of Heroes.

There were, of course, plenty of other manga that inspired me throughout the writing process. I'm sure plenty of anime fans would guess Kohei Horikoshi's immensely popular My Hero Academia was also a point of inspiration, being another story about a setting of heroes. My Hero Academia is fantastic, but believe it or not, I had actually not started watching My Hero Academia until my senior year of college, two years after I started writing Age of Heroes. It is an honest to God coincidence that I wrote a story about heroism while an immensely popular manga about heroes was being published constantly. However, I did draw from manga like Tite Kubo's Bleach and Takahiro's Akame ga Kill, as inspiration for some of the unique Magic Relics we see throughout the book. Also, being a fantasy setting with magic, Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail and Nakaba Suzuki's The Seven Deadly Sins were also heavy forms of inspiration. While all that had been great source material to draw on, I can't deny that being a huge fan of those stories certainly helped. You have to love what inspires you, that's just kind of an unspoken rule.

However, when I think back to my entire process throughout writing this book, I truly believe that what inspired me most was what I had wanted to accomplish with this book (and the sequels that will follow). I wanted to write a story that taught its readers to have confidence in themselves as people. As someone who struggled tremendously (and that is not hyperbole) with self-esteem issues, I know what it's like to feel hopeless. I know what it's like to feel like you're never good enough.

So, I wanted to write a story that told people who read it: 'who you are doesn't matter'. You can be as strong as Simon, or as kind as Robert. But regardless of what you have and don't have, you're awesome and you're here for a reason. So have confidence in yourself, because that's the first step in your own 'hero's journey.'

Keeping all of this in mind, I'd like to take this moment to address any aspiring writers who are reading this. I know it sounds corny, but inspiration is key when you're writing anything. Poems, short stories, novels, novellas, if there isn't something that's stirring the creativity that's inside of you, your writing process is going to be a major pain. Don't be afraid to be inspired by other material. There's a big difference between plagiarism and inspiration. If there's a movie you love, think of what you loved about that movie and use what you loved as a template. Also, really think about your own life experiences. Think of the experiences and lessons that made you happy, or even sad. As hard as this may sound, think particularly of the sad or rough moments from your life, because those moments help you write the conflict in your stories. As morbid as it sounds, a story cannot proceed without conflict. You have to design characters you love, and put them through hell. Robert's entire character arc throughout the Hero and the Disciple came from my own struggles with self-esteem, after all.

This is my very first blog post on this new website of mine, so I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has already read my work. I also hope and pray that if you haven't read any of my work yet, a few things happen after reading this. You'll give me a go, and if you're an aspiring writer yourself, you'll leave this page with a bit more confidence and direction as a writer. As someone who's just starting out himself, I know what it's like to put yourself out there like this. Keep your chin up, have confidence in your abilities, and above all else, keep writing. Like any other talent, it's a constant journey of self-improvement. And I pray your journey is as rewarding as mine has been so far.

Thank you.