Anyone know of a serial story wherein the Mc may or may not be gifted(could be super-powers) used it in sports?
Say someone could read mind, he could use it in the court or in any other interesting areas.
It would be a fresh read from the typical shady organization(fbi/cia) save the world trope
I'm not so sure. The clear advantage that someone would have in that case would override the conflicts inherent in the competitive sport. After all, consider all the big name stars who come out of no where, become phenomenal successes, the competition for the sport shrivels and years later, it turns out they'd been doping all the time.
I don't mind time travel sports stories, especially if they decide to combat their poor health in the previous life by exercising more in the new life, but MC or superpowers would only weaken sports stories.
That said, I seem to recall one story (can't recall the name, "DreamWeaver" maybe?) where the character started out interested in sports (and in catching the girl next door) onto to later drop the sports entirely as he ends up facing a super-powered bad guy (the ultimate disappointment in most of these stories).
But I'm confused, was this a new story request, or seeking to identify a story you'd once read?
I don't mind time travel sports stories, especially if they decide to combat their poor health in the previous life by exercising more in the new life, but MC or superpowers would only weaken sports stories.
In a few stories, the gifted protagonist (MC is a little ambiguous in these forum) starts off getting really good at sports, only to reduce his role and eventually quit completely as realizes that his advantage makes the game meaningless for himself and unfair to others. Usually in high school, as "stars coming out of nowhere" get far more scrutiny in college.
but MC or superpowers would only weaken sports stories.
Not necessarily, it would take careful design and writing, but you could do a meta-human sports league where all the players have some kind of superpower.
Yes i see that,
I mostly wanted a 'special' individual trying to live a mundane life.
It would also be the ultimate test to his control, trying to control his powers on sports as to not raise awareness from the wrong crowd.
It could also be a sort of discovery adventure, him honing his powers on the court and out of the court.
Most ability stories here in just 1-5 chapters, main characters already could harness the full power of their abilities without any backlash.
It could also be a sort of discovery adventure, him honing his powers on the court and out of the court.
Most ability stories here in just 1-5 chapters, main characters already could harness the full power of their abilities without any backlash.
My stories (which average around 20 chapters) focus on that type of story: characters in strange circumstances trying to figure out and adapt to what's happening to them.
However, one issue I've long had is in the timeframe. Since I often have people traveling across country, or racing a deadline, it's difficult making time for them to exercise on a daily basis, so I tend to avoid the 'sports' aspects in my stories. It's just difficult to have them doing the same thing every day when their lives are in such disarray. But I can see the attraction in such a story: challenging yourself but wanting to keep your abilities under the radar.
My Catalyst readers kept asking about Alex, the main character exercising more, especially as his health started failing, but he was traveling so much I just couldn't arrange it easily.
You could do it like the main character in hindsight 20/20.
Wherein he doesn't really go into gym unless he has time but every morning he has a set of exercises that would only take 30mins to an hour at most.
Once a week, jogging/running could be an hour or two or less, or just a treadmill.
Then the readers could just assume that he does it everyday.
My Catalyst readers kept asking about Alex, the main character exercising more, especially as his health started failing, but he was traveling so much I just couldn't arrange it easily.
I haven't actually read the Catalyst series yet -- it's on my "to do list", but so are about two dozen other books, and growing -- but a lot depends on how the travel is taking place, and what the goal of it is, bother in the short-term and the long-term.
If he's travelling by plane or coach (stage- or bus), he could do simple exercises like push-ups, jogging in place, and stretching in the aisles. If driving, he'd need the occasional rest break anyway, so he could squeeze in a bit of exercise then.
In a lower tech. setting, including post-apocalyptic, there's actually a fair bit of free time. In long term travel situations, horses need a lot of rest in order to stay healthy; it's generally advised to only ride about 6 hours per day, preferably in the morning before it starts to get hot, so a character has several hours in the afternoon and evening to hunt, scout, exercise, read, and so on.
Now obviously none of this means that the character necessarily should be exercising, it may simply not be in his character to do so. I'm just pointing out that no matter how busy a person is, there is always time to exercise if they choose to make it a priority.
This applies to real life, not just writing, and yes, I have my own issues with not prioritising exercise as often as I should, but there are always ways to squeeze some in. Back when I was working from home, I'd do a bit of stretching every time I stood up to refresh my coffee cup.
I haven't actually read the Catalyst series yet -- it's on my "to do list", but so are about two dozen other books, and growing -- but a lot depends on how the travel is taking place, and what the goal of it is, bother in the short-term and the long-term.
Yeah, yeah. You can exercise anywhere, but my point--and I did have one--was that readers were eager to read about characters who exercised on a daily basis. That implies that jhnmakii2nd is far from alone in wanting this kind of story. My only issue with adding it is that I tend to write short time-frame stories (even my 6-book Catalyst takes place over 3 short months) where the characters are frequently rushing from one location to another fighting proverbial fires. Thus I couldn't easily write in a daily exercise schedule without it feeling forced.
I'm also thinking the two types of stories go together (people struggling to solve difficult problems and exercise), as readers typically work out such issues while working out and expect to see those aspects incorporated into stories. Hell, whenever I'm stuck with a story, I go for long hikes to free my mind to work on the problem, so it makes sense.
That's something more authors may want to consider when writing saga type stories: include more everyday details which demonstrate how characters resolve stressful episodes. Those scenes help define the character.
By the way, I'm not sure having a character standing up and stretching after a five-hour trip makes for engaging fiction! 'D
There are a couple of Do-Over stories where the main character adopts a modern diet or training regimen, or applies modern play tactics, to sports. Those could vaguely be considered super powers I suppose. Off hand, the one that comes to mind is Night Hawk's Once More with Feeling, but I'm sure there's at least one other that I'm forgetting the name of at present.
The problem with finding stories like this is that tags like "sports" and "super heroes" aren't widely used, so even though SOL has those tags, a lot of stories that meet your requirements won't be tagged that way. You'll be a bit better off just searching "Coming of Age" stories and filtering manually.
@Crumbly Writer
but MC or superpowers would only weaken sports stories.
While I agree with what I think is your intent -- that the focus of a sports story should be the sport itself -- I think that the OP is actually desiring a super-powered variant of the standard male adolescent wish-fulfilment fantasy where the protagonist makes friends, beats up the bullies, gets the girl, and wins the championship game because he's just that amazing, even though no one ever seemed to notice it before.
Off-hand, I keep thinking of Teen Wolf. In the original film, Michael J. Fox went werewolf to win basketball games, but basically became little more than a mascot; the moral of the story is "just be yourself" -- it was the '80s. In the modern version, the kid uses increased agility to win at lacrosse, but has "anger issues" that get a bit out of hand.
that tags like "sports" and "super heroes" aren't widely used
or the stories were posted prior to the tags being made available, and the author hasn't updated the tags or is no longer active on SoL.
or the stories were posted prior to the tags being made available, and the author hasn't updated the tags or is no longer active on SoL.
To add weight to Dicrostonyx, I never listed either "The Catalyst" or my "Great Death" series as either "superhero" or "MC", despite many people seeing them as such. Often, if a tag isn't spot on, authors simply won't use it for fear of being accused of false advertising (i.e. appealing to fans of another genre who may feel cheated).
