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Anything controversial about my martial art fantasy story?

WonderingSword5

Troubadour
I personally think it's impossible to judge a story by the idea / outline as written. Unless your whole idea, plot and premiss is racist, in which case don't write it.

But for what you wrote, keep what the others in this thread have said in mind and just write the story. All of these issues very much depend on how the story is written, on the execution, not on the idea. So write the story. When you're done, find some sensitivity readers and give it to them, ask their opinion. They will tell you what's good and bad about your story. That's the only way to deal with something like this.

Another thing, if this is your first novel (and I'm pretty sure it is), then don't worry about any of it. It will most likely be bad, since almost all first novels are. Just read some of the first stories Tolkien wrote (you can find them in the Book of Lost Tales). They're terrible to the point of being hard to finish. And that's about my favorite author. So, write your story and congratulate yourself on finishing a novel and one which is possibly better than the first stories written by Tolkien.

There is a very big chance no one will read or buy your first novel. That's also not the point of it. The point of a first novel is to practise the craft of writing. To learn your process and about finishing a story. It's not about writing a masterpiece.

So just write the novel. Get it our of your system and onto paper. Only when you're done worry about what people might say. Give it to a few people who's opinion you trust (who are not your family / close friends, unless they are professional editors / writers) and ask their opinion. Until then all worrying you're doing is pointless.
I guess the best thing for me to do is start writing. I know some novels don't start out so well, as the examples you have mentioned with authors who've written terrible books in the beginning, but my concern is my ideas might get literally banned for all the different cultural diversity mixed in, mo matter how well it's written :(

Are there any Chinese, Japanese or Ainu people on here that I can get some feedback from?
 
I guess the best thing for me to do is start writing. I know some novels don't start out so well, as the examples you have mentioned with authors who've written terrible books in the beginning, but my concern is my ideas might get literally banned for all the different cultural diversity mixed in, mo matter how well it's written :(
Banned from where?

You haven't even written the book yet, let alone looked for a publisher (unless there's something you're not telling us). Let alone marketed it. Worrying about that is putting the cart before the horse.
 

WonderingSword5

Troubadour
Banned from where?

You haven't even written the book yet, let alone looked for a publisher (unless there's something you're not telling us). Let alone marketed it. Worrying about that is putting the cart before the horse.
It's because my MC is a white American and uses a mixed style of martial arts that includes Chinese and Japanese martial arts, which many consider cultural appropriation, meets a half Asian wife that is half white and half Japanese/Ainu, having a white/Japanese/Ainu son, a white American villain martial arts master, a resurrected villain Chinese emperor with other Chinese bad guys,
plus the MC's white/Japanese/Ainu mixed son becomes the next MC and he meets a Chinese girlfriend/partner.

You don't think many will get offended and shut me down for this? :( :(
 

WonderingSword5

Troubadour
And I did my research, and there really was a Chinese group if alchemists that traveled to Japan in ancient times that an emperor from China sent them on a mission, so I can connect that to the story of how the Chinese emperor ended up in Japan, right? :(
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Have to agree with Rosemary on this. This is a lot of angst over a book not written yet. Write it first. everything else second.
 
I'm sorry to break it to you, but people will most likely just not care. Only works that are reasonably popular will get commentary about how they treat things like cultural appropriation and racial issues. All others at best get a bad review and at worst simply get ignored. There are something like 7.500 books published on Amazon each day. That is too many for anyone to worry about a bad, unknown book. People simply stop reading and go to the next one. No one is going to ban an unknown author over his first book.

I'm not even sure what you mean by ban. Amazon certainly isn't going to ban you. They only do that if you violate their terms of service, with things like put your book in the wrong category on purpose, or gloryfying nazi's or whatever. They don't care. If anything, they would probably promote you, since controversy sells. Neither are any of the other books stores going to "ban you".

If you mean you're worried you'll get bad reviews, then you probably should stop writing. Every writer gets bad reviews. Check all best sellers, all clasics and all literature noble prize winners. They all have some terrible reviews. If you can't take that then you shouldn't publish your book.

Lastly, if by some miracle you do get noticed and people start hating on you on social media or whatever, then so what? Just ignore them and make a new pen name for your next book. It's literally as easy as filling out a different name in a text box on Amazon. Just forget about the controversial pen name and start a new one. no one will know or care.
 

Puck

Troubadour
Anything controversial about my martial art fantasy story?

I suspect you'll find that the greatest critics of martial arts related stories will probably be martial artists. If you include descriptions of combat that appear unrealistic or inauthentic those guys will probably pick up on that sort of thing.

Ninjas and Assassins (as in Assassin's creed) do get criticism from historians and from people with a strong cultural interest in Japan or the Ismalis - but mainly on the basis that they are an inauthentic representation of these cultures. That said, although they may attract criticism, they rarely attract outright condemnation (unless they really go too far).
 

Stanley

Acolyte
Hmm. The best advice that I got from this thread I think, is "write the story you envision, and make no apologies"
 
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