this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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I've written two, too-long fiction books. After the second one, I realized I only have one story to write, and can't think of anything else. I tried to start a third one, and it's just turning into the same story--everything I like. So, I think I'm done writing.
Take a look at the Shonen anime community. There's a huge market for the same story repeated over and over.
It's all about whether you enjoy writing it.
Oh my gosh. Or friggin' isekai.
"I Was Dead and Now I'm in Another World That Works on JRPG Mechanics and I'm a _______ ?!?!?!?!?!!!!!????"
Step 1. Fill in the blank with something clever. Step 2. Too late! Someone already made it, and it's got an 11 episode anime on Crunchyroll that ends abruptly and will never see continuation.
... "Reincarnated As a Vending Machine" is legit good though, the way it leans into its ridiculousness. XD
It doesn’t matter if someone’s already done it, because they are all either stalled or cancelled. Even the good ones are never finished and can be blazed through in an afternoon.
Mandatory magic power classification orb that explodes when touched by the MC
Lol as well as a clever hook gimmick that stops being relevant by episode/issue 2 or 3. XD
Or, my personal least favorite, actually interesting premise followed through on then absolutely ruined by horny weeb nonsense.
As a horny almost-weeb it's the nonsense I'm mostly offended by, to be clear.
Try writing a story from randomly selected elements. You might surprise yourself when writing under constraints.
Literally! Restrictions make us more creative, I always loved writing prompts for this. You could come up with some elements and number them and roll a die to choose them
This is basically what Brandon Sanderson does and they're all good. It helps that his favorite thing is inventing new magic systems.
Just write the same story in a different setting. If you're good at love stories, try a fantasy love story or a sci-fi love story or an occult noir love story.
wait until you realize all stories are basically one story
Go look up the belgariad and then the other series by the same author. Wonderful writing and enjoyable story but every series is the same story with different characters.
And settings that, ten years after you get done with them and liked the whole thing based purely on the characters, make you go "wait, that was actually super racist and more than a little pedophilic"
Then you find out about the child abuse charges and some things start making more sense.
Yeah, I read them as a teen and really liked them, so read them (well, the Belgariad, at least, then kinda stalled on the next series) to my daughter more recently and didn't find them quite as enjoyable. They were still fun but full of a bunch of questionable shit. I'd say it was very boomeresque with a lot of its humour. Also the weird recurring "oh drat, you have out-negotiated me again, Silk!"
Well damn. That was an unwelcome surprise this afternoon. The more you know I guess.
Michael Moorcock made a career out of writing the same story over and over again.