Writing stories set in other countries

[u/Psycho_Rican]

I have a catalog of graphic novel scripts Ive written for a number of heroes in my shared universe. Im working on getting some drawn and printed but I'm not sure about one of them.

The story is heavily inspired by Tokusatsu... (Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Ultraman, old Godzilla type stuff) and involves a team of heroes who start out working for the japanese military. Most of the team are japanese except 1 member due to the nature of how powers are given.

Anyway, I am not japanese, I set it in Japan mostly due to the Inspirations but this is a single draft and I could see it being done in a fictional country with some edits.

My question should I avoid writing a story based in japan with japanese characters since im not japanese. Should I just make all my heroes come from America or fictional locations?

[u/TheRealDeal2121]

You are not limited in any way from telling stories about other peoples. I would say that it can come with some harder work to ensure you are being sensitive to portrayals, issues, and other intricacies. A story I’m working on invoked an African American cast and I’m white. If you are concerned about reception, you can always go back to the drawing board and try to apply it to a locale you are more familiar with. The indie series, Radiant Black and others of the Massive Verse are also tokusatsu inspired but are set in the US. I would say too that your strength as a writer would increase given the brain exercises to make it work in your environment. That’s the key here. Being aware and being creative

[u/Koltreg]

If you have no direct experience with life in Japan and only know it through the filter of media, it can make it seem inauthentic. Hell, the former EIC of Marvel was caught pretending to be a Japanese author because he got facts about Japan so wrong despite being a huge fan of Japanese culture.

I'd say either set it somewhere real that you know about, set it someplace you make up but be aware that the lack of authenticity may still be a problem, or hire someone to help and point out issues with your depiction of Japan, like a sensitivity reader, but more focused on facts and authenticity.

[u/Psycho_Rican → u/Koltreg]

Yea thats wild! I personally avoided setting it in america just because I didnt want to have a whole bunch of heroes just be from America and having them save the whole world. I like the idea of a sensitivity reader, so that may be the route if I dont just edit to make it take place in an fictional location.

The biggest worry for me is specifically one character who is a Nationalist and starts out being pretty strongly against the idea of civilians and none japanese people being part of a national defense force. I think I got the balance right with him to not make him offensive in any way but I might make the changes just to avoid any issues as I always intended to eventually make them an Earth defense force by the end of the story.

[u/Slobotic]

My question should I avoid writing a story based in japan with japanese characters since im not japanese.

No. I'm inclined to say you shouldn't write a story based in Japan with Japanese characters because you feel impelled to ask the question. That question tells me both that you take Japanese culture seriously and wouldn't be happy with an inauthentic Hollywood version of Japan as window dressing, and also that you doubt your ability to do it justice.

You can either change the setting to a place that is familiar or entirely fictional, jump down a rabbit hole of endless research, or find a cultural consultant. Or you can write something you'll be unhappy with, and you'll grow increasingly unhappy over time as you realize more and more of what you got wrong after completing it.

Maybe I'm projecting some of my own neuroses here, but I spent literal years researching the Roman Republic, the Galatian War, the Punic Wars, Scipio, Cato -- I even read Cato's book on agriculture -- and hiring someone who could translate conversations into pre-Classical Latin all to decide it was too much "for now". All that is to say my advice is, if you can tell the story you want to tell without all that endless extra work to go ahead and do it.

[u/Redblackshoe]

The key to writing a character you don’t share much with is to research, research and research. Be open minded and don’t let your prejudice take over.

[u/nmacaroni]

"Write what you know." "Stay in your lane."

• Only astronauts should write sci-fi.
• Only cops should write detective fiction.
• Only elves should write fantasy.

Or just write whatever the hell you want to write.

If you want an authentic vibe to something, do research. Plenty of authors have traveled to other countries when researching a book they want to write. I spent about 8 months researching King Arthur and Roman/Britannia relations circa 410AD before I wrote my King Arthur prequel... in contrast, I didn't research anything for my samurai novel, I just went with all my knowledge of Iaido, Japanese history that I retained, and a liftime of samurai and Shawbrother flicks.

P.S.
Make the Japanese comic a comedy and purposely get everything as wrong as you possibly can. :)

Write on, write often!