Writing a story that gets more epic in scale as the series progresses. Advice?

As the title suggests, my superhero story already starts off with quite a few characters but it's all relatively manageable. However, as with any superhero story the stakes get epic as time progresses. I have at least two Crisis Crossovers planned. One is a Civil War story arc where the heroes fight each other over a disagreement in politics, the other involves the story becoming a spacefaring intergalactic war involving the characters of my story with aliens and Galactic Conquerers (granted, there always was a sci-fi aspect to the series and aliens are known to the public, so it was only natural).

This is an exciting prospect, but I think it'll work best if planned way in advanced so you know what you're doing. I think a lot of stories that get more epic scale are enjoyable, but you can often tell that it wasn't initially planned that way and only got more epic as they writers began to need new ideas to excite their audience.

So, when planning a story that has Sequel Escalation and gets more epic as the story progresses, what is your advice in making sure the quality doesn't suffer because of it? I'd like to hear your thoughts, and if anyone else has something similar planned for their stories.

the problem with getting more and more epic as time goes by is that the suspension of disbelief is heavily strained....Also, what is the next epic crisis after the story where all the universes are in danger? All of reality? All of time? Honestly it gets boring really quickly and it's very hard to write it well if anything. RN your story is pretty generic and boring cardboard cutout of modern day comics.. You can have the buildup to these events (the civil war and the fighting aliens) be long and have that be the end goal. Create interesting villains, mysteries and obstacles for the humans on Earth. You have to remember, Marvel and DC have had their characters out for decades. No body is going to give two shits about your heroes fighting eachother after 2 years of publication or whatever. And another thing, you notice how DC and Marvel have to constantly reboot? That's because they are going the "story is more and more epic and big as time goes by" shit that bores readers eventually so they restart the entire universe(s) and try something new. Is that something you want to do?

1. Have an ending in mind. That is the best advice I can give for any story that has power escalation as it goes. Have an ending in mind from the start, and stick to it. The heroes kill Satan at the end of your plot outline? Then the story ends there. Escalation past that point would be ridiculous; don't let yourself get suckered into thinking there's anywhere else that the story can go.

2. Introduce a power ceiling early on. The heroes are going to become godlike in power? Introduce us to one of the gods they will one day equal (be they the Big Good, Big Bad, or something else entirely) somewhere in the early days of the story. In doing so you strengthen the willing suspension of disbelief, since the story has proven it can hold a character of this weight. Until the heroes surpass the character in question, you should have acceptance from your audience.

3. Understand that not every new arc has to top the one before it. Don't be afraid to do a storyline that gives some secondary characters a chance to shine against foes who might not be a match for the most powerful members of the cast, but can still threaten them. Maybe The Chosen One can kill a Demon Lord by breathing on it, but to Bob From Accounting an angry Muggle With A Shotgun can still be a serious problem.

4. Be aware that emotional stakes are as important as physical stakes. A villain who threatens to ruin the heroes' personal lives may well wind up as hated or more than the villain who aims to destroy the world. Also, understand that at a certain point, stakes can become meaningless, and that repetition only makes this problem worse. The Final Boss can threaten to destroy the world, but no one else beforehand really should.

5. Remember that being threatening isn't all about raw physical power. A foe who can perfectly counter your protagonist's powers can be notable weaker than a previous villain in sheer strength, but still be a serious threat (see Rurouni Kenshin and the contrast between penultimate villain, Shishio, and final villain, Enishi for a good example of this in action).

6. Introduce threats the heroes can't just power their way through. Lex Luthor is not Superman's most powerful enemy, but he is the one who is most adept at evading justice, and often requires the use of the Clark Kent identity and the deployment of the press to face any consequences for his actions.

7. Let the story come before the power levels. Figure out what you want the characters' emotional and personal arcs to be, then create situations that feed into those. Completing a storyline should give a character more than just a new power up, it should give them some character development as well.

8. Resist the urge to expand the cast too much. The more new characters you introduce into the protagonists' core group, the more likely it is that somebody gets left behind or otherwise rendered obsolete.

9. Related to 5, try to keep power levels from being entirely linear. Just because A can beat B, and B can beat C, doesn't have to mean that A can beat C. Different powers will interact with one another differently, and that should be taken into account.

10. I reiterate, know where to end it and stick to that. It really is the most important advice I can give.

This might be a useful guide to establish when your Serial Escalation might be going too far.

Basically the mindset of A Million Is a Statistic can applires to fictional settings as well. As in, merely increasing the stakes without keeping the heroes' involvement in the conflict personal will only take away the viewer's investment.

edited 27th Sep '17 10:06:44 PM by Adept

I would argue that while raising the stakes to the destruction of the world can work, you can only do it once, preferably as the climax.

I giggled when I see Satan mentioned, because in my story, the first Arc ends with his death. (or rather, Lucifer` death, Satan is actually a Eldritch Abomination stronger than him).

About Point 3. That is actually what happens twice. The M Cs of my story initially fight the leftovers enemies of stronger characters. Like, So, another character is fighting a powerful wizard? The M Cs are fighting one of his multiple minions.

Then, after Arc 1. When the M Cs are stronger than most of the demons, with all of the three mains being dangers to Top Gods. We see the conflicts on the smaller sides, with the main villain being a mere Wizard that isnt close in power to the main villains of the last arc. He compensate his threat level by being extremely heinous and horryfing (he is literally based on a Horror story villain).

Arc 3 is when the Power charts actually go absurd, and that is kinda the point, is the Apocalypse after all. Only the strongests will survive.

Also, about only can using the destruction of the world once, that is kinda hard to me because the setting is small (Only three cities and some Godly realms) and there is just so many possible apocalypses ready to explode, either a Cthulloid destruction for Tiamat (the mesopotamian godess) , A character wanting to start a war campaign against other universes , or The Big Bad who wants destroy all the world in a attempt to awoke a Eldritch Abomination that will destroy all universes in its awakening.

The end series is basically the christian Heaven mixed with the pseudo scientific idea of the Omega Point after effectively, they stop all other possible apocalypses. A massive Earn Your Happy Ending for the entire universe to be honest.

edited 1st Oct '17 10:12:30 AM by KazuyaProta

I have an anime inspired story where a group of kids harness various god-tier powers to battle Cthulhu like Eldritch abominations while dealing with more mundane and earthly problems (like having one kid deal with his mom having cancer).

The constraint I put in, is that there are a variety of dimensions (based on real world mythology; imagine Asgard, Mt. Olympus and Christian Heaven on three distinct planes) and their powers get a boost or nerf depending on where they are due to aeons old power limiters put in by the gods themselves.

Essentially on Earth they are at best as strong as Iron Man (city buster) but if they travel to Asgard; they get a nice boost and the kid that pulls his power from Norse Myth is almost invincible. So these kind of power fluctuations keep it interesting.

Many a time the heroes have to lure a monster away from earth and into one of the other dimensions to defeat it. If the Norse Kid I mentioned earlier is trapped elsewhere while his buddies are in Asgard; they have to work around that distinct disadvantage.

Alternatively, keep a low ceiling and have your heroes be creative with their powers. Rather than a stronger fireball, have a hero that shoots oil which the fire wizard can ignite.

edited 4th Oct '17 1:45:54 AM by SmokingBun