Writing I have a gimmick, but no story

[Aurimasp]

As the title says.

I have a few gimmicks/power systems that I want to integrate into a story, but I have no such story to do so.

Essentially what I'm asking for is to know how to come up with a story surrounding such gimmicks/power systems.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

What's the purpose of the gimmick(s)?

 

[Aurimasp]

What's the purpose of the gimmick(s)?

To have kick-a** fight scenes.

In all seriousness, it should move the story forward and preferably reflect the protagonist's maturity.

What I mean by gimmick is something you wouldn't exactly find in other stories (though not really original), say, for example, One Piece's devil fruits, alongside its haki power system or Naruto's handsigns. Something that'd set the story apart, y'know.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

You could start with the base.
You said it reflects his maturity, and the examples you gave make me think it could be a coming of age story. Or you could go for a more mature concept like handling tragedy or something. I'm not exactly sure if you have anything in mind. Whats a kind of story that speaks to you? Write that.
The setting, well that's up to what you think is cool.

Maybe this could help you out.

The 9 Types of Stories and How to Master Them

There are 9 types of stories. Do you know which plot type you are writing? Learn about the types with examples here.

thewritepractice.com

 

[Mikeynohmore]

You got a theme yet, bro? Having a theme or two to act as a guiding star(s) for where you plan to take your characters makes coming up with an actual story with them a whole lot simpler. At least, in my experience it has.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Just steal one. Most stories are just other stories with a new cost of paint. The Lego movie is just a reskinned version of The Matrix, and it’s still a great movie

 

[TheEldritchGod]

MY WAIFU IS FIGHT!!!​

Edward Dialook was your typical 30-something nobody with an addiction to the popular online mobile app game Wai-Fu. A game where you collected and battled with sexy Waifus in arena-style combat with other players. What he didn't know was that it was an unofficial training program for finding people who could be abducted and thrown into the greatest INTERDIMENSIONAL GLADITORIAL GAME OF ALL TIME, run by the sinister Thatch Interdimensional corporation.

The company would scour the universe to find the sexiest female combatants, but because they were so powerful, they all had brain chips installed making them completely slaved to the will of their controller and unable to fight unless ordered to. They tried letting the women fight on their own, but this resulted in too many uprisings. For this reason, someone has to directly command the sexy slaves to attack one another. Ed is brought into a world where he has sexy bitches to follow his every command, except for two problems.

1. If his roster of Waifus ever reaches zero, he is "eliminated" from the competition.
2. He has a conscience.

Can he build up his roster of Sexy Slaves and win the tournament without any of them dying, while trying to resist the temptation to violate his waifus who are completely incapable of giving consent?

Find out in the next exciting issue of:

MY WAIFU IS FIGHT!!!​

 

[Zinless]

You got a theme yet, bro? Having a theme or two to act as a guiding star(s) for where you plan to take your characters makes coming up with an actual story with them a whole lot simpler. At least, in my experience it has.

Yep, having a theme could give you ideas for unique characters a lot easier than drawing one out from scratch. It doesn't even have to tie directly to your gimmick, as themes could work well with any gimmick if you know what you're doing. The main thing to focus on is to make sure the theme is consistent.

 

[Cipiteca396]

It would be easier to answer this question if you explained exactly what the gimmick does. Without knowing that, any recommendation given could end up being completely worthless.

As an example... You mentioned One Piece's Devil Fruits. Haven't watched it, but I'm pretty certain that they give someone a super power, in exchange for making them unable to swim. So if your story was about a landlocked nation fighting in an underground war against underdark monsters... That gimmick would be utterly unsuitable.

Generally speaking... Your gimmick should be the only thing that makes the story possible. It should be an equal source of both problems that prevent the MC from getting what they want, and solutions that bring them closer to their goal.
If you have a negative/stick theme, using the gimmick should bring the MC closer to ruin until the theme becomes obvious to the reader.
If you have a positive/carrot theme, using the gimmick should bring the MC to enlightenment about the nature of the theme.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Its okay.

Just write the story as the filler to show the gimmick in different situations.

 

[Arkus86]

To have kick-a** fight scenes.

In all seriousness, it should move the story forward and preferably reflect the protagonist's maturity.

What I mean by gimmick is something you wouldn't exactly find in other stories (though not really original), say, for example, One Piece's devil fruits, alongside its haki power system or Naruto's handsigns. Something that'd set the story apart, y'know.

I'm no writer, but I would say, if you have a gimmick, know what it does and what is its purpose, you can go from there.
You say it's to have kick-a** fight scenes, so you can start by creating a fight scene. Build the "arena" for the fight. Create the characters who are fighting. String the sequence of events that led to the fight and the reson for it...