Feb 24 2008
Index: How to Write a Superhero Story
Creating Superhero Characters
- List of Superpowers
- How to Give Your Superhero A Day Job
- Common Superhero Day Jobs, Part 1
- NEW: Common Superhero Day Jobs, Part 2
- Superhero Creation Questionnaire
- How to Create Weaknesses for Your Superhero
- How to Name Superheroes
- Modern Superhero Naming Conventions
- Questionnaire for Nonhuman Characters
- Random Name Generator for Alternate Identities
- Three Qualities of Solid Villains
- NEW: How to Do Superhero Gadgets Well
Origin Stories
- How to Write Origin Stories
- Plausible Origin Stories
- Why Secret Origins are Usually Awful
- “Just Another Comics Blog” Argues Against Origin Stories
Five Common Mistakes of Comic Book Writers
Other Advice for Comic Book Writers
- Experiment With Your Panel Layouts
- Should You Write a Comic Book or a Superhero Novel?
- Free Comic Book Scripting Software
- Use the Ending of Each Issue to Sell the Next Issue
- NEW: Make Your Recaps Stylish
- Sketch Your Pages Before Sending Them to the Artist
The Mechanics of Writing a Superhero Story
- How to Write Superhero Fight Scenes
- How to Pick Superpowers that Make Your Story Work
- Common Problems with Superstrong Heroes
- Common Problems with Psychic Superheroes
- Common Problems with Powersuited Superheroes (like Iron Man)
Marketing and Visual Issues
- Easy-to-Fix Visual Design Problems for Superhero Characters
- How to Make Your Story Less “Weird” and More Novel
- Superhero Visual References: Boots
- Superhero Visual References: Gloves
- Superhero Novel Proposals: How to Write the Comparable Works Section
Getting Published
- Publishers That Accept Unsolicited Submissions
- What Goes Into a Comic Book Submission?
- A Few Tips on Submitting a Comic Book Script
- How to Communicate With Editors
I think this is useful.
Have I mentioned this is helping me write a novel?
Good luck, Mysticgust! Let us know if you’d like beta-reviewers– just leave a comment here or e-mail us at SuperheroNation[at]gmail[dot]com .
What do you think about the name Luxman? Is it apt for a superhero? Is it already in use?
I think that as far as a comic book audience is concerned, it’s not in use. (There’s a Japanese electronics company named Luxman, but I think that none of your readers will have heard of it and you probably won’t have any legal liability issues). For example, the novel Soon I Will Be Invincible features a character named Bluetooth whose ability is remotely controlling electronic devices and, as far as I know, they haven’t gotten sued yet.
I think you’re legally in the clear to use the name, but I am not sure how effective the name Luxman is. It doesn’t seem to me to be very emotionally powerful and the pronunciation seems ambiguous (LUCKS-man or LUKES-man?). What are some of the characteristics you want readers to associate with your character?
Good luck!
[...] How to Write a Superhero Story Superhero Nation is a wacky superhero comedy site. We also have writing advice, particularly for the authors of superhero stories. (tags: supers) [...]
This is helping a lot, but I’m still having trouble with defining my character’s powers and coming up with character names. Do you have any suggestions?
@Necro:
I find that it’s usually easiest to start with the character powers, fill in personal details like background and personality, and then come up with the super-name.
It’s hard to say what powers are best for your story. However, if you’re a first time novelist, it’ll probably be easier to start with generic powers and then add in one or two minor exotic powers. For example, Spiderman has several generic powers (enhanced agility, reflexes, and strength) and then two minor, exotic ones (webs and spidersense).
Likewise, when we wanted to make a character to parody Nick Fury and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we gave the character a few basic powers that seemed logical for a mutant alligator: strength, claws and regeneration. Then we threw in two exotic touches, supersmell and infrared vision. Because we want this character to come off as an absurd and comical g-man, we named him Agent Orange.
Most main heroes fall into one of six archetypes: the tank (like the Hulk), the gymnast (Spiderman or Flash), the mage (Dr. Strange), the psychic (Invisible Woman), the gadgeteer (Batman) and the elementalist (Human Torch or Captain Atom). I think it’s easiest to write a tank or gymnast, but it really depends on which story you want to write. If you want a high-fantasy story, mages will probably work better. Gadgeteer stories usually feel a bit more believable, psychics lend themselves nicely to fantastical science fiction (or perhaps high fantasy), and I think elementalists are particularly well-suited for comic-books and novels aimed at younger readers.
As for names, again it really depends on what character and story you want to write. If you post a few details about the character, his powers and origin story, I’ll offer a few suggestions.
Yours,
Jacob
The character that I’m trying to name is basically a psychic that can only use his powers while he is fighting. He has five swords from a giant buster sword all the way down to a small blade, because I based him off an artist that draws a picture using his swords as he fights. So the swords are like paint-brushes to him. As he fights, the way he cuts things and destroys stuff will fit into his picture that most likely tells the future. But he blacks out when he fights. Either he or my main character, Necro, interprets the pictures.
He was a child prodigy in his village but went rogue to find out why he was drawing these pictures and their meaning. He joins up with this organization called Sector 13, which took him in and promised that they would teach him more about his power.
What do you think about Dwan as a character name?
Dwan’s fine, but the -dw- sound might be hard for readers to pronounce. However, I like the artistic angle of the character. So I have a few suggestions that try to combine hard-and-protagonistic sounds with soft-and-smooth ones. I got the impression that you’re writing a high-fantasy story not set on Earth, so I went for relatively exotic and unusual ones.
–Orphid
–Delance
–Shayman
–Illid
–Crane
These five, I think, are not conventional names but I don’t think they would trip up readers too badly. Good luck!
I think he is a pretty unique character. He’s one of my favorites.
What about Kiru or Riku?
Of the two, I like Riku better.
Thank you for all of this. I’ve been attempting to write a novel, and this site has been immensely helpful. I’m not really writing a ’super-hero’ novel, because the character isn’t really a superhero until the last quarter of the book.
The first third of the book is told from the point of view of his mother, Elizabeth, who had given him up for science after she discovered that she had become pregnant. The biological father, Tyler, tracked the child down, discovering that he had become part of a government operation known as Project Heracles whose goal is to create a ’supersoldier’. At this point, Russel (the main character), is only four years old and able to bend rods of steel with his bare hands and withstand gunfire. Eventually, Elizabeth rescues him from the project’s grasp, and takes the reins over it in the process.
The second part of the book describes Russel’s child and teenager hood, and how he befriends the highly intelligent but emotionally and morally unstable Mark Newman. Also, in keeping with at least some superhero cliches, Russel fights to control his secret and saves the occasional life. At the end of high school, Russel and Marks friendship comes to an abrupt end, and, due to a combination of different ‘injustices’ Mark decides that he hates Russel and threatens to kill him. Mark and Russel go their separate ways.
The final section of the book describes Russel’s becoming a ‘law enforcer’ for the city of New York, gaining technology based powers in the process. Slowly, random terrorist attacks become more and more frequent around the globe. Soon, it is revealed that all of them are the work of Mark, now a world class inventor, who is building on an idea for a ’society of the best’ that he had gotten in high school. It’s pretty obvious how the book turns out from this point, with Russel confronting Mark before his ‘final act of villainy’ occurs.
I was just wondering what anybody though of it. And, in case your wondering, all of the characters do have believable motives. The story is inspired partly by Smallville, and partly (though I hate to admit it) the story of Wolverine.
It’d be easier to evaluate this if you sent me a manuscript, but my initial concern is that publishers might sweat about the book if the first third is told from a different character’s perspective and is largely different from the 20-30%, which I imagine to be a fairly conventional superhero action story. There is a large group of readers interested in superhero novels, I think, but can you interest them in a book that seems at first glance to be about Elizabeth and Tyler rather than Russel and Mark? Can you make Mark’s plot logically flow from the first part of the book? It seems like the second and third parts of your book are coherent, but tying in the first part may be difficult.
“The biological father, Tyler, tracked the child down, discovering that he had become part of a government operation known as Project Heracles whose goal is to create a ’supersoldier’.” It seems like Tyler is a more interesting character than Elizabeth here. He is curious and attached to his child, which are both endearing and plot-driving traits. In contrast, Elizabeth gave up the child (to science!) and doesn’t seem to care as much where the child went, which seems a bit cold and apathetic (neither of which I would recommend for a protagonist). Also, on a marketing level, I’d speculate that the majority of readers of superhero-themed novels are males. It may be easier to sell them on a male character rather than a female?
Do you think it would be better to split it into two books?
That’s an interesting question. Again, I think it would help me to see a manuscript (which you can e-mail to superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com if you’d like us to beta review it). However, without having actually seen that… my instinct tells me that splitting it would be useful.
All right, I’ll consider sending the manuscript to you. Keep in mind though, I’ve barely started, so it may or may not take a while. I think it should go pretty quickly since I have a lot of scenes already outlined. Thank you for your input.
I’m trying to design a female character, but I don’t want her to be a damsel in distress. Can anyone help me?
Hmm. The single best female side-character I can think of in a superhero story is Lois Lane in the TV series “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” Although Lois repeatedly gets into situations where Superman has to save her, she is wholly superior to the average damsel-in-distress.
1) She’s clever and witty. She frequently knows more about what’s going on than Clark/Superman.
2) The story mostly avoids political incorrectness (women need to be saved!) by occasionally endangering Clark’s male co-workers (Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, usually).
3) I found it extremely endearing that she came from a broken family, which was a useful foil to Superman’s storybook-perfect roots in Kansas. Although broken families can make a character feel emo, I thought that the show did an excellent job of using the detail to make her feel realistic and resilient.
4) She’s not perfect, but she is likeable.
5) She spars with Clark pretty frequently, and sometimes she gets the better of him.
I have a few more thoughts here. Also, if you have the time, I’d highly recommend watching seasons 1 & 2 of the show.
Does anyone know how the copyright law applies when writing a novel that uses an existing world and characters, like a new Ironman or Superman story? I know that people are writing all kinds of new Star Wars stories but I am not sure how to stay on the right side of the copyright laws.
It would be a bit ironic if a superhero out there fighting evil got sued for copyright infringement!
First, I’m not a lawyer, so please take this accordingly. As long as you are not profiting from your work, you are probably in the clear as long as you acknowledge that (obviously) you do not own the rights to the Star Wars franchise.
If you want to profit from your work, I imagine your only option would be to sell it to the publishers licensed to legally produce Star Wars books, because no one else can legally publish it. I think that’s Del Rey. That said, selling what I imagine to be fan-fiction is probably extremely difficult. The publisher for an established franchise like Star Wars can probably pay for pretty much any science-fiction author it wants. Making that sell would be like scoring a bullseye on a womp-rat with a T-16. Gah! I can’t believe I just wrote that.
Hahaha, nice shot!
Thanks for the reply. I was just using Star Wars as an example. I was actually thinking about a very old tv series and modernizing it. Take Dragnet for example. That was an old tv show that they did a movie about many years ago. Kind of like what they are doing with Charlies Angels, Starsky and Hutch etc.
Hmm, that’s an interesting question. Again, I’m not a lawyer, but I think that you should probably talk to the people/company that owns the rights to the TV series, then. Then you’d have to convince them that it could be rewritten to play for 2008 readers. My initial impression is that it would be a tough sell, particularly if you’re not an established author with a track-record of strong sales.
You would probably find it dramatically easier to write a similar story by changing the setting and characters as needed. For example, Seaquest DSV was absolutely excellent (and legal!), even though it was pretty much Star Trek underwater.
Thanks B. Mac. I know that the original author is dead. I have to find out who owns the rights to the story and characters.
Ah. You may find this link to John August useful.
Good stuff, B. Mac. Thanks.
I’m writing a story about a superhero group right now. The group was put together by a government organization. I want the organization to have an acronym for its name. Any ideas?
Also what’s a good number for a superhero team, besides 5 members because that’s so cliche? And what should be the female/male ratio?
I’d recommend 3-4 members. Five is very common, especially on anime cartoon shows, but in a novel you’d probably be hard-pressed to develop five characters, particularly if you plan to do anything with their origin stories. On television shows, viewers are more tolerant of characters that are grossly simplistic carciatures. (For example, each of the ninja turtles only has a single trait). But novel-readers expect more character development.
As for acronyms, I looked through the dictionary for some interesting sounding nouns, with an emphasis on words with a defensive connotation (like SHIELD). Some of the ones I liked were Epoch, Ward, Aegis, Guard, Slake, Acre, Rush, Sabre, Omaha, and Manhunt. What tone are you trying to develop for the group?
Alternately, if you’re not a fan of defensive words, another conventional theme for a government-themed supergroup would probably be a patriotic-themed word (like FLAG). You could try Star or Eagle, I guess. [I assume this is a US agency, but it wouldn't be hard to adjust that for another country].
The gender ratio kind of depends on your target audience. If your story is likely to appeal overwhelmingly to females (a la Sailor Moon), then you’d probably want (assuming you went with a 4 member group) 3-1 or 4-0 females:males. Conversely, your story might appeal overwhelmingly to males, particularly if it’s heavy on fighting and doesn’t feature very much interaction between characters. In that case, I’d recommend 3-1 or 4-0 males:females.
Besides marketability, I think the main consideration is what you feel comfortable with. You can make a good story with all males, all females or anywhere in between. However, if you use a team that’s either entirely male or entirely female, it may be helpful to have a character try to offer some in-story explanation for that. That would probably help readers of the other sex feel like the story hadn’t forgotten that they exist.
Thanks so much! You were definitely a big help. The only thing is I created a number of different heroes and its really hard for me to pick and choose. So I was thinking of creating a Justice League type of team with about 7-10 members. (Some members would join throughout the book, not all at once.)
In the end, through a series of novels, I want to create an entire universe. I plan on starting with the core super group, then doing some single character stories, and finishing with a novel that includes all the characters together. Any ideas on big enough events that would require a large amount of superheroes to overcome?
Good luck with your group. I think that 7-10 heroes might be hard because your readers aren’t as familiar with your characters as Justice League’s viewers are with most of the big 7. I think a really large team is quite ambitious for a novelist building a world and mythos from the ground up.
Introducing the characters gradually over the course of the novel is very shrewd. For example, over the course of the first Harry Potter novel, the author introduced us to Harry Potter, Hagrid (about 80 pages later), Hermione and Ron (about 30 pages later) and then finally minor heroes like Dumbledore and Neville. You don’t have to spend 80 pages developing your main character, obviously, but 1-2 chapters will help solidify the character in your readers’ minds before you introduce the next.
I like that idea. I was planning on introducing the characters somewhat like Heroes did. Random stories that end up flowing into each other.
And the agency is a branch of the government that is supposed to produce and back a superhero team. Train them, finance them, a provide them with transportation, science, medical help, etc.
Could you help me with an acronym for the word ALPHA? I’ve made several attempts but they all sound campy.
Hmm. I think I could offer some suggestions for ALPHA (nice word, by the way), but I’d like to ask a question first. What does your agency do? For example, SHIELD handles mostly national security, but Hellboy’s bureau handles paranormal incidents.
Ah. And what sort of villains are you looking at? (For example, mostly terrorists, straight-up supervillains, paranormal monsters, aliens, etc).
The main villains are a terrorist organization with ties to some of the heroes. But I’m also going to throw in other supervillains, monsters, etc. I’ve decided to do a series of books about the team. Because I have a lot of content and it won’t fit in one novel without being confusing.
OK. In that case, I’d recommend something that sounds like generic national security. Whether it’s a supervillain or Godzilla attacking, it’s a threat to national security. (Also, would you want to bet the country on whether the National Guard can take down a supervillain? Questionable).
But I’m really blanking. The best I can come up with are the Association of Paranormal-Hunters and Analysts and the Agency for the Prevention of High-Powered Aberration.
The Audit of Paranormal [Homeland] Adversaries.
Agency for the Location and Prevention of Hazardous Anomalies.
Thank you so much, guys! I really like Cadet Davis’ idea. Thank you for all the help.
XoXo Phyre
Haha, B. Mac. I win again!
Hello,
Just found your site and I see that it has some very useful information. Thank you.
As a longtime fan of comic books, and supers in general, I find the most intriguing aspects of such characters to be the ethical choices regarding the use of their powers. The recent Civil War story line, and especially the Penance: Relentless mini series are fascinating for their look into the mindsets of the super-powered, and the possible responses to the results of their super-actions.
Do you plan on writing any articles on the ethics of superpowers, and how these might be used as plot devices and tools for character development?
Whoa, you sound smart, Stannum. I’m Ragged Boy, the devoted demoniac of Superhero Nation. Nice to meet you.
I don’t think we’ve addressed that in an article yet, but a few of our guests and I had an interesting conversation about superhero ethics here.
I can probably write an article. Until then, I’d recommend trying to keep the following guidelines in mind.
1: Violence, coercion and intensely threatening behavior will likely make the character seem menacing and nasty. (This should be obvious, but many authors are kind of surprised when I find their hero unlikable). I’d recommend having the character at least TRY a nonviolent solution, or that his violence is proportionate to the threat he faces, or whatever. Also, a hero that takes special effort to knock out his opponents rather than kill them will seem more likable (just don’t spend too much time on this detail. Readers will feel like you’re preaching at them that “killing is bad!” Uhh, yeah. We already knew that).
2: Some jobs do not lend themselves well to people with superpowers. For example, sports are not fair for superpowered people. At one point Superman was a Heisman Trophy winner in college football. What the hell!?! It’s no more fair for him to compete in a sports event than it is for me to participate in a writing contest for first graders. Another career that’s questionable is journalism, particularly if the character directly cashes in on his alter ego (like Spiderman). It’s a huge conflict of interest for a superhero to take a job as a journalist when he’s secretly the biggest story in town. If you end up making him a journalist anyway, I’d recommend putting him in one moral dilemma after another (“how do I report this in a way that’s accurate but does not make Superman look bad? How can Clark Kent get himself taken off the Superman story without making anyone wonder?” )
3: Too many superhero stories (Batman, particularly) get bogged down in moral arguments about who created whom. “Well, Batman created the Joker/the Riddler/whoever, so he’s a monster too!” Erm. Morally speaking, that’s not a very serious argument, unless the creation of supervillains is an obvious consequence of his decision to be a superhero.
4: Is your hero see himself as a messiah? If so, he might strike objective observers as a megalomaniac. Case in point: Batman in Dark Knight: “Don’t swear to God. Swear to me!” Or Jack Bauer deciding that it’s up to him to decide when and how far to torture criminals to save teh day. And most modern superheroes have a rocky relationship with the police. One could argue that the superheroes want/need to make the police look bad because, if the police were successful, then the superheroes would not be as popular. Is your hero acting in good-faith as a supplement to regular police efforts, or is he so convinced that the police are useless that it seems like he’s trying to replace the police?
5: Has your hero done any of the following? 1) Spent an afternoon filling out a deposition or police report. 2) Testified in court. 3) Provided useful evidence to the police, even though that might blow his own investigation. If he hasn’t done any of those, the police should be upset that the hero isn’t doing anything to help them win cases. He’s just a gloryhound with better public relations.
The typical superhero “citizen’s arrest,” where Spiderman ties a random thug to a streetlamp with spider-web, is a slamdunk non-conviction that will surely leave the criminal back on the streets in under two days. Spiderman hasn’t given the cops enough evidence to actually convict the guy! If Batman gets a confession out of a criminal by beating the hell out of him, not only is that evidence unusable in court but if he passes it on to the police, then he’s making them into a beneficiary of the crime. (Considering how closely he works with Harvey Dent and Gordon, he is exposing the government of Gotham City to a MAJOR civil rights lawsuit). Maybe that’s OK, the lesser of two evils. But there should be consequences if everyone breaks the rules to get the job done.
In answer to this, Batman Begins avoided the “superhero citizen’s arrest” issue by having Batman give the DA useful evidence to prosecute Falconey. And there were no legal strings attached.
Also, the “who created whom?” thing I believe is most glaringly apparent in Tim Burton’s “Batman” (1989?)
Joker: “You made me remember? You dropped me into that vat of chemicals. That wasn’t easy to get over, and don’t think that I didn’t try.”
Batman: “I know you did. I made you, but you made me first.”
Joker: “Ha. I say you made me, now you gotta say I made you! How childish can you get?”
Come to think of it, he had a point there…
Man this site is helpful. Thanks bro!
That’s a long whole name made up of first names.
These are exactly the type of questions I enjoy exploring.
Would the testimony of a masked avenger be acceptable in court? This is the core of the registration act movement in Civil War.
What exactly are the civic and ethical responsibilities of the police/government in regards to superheroes? It would seem to me to automatically set up an antagonistic environment. Police hate vigilantes more than they hate criminals. Successful vigilantes erode the civil power structure by encouraging others to follow suit. A super powered vigilante would be subject to extreme prejudice by authorities in my opinion.
On the other side of that, what is the responsibility of the super if they exist in a repressed society (or worse, simply disagree vehemently with the current power structure)? Is it their moral obligation to become a criminal and/or vigilanty? This question isn’t exclusive to supers. However, it does become more potent because the super is more likely to have an impact than the average person.
What about the example of the super hero commiting a crime, even up to murder, under the influence of a super villian or other plot device? In current society, while the sentence might be ameliorated, someone who commits a crime “under the influence” is still subject to prosecution and incarceration. We just don’t see that overall in comic books. To me, it’s a great tool for conflict development.
What are the legal liabilities of a superhero? Let’s say he saves someone’s life, but destroys 10 cars in the process. Again, in today’s society, he is likely facing civil suits, class action lawsuits, and possible criminal prosecution. There would likely need to be a whole new set of laws created just to handle superpowers and their use and misuse.
In regards to ethics, why shouldn’t a super-powered being profit from their abilities? We, as a society, seem to have no problem with star athletes and celebrities making millions through their extra-ordinary abilities. Should we begrudge the same to those with “other” super-powers? If I, Earth-Thing, can construct a brand new concrete dam within 30 minutes, am I obligated to perform this task for free? If so, why? What if I don’t? What if I won’t unless I get paid the equivalant value for such a construction project? Do I have legal recourse if I perform such a service under contract and don’t get paid?
How would a masked super even open up a bank account to handle his transactions? Or found a company?
The real question is: How much of this subject matter would actually make for interesting writing? I personally find it fascinating.
Hi Ragged Boy
The Constitution is quite explicit about being able to face your accusers in open court. However, in a few cases (usually related to racketeering and the mob), civilian courts* have allowed witnesses to testify when it was plausible that the witness’s life would be endangered by testifying publically and that their testimony would not necessarily give away their identity.
So I think the typical superhero would be able to argue that his safety requires him to testify secretly. However, the typical supervillain could probably argue the point because the typical superhero’s secret identity is usually relevant to his public identity. For example, Superman is largely unable to admit to being Clark Kent because that would reveal that his journalistic career has been based on dishonesty from day 1. (Reporting on yourself– secretly!– is about as bad as it could possibly get for a journalist). So the villain, if he had some reason to surmise that Superman was CK, could say that Superman actually wanted to testify secretly to protect himself from investigations into his professional ethics.
*(Military tribunals are more open to anonymous testimony for a variety of reasons, but that’s probably not too relevant to the average superhero story).
As for the vigilante question. This has already been used pretty heavily, I think. Many, if not most, modern superhero stories use the police as an obstacle or a minor antagonist. A few more ideologically charged comics use the government as a villain. I’m not a fan of governmental villains because they usually feel too political, but you could mix this up by changing the government from a conservative villain (hating on minorities! registration act! national security overreaction!) into a more liberal villain (social control! nanny state! recycle or else! anyone that disagrees with me hates mutants/minorities!)
Would any of this make for interesting writing? I agree that’s the real question. If you market your book as “ethics and political philosophy… with superheroes!” I suspect that it will fail. The people that want to read about ethics and political philosophy aren’t in the market for superhero stories. I think that a superhero story with ethical undertones will go farther. You could market that as a fresh and intelligent twist on superhero stories. I think that could work. (With the caveat that most superhero readers aren’t looking for an ethical treatise).
Dilemma. I just hit a big action scene and I finished it. Then I went on to the next chapter, where the main character is recovering from the fight. But now what? Do I immediately go into a buildup for another climax? I know there are supposed to be non-action points in the book but they’re tiresome to write. You know I mean, I’m down with writing them but they’re long.
Great site and content! I’m really impressed! I’m a big superhero fan and have always toyed with the idea of writing some stories.
Also, I pimped your site on my blog today. Hopefully it will generate a few hits for you.
http://onceuponageek.com/2009/01/07/writing-for-superheroes/
Keep up the great work!
The Irredeemable Shag
http://onceuponageek.com
Hmm, Dallas. A action story that rolls from one Punisher-esque action sequence to another will probably get pretty tedious. I’d recommend spending a chapter or two describing what happens in the immediate aftermath of the fight. If the character has been wounded, he’d have to figure out a way to get himself fixed up without going to a hospital (because doctors will report gunshot wounds to the police). It might also help to develop the character by showing his progression from a rookie into someone who’s a fairly competent killer. If the story is in third-person narration, you could also focus a chapter on a few of the villains. How do they react to someone new waltzing in and blowing up their stuff? Where do they begin looking for him?
Over the course of the book, it will probably be most dramatic if the gangs start an inept, bumbling hunt for him and only gradually begin to put it together. For example, they might think at the beginning that he’s working for a rival gang. They might think he’s a cop. Or actually a group of people. One way to ratchet up the tension is that they narrowly get closer and closer to discovering who he really is. (“He couldn’t have been older than 20.” “He’s hit three of our clubs on 110th street. He probably lives nearby.” “We know who his mentor is.”) As the gangs get closer and closer to discovering the truth, it will become more urgent and dangerous for your hero to finish his mission before the gangs can kill him.
I’m writing a novel myself, as well as a comic. How long are novels usually and how do you do chapters?
Also, I’ve sent an updated story for review.
Novels can be any sort of length – it depends on the audience you’re writing for and how much of a plot you have. Books for younger audiences can be 50,000 words and under, but I think older readers expect a longer work than that. I’m not sure what sort of page-count you’re looking at there, though.
I’d recommend that you keep chapters fairly short, however. I think my average is about 1,500 words. I’d definitely suggest that you don’t go over two thousand.
Yeah, for an adult novel I’ve heard many different guidelines but around 60,000-80,000 sounds pretty conventional. However, the manuscript itself will probably be slightly longer to compensate for what the publisher will edit out.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by the question “how do you do chapters?”. Could you clarify that a bit? What sort of information are you looking for?
Yeah, I had that kinda planned.
Like he stumbled his way home and what do you know, the elevator is out.
So he remembered the night in great detail as he made his way up. And like on the third floor, he passed out as his roommate helped him up the stairs.
Then I have Hammond (the hitman) sitting in his employer’s living room. His employer is all like “WTF GTFO” but Hammond turns on the tv and the employer watches it. It’s a news report on the fire that Vir caused. They mention that there was a man with a gas mask kicking ass, but there wasn’t much detail.
Right now, I’m writing that Vir wakes up and he discusses what happened with his roommate and what his next move is. (He will go out and take down a dealer. In return for mercy, the dealer tells Vir that the boss is going to meet his brother in Surry. Vir will follow them, hide in the darkness, follow them some more and then blow up their weapons stash).
OK, Dallas. I think that sounds good.
My chapters are usually about 1,000 – 1,200 words long, but a few are about 800.
These are usually where I have to cut to what Isaac’s girlfriend is doing, like stealing his diary or walking back into her house after a date to plot her next move.
Out of 65 chapters, 13 are told in third person where Amy-Belle is the central character, but I may lengthen those or add more where I can. After all, Isaac getting blackmailed is one of the main plots in the book.
Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions.
Small dilemma, guys.
My main character has to go on a vigilante spree fighting drug dealers for a bit before he does anything else significant. He already made his first and second appearances when he blows up the other bad guy’s home. So now he’s noticed by the really bad guys, and the other gang is noticing that he’s there, too.
I’m kinda at an impasse. I need to expand on him more. Using the rpg scale, I guess he’s a neutral good character.
Do I go into specific, like a play by play of maybe 2-3 chapters about each time he goes beating people up and expanding on his character each time? Or should I do a quick summary (maybe 2 pages)?
I like the first one better, since it has more detail. Like how he experiments with a cape, tries fighting with a knife, tries a different outfit, etc.
Eventually I want to get to the point where he has to make a choice between finding out information about the crime bosses’ operations and stuff, and saving a girl who is being violated. He has to make a choice between either letting her get raped or let a guy that he’s been hunting for months to get away.
Of course he chooses to save the girl, but still.
I need buildup.
I guess I’d recommend drawing out each scene. I think your novel (it’s a novel, right?) will be competing mainly against comic books like The Punisher. The main advantage of your novel is that you have the ability to draw out scenes more. Also, I think that getting up to 60,000 words (about as short as a novel for older readers can go) is going to be hard for this work, so fleshing out scenes is a good place to start.
I’m writing a story about a character transformed into a supercomputer with nanotechnology and genetic enhancement.
Physically, he has increased speed, strength, durability, agility, healing and senses. Mentally, he has supercomputer intelligence and psychometry.
He was created to be a superweapon. He originally grows up paralyzed in a wealthy circle. His father is a world renowned scientist / inventor. His parents split up. The mother runs out and abandons her son and husband. And an very wealthy manipulating uncle acts as a mentor surrogate father. His uncle’s worth billions due to a lucky pick of lottery numbers when my hero was 10 for 250 million dollars (after taxes) which then turn to a lucky street of stock investments, and a well known habit of being a gambling addict. All the while, he has maintained a high-stakes political and military career in defense and technological innovations. The uncle is the Secretary of Defense. He gave his brother a laboratory of unlimited financial resources to conduct research, and invent anything he wants for the world, in return dedicate a covert private testing operation for a “cliche” super soldier program using biomechanics, gene therapy, and nano technologies.
The uncle is my starting villain. His luck turned him into a greedy, calculating, power hungry, mad man secretly plotting world domination.
My hero the uncle’s nephew. Since 15, he’s been paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident in his uncle’s limo when some asshole was driving drunk. With all the government funding, his father made many breakthroughs. The father is held by guilt… he feels he owes his brother an unpayable debt for being there when his wife left. So the uncle manipulates the father into embarking on a mission to create human “perfection.”
I’m looking for advice on a name for my hero.
Does the origin seem plausible?
Should I make it a secret government recruiting project, where they take soldiers to undergo testing… eventually funding is pulled when early testing fails, due to a rare miscalculation by the father. The father is pressured by the uncle to continue on schedule, and speed up development. The uncle gets investigated by the President’s officials for funding such a farfetched idea.
When funding is pulled the uncle spends his own money to continue anyway, and in a even secreter location set up as a fail safe. His test subjects are on prisoners and inner-city runaways, because military subjects aren’t available.
The father then stumbles upon an epiphany, and grants superhuman abilities to those he experiments on.
The uncle idealized his nephew being the ultimate failsafe weapon. Implanted with nano technology, and a super computer chip fused with his cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for feeling and thought… with his army of super humans the uncle wants to become president.
When the father learns of his brother’s plans, he confronts him and threatens to stop the project and expose the uncle. The lab needed an abnormal amount of electrical power to start the process for the son. When the lab comes to life the continent of North America blacks out for a few seconds before the son can show signs of movement. Meanwhile, during the blackout, some of the other test subjects break loose and fight their way to freedom. While that’s happening, the uncle kills his brother to silence him for good and awaits the results of his nephew. The uncle doesn’t know that the son was able to bounce a signal off a satellite back to the lab’s security cameras and watch the murder. He breaks loose, the uncle escapes and the son tends to his dying father…
What do you think so far?
I need help with names.
Hmm. Long post. Can you give me some time to think about this? Also, what are a few superhero names you’ve liked in the past? (That’ll help me figure out what your style is like).
Well, I was inspired by the Chronicles of Riddick, Star Wars, Superman, and The Matrix. I’m also a big fan of DC, Marvel and Dragonball Z.
This story is set in the future. It bridges with another hero that’s an alien.
What would you think about something kind of hard like Gridley, Ridley, Rail, Railer, or Troy?
is it possible for an article or two be written about superhero vehicles and how to design one?
^^ I second that ^^
Hmm. That is a good question, Dean. I will think more about it. In the meantime, here are a few suggestions.
1. Don’t give it a goofy name. For example, both Spiderman and Fantastic Four drew so much ridicule for their Spider-Car and Fantasticar that even they ended up making fun of the names. (In Ultimate FF, Reed Richards says “I was eight!” whenever Johnny brings it up). You don’t even have to give the vehicle a name. For example, the latest Batman movie never names the Batmobile. Batman just refers to it as “the car.”
2. When it comes to appearance, I’d recommend trying to keep it as utilitarian-looking as possible. That will make it feel more serious. (Unless you’re going for a goofy look, in which case I recommend something like a bright sports car with massive jet-engines in the back and missiles on the sides). Other than that, I’d try to make sure that the appearance fits the mood. Don’t use bright colors and sporty curves unless your story can handle it.
3. If you’re planning on doing fight scenes with the vehicle– and really, why else would you have one?– I’d recommend giving each passenger something useful to do. For example, someone manages the rear missiles, someone manages the guns in front, someone’s assigned to deflect incoming projectiles, etc. (This last job would probably be best for someone with forcefields, wind-control, telekinesis, or a power that can tear up debris to make a wall).
4. Fight scenes in cars are usually most interesting in close spaces. That will make the fight more challenging, which will force your driver to try interesting stunts to get around obstacles. Cities are quite good for this.
5. Lastly, I’d like to talk about two common features of superhero vehicles. One is the ability to split into separate parts for each teammate (a la Teen Titans). Unless you’re doing a TV show or movie, I don’t recommend it; I think it would be hard for a comic book writer or (especially) a novelist to choreograph a fight scene with 3-5 separate heroes whizzing around in their vehicles. Second is the ability to change terrains (from air to ground to underwater, etc). That could be really useful if you have an aquatic or aerial battle in mind. That said, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed an aquatic battle. I guess I still have nightmares from that TMNT bomb level where you have to swim through the lake and get butchered by electric seaweed.
Hey, I’ve been working on my story, and I’ve been thinking about writing from two 1st person perspectives (the anti-hero and the hero). But I’ve realised that, if I do that, the hero might come off as stupid if he blunders into a trap. How can I show him falling into a trap that the reader knows about without making him look stupid?
Thanks, B. Mac.
I have another article suggestion; this time it’s with superhero gadgets. Endless possibilities, the Do’s and Don’ts (if any).
Some superheroes, like Batman, rely on tools like grappling guns, body armor and hearing devices rather than unknown origins.
–Dean
Hello, Yogi. “But I’ve realised that… [my] hero might come off as stupid if he blunders into a trap.” If he blunders ineptly into the trap, I think he’s going to come off stupid whether or not his perspective is the only one we have.
I would really recommend showing that he triggers the trap not because he is incompetent, but because his villain is (in this situation) more competent. For example, his antagonist sets up an urgent crisis that forces the hero to move faster (and less carefully) than he normally does. Or the antagonist disables some tool that the hero usually relies on, so the hero isn’t playing with a full hand. Or the antagonist otherwise changes the rules of the game so that the hero isn’t operating in his element. The hero probably tries to adjust to the new conditions in an intelligent way, but the villain was just too well-prepared.
What kind of trap are you thinking about? Where is it sprung and what brings the hero there?
Also. You describe the two characters here as a hero and an antihero. Is the antihero the main antagonist of the piece? If so, I think it might be clearer to call him a villain even though he’s probably not purely evil.
Hello, Dean. I like your suggestion about superhero gadgets. Unfortunately, it’s 5 AM here and I have a meeting in 3 hours. I’ll try to get on that later today. (If I haven’t posted something within a day, please remind me).
one thing i would say about gadgts choose a few gadgets and keep them as is dont have unnessery gadgts that make only one conveinet appernce i think someone said batmans bad for doing this
another thing is dont name them after your chrater aka Batbome batarang bat shark repelents as such
what you could do is have your chrater have a heap of cool gadgets but only able to carry a cereint amount what he thinks he will need for his missions and id say not all gadgets have to be high tec or state of the art
thats my thoughts anyways
Hey, B. Mac. I’m just reminding you about the superhero gadgets thing like you said to do. I also have not so much of an article suggestion but an idea that’s kind of out there. I’ll explain that in a minute.
David, thanks for your thoughts. I will keep them in mind.
Now, I used to be good at writing stories and creating all kinds of things. But I’ve lost it. I’m trying to write a story, but the words aren’t coming out and I think it needs visual help for the story to make sense.
I’ve been thinking about whether a novel or a comic book was the way to go and I have also considered a serial type of story, which would not give so much pressure on my shoulders. So, anyway…
Some special features of DVDs have a storyboard feature that goes through the storyboard of a scene with the sound effects added, etc. I actually thought of a comic book style way but with music and effects, like a TV show. (I listen to a lot of music and I think that fits my story).
I don’t really want to (or have the ability to) make a TV show or a movie– and I’m sure it sounds like that’s where I’m headed– but I see it as a new way of reading a story.
It is a bit out there and I’m not quite sure where I’m headed with this. But i feel like if I just leave it to writing to show my story then I think it won’t show the story so much as tell it, if you know what I mean.
Your answer on superhero vehicles was informative and I’d like to know your opinion on this. It does overshadow it a bit, the gadget thing, but I needed to bounce the idea off someone.
I’m sorry if it doesn’t make sense, you (and anyone else) may have to read through it a few times to make some sense out of it and I know you’re busy. I’d appreciate whatever help you could provide.
Thanks.
Hello, Dean. It sounds kind of like you have a motion-comic in mind. Those are similar to comic books, but they have voices and music added. They also include minor visual effects (like pans and zooms).
I’ve never written or pitched a motion-comic, but it seems to me that preparing one for submission would be a bit more expensive than a comic book. If you’re interested in doing a regular comic book, a publisher only needs to see five sample pages of art and possibly a cover before they decide whether to publish you. That would probably cost you $400-600 from a freelance artist. I’m not sure how you would go about pitching a motion comic specifically, but I imagine it could only be more expensive. (In addition to the regular 5 pages, you’d probably include at least one character voice and possibly an opening soundtrack).
Is that the kind of thing you’re thinking of?
Here are a few suggestions about gadgets.
Stick with versatile, general tools. A hero is only impressive when he uses a gadget in an interesting and unexpected way. No one will say “wow, he had shark repellent!” But they will be impressed if your hero comes up with a clever way to apply a general tool.
Good tools often draw on the scenery. For example, a rope-like device lets the hero work with the setting in a way he couldn’t before. A cutting tool will let the hero implement new tools out of the scenery. (A shirt + a knife = bandages or an extension cord + knife = crude electrocuting weapon).
I recommend sticking with gadgets that are easy to understand. They don’t have to be supersexy or impressively technological.
thats what i said…more or less lol
Not sure where to ask this question, so here it goes.
I was wondering what you people think about a protagonist who kills someone.
Is it possible for the hero of the story to have killed someone, by accident; or do you think that murder is a line that should never be crossed by a hero.
I’m of the belief that killing someone is a definite no-no, but thought I’d ask.
The reason is that I had a character accidentally kill a security guard when his powers first manifested.
I am thinking that perhaps it would be better for the hero to only seriously wound the security guard rather than kill him. This thought led me to this question (obviously).
So what do you think? Can a hero in a superhero novel ever kill someone and still be sympathetic? Things are different for sci-fi and fantasy novels, I’m sure, but superhero novels are supposed to be a little closer to our society.
If it’s presented as an accident and your character is suitably remorseful and regretful it should be very easy to maintain sympathy for him. It could even earn him more as it highlights how dangerous his new powers could be to those he loves. You could also use it to fuel his actions later in the story. For example, he doesn’t want more innocent people to die because of people with powers or he is much less likely to take risks in case he kills again.
What you definately don’t want to do is have him kill recklessly or show pleasure or complancy when he does kill him. Psycopathic killers are rarey sympathetic although I don’t get the feeling this is the route you’re going down so there shouldn’t be any problems.
You can sell readers on a murder. For example, if the police cannot prove that the supervillain is about to blow up a city, and the hero’s evidence is inadmissible in court, then I think that murdering the supervillain might seem reasonable. The hero would probably retain his likability if it was clear that he was reluctant to do so and that he had exhausted all other options. In contrast, characters like the Punisher usually come off as psychopaths.
…
Accidentally killing someone is fine, but it raises wangst issues. The problem isn’t so much the act of killing (which he had no control over), but what this means for the character down the line. If he’s going to feel guilty/remorseful/sad/worried about the accident, that will probably put off readers. Your readers will probably feel that he is not responsible; he will probably feel that he is. This disconnect usually annoys readers. “Goddamn it, stop crying about something that was totally beyond your control!”
If you’d like to give him something to feel guilty/reflective/sad about, I’d recommend making it something that says more about his choices. Killing someone intentionally says much more about a character than an accidental killing.
…
I think it would help to have him seriously wound the guard instead of killing him.
Wangst is a definite danger, I agree.
The story is about a group of teens who are the grandchildren of supervillains from the 1960s. The idea is to see what happens when young impressionable ’supers’ are guided towards a career in villainy instead of heroics (like the X-Men etc).
The main character becomes a hero while some of the others do embrace the villain side of things. I think that if I did have him kill someone, even accidentally it would end up being wangsty (and wanky). I think I will stick with an injury. Thanks BMac and Mr Brit. And I am planning on him being reluctant to use his powers and rely more on outwitting the bad guys with his brains.
I’ll keep you informed. Thanks for the feedback – very quick.
Hmm… For an excellent example of how to make a character sympathetic I’d recommend “I’m not a serial killer” by Dan Wells. The main character is a socipath, but is really likable as he makes an active effort not to hurt people, and even goes out of his way to make several rules to reduce the likelyhood of him becoming a serial killer.
Okay, I’ve taken your recommendation and bought a copy of Wells’ book today. Should make for some interesting reading – I like the angle that he has to embrace his ’serial killer side’ to fight a horde of demon invaders.
Thanks Sandman!
I actually want to write a tv show, not a comic book, but this still helps. It’s been my dream since I was in the 6th grade (I’m now 17) and I haven’t just been making ideas– I’ve also been changing the hero and his powers, not to mention his family and friends. Hopefully you will all see my hero on tv in two years. Good luck to anyone else who is creating their own.
Hello RPG, you’re not the first to come here with a TV show in mind. There’s only been one other person though… me!
Would you like a review forum? B. Mac will be happy to set one up for you.
Yeah, I can set up a review forum if you’d like to discuss your plot and characters, etc. However, I’m not all that well-versed in the art of pitching a TV show, as Tom can probably attest.
Good luck getting it on the air in 2 years. That sounds quite ambitious.
Hey guys. So, just an update: I’m still working on my hero team novel and I came up with an idea on how to introduce my characters without it becoming overwhelming. I have ten heroes who are recruited to be apart of the ALPHA program (I’m still using the acronym Cadet Davis made up for me). I’m going to have the novel deal with how the characters deal with working with people they don’t know. I want them to be people first, heroes second. As for origins, I have one for each hero but I won’t explain them all. I want to have a series of novels and in time each characters origin will be revealed. As for the characters id like to know what you think about them and if they fit.
Grivitic (Team Leader)-Can manipulate gravity. Some interesting ways he can use his powers are being able to fly; he can create force fields; force bolts; and he can increase the gravity of his punches, making them stronger. He’s kind of uptight and bossy, taking his title to his head.
Pyra-Creation and manipulation of fire/telepathy. The teams resident telepath, I also wanted her to have offensive abilities. Her telepathic abilities only allow her to read minds, project her thoughts, and sense people she already knows. Her fire abilities allow her to fly, throw fireballs, streams of fire, etc. She’s what I like to call “the not-so-girly-girl”. Definitely strong and independent, but girly.
Thunderbot-Basically, Ironman with electricity upgrades. He’s a genius and actually starts out as an ALPHA scientist, until he proves he can be a hero as well.
Onyx-Shadow manipulation. He can teleport from shadow to shadow, absorb like, create shadow whip-like weapons, and become intangible. Onyx was once a villain but converted to a hero. He has to deal with some of the teammates not completely trusting him.
Ultra Atom-His body creates a form of unknown energy, which he can project from his body. He can also absorb and immediate redirect other forms of energy that hit him, as long as he’s conscious of the attack. Ultra Atom is a single father, and the only black member on the team. He’s unsure how he feels about being on a government team and also has feelings for Pyra, who’s white.
Videll-Alien sorceress. She has a wide array of magical abilities but her biggest weakness is her inexperience. She thinks she’s better then the “human” members of her team and becomes somewhat distant from them.
Quickstrike-Super speedster. His body generates kinetic energy as he runs which he can fire as concussive blast. The youngest member of the team, Quickstrike has a small inferiority complex and is constantly trying to prove himself.
Feline-The only member without superpowers, besides Thunderbot, Feline uses her honed skills and an assortment of gadgets to fight crime. Staying away from the femme fatal personality, Feline is more like a female Batman. She’s a loner, rugged and dangerous.
Roxy-Can turn her skin and hair into an organic rock-like substance. She gains super strength and enhanced durability. Roxy loves to fight and is definitely a powerhouse. She’s a tomboy and practical jokester.
Lastly, Hornette-Has natural insect wings and can fire bio-electrical blast. She also wears googles modeled after insect eyes that widen her vision to a 240° arc. She’s more shy and reserved, and the newest to the superhero gig.
Id like to know what you all think about my characters and please, feedback is always welcome.
@XoXoPhyre.. your characters sound awesome, i can’t wait to read your story
i aggrie they sound very good well thought out and planed just two things
one is quickstrike make sure no one gets him confused with Quicksilver from X-men
also the name Quickstrike is used in transformors Beast wars athough the show is very old so i think your safe
second note is Videll if her only weakness is inexsperince then that will run dry quickly becaue the more times she uses her magic the more exsperince she gets so you will need to have another weakness even if its just the amount of magic energy she has like us she uses to much she gets tired
hope that helps
Thanks so much. I didn’t know that the name Quickstrike was taken. I’ll look into it to make sure I’m ok. As for Videll, I was thinking of having a Jean Grey/Phoenix story. Videll is the princess of her alien race and uses they’re magic. What do you think of the idea that if she loses control she could become an evil entity? Not a phoenix, something specific to her race’s history.
kinda going along the lines of Raven from teen titans there id say
not necessarily… xoxophyre, do you mind elaborating on what exactly you plan to do with Videll
Sure. She originally comes to earth after her father, King Varkill, lets loose a powerful monster on Earth in an attempt to conquer it. Videll goes to earth to stop the beast and, with the help of ALPHA, succeeds. She also warns the team about Varkill’s impending invasion, which is the big climax of my first story. When Varkill is defeated, he reveals to Videll that she will cause the destruction of earth since she is destined to become her species’ Goddess of Chaos. He says she will be driven mad with power, mad with the human race, and ultimately mad with herself. So her story is about trying to stay in control of her powers and relate more to humans. She constantly scared of overexerting herself because she now knows what she’s to become.
oooo…. now i gotta agree with David
Really? Hmmm. Any advice then? The story is still in the works so I’m open to any suggestions.
how about some back story first like having a reason for the alien/human interaction. Why does King Varkill know of earth? What would make him want to destroy it/
Ok, after brainstorming a bit, I came up with another backstory for Videll. Still an alien princess, she comes to earth as a warrior looking to conquer earth. She befriends my other heroes and decides to disobey her orders and become a hero. Her father, the king, becomes angry with her (obviously) and come to earth to do what she didn’t and bring Videll back to their planet.
I like that
Thanks =)
I’d tell you guys, but I feel like someone is going to steal it. So when I get it copyrighted (cause I’m in Mexico and I can’t copyright it over here. Mostly because I lived in a small town) I’d like to discuss it here.
RPG, if you’d feel more comfortable speaking through e-mail, I can be reached at superheronation[at]gmail[dot]com.
Do comics follow a three act structure like films and T.V shows?
I’ve never seen a comic book script divided into acts. I think it’d be a sort of awkward structure for a comic book script (which is usually ~24-32 pages).
What’s up, B. Mac? I missed ya, man. How have you been? What going on in The B. Mac-iverse?
I’m doing well, thank you. I’m getting my 5 pages ready so that I can send off to my artist (hopefully next month– cross your fingers). In particular, what do you think about these two pages here?
I think I’ll have your article posted later today.
I am in the process of writing a screenplay/novel with my bet friend loosely based and overly exaggerated from facets of our own life. (and yes there are super-powers of sorts)
as we write, we constantly fall into the trap of keeping our story “unique”. and not a rehash of explored stories with modified names. we dont want “genetic manipulation”, “government agencies” or “super soldier programs”
many of the concepts I read about here, though interesting, are complete knock-offs. To a degree, everything has been done…I get that. but more than half the ideas on here sound like things I have read/seen before.
my question is: do you think it is easier to gain reader acceptance by following an already layed out formula? Are new ideas not only harder to invent, but also harder to accept?
does the public just want MORE of what they already know and like?
Wow, very dismissive and confident there. Mary Sues are also a fairly well examined facet of fiction, see Twilight, for instance, and turning yourself and a friend into superheroes is never going to be as interesting to other people as it is to you, just something to keep in mind. A rounded character cannot exist without having corners to be rounded off.
I can guarantee you that if your work is in a language known to man, contains sentient creatures and is capable of being communicated in a written work, intended to be adapted into a film or not, it will not be nearly as revolutionary or original as you think. With the exception of a few bad habits, all those elements you hate about popular culture are popular because they’re what works. B. Mac’s offered instructions on creating Comparable Works sections because every work is going to have something comparable to it, yes, even what you’re working on, and something that doesn’t isn’t going to be worth reading/watching because it will be a random assortment of small phrases relating to Zebras, except, y’know, books like that have been published.
Writers and artists, as a species, are billions of monkeys trapped in rooms with typewriters, learning from the previous generation monkeys and their own, how to better write Shakespeare, and when you reject that history, you insult every single written word or crafted image in existence. Your ideas are new to you because you haven’t encountered them from whomever came across them before you.
Erm, I meant “previous generations of” My bad.
Let the boy speak, Lighting Man. He amuses me.
So tell me, michael9246, which of us wrote these “complete knockoffs” of which you speak? After all, I am a writer who tries to keep things original.
And what is your “unique story”? Perhaps we can show you the context some of your ideas may have come from. Although I am not accusing you of taking all your ideas from published works as you are us, please, enlighten me.
And lastly, if you find your story so “unique” and therefore good already, why, pray tell, did you come here? For this is a writing help site, not a site where we shoot veiled insults at the other users.
- Wings
Wings Note: Tom, Marissa, B. Mac, perhaps it was not my place to say the above, so I apologize in case. I simply felt that it needed to be said and that someone had to say it. My apologies.
Marissa here: This is fine. It did need to be said, most definitely.
Michael, here’s a tip: when you’re first coming onto a site, try really hard not to seem arrogant, and don’t insult the works of the site. You’re going to get burned hard.
Anyway.
Even if they’re loosely based on your life, it’s still considered a self-insertion, which is a really bad idea. If this is just for fun, go absolutely nuts in the self-insertions, Mary Sues, and randomness. If it’s not, um, you’re doing it wrong.
It’s really hard to keep something unique. I remember reading in a “tips for writers” sort of book that everything has been done before. No matter how novel your novel is, (ba-dum phish) its core concept has probably been explored before. The things you read on here sound similar because all superhero stories, at its core, are very similar. Extraordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. There’s only so many origin stories, origins for powers, gadgets, abilities, and character concepts out there, and when you really get into a specific genre, everything seems really specific.
Take the medieval fantasy genre, for example. It focuses mostly on elves, humans, dwarves, dragons, and adventurers. Everything seems the same.
I could go on for a long time, but I’m done.
Good luck,
Fox
Michael,
(Or would you prefer I forsake punctuation and lower-case your proper-noun name like you do?)A novel is made up of a compilation of parts. Character, plot, setting… Each of those parts has parts. There are only a certain number of ways that you can combine those parts, even less if you’ve got specifics in mind (I.E. a superhero story). Our job as a writer is to combine those parts in a way that engages the reader, in a way that feels fresh, or close enough to fresh that it’s an entertaining read. A ‘knockoff’ or copy is what happens when two many of the parts are the same as the parts of another similar work.
In summary, it is absolutely impossible to be completely unique.
For example, I could link you to five to ten thousand stories where the author ‘is in the process of writing a novel with my best friend loosely based and ovly exaggerated from facets of our own life.’ At least two thousand of those include superpowers. Bad news, bud: Your concept is probably one of the least original on the market. However, I’m unable to link you to a book actually on the market that fits those criteria. Why? Because those sorts of stories are never publishable. They are called ’self-inserts’. Have you ever walked into a conversation where everyone around you is just rattling off inside joke after inside joke? That’s what your story will be like to everyone but yourself and your friend (albeit with much worse grammar and punctuation). The only people that will care about a self-insert story are those who are actually in it.
That being said, while my concept is not posted on Superhero Nation, I genuinely take offense to the ‘knock-offs’ comment. ‘Though interesting, are complete knock-offs’, you call our work. For one thing, yours is both a knock-off and undoubtedly distinctly un-interesting. For another, the people who come to SN with their work are coming to improve it. They are coming for genuine feedback on their work. Even if some are so-called ‘knock-offs’ right now, they’re improving by the day, no thanks to people like you, who say, ‘I’m writing a Mary-Sue self-insert that will only interest two people plus my mother, and that gives me the authority to tell you your stories all SUCK’. B. Mac is most definitely the authority here, and even he doesn’t say that. And last of all, I can say that 75% of Superhero Nation’s stories are engaging and original, and will end up on bookshelves before you learn to capitalize your name.
Good day, sir.
“I can guarantee you that if your work is in a language known to man, contains sentient creatures and is capable of being communicated in a written work, intended to be adapted into a film or not, it will not be nearly as revolutionary or original as you think.”
@Michael:
See: TVTropes.org for this statement in action.
@Michael;
Like has been said, everything has been done before. You’ll really struggle to come up with a ‘unique’ concept. That said, there are ways to make something seem more original than it actually is. By mixing and matching from various stories, you can make an old concept seem fresher. “Super-soldiers” have been done to death, right? So how do you make it more original?
Circumstances – most of the time, people are forced/tricked into a super-soldier program. Let’s make these characters volunteers.
Characters – speaking of the characters, if they volunteer they must have really bad lives, right? Let’s flip that, and make them incredibly patriotic, but with fairly comfortable lives. This changes the characters from acting for their own good, to acting for the “greater good”.
Plot – the super-soldiers are nearly always on the “good” side somehow, even if the practise itself is considered ethnically unacceptable. Let’s flip that again. Your super-soldiers are fighting for the “bad guys”, but really believe they’re doing the right thing.
Those are fairly simple changes, but they make the “super-soldier” concept a little different. (For the record, I’m not incredibly well-versed in the superhero genre, so I don’t know if this has been done before – it’s just an example.)
To answer your question, I think familiar concepts will attract readers – but there has to be something that differentiates it from other works, or they probably won’t bother.
@Lightning Man, Marissa, Wings;
Calm down! You aren’t making yourselves look any better by immediately jumping to the defence of your stories. I realise that Micheal’s statement might be considered offensive, but that is no reason to just blatantly insult him. To quote an old phrase, “two wrongs don’t make a right”. I can virtually guarantee that if you end up getting published, somebody somewhere will say something much worse. Yes, Michael should have been more polite. I don’t think this excuses your actions though.
I probably seem really pompous/stupid/other right now, but I think it had to be said. Sorry.
To the best of my knowledge, Marissa and myself have shared nothing of any substance regarding our works on here thus far, effectively reducing any need to defend particular said works to Less Than Zero, a 1987 movie starring Iron Man as a dead drug addict, so that motive can’t really said to be applicable.
There’s an old Irish saying, appropriately stated as “If you come in my house and urinate all over my toilet seat, I’m going to feed you to a freaking cat and then a devil will non-violently and non-fatally temporarily eat the cat, just to prove a point.”Personally, I don’t really see how that’s relevant, but y’know.
It isn’t like there was a language barrier, or his post contained some sort of writing faux pas that he can’t be blamed for not understanding, he came on here, insulted almost everyone and then claimed to be writing a story about Mary Sue and superpowers teaming up to make Faulkner cry. That isn’t really something that should be ignored or dismissed with “At least he made the run-on sentences run on time.”
From my own experience, I know you should never base a character on anyone you know.
Once for a school project I wrote a fantasy story were ever character was based on one of my friends. When they were graded, let’s just say that it wasn’t what I expected. I met with the teacher later, who told me that though the writing was good, and I quote, “The characters lacked substance and originality.” I read the story over a few times and realized she was right.
Moral is, never base a character off real people to much, never works out.
For the record, I don’t think he should be excused for saying that. I just thought that responding so aggressively was not a good thing.
Also: whoops. I assumed you had something substiantial posted here. Sorry about that. (This is sincere, I swear. It just doesn’t come across very well via text.)
Hello, Michael. I don’t see too many knockoffs here. First, a terminology issue. I think that something is a “knockoff” if it’s way too close to a particular and identifiable work. For example, I think the first Eragon book is pretty clearly a knockoff of Lord of the Rings because it tries many of the same concepts without either 1) solid execution or 2) an innovative take on those concepts.
I don’t feel like there’s much (if any) of that going on here. For example, MAYBE you could find some superficial similarities between Ragged Boy’s Showtime work and Static Shock or Spiderman, like giving superpowers to a poor urban protagonist. But it feels like the plot and characters will unfold in a really distinct way. The similarities between, say, Whovian’s work and Spiderman or between the Superhero Nation comic and, umm, maybe Men in Black are similarly superficial. For example, the SN comic has a regular guy that gets hired by a supersecret agency, but the similarities pretty much stop there.
…
On a side-note, I don’t think that origins or powers are particularly important to whether the story feels fresh or not. If you took Wolverine and gave him ice-powers instead of claws and a new origin but kept the personality and voice the same, he would still feel like a knockoff. Marvel’s Moon Knight is often thought of as a knockoff of Batman even though his origins and powers are not very similar.
Note to everyone that’s posted, starting with Michael… I haven’t had a chance to read everyone’s comments, but it looks like a few of these comments are probably a bit too heated. Don’t get snarky! Expressing disagreements in a friendly way is a really crucial job skill for writers.
well, first let me say, I had not intended to specifically offend anyone. I was really just making a general observation on “concepts” discussed here. not works your work as a whole. (Please re-read what I wrote).
If anyone felt they or their work was attacked, well, that’s for you and your therapist to explore.
It was my intention when I wrote my post, that it was obvious that I was including myself in my statements and observations. Aren’t we all in the same boat?
Jeez-I have no idea what I am doing…but I do know that there is a world of influence out there. And I do know from working in a creative industry that it is beyond pervasive.
I am just caught up wondering about how to deal with this. Does full on originality alienate people? How do I embrace or ignore this?
I thought I would explore the question. Many people on this site seem to embrace the familiar. To me this seemed obvious, as sometimes the conversations about concepts even include references to characters, events and plots from well established storylines. (Sorry but I don’t have the time to comb through and give examples).
I did take note that, though I barely even articulated what my own story was about, (really the most basic of concepts at this point) it really didn’t stop some of you from telling me how unoriginal I am, and how much I suck.
Ok, yell at me and tell me I am unoriginal and boring. Guess what? I know! Everytime I have an idea it reminds me of something else! Doesn’t that happen to you too? I’d rather hear it here and now, than after I try to get my work published.
I was trying to provoke a dialogue. Would someone out there with the same thoughts and self-doubts about the origin of their ideas share how they felt about the issue? Does anyone have enough self doubt to just say “yeah..I know, tell me about it. I feel this way too…now lets talk about the reality how I personally go about dealing with this..”
So again, I do apologize. I had assumed that most creative people had thicker skin.
For all of you that will be published, I commend you. And for much of the insight I gained from a few of you, thanks as well. There were alot of interesting tidbits shared here that I will definitely think about.
If anyone would still like to talk about this, I am open if you are. Some raw and gritty truths about keeping things original would be really helpful.
Holliequ: As I said to him, my story isn’t even up here, so I’m not defensive about anything. I just found his attitude ridiculous, and if he walks in here with that attitude on Day 1, he needs a few facts of life pointed out. (Oh hey, Lightning Man pointed that out for me. Shame on me, for replying as I go along.
B. Mac: Fff, wasn’t heated, I just laid out facts.
Michael: None of us were aware that you included yourself. We felt that you were just walking in and saying, ‘Your stories are all ripoffs but my self-insert is GOLD’, which didn’t offend people just in reference to their original work, but in reference to all writing anywhere. We wouldn’t have criticised your work so harshly if we didn’t feel that you’d put yourself above the rest of us. However, it appears that this isn’t what you meant. (And you said to re-read your last post, but but I read it carefully the first time.) I withdraw maybe a paragraph of my last post, in exchange for you trying to come off less insulting now on, deal? =]
Michael,
Okay, So up to this point I have chosen to stay out of this “discussion”, but if you would like to some advice about your story I would be glad to help. As far as self doubt, I think that alot of people have it and it can be a good thing to doubt whether an idea you have for a story is a good, because mostly you will have to invest a massive amount of time in actually getting it published. Also, everyone copies someone else in some small way. West side story, for instance, is a modern copy of Romeo and Juliet, which is a copy of The Tragic History Of Romeo and Juliet, which also was copied from an italian poet known as Bandello. Of course, all of these stories are similar to Tristan And Isolde, which is thought to be the basis for the the Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere love triangle. So all stories can seem like copies of other stories. The key is to add layers of plot on top of the basic premise, forbidden love, to make it new and interesting.
Like I said, if you want help just ask, and try to make your questions specific as this lead to less misinterpertation.
michael
Personally, I think people like concepts they’re familiar with; they are easier to understand and/or more relatable. However it is not good to use the same concept word for word from another artist. Not only is it legally wrong, but it will also make your audience think you are lazy or incapable of your own ideas.
What I think is best is to find a place in-between; take West Side Story (hope you don’t mind my using your example Ghost), almost everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet. But by adding new elements to the story they made it relatable but interesting to the audience.
I understand the importance of being friendly, but quite frankly, your apology was almost as insulting as your original post, and I think you knew that, you haven’t really apologized or acknowledged what you did wrong, you told us how we were wrong. We took offense to your post because we can’t read, we aren’t as thick skinned as you think we should be.
“I had not intended to specifically offend anyone. I was really just making a general observation on “concepts” discussed here.”
Perhaps this falls in line with other basic flaws in your English usage, but this reads as if you meant to offend in general, which is always an admirable goal.
Doh! I meant the other thing, y’know, reprehensible.
“If anyone felt they or their work was attacked, well, that’s for you and your therapist to explore.”
“I am just caught up wondering about how to deal with this. Does full on originality alientate people? how do I embrace or ignore this?” “I thought I would explore the question. Many people on this site seem to embrace the familiar. “
There is no such thing as full-on originality in the modern world if your narrative makes any sort of sense, and if it doesn’t, then it is still going to be similar to another work. There’s an entire genre of surrealist works, and existentialist works. All authors in this modern age are just playing with bricks, reassembling them into new stories using the same old pieces, the quality comes from the talent and skill of the author, because it is that skill and talent that allows them to construct things that we’ve never seen that way before. But whatever the case is, originality will never emerge in the concepts, it will be in the story as it is told. You are never going to strike upon a concept that doesn’t have something comparable to it.
However, I will say that people do take comfort in the jubilation of repetition, the stories they know the formula of and the works that surprise them without leaving those reliable and incomparable confines of that formula. It is my opinion they enjoy this, and I know it is true in my case, because it is an assurance of quality. I know when I pick up an issue of Spider-Man that even if the story is dumb, the art is terrible, there will be a fight scene and there will be a cliffhanger, no matter how mundane it is.
“So again, I do apologize. I had assumed that most creative people had thicker skin.”
I could have bulletproof skin, but I was worried I’d be too derivative and you’d have to apologize again, then you might accidentally turn into Wolverine, by weaseling out of apologizing too often.
Lighting Man,
B. Mac has spoken. We’re done, alright?
I didn’t notice the therapist line the first time around, and that in itself is a direct attack on those whose work he insulted, but we’ll just have to sit back and be patient. Either he learns to talk to people like a normal human being, or B. Mac is going to get tired of his underhanded insults and is going to ask him to leave.
I think… you’re all kinda taking this a bit too far. He didn’t say anything horribly insulting. He never explicitly stated ‘everything I write is better than what you write’. I think we should just drop everything now and hear what the guy has to say.
Where is B. Mac, the Supreme Arbiter, when he is needed
My point exactly, Tom. =]
And B. Mac has a job. He doesn’t exist just to silence the squabbling. Hahah
My bad, again, I went too far with the negativity in my response and I apologize, I tried to equal it out by focusing more on his question but I ran out of things to say a lot quicker then expected and didn’t adjust for it, it was a mistake and the post was uneven. I am sorry. The whole your-sorry apologies are a pet peeve of mine and it set me off and I’ll just avoid responding to posts that anger me in the future.
Wow, I missed out on one heck of a fight, huh? Haha. Well, glad to see it’s resolved, and that it didn’t get as bad as that one time with the person who kept asking about the Hulk. Man, she had a mouth on her!
So, anyway, I’m glad to see that it’s over and we’re all happy again with no flame wars.
Michael: “If anyone felt they or their work was attacked, well, that’s for you and your therapist to explore.”
Therapist? I can’t afford that! Nah, I’ll just set up a blog and rant about it there! Haha. Nah, I read the posts and I’m pretty much neutral to the entire thing.
I didn’t feel attacked; I’ve been flamed really badly before (and even led a battle against a jerk who was flaming half the stories on a site with stuff like “u suk u’ll neva get publixed”, getting her kicked off by organising a mass complaint against her to the admin. Really, we didn’t need the bull and she offered no help at all) My skin’s pretty thick. But why am I still afraid of needles? Hmm, ’tis a paradox. Haha.
Marissa:
“And B. Mac has a job. He doesn’t exist just to silence the squabbling.”
Yeah, but he still gets the title of B. Mac, Almighty Squabble Silencer! That has a nice ring to it, actually. But I doubt anyone could say it quickly and get it right. Try it! I can’t do it right.
Hmm, Squabble would be a good name for a parrot. Sorry, must not go off on a tangent! Haha.
And finally, welcome to SN, Michael.
Marissa said… “or B. Mac is going to get tired of [him] and is going to ask him to leave.” Haha. I don’t ask anyone to leave. I drop the ban-hammer.
That said, I don’t feel like I was especially close to banning anyone here… the main issue feels more like inarticulateness rather than nastiness. However, in the future, Michael, I think people will be a lot more receptive if you draw on specific examples rather than criticizing broadly without citing examples.
To B. Mac:
That is very true, you and your ban-hammer. However, it seems a few ban-hammered folks are slipping through the cracks lately?
There was a weird case. I had banned Dallas last year and he came back very recently. (My theory is that he looked for similar sites and came back here after they banned him, too). Other than that, I think all the bans are sticking.
My response time may be down a bit, though. For example, it took me 12 hours to ban Polaris. Three months ago, I probably would have handled that in under an hour.
B. Mac,
I was just wondering why you banned Dallas, as I was offering him advice on his story.
Around a year ago, he got really obnoxious with people that were trying to help him. I banned him because he was hard to work with and didn’t have the attitude to succeed as a writer. (Rule one: don’t get defensive!). Having seen his writing a year later, I am confident that there is nothing we could have done to help him.
B. Mac,
Thanks for the info. You have to admit though, his idea was kinda nice.
Ah, the ban-hammer. All fear B. Mac, for with his hammer he is mightier than Thor! Haha.
How many people have been banned now? I’m just curious.
Whoa, Daniel is messed up.
I was just coming to warn people about all the cursing on his little petty-pot, so good work, folks!
I’ve unapproved the comments for B. Mac to address, but all they really did was confirm why we banned him. The term ‘butthurt’ comes to mind, but I’d really prefer to find a more professional synonym…
Dear Daniel,
Good luck with your writing. I’d like to encourage you to keep writing… just not here.
PS: Marissa, thanks for handling this.
No problem.
EDIT: Daniel? A bit of advice for future bitter commenting: Saying we should consider ‘how things sound from the perspective of those who don’t like them’ is just… wow. Clearly they don’t sound good, because the reader doesn’t like them. We don’t please everyone, and no matter what advice we could give, SOMEONE is going to disagree. However, I think it would be a fair bet that our advice pleases 75% more people than yours does at minimum.
Oh, and since we’re on the topic of mind-numbing idiocy, have you guys heard about Ryan Reynolds? How he’s both Wade Wilson and the Green Lantern? I just found that out today.
I’m really excited about it, he’s an awesome actor, best thing in Wolverine, Blade: Trinity, and fifty billion terrible but hilarious because of him romantic comedies. I don’t even like Hal Jordan as a character and I’m really looking forward to Green Lantern. If all goes right, he won’t even show his real face in Deadpool, so it won’t be too distracting.
Plus, Two Guys And a Girl was one of the best sitcoms ever.
I agree that he’s amazing, but one or the other. The Deadpool movie I heard was gonna be from pre-Wolverine and then after Wolverine, so he’d have his face showing for sure. Not sure if that’s 100% true, I heard it from a friend, but… yeah.
Somehow I think I missed something…Ah well.
- Wings, the proud new owner of a handmade L plushie ((It took two weeks, and I am extremely pleased))
I heard Reynolds might have to drop one of the films because filming might be too hectic. I hope that doesn’t happen, I love Deadpool and DC needs to give more movie attention to heroes that aren’t Batman and Superman.
“Most main heroes fall into one of six archetypes: the tank (like the Hulk), the gymnast (Spiderman or Flash), the mage (Dr. Strange), the psychic (Invisible Woman), the gadgeteer (Batman) and the elementalist (Human Torch or Captain Atom). I think it’s easiest to write a tank or gymnast, but it really depends on which story you want to write. If you want a high-fantasy story, mages will probably work better. Gadgeteer stories usually feel a bit more believable, psychics lend themselves nicely to fantastical science fiction (or perhaps high fantasy), and I think elementalists are particularly well-suited for comic-books and novels aimed at younger readers. ”
In Mutant-X, the powers fall into four catagories: Elemental, Feral, Mental (or Psy, I forget which name they use), and Molecular. Elemental and mental are pretty much self-explanatory. Feral is animal-like powers – enhanced senses, enhanced strength, enhanced dexterity, and the like. Molecular is explained as having to do with the molecular structure of things, but it’s really a kind of catch-all catagory for anything that doesn’t fit any of the other three.
“# Armondon 21 Aug 2008 at 8:41 pm
I’m trying to design a female character, but I don’t want her to be a damsel in distress. Can anyone help me?”
My suggestion is to get a female friend to beta-read your draft and critique it. She would be able to tell you where the character doesn’t ring true.
“Could you help me with an acronym for the word ALPHA? I’ve made several attempts but they all sound campy.”
lol, there’s a no-kill haven for homeless dogs here outside Bakersfield called ALPHA Canine Sanctuary. ALPHA is an acronym, but I don’t know what it stands for.
http://www.alphacanine.org/
Do you have any advice geared toward writing an audio drama or podcast? Like the old radio serials of yesteryear?
Probably nothing that would help you very much, BlaqueSaber. Here’s what I’m thinking of.
–I’d recommend a balance between voice, sound effects and maybe mood music. Obviously, you’ll probably use voice most often, but I would recommend looking at each scene for opportunities to use sounds (and occasionally music) to draw the audience in. For example, a fight with a wolf really needs a variety of wolf sounds (growling, snarling, gnashing teeth, whimpers for when he’s defeated, etc).
–I would recommend focusing less on combat and more on character development and drama. Alternately, if you would really like to do action, I think that Hitchcockian suspense would work more effectively than a beat-em-up. I don’t think that your medium can handle brawls as well as a movie or comic book can.
–You may have to write characters narrating what they’re doing. Readers will expect and accept that to some extent, but just don’t overdo it. Also, try to make it as unobvious as possible that you’re having a character speak just to point out to the listener what is going on. I’d recommend just trying to keep the dialogue somewhat natural– if you couldn’t imagine a person actually saying the lines in real-life, then it’s probably too forced. BAD: “Haha! Now that I’ve grabbed your purse, I’m rich!” BETTER: “Stop, thief!”
–What do you think about narrators? If you don’t use a narrator, I would recommend leaving the protagonist alone as little as possible. If the character is alone, it would be very difficult to have a scene (unless he’s just going to talk to himself the entire time). In contrast, if you have a narrator, you could probably do a suspenseful action scene (like the protagonist trying to break into a vault without setting off the alarms).
Thank you so much for replying!
Can you give me a link that points out what you mean by “Hitchcockian suspense”? I of course know who Hitchcock is, I’m just not sure of the flavor of suspense that you’re talking about…
Also
I don’t plan on leaving the protag alone too often (I want to minimize the use of narration) but he will be alone. What do you think of him creating an audio recording journal? Much like Jon Creighton in the beginning of Farscape? My protag is far from home as well so this fits as far as story goes.
If I chose this do you think I could use this storytelling tool for a half dozen epps until I can come up with a supporting cast for him to talk with?
Thank you so much for replying and your helpful thoughts…
“If I chose this do you think I could use this storytelling tool for a half dozen epps until I can come up with a supporting cast for him to talk with?” Personally, I think my interest would wane a lot more quickly than six episodes without any other castmates to talk with. I understand that there might be logistical concerns to bringing in new characters (like the difficulty of finding voice actors), but I think it would really help to bring in at least one by episode 2. (How long are your episodes, by the way?) Otherwise, I fear that it will feel like just an extended monologue.
If you’re really attached to the audio-recording journal setup, maybe you could have him play back a tape of a recorded conversation.
Hitchcock was sometimes called the Master of Suspense. He was expert at setting up quiet tension, scenes that were scary even though we couldn’t see the threat. Likewise, the first half of Signs did that very well. We don’t see the aliens, but we see some pieces and we have to surmise what else is going on. (For example, the family leaves its dog outside and we hear it barking, then whimpering in fear, and then nothing). The movie went totally downhill after the characters confronted the aliens face-to-face.
No, I have other characters, several and plenty of voice actors, i just don’t have a character that will ALWAYS be with the protag such as Robin is nearly always with Batman.
I don’t really want to have a side kick or assistant, I guess I just really need to tie this down a bit more before I move forward on it.
Thank you for all your advice…
I find that many who write superhero novels make the same mistake that television studios make when trying to produce superhero TV shows: They dumb the material down, revert to cliches, camp it up, and make it all generally unlikeable.
I don’t know why superhero novels can’t be more like actual superhero comics. In other words, not dumbed down and more serious. For example:
http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/sentinels/index.htm
Hmm. I’m not familiar with the Sentinels series yet, but here are a few opening impressions.
–I’d like to take it seriously, but the picture of the girl with the see-through clothes and preposterously large breasts makes it a bit harder for me to do so.
–The costumes strike me as a bit dated and gawdy. Like the shirts split into multiple colors at arbitrary points, etc. It makes the lineup look weird. Still, it probably doesn’t matter too much, because the comics themselves are black-and-white, I think.
–The execution on the graphics work (like the shading and anatomy) generally look professional. Some of the backgrounds are very uneven, though.
–I like a lot of the poses and layouts. For example, this panel of a guy directing his troops to fire at the heroes makes no sense whatsoever, but is still pretty stylish. I love the expression.
–I haven’t gotten into the writing yet, but some of what I’ve seen looks encouraging. Also… Ron Fortier, one of the authors that endorsed the series, strikes me as a writer that generally knows what’s going on. Also, anyone that has written for Rambo and Terminator commands my respect.
Hi,
I’ve got my own web comic here:
http://komodo-comic.blogspot.com/
and in that blog, you can see my artwork
samples, such as pin ups and one page
comic panel.
and this is my artworks in realism style:
http://angelmichael.deviantart.com/gallery/
contact me if you overload & need more
freelancer comic artist (^_^)
thanks
Hmm, thanks for your interest, Michael. I’ll check out your portfolio, but I doubt I’ll be adding on new teammates soon. Definitely not before getting published, which will take at least a few months.