Feb 24 2008
Index: How to Write a Superhero Novel
This site provides writing advice. If you're writing a superhero novel or comic book, please also read our superhero writing articles.
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Creating a Superhero Character
- List of Superpowers
- How to Write Effective Origin Stories
- NEW: How to Write a Plausible Origin Story
- Superhero Creation Questionnaire
- NEW: How to Create Weaknesses for Your Superhero
- How to Name Superheroes
- Modern Superhero Naming Conventions
- Questionnaire for Nonhuman Characters (Transformed Humans, Aliens and Otherwise)
- NEW: Random Name Generator for Alternate Identities
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
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 need 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 Locating 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!
Deion
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?