Comments on: Writing Tip: Start Your Story As Everything Goes Wrong

By: Shadow

Shadow — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:24:19 +0000

whats a good idea for another villian?

By: Shadow

Shadow — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 02:26:27 +0000

Basicly he is a knightmare who understands things better than humans and loves the idea of ruining someone from the inside( in some cases literaly ) and is a parasite in a mans body, just using him as a way of transportation and nothing else.

By: Shadow

Shadow — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 02:22:08 +0000

Yea I know hard to understand. Let me refrase this, there are two parts to the villian. The human part and the non-human part. The evil side of the villian is basicly chaos in a shell( or in this case a human body). The villian part is very smart and understands things more deeply than others. His basic desire to hurt is by the fact that he isn’t human , but just a knightmare infested in a mans body. I know it’s a little weird and it confuses me too, sorry.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:12:09 +0000

“He kills without question and knows the difference between right and wrong. The only difference is that he isn’t insane , but loves to bring misery. Plus the evil laugh( always important ).” I’d recommend giving him a goal besides plain sadism. I think that a cackling sadist might seem a bit one-dimensionally evil?

Also, there seems to be a discrepancy between him understanding the difference between good and evil and being a laughing (cackling?) sadist. In what sense is he not insane?

By: Dillan

Dillan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:52:45 +0000

I don’t mind shadow and id love to give my perspective.Well you say the villains kinda like the joker(im assuming the dark knight version).Well the joker in my opinion was an agent of chaos and followed its ideals,making him more of a threat than maybe your tradional villain. Id ask you what makes your villain different, maybe he isn’t insane(that to me would be interesting to understand a sane person with sadistic tendencies)maybe he has a reason why he’s sadistic as long as steer clear of a revenge motive, i think he could be interesting

By: Dillan

Dillan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:44:32 +0000

Oh please don’t view my character as a mary sue lol. He has alot of limitations and flaws.Im writting him to be powerful, but defeatable. I know thats hard to imagine with his reality warping capabilies but i assure you nothing he does is without penalities either minor or major and that will either affect him personally or indirectly.Oh and I never got to say, I enjoy having an intellectual conversation with some one who also writes its refreahing.

By: Dillan

Dillan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:35:41 +0000

With my character and his reality warping powers isn’t something that’d be used very often. And i agree fully thats a power that is difficult to comprehend,even i with the research ive done don’t fully understand or know whats the difference between warping reality and omnipotence.But believe me when i say i don’t take it as lightly as most and i impose limitations on it so its less power than your tradional reality warping. It mostly involve manipulation of time and space but i realize if not handled or written correctly(even in the slightest it could easily go from interesting and intriguing to cheesy and vaguely comical which is why im spending so much time and effort research and study,not only the subjects covered in my comic but in writting itself.Oh and btw i love the villains blog about compotence,ambition and style, but i believe that should apply to most characters both heroes and villains. I mean look at batman lol

By: Shadow

Shadow — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:20:43 +0000

I hope you guys don’t mind me entering your conversation. I had a question for a villian of mine. He’s alot like the joker in his personality. He kills without question and knows the difference between right and wrong. The only difference is that he isn’t insane , but loves to bring misery. Plus the evil laugh( always important ). Any thoughts of how i should modify him or not?

By: Dillan

Dillan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:19:29 +0000

Oh also you know with the korvac character it made me laugh,human,cyborg,cyborg wizard.I also wanted to show the character in a few stages but to show the characters mentality at those stages is key,because i think a human thinks differently than a machine and would use those powers in different aspects.Not only that but you have a chance to show off the weaknesses and flaws of both ends . My character starts off human,then goes through a process of biocybernetic fusion to maintain his body after the accident.After that to understand his powers he believes he needs to gain higher cognitive powers and grafts his brain with an advanced sophisticated biocomputer.He achieves his higher cognitive abilities, capable of fully controling his powers through higher understanding.Making his psychic powers more effective without worrying out subconciously using them.He retains his human mentality,but slowly starts becoming mechanized.His personality goes from human to (kinda like the architect from the matrix).then upon utalyzing his powers to achieve his goal he decides to attain a perfect form(something akin to godhood i guess) im not sure on whether or not it be a human form or maybe a perfect Hybrid between man and machine,kinda like a sentient computer with a human/cyborg shell.And for the last stage itd be an energy form, slightly humanoid achieved after his copreal form was destroyed.Its a heavy sci fiction story lol but i love the genre and the way it makes one think.oh and if theres confusion this is just a short example of the Mc journey not the plot or story as a whole.Just wanted your thoughts on my ideas for the character developement in terms of how he’d evolve,grow,and change over the course of the story

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 19:54:40 +0000

"Oh i didn’t mean to come off as if im ranting,just wanted to make a descent arguement for powerful characters."
No, I don't think it was a rant. Totally within the bounds of polite creative discussions in the publishing industry (which can get personal because writers are usually so close to their work).
"In the dark knight,the joker’s way of thinking and opperating,where difficult to comprehend." Hmm. His way of thought was unusual--I don't know many anarchists or anyone else out to prove that anybody can be made into a monster by the right circumstances. But I don't really feel like it was hard to understand in the same way as, say, a heavily philosophical villain.
For example, a Buddhist or quasi-Buddhist villain's reasoning might hinge on ideas that are hard for Westerners to intuitively grasp like "there is no self" and "life is only illusory," from which he might conclude that killing cannot be a sin because you can't destroy something that was never there to begin with. (In real life, Buddhist terrorists and the "soldier Zen" Buddhists of Imperial Japan have reasoned along these lines--if you're interested in the details, I'd recommend checking out Buddhist Warfare, but it is not a breezy read).
The Joker's methods struck me as pretty simple. None of his powers bend the nature of reality or are otherwise confusing. (Although I'll admit I'm a bit mystified how he was able to rig up a hospital with explosives without anybody noticing). In contrast, when a hero throws around powers such as "reality warping" (or really anything with "reality" in the title), it's usually quite hard for readers to understand the parameters of what the character is capable of. In the background, I think it could work as a nice change of pace once in a while if the villain is something like a dream manipulator (such as in the Justice League episode Only a Dream), but I think that it'd be damn tricky to pull it off with a recurring character, particularly the main protagonist. (I found Sandman and the Sentry very hard to get into, but your mileage may vary, of course).

By: Dillan

Dillan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:19:22 +0000

Oh and b mac thanks for the publisher perspective i planed on writting a series of mini series for my Mc so his developement is spread accross multiple issues,when i start the first draft id love for you to review it.Also the audiance im aiming for is 18 plus and if you haven’t guessed scifi tale.At the moment im still working on the Mc ya know hes gonna be the main character so im spending time just working on him as the character and add some interesting dynamics to him and the over all story

By: Dillan

Dillan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:12:16 +0000

Oh i didn’t mean to come off as if im ranting,just wanted to make a descent arguement for powerful characters.I just think that a well written character should be apperiated for more than just his powers and abilities.Granted their are rare cases where extreamly overpowered characters just don’t work i completely agree i think with out challenge a character just seems kinda dull even if the character isn’t in an action comic(in this instance lets say dr manhattan, his powers are cool. hes only interesting to me because of his character dynamic (the whole growing away from humanity).I much prefer the ozymandias, and its because his genius in manipulating events to get the best optimal results and uniting nations under a common threat to prevent a full scale war.His plan has some extreames like sacrificing millions in new york and turning on his old allies,but he basically saved billions of lives by preventing the war. I think that it is the character,his motivation/ambition,competence,and style that make them great not their powers.Im not advocating that very powerful characters are good,im only saying that without those elements listed above the character regardless of their power will not be any good.

By: Dillan

Dillan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:48:22 +0000

Hey in terms of limit villains and modus operandi, that btings up something rather interesting i think.In the dark knight,the joker’s way of thinking and opperating,where difficult to comprehend.This had nothing really to do with his level of power,but more with the actual character and his motivations.For sane people,the joker is more difficult to understand, why? I believe its because we precieve reality with order and structure and he sees it as chaos and destruction.He has become a devoted agent to its ideals and THATS what makes him scary.His scariness,for lack of a better word comes from the fact that you can’t reason with him,persuade him,bribe him,or bully him. With that in mind, look at Thanos.A powerful cosmic villain whos become omnipotent a number of times. He’s a nihilist and devoted to the annihilation of all sentient life as to gain death’s love (the female embodiment at least).If you look at thanos, all you might see is a heavyly muscled ,grotesqe(sry spelling using the mobil to type this btw)humanoid.Although he’s strong enough to fight both Thor and the Thing at the same time,His scariness comes from his intellect,his plans are down right ingenius.I mean hes capable of doping the elders of the universe into giving him there infinity gems(the infinity gems saga by far my favorite cosmic tale)which in gathering the six make him omnipotent.Now you have a nihilist with True godlike power whos tasked with killing off half the universe’s population,in which he does so with a snap of his fingers.Cosmic level threats are interesting to me Because they’re so beyond human comprehension.I mean look at galactus,he may not be a villain and we as readers at times may not understand his motivations,But say he came to earth,people would be scared shitless again lack of a better word still kinda tired.

By: Shadow

Shadow — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:30:42 +0000

I like the idea of the space theme Dillian. It kind of gives a new set of rules you couldn’t use on Earth.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:36:13 +0000

I think it’d be easiest to break in with a one-shot that could be expanded later if the publisher likes the sales. I think the main trick to plotting a successful one-shot is resolving enough in 32-40 pages that the readers feel satisfied (it shouldn’t just read like a trailer for a longer work), but creating enough openings/foreshadowing to interest readers in a prospective sequel and help show the editors that it could work.

For example, if you were doing a romantic drama, you might end your one-shot with the character achieving some major milestone in his relationship with the love interest. Let’s say the book ends with them getting engaged.

The engagement resolves what the hero has initially set out to do but creates enough future potential problems that you could take a sequel in a few different directions. (Will the wedding go off successfully? What happens if they try to raise a family?) Alternately, you could try foreshadowing some problems on the horizon. For example, maybe one of the characters in the one-shot notes offhandedly that the price of gas has shot up because somebody invaded somebody else. In the sequel, you might build on that line to have the war expand, eventually leading to the main character getting drafted to fight overseas. Then the plot might hinge on whether his relationship survives the war.

In your story, if a sci-fi religion plays a major role in the larger series you’re thinking about, you could foreshadow that by having the characters advancing a goal while celebrating a religious festival or participating in a rite or having some interaction (preferably a confrontation–conflict creates problems that need to be solved) with a religious figure or organization. For example, if your character were a detective (he’s not but bear with me), you might give him a case about recovering a stolen relic from a religious group you’d like to use later.

So, yeah. With only 32-40 pages, I think the main goal should be resolving the central plot of the one-shot, whatever that is (like recovering the relic). But, along the way, you can introduce a lot of elements that you can expand upon later. (Interesting characters, setting details, potential conflicts and other plot hooks, etc).

…

I would generally NOT recommend ending a one-shot with the character getting his powers. If all you’ve covered is the origin story, I don’t think you’ll have resolved enough to make readers feel satisfied. (The powers are usually a means to a dramatic end rather than the dramatic end itself–readers care much more about what the character does with the powers than how he gets them). Moreover, if the series burns 32 pages on the origin story, I think it will feel slowly-paced.

One possible solution would be working in a brief quest into the origin story, where the character does something fairly similar to his eventual work in the course of getting his powers (or shortly after he gets them). Give us a taste of what his job will be like.