Oct 03 2008
B. Mac offers these suggestions for when your supergroup uses an acronym as its name.
Sep 24 2008
One of our Google queries today was “can radiation give you superpowers?”
No. However, if you’re writing a superhero story, that doesn’t matter! Your readers will accept that tropes like radiation can give someone superpowers, so radiation makes for a completely plausible origin story. Except for intense training, it’s not like there’s any better alternative. (In real life, one drug addict put his brain under so much neurological stress that his sense of smell sharpened to canine-like levels, but he died a few weeks thereafter. Also, for obvious reasons, narcotics do not typically work well for superhero origin stories).
Here are some other origin stories that readers have generally come to accept.
Typically, plausible origin stories tend to be scientific. Fortunately, you don’t have to have a strong grasp of scientific research to write a compelling origin story. Generally speaking, modern scientific research in fields like genetics is conducted by large teams of scientists that spend years on each project and have access to large budgets. If you’re writing a superhero story, your readers will almost always accept that a single supergenius can perform unimaginable feats of science. Reed Richards is apparently a world-class researcher in every branch of science, and he’s able to instantaneously solve problems that would probably take a real team of scientists decades.
Here are some other (incorrect) assessments of modern science that readers will usually accept.
Sep 19 2008
Writers sometimes add unique weaknesses to challenge their heroes or rein in heroes that have gotten overpowered. For example, Superman has kryptonite and for a while Green Lantern’s powers couldn’t affect anything yellow. Those two feel gimmicky. The powers don’t work on yellow? How does that work? Why would anyone be vulnerable to his own planet? Etc.
A better example of a unique weakness is the Martian Manhunter’s vulnerability to fire. It doesn’t feel arbitrary that fire might damage something. Unlike yellow or kryptonite, fire is dangerous to most living things. Compared to kryptonite, something generic like fire has the added advantages that it’s easier to acquire and use.
Other authors sometimes use completely innocuous weaknesses, but that’s tricky and usually contrived. Let’s say your hero is vulnerable to marshmallows. You’d probably have to come up with a (goofy) explanation for his weakness, then show that he somehow discovers that he’s weak against them, and then show that the supervillain somehow discovers it as well. Generally, it’s easier to work with weaknesses that are plausible and logical. That helps you avoid relying on ridiculous contrivances to explain how the villain discovers the weakness. (You could work something like fire into a fight scene even if the villain doesn’t know it’s his weakness. I don’t think you could do the same for marshmallows).
I think the best weaknesses are side-effects of the hero’s strengths. For example, a hero with supersight might be vulnerable to intense light. Someone with superhearing might be vulnerable to loud sound. One advantage of these weaknesses are that you can work them into secret-identity stories. Clark Kent isn’t likely to run into kryptonite when he’s having dinner with Lois, but he might get a migraine when a jet flies overhead. Here are some other possibilities.
Alternately, you can try a quirky vulnerability to Kryptonite or something else that isn’t usually dangerous. If you’re leaning that way, please see this cautionary article.
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Sep 07 2008
B. Mac provides another set of gear to help you design superheroes that don’t look goofy. (See his collection of boots here).
Aug 31 2008
B. Mac provides these references for boots. These will help you design a character for a comic book or novel-cover.
Jul 07 2008
One common superhero archetype is the national paragon, a hero designed to represent a country, ethnic group or other group of people. The most obvious example is Captain America, but the list is long. For example, Hadji from Johnny Quest exists only to charm snakes and hack computers. (Also, have I mentioned that “haji” is an ethnic slur?)
Here is a list of potential problems with using national paragons…
Jul 03 2008
Like The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam, we’ve written a list of questions to help you identify problems with your writing. Continue Reading »
May 29 2008
Here are a few tips to help you write better origin stories for characters in superhero novels and comic books.
May 07 2008
Three questions, actually. Which is your favorite superhero and why? Finally, what are three things you associate with that hero?
Thanks a lot for your feedback; I’m writing an article on how to make superheroes loveable.
Apr 02 2008
I have overhauled my review of Soon I Will Be Invincible. I cut its length by about a quarter (from 2750 to about 2000 words). It is now down to a hair over 2000 words (instead of ~2750) and Davis was kind enough to reformat it for me.
Mar 04 2008
This article discusses why it is critical to think of your characters as distinct from you.
Feb 24 2008
Creating Superhero Characters
Superpowers and Capabilities
Superhero Origin Stories
Plotting Superhero Stories
Five Common Mistakes of Comic Book Writers
Other Advice for Comic Book Writers
The Mechanics of Writing a Superhero Story
Marketing and Visual Issues
Getting Published
Feb 11 2008
Right now I’m working on a piece on character voice. What sort of character voices do you enjoy reading the most? What sort of character voice issues concern you the most when you are reading or writing? If you have any thoughts, please e-mail at superheronation… at…. gmail.com . (I’ll credit you unless you say otherwise).
Jan 20 2008
If you’re writing a superhero story, don’t let your superpowers fall into these traps.
1. The hero’s powers can’t be used creatively. Readers really want to be surprised, so it’s very important that the powers be versatile. If your character is only superstrong, you can only surprise them by using different things as weapons. That gets tedious fast. (Watch a Superman or Dragon Ball Z fight scene). Test your superhero against some of these situations. Can he get through them in an unexpected way?
2. The character’s limits are hard to grasp. In Heroes, a head wound will permanently kill the regenerating heroes, but a nuclear explosion won’t. Huh?
3. The character’s strength fluctuates arbitrarily. Most Superman cartoons feature two battles. Superman will lose the first bout (to raise the stakes) but he’ll win the second. He hasn’t gotten any stronger, so why does he wins the second time? That usually feels unsatisfying.
4. The superpowers are hard to understand. Ideally, you can explain each hero’s powers in a brief sentence. “He has spider-powers, like slinging webs and climbing and sensing danger” is OK. “She can control the weather” is even better. Please stay away from heroes that have many unrelated superpowers. What’s the connection between eye-beams, cold breath, flight, superstrength and x-ray vision? It sort of works for Superman because readers are exposed to him, but it is likely to ruin a superhero story that is completely new to its readers.
5. He’s overpowered. Superman is the best example of this. He can only have interesting fights with supervillains. (Theoretically, he could fight thugs armed with kryptonite, but Superman limping around isn’t much of a fight). If your character is completely immune to bullets and other common weapons, it will be hard for you to challenge him. Also, humans are vulnerable and we relate more to (somewhat) vulnerable heroes.
6. The hero’s superpowers ruin the drama. In particular, time travel, reading minds, erasing memories, and resurrection are particularly bad here.
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Jan 14 2008
This article will teach you how to write exciting fights.
1. Immerse us in the scene. Engage as many senses as possible, particularly the visceral ones (touch, smell, taste). For example, if the supervillain dropkicks his sister, you could work with the impact he feels, the impact she feels, the secondary impact of her slamming into something else, possibly the smell and/or taste of blood, and anything related to the superpowers of either. (Dropkicking the Human Torch should be a different experience than The Thing or Reed Richards).
Additionally, avoid anything that makes your readers wonder what’s happening. It may help to create a diagram of the scene so that you know what’s happening. One frequent area of confusion is how far away the characters are from each other.
2. Don’t put in too many characters. Each additional character dilutes the fight and makes it harder to visualize the fight in real-time. I’d recommend capping your fights to 2-4 combatants at a time. If you want more fighters, I’d recommend writing the battle as a series of more limited duels rather than a battle royale with tons of fighters. If you have too many characters in a fight, it will probably lead to a fight that flits between each character, not sticking around long enough to show them doing anything interesting. (See Soon I Will Be Invincible).
3. Unlike comic books and movies, a novel does not accomplish much by having the hero mow down waves of faceless henchmen or creatures. A novelist doesn’t have visual special effects to show off. The main advantage of a novel is that its length allows it to sustain a deeper plot and better-developed characters. Fighting anonymous and hopeless enemies does not play to these strengths.
4. Be creative. How do your characters interact with the scenery? Brainstorm a few items or props that are in the scene and try to work in a few when a combatant gets desperate. Using props helps remind readers that the characters aren’t fighting in a vacuum.
Also, try to have your hero use his powers in an unexpected way. We’ll expect a shapeshifting hero to copy a guard or the villain to infiltrate the villain’s lair and rescue his girlfriend. But we’d be more surprised if he copied his girlfriend and got captured in her place.
5. Let your hero improvise. Throw a few wrenches in his carefully laid plans. If your supervillain really is a genius, surely he will anticipate some of the things your hero will try and prepare accordingly. (The forcefield generators will be within the forcefields, dammit!)
6. Be suspenseful. These elements should help.
–Stealth and desperation. Typically, heroic efforts that are stealthy and/or desperate are more suspenseful because any false step could result in failure. In contrast, it’s less suspenseful for a hero to barrel into the villain’s lair because readers know that there’s no chance a faceless mook will kill the hero. But the faceless mook actually DOES present some risk to a stealthy hero that cannot afford to be seen–it’s still not likely that the mook will stop the hero, but he could alert somebody that might.
–Ticking clocks. If the hero has 15 minutes to defuse the bomb or two days to stop the villain from taking over the world, that adds urgency to the plot. My favorite example of this was D.O.A., where the main character gets fatally poisoned and has to solve his own murder.
–Strong side-characters. If we feel for the damsel-in-distress, we’d care a lot more whether the hero can rescue her. We’re more likely to feel for her if she’s well-developed and has a distinct personality. I recommend looking at Teri Hatcher’s Lois Lane in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
–Suicidally determined heroes. If the audience knows that the hero’s only goal is beating the villain–not coming home alive–then it raises more doubt about whether he will survive. Whether he does or not, there will be more suspense. I’d recommend checking out Pacific Rim here.
7. Keep it as short as possible. Generally, fights should be the climax of their chapters, rather than the bulk. Dragging out a fight scene for pages typically feels pretty tedious. The worst-case scenario is that the fight will feel like a scrolling list of hits the hero and villain are landing on each other. I’d recommend checking out the last 20 minutes of Man of Steel here. Failure.
Jan 08 2008
This article presents six tips about what works and what usually doesn’t when you’re naming your superheroes and villains. Find out why Mischief-Man is much worse than Mayhem.
Jan 05 2008
Are you writing a novel or comic book about a powersuited hero, like Iron Man or Steel? Powersuit stories often suffer from the following problems, many of which are easy-to-fix.
Jan 05 2008
Beat’em-up superheroes like the Hulk and Superman often suffer from these six problems.
Jan 05 2008
Writing a novel or comic book/graphic novel about a psychic character? Here are some recurring challenges.
Jan 03 2008
This article will help you design your superhero’s appearance for a comic book or novel cover-art. No matter what your style is, you can avoid these 9 mistakes that cause a superhero’s appearance to sink the story.
Common Flaws of Superhero Appearances
Dec 30 2007
Generic Physical Superpowers
Forms of Transportation
Time-Based Abilities
Elemental Control/Manipulation
Generic Mental Abilities
Psychic Superpowers
Biological Control
Miscellaneous Talents
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I’m working on a guidebook about how to write superhero stories. If you’re interested in superhero writing advice, please sign up for the email list so that I can let you know when it comes out. Thanks—it’ll be easier for me to get published if I can show that many people are interested.
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Dec 29 2007
This questionnaire will help you design a superhero or supervillain for a novel or comic book.
Dec 01 2007
This article describes some remotely technical details of search engine optimization, particularly for authors/novelists.
Oct 15 2007
This article will cover how to name characters effectively and how to avoid the most common naming problems.
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