If you want this character to feel guilty about her backstory, why not make her actually responsible for the accident?  For example, instead of having uncontrollable poison-massacre powers*, which is merely awful luck, maybe the character has powers that he uses in a reckless or ill-conceived way.  For example, maybe a flame-controller accidentally blows up a neighborhood by lighting up a gas line.  It’s still unintentional, but at least this gives him a choice to regret and atone for. Overcoming that will be more dramatic than “Gee, I’m sorry I was born to be a town-killer.” If the goal of the story is to have the character atone for his sins, it probably won’t be too dramatic if he’s not actually responsible for the sins in question. Or, if the character’s powers are completely uncontrollable, perhaps the character played some role in acquiring them, like participating in some poorly thought-out scientific experiment.

*Which are a losing Superpower Lottery ticket if ever there were one.   Pretty much everybody else in Heroes has something cool like superstrength or flight or time-travel.  Poor Maya.  Even the psychopathic serial killer has more control over his face-ripping telekinesis than she does.  (Also, he spent  a lot less time moping about his body count than she did).

Then, while passing a volcano, Carol comments that Wonder Woman’s invisible plane obeys her every command “like magic!” To which WW responds, “The magic of science, Carol!” This is bitterly ironic, given that less than ten issues earlier Kanigher had explained that Wonder Woman’s plane was made when a magical cloud turned a flying horse into an invisible airplane. But she goes on to explain that little computers in the plane make it obey Wonder Woman and only Wonder Woman, just like even smaller computers in the lasso do the same thing! (Those of you going, “Huh?!?!?!?” should probably take a little break from reading this. It doesn’t get any better.)

…

In the original ‘X-Men’ #1, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, we open with a sequence of Professor X running the team through their training regimen. Beast has to do a difficult acrobatic routine, Angel must fly an obstacle course…then the young sixteen-year old Iceman gets a turn, but Professor X is “going easy” on him by merely requiring him to display his powers. Iceman frosts himself over with snow…and Professor X telepathically tells the Beast to chuck a bowling ball at his head while he’s distracted, to “test his reflexes”.

…

At some point, logic dictates that he’s secretly trying to kill Iceman, and the whole “training exercise” thing is just an alibi.

• How long should I wait to introduce my main character?
• How can I do accents well?
  
• What are some common day-jobs for superheroes?
• How can I write a good opening?
• How can I do fight scenes?
  

I was sort of expecting Abe to win the fight by staking the vampire with a flagpole, but maybe that would have been too over-the-top.

The story begins with a young boy meeting his first love, who happens to be an elf. Drawn to her by the outsider character that defines their lives, he has his first meaningful positive emotional experience when he stumbles upon the girl in the deep forest. Later in the story (as you might expect) things get quite a bit rougher for the boy, and he must learn martial and magical secrets to not only fight evil, but merely to survive.

1. What are you trying to write?

*A short story, with an eye to sequels/spinoffs. Fantasy/action genre with martial arts mostly replacing the “sword” in “Sword and Sorcery” as the centerpiece.

2. Do you have a target audience in mind?

*Fans of traditional (Tolkien-style) fantasy, D&D’ers, Martial Arts fans. Generally late teens and older, as I expect to get a little too graphic with the violence for the little ones.

3. How thick is your skin?
* Like a rhino filled with custard. Seriously, though-be as critical as you like, so long as it’s useful in some way.

Two things jump out at me here.  First, the author’s royalty is proportionally much larger with e-books than hardcovers (20-25% compared to 15%, and even lower for paperbacks).  Second, since distributing an e-book is cheaper, the cost to consumers should drop considerably.

Picture taken from the New York Times.  Full article here.  This statistic caught my eye: “The industry is based on the understanding that as much as 70 percent of the books published will make little or no money at all for the publisher once costs are paid.”

If you’d like to do your own, please go here.

FUNERAL ONE

FUNERAL TWO
Orator:  [NAME] was a friend, an ally, a brother in arms, a confidant, and a comedian with the driest delivery you could possibly imagine.  He knew most of us better than we knew ourselves, and sometimes had no problem letting us know that fact when we strayed from our true north.

Orator:  We were him, and he was us.

(There’s a full page of six characters looking downcast and/or weeping).

FUNERAL THREE

This one is from my DVD collection.

FUNERAL FOUR

This one is also taken from a DVD.

Reporter:  In addition to friends, colleagues and loved ones, heads of state from over 400 countries are expected to attend today.  In the streets ofcities all over the world, thousands have gathered to pay their last respects.  Our all-day live coverage will conclude with his ceremonial interment later this evening.  Later, our panel of commentators and pundits will debate the question on everybody’s minds: without [HERO NAME], can there be a [TEAM NAME?]

…

Orator:  Though we gather here today, bound together in sorrow and loss, we share a precious gift.  We are privileged to live a life that has been touched by NAME.  He possessed many extraordinary qualities and he shared them freely.  But none of them were more remarkable than his ability to discern what needed to be done and his unfailing courage to do it, whatever the cost.  Let us all strive to accept this gift and pass it along, as a tribute to NAME, who taught us all how to be heroes.

…

Teammate 1, celebrating hero’s life after the funeral:  He’s holding a grenade in his hand like this and it blows and he doesn’t even move.  I say, “are you alright?” and he says–

Teammate 2:  This is the best part!

Teammate 1:  Fine, and you?

[END SCENE]

By tomorrow, I’ll have an article up about superhero scenes that need to die. (Similar to Five Superhero Plots That Need to Die, if you remember that one). about Superhero Scenes That Need to Die.  Except for possibly heroes screaming NOOOOOO after seeing a teammate get killed, superhero funerals have to be at the top of the list.  The good news is that commemorating the life of a fallen hero does not have to be bland and faceless.  Indeed, I rather liked the toast at the end of funeral 4, although it’s probably worth noting that it wasn’t at the funeral itself.  I’ll have more advice later.

Also, if you’d like to check your guesses about which funerals came from which series, please see the comments below.