Oct 09 2009
Feedback
If you’d like to leave me suggestions, feedback, comments or complaints, leaving a comment here would be the best way. Otherwise, please e-mail me at superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com . I’d love to hear what you’re thinking!
Short on ideas? Here are some suggestions.
- What do you think of our content? Was it useful and informative? Why or why not? What could we be doing differently to help you more?
- Did you find SN well-organized? How could we make it easier for you to use our site?
- If you have left a comment, did people respond in a helpful and informative fashion?
- If you haven’t left a comment, why not?
This site is cool. It is helping me with a short story for school and all that stuff, so keep up the good work, fellas. Time to go save the world!
Your website has helped me a lot with some of my characters. Thanks a lot!
Thanks! This is really helpful for a paper I’m writing for English class.
I love this website!
Thank you for all of this. I’ve been attempting to write a novel, and this site has been immensely helpful even though I’m not really writing a ’super-hero’ novel (the character doesn’t get superpowers until the last quarter of the book).
Thanks so much! You were definitely a big help.
I have been thinking of this idea lately (it’s still vague) and decided to research how to write an effective superhero novel and I’m glad I came across this site.
But, as amazingly useful as your site is, I gotta disagree with your post “Don’t Let Your Characters Walk Away from the Quest.” I never like to limit myself as a writer, you should always do what seems best. I mean you got to think about it– don’t just write everything at once. If your hero fails, it’s not necessarily a terrible plot line, as long as it’s not the end of your story.
B.Mac, thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. I don’t talk to anyone about my work, cuz I’m always worried about people stealing stuff and I don’t think people can truly appreciate the work until it is completely finished, so it’s hard for me to get good input. But I really love this site.
Man, this site is helpful. Thanks, bro!
I love this site. I’m writing a book for English and this helped me a lot. I think there should be the power to project images with your mind or travel into photos.
I just happened to stumble across this site when I was looking for lists of superpowers. I left my first comment, back when my punctuation and grammar were atrocious, and then I got hooked. Once I realized people gave a crap about what I said, I straightened up my writing. I still struggle in both of those fields though.
I really do appreciate the fact that you take the time to leave me comments/ critiques. I’m a fledgling writer and trying to learn and this site helps a lot.
Just writing to say this is a great blog and I’m glad I stumbled upon it. I’m not much of writer and my art skills could use work (I’m still a student), but I’m a comic book fan.
I’ve had ideas floating around for awhile and this site helps in getting them down on paper in case I do something in the future. I’m nowhere near done but this site really does help.
Dang… I just found this site and it looks really awesome. I still feel a bit ‘out of my league’ though because you all sound like you know what you’re talking about with all these superheros and supervillains, rules, plans, and stuff.
Lunajamnia said: “I still feel a bit ‘out of my league’ though because you all sound like you know what you’re talking about…”
Hey, don’t worry about it. Everybody starts somewhere. I think it’d be bizarre for someone running a website aimed at young writers to get upset with someone for being inexperienced.
I’ve loved this site ever since finding the writer’s exam. It’s so much better than other places because it’s much easier to interact and there are so many other writers here, the majority of whom are in my age group.
Hello everyone. This is my first post but I’m not really new to the site. I find the writing articles pretty helpful and I’ve been following a couple of the review forums. The whole site is insanely cool. I’ve been working on a book of my own on and off and when I found this site I thought I was very very shocked and very very grateful. Looks like this site attracts lots of teenagers, huh? I’m 15, from Singapore.
Wow, wicked site.
Hi, great site!
Hello, I’m new here, I’m currently writing a comedic superhero novel about a superhero with no powers and this site has been immensely helpful in the day or so I’ve been reading it.
It’s pretty scary how many British people are on this site. I’m not alone!
I would never have guessed that so many of the readers here are sixteen or seventeen without them actually posting it in the comments. Some of my friends think I should dumb down my Internet language, but it’s cool that the people here talk without teh 1337.
I’m an aspiring novelist and I have a handful of stories that I have come up with. I’ve read the articles on this site and I’ve learned a few things about the way I write. I have become more confident as a writer thanks to those articles. Thanks a lot!
I hate many things in this universe, including…
–the color pink.
–the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
–people that think this site is full of 50 year olds sitting in libraries. (Someone actually said that to me).
“…people that think this site is full of 50 year olds sitting in libraries…” What the hell? According to my survey, 50% of SN’s readers are between 13-18 and another 30% are 19-22. I don’t think that many readers aged 50+ have much interest in writing superhero novels and comic books.
I’m morbidly curious about what kind of superhero writing advice they’d prefer. “Hai im b mac thx u 4 comn 2 my super hero site.”
Thanks for introducing SN to other people, though. I appreciate it.
The problem with this site is that you use physical/violent issues as primary problems in stories when what you should be using is mental and social issues.
This site is a godsend for me in my downtime of ‘authorhood’. I’ve been compelled to write the story playing in my head onto paper and make sense of it for the first time.
When you do your query, I think your edge is that your work is proven. Many of the people on this site, especially me, have grown vastly from these articles. I’m not sure if it’s possible to show that to your publisher, but it is definitely fact.
Also, I find your style very, well, stylish. I would be much less enthusiastic towards your articles if they weren’t so interesting and well-written. Some of your jokes are really good, too.
I have a seemingly unlimited fount of cool ideas, but because there are so many, I never have been able to finish any of them. This site has helped me focus a lot more though, and has given me new, cool ideas.
Alright, so since this site is so addictive, I decided to refrain from going on it for like a day. I mean, this is a serious accomplishment, since I’d do anything to avoid staring at a blank screen.
This site is AWESOME.
Hi guys, nice website you got here. First of all, I’m planning to do a superhero comic series, an Asian superhero to be specific. As an Asian myself, I agree there’s not enough Asian superheroes out there, if any. Anyways, I’m planning to do a superhero comic with my buddy as the artist – we’re not really bothered about getting it published at the moment to be honest, it’s more of a hobby for us but we’re planning to set up a website to show off some of our work. So watch out for us.
This site is awful. Dull writing, sophomoric wit, and the worst literary imagery I’ve ever seen. Like the man who slips on ice know he is going to fall? Did you steal that from a kid’s english homework? If work of this kind is going to be showcased alongside advice for writers can this site ever hope to be taken seriously? Awful, simply awful.
Wow! I’m glad I found this site!
This site is very good. It’s extremely helpful for a beginner fiction writer, like me.
Thank you, StarE. This site has been very helpful in fleshing out my ideas. I started writing sci fi/fantasy when I was in elementary school, and I’ve been writing stories every since. I also wrote a vampire series, where all seven vampire clans were at war with each other over an ancient text, and I’m still trying to flesh that out to “perfection.”
it dosen’t really help that much
SN didn’t help you all that much? I’m sorry to hear that,
DavidJames. Do you have any suggestions for how I could have helped you more?Found this site through NaNoWriMo.org. Great reference- thanks so much!
Welcome, Merides!
I found this place in the middle of the summer– so far it’s been great. You guys have been helpful and kind whenever I had a suggestion or question.
Superhero Nation is a fantastical Holy Grail, science fictional Time Machine, and a writer’s Bible. It changes lives! I was a total no-brainer in writing, when I came across this site. This site helped me brainstorm, plan and inspired me to begin writing. Now, I’m writing my first draft 5 pages a day. Thank you, SN! and Thanks a lot, B Mac!
Sorry for double-posting, I have a small request. I’m not sure if this is already implemented, I think it’d be very helpful if the content in this site is organized according to suggested reading order. I’d always prefer to read all the articles in some order, instead of searching or choosing.
What do you think about the indexes? Does organizing the content by category provide enough of a suggested reading order for you?
I’m trying to think how I would suggest a first-to-last sequence of articles for articles for so many different people. It’d be tricky to say “I recommend starting with article A and finishing with article G” because everybody has different goals for their writing. So I’d probably break it into two separate lists, one for prospective comic book writers and another for novelists. In each list, I’d probably recommend 5-10 of the most important articles as an introduction to SN’s take on writing. It might be more friendly to beginning users that way. What do you think?
That sounds effective too. Thank you!
As I’m going through I see a lot on prose writing but not graphic writing. I’ve actually switched gears from turning my superhero work from a novel idea to something more suitable for a series or graphic novel. I saw articles on structure, but it was about novel writing. Are there articles on how to write comics here? And if not, could there be? It seems most of the articles about comics has to do with the planning stages.
Hmm… that’s a good question. It’s about 5 AM here, so I’ll try to be fast, but here are some quick thoughts about writing for comic books specifically.
1. When you orient your panels, work in angles and canters wherever possible. There’s usually a more interesting alternative to showing something straight on from the ground level. (For example, the camera could be looking down or looking up or you could it from the side or the back, etc).
2. Mix up your panel layouts.
3. Unlike novels, comic books are released in very short issues (usually 22-32 pages). Among other things, this pretty much forces you to work in a cliffhanger (a character in danger, a dramatic discovery or revelation, etc) at the end of each issue. The writer really needs to leave readers with a burning desire to read the next book–if publishers think that the script for the first issue fails to hook in readers for issue two, a rejection is likely.
3.1. Since so many readers don’t start with the first issue, it’s important to plot a series so that readers can start in at any issue. As a result, some recapping may be necessary (in addition to the page-long synopsis/recap at the beginning of each issue)–it’s probably more acceptable to have the characters talk about information they already know if that will help introduce new readers to the information and/or jog the memory of returning readers. (If you use dialogue to lay out important backstory, please make sure you avoid “As you know, Bob” problems–
3.2. It may be a bit easier to get a standalone comic book published rather than a limited series or (God help you) an ongoing series. It’s less financially risky for the publisher and it’s a bit easier to handle a self-contained story.
4. It is really, really important to show rather than tell. In particular, a comic book writer has a lot of visual and chronological tools than a novelist does. For example, most emotions can be shown visually, so it’s especially unforgivable for a comic book character to declare his emotions with something like “I’m angry!” In addition, you can also play with the tempo a bit more smoothly than novelists can. (For example, you can insert pause panels to suggest a lull in a dialogue, etc).
5. Your characters should do things that are fun to watch. For example, if Spiderman is sitting down to talk with someone, the visuals probably wouldn’t be very interesting. It’d probably be more interesting to show Spiderman either hanging on the ceiling or maybe showing off his crazy acrobatics by standing on top of the back of the chair and balancing himself so that the chair doesn’t tip over. If the character doesn’t have superpowers, you can still give him stylish mini-actions like putting his feet on his desk or sitting with his legs on the armrest, etc.
6. Avoid narration as much as possible. There are three main ways to show information in a comic book: visuals/actions, dialogue and narration. Whenever possible, I’d recommend using actions and dialogue rather than narration–narration can entail “show, don’t tell” problems, stalled plots, and irrelevant visuals. In contrast, dialogue and especially action tend to propel the plot and put readers in the scene.
Great site! Very useful resources for writing. I have dreams about writing a screenplay and will use the information on your website to plot the story and develop the characters.
Thanks.