Most comic books and graphic novels letter the body text (dialogue and narration) in all-caps. Here are some of the best all-caps free fonts. If you’d like to download any of the fonts, please see the links below.
Vampires Suck is startlingly bad. How could anybody dig into a comedic vein so rich–ripping into Twilight–and come up with so little? It’s like going to Alaska and failing to find snow. If you’re in the mood for a good Twilight parody, I recommend this fake screenplay. Here’s an excerpt:
SCENE 2
BELLA: It’s tough being the new kid in school! Especially when everyone is so friendly and helpful and interested in me. Why can’t they just leave me alone so I can sit in the corner and cut myself?
CLASSMATE: You’re awesome, Bella!
BELLA: See what I have to put up with? Hey — who are those hot people over there?
CLASSMATE: Those are the Cullens. They avoid direct sunlight, they don’t eat food, they sleep in coffins in a graveyard, and holy water burns them. I think they’re Canadians.*
BELLA: They sure are spectacularly gorgeous.
CLASSMATE: Yes, they are.
BELLA: I mean seriously, those people are BEAUTIFUL. Especially the one who keeps looking at me. Man alive, that guy is stunning. I mean, wow. He is hot buttered seduction on a stick. I’m not interested in him sexually, of course, because sex is dirty, but wow — LOOK AT HIM! Yee-ikes! Hubba hubba! If you don’t mind, I’d like to spend the next 75 pages talking exclusively about how attractive he is, and then bring it up again every paragraph or so for the remaining 400 pages.
CLASSMATE: Knock yourself out.
Genre: anything with superheroes. “This can be pure comic-book style heroes, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc but the central theme / characters in the story MUST involve superheroes.”
1. Proofread everything you send out for a publishing job ridiculously hard. Almost every publishing job requires immaculate writing skills, and professionals don’t have enough time to exhaustively proofread everything written by interns. So you need to demonstrate that you write well enough to impress a publisher that lives or dies based on the quality of its writing. (Pretty much every company takes its writing seriously, but especially publishers).
2. Make it clear that you can reliably complete tasks without constant oversight. For example, use your cover letter and/or resume to describe a significant professional project you completed to your supervisor’s specifications without much prompting or direct supervision. An intern that can’t remember to complete responsibilities without constant reminders is probably a net liability.
3. Self-starters are always more desirable. Since every internship has downtime, companies value interns that will use the downtime productively. For example, a proactive intern might ask co-workers if they need any help with projects and/or errands or try learning new job skills, etc. (I learned search engine optimization by borrowing reference manuals from our SEO guru).
This is mainly aimed at high school and college English courses, but you might find this advice helpful in other subjects as well.
1. The first paragraph should introduce what you will be arguing and what sort of evidence you’ll be using to back up your assertion. In an English class, you’re not talking about every aspect of a book, so identify your focus. Do NOT merely provide a fact (“The Great Gatsby is a 20th century American novel set in West Egg, New York”). Focus on what you’ll need to make your argument. For example, “West Egg symbolizes the American dream” and then talk about what happens there and how that demonstrates what the author is suggesting about Gatsby’s attempts to break into the upper class.
2. Summarizing the book is usually besides the point. The teacher has already read the book, so the summary probably isn’t necessary. Do talk about plot events that advance your argument, though.
Watching superheroes beat up villains may not be the best image for boys to see if society wants to promote kinder, less stereotypical male behaviors, according to psychologists…
“There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday,” said psychologist Sharon Lamb, PhD, distinguished professor of mental health at University of Massachusetts-Boston. “Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns.”
The comic book heroes of the past did fight criminals, she said, “but these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities,” she said.
My initial impression is that this is so luridly off-base I don’t know where to begin.
1. Romance. Villains frequently have ulterior motives (like marrying Aunt May to steal the nuclear power plant she inherited?!) and improper means (such as sabotaging rivals). True romances are rare for villains and can make them deeper and more interesting. Mr. Freeze’s romance with his wife Nora in The Heart of Iceturned him from a corny ice-themed punchline into an Emmy winner. (He later devolved into a corny ice-themed punchline after being played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, but some things can’t be helped).
2. Revenge. This might be heroic if the crime is particularly heinous and/or the regular authorities are not willing or able to resolve the situation. It might be villainous if the character is overreacting or not being careful enough about hitting only the people responsible.
3. To distinguish oneself. It depends on why the character wants to distinguish himself. A hero whose main goal is fame/status will probably gain a more substantial goal over the course of the story. (For example, Booster Gold). I think it’s seen as a superficial, temporary goal. In contrast, “be true to yourself” is more purely heroic… Unless being true to yourself involves psychically decapitating people and sucking out their brains.
4. To fit in/gain acceptance. A lot of heroes seek to gain the respect of their peers (see any story about “the new guy,” particularly students). However, gaining acceptance might be more sinister based on who the protagonist wants to impress and/or what will impress them. For example, 1984 ends with Winston Smith rather unhappily gaining acceptance by betraying his innocent girlfriend: ”…he had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
5. Justice. This is like revenge, but usually less lethal and targeted more carefully against the perpetrators. Nonetheless, justice can sometimes be villainous. For example, the main goal of the robot antagonist in the I, Robot movie is to prevent humans from getting hurt, and putting them under house arrest seems to be the most logical way to do so.
1. What do I need to do to copyright my work?
Nothing, if you’re an American, Australian, Brazilian, British, Canadian or Irish author. Your work is automatically protected by copyright as soon as you write it. You don’t need to register your work or do anything else to copyright it.
However, if you wish to sue somebody for copyright infringement, you’ll probably need to pay a small fee to register your copyright with your national copyright office first ($35 in the United States). I’d recommend leaving that to your publisher, because suing somebody is almost always impractical before you get published. There are more cost-effective ways of defending your work and/or dealing with plagiarism than spending thousands of dollars on a lawyer.
Scott Pilgrim’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 80%. It was so neck-deep in every sort of geeky awesomeness that it totally made sense when the hero used a 1-Up as a “get out of death free” card. The highlight of the movie was definitely the superpowered kung fu, but the romantic comedy was reasonably effective. For example, check out the trailer. The first 15 minutes of the movie are like the first 33 seconds of the trailer: forgettable. It gets better, particularly if you like people getting drop-kicked in the face by vegan supervillains.
1. Don’t begin with a long description of the setting or background information. Do begin with dialogue and action. Agreed. However, explain enough so that we know what’s going on. I put down a book on page 2 yesterday because it spent all that time beautifully describing the weather and a man jumping out of a helicopter without explaining anything about why the guy came out of the helicopter. At first, it wasn’t even clear whether the person fell out accidentally or jumped.
2. Don’t start with a character other than your protagonist. You may wish to consider starting with the antagonist, but generally I agree with this. If your side-characters are the most effective hook to your story, you’re writing the wrong story!
3. Don’t start with a description of past events. DO jump right in with what the main character is involved in right now, and introduce some tension or conflict as soon as possible. In some cases, the inciting event of the book may have happened before the book starts. I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem. For example, a novel might start with a superhero or homicide detective investigating a crime that has already happened. As long as you keep the focus on what is happening now (the investigation, for example), covering an event that already happened shouldn’t bog down your plot.
4. Don’t start in a viewpoint other than the main character’s. Agreed! I’d reject pretty much anything that starts with a side-character that shows up once and then disappears. (Switching between main characters is okay, but a one-and-done narrator is NOT. Don’t waste our time on a character that isn’t central to the plot).
When you write a proposal/query (or anything else written purely for editors) for your superhero story, you’ll probably write a bit about the main characters’ superpowers. (1-2 sentences, please). I highly recommend against looking up a Latin or Greek prefix to name a superpower. If you had to look up the prefix, chances are the editor doesn’t know it, either.
PLEASE REWRITE: “John is a somnikinetic.”
BETTER: “John can manipulate dreams” or “John can control dreams.”
Descriptions with simple English terms are usually more effective than Greek/Latin names because:
English words are easier to understand and remember.
Most editors haven’t memorized lists of Greek or Latin prefixes.
Editors should not have to open a dictionary to understand what you’ve written.
Names based on prefixes can be easily confused with similar prefixes. For example, a reader might confuse somni- (dreams) with somn- (sleep) or son- (sound).
It may not be clear how you expect us to translate the word. For example, I’ve seen “kinesis” used as a suffix for “control,” “influence,” “manipulation,” “generation,” and “movement” (telekinesis = “remote movement”). Will we know which definition you’re going for?
Depending on the story and character, using prefixes and other jargon in-story may help to make the superpower sound more scientific/realistic. But that probably isn’t necessary in the query/submission letter or synopsis. For one thing, the query/submission letter are an introduction aimed at editors that have absolutely no context for your story. In contrast, by the time your story uses terms like “terrakinetic” or “ocular death-rays,” we’ve probably already seen the character’s powers in action.
After a sting to the head and a precautionary shot of Epinephrine, we can conclusively say that I am alive and the bee is not. In your face, Mother Nature!
Synopsis: Captain Freedom was rough around the edges, but it was clever and funny. The plot was pretty much an incoherent wreck. If you liked Soon I Will Be Invincible, I highly recommend Captain Freedom, which put more thought into character-development and world-building.
According to the New York Times, one author got an extraordinarily fast response from agents after starting a blog. “Within two posts on her blog, which now attracts 30,000 visitors a month, Ms. Dolgoff said, five agents got in touch, and a book idea was born.” I find that hard to believe. Interesting even one unsolicited agent is extraordinarily hard. Five? With two posts? Unless I’m missing something, that sounds wildly implausible. For example, author Theodore Beale receives ~200,000 readers per month and has never had an agent solicitation.
I think the NYT should have dug harder here. For example…
Who are these agents?
Why were none of them interviewed in the article? If they’re real, their perspective on this apparent success story would be pretty interesting.
What impressed them about the first two blog posts enough to contact her?
Did the agents know her before she started blogging?
Did the agents find the website themselves? If not, who pointed them to it?
I have not been able to find any indication that there was a publishers’ auction over her book, nor does the article mention an auction. If there were five agents potentially interested in representing her after two blog posts, don’t you think it’s a bit strange that the book wouldn’t go to auction? (Note: I’m assuming “five agents got in touch” means that there were five agents interested in representing her, although an agent could contact an author just to offer friendly advice or chat).
Here are some queries that brought Google users to Superhero Nation this week.
How do I find out if my superhero story has already been told?Keep reading superhero stories, particularly in your medium (novels, comic books/graphic novels, etc). Authors that have only read one or two series tend to write original work that reads like fan-fiction for those series.
Unused superhero names? When you use a name you found on the Internet, there really isn’t any guarantee it hasn’t been used. If it’s good enough, someone will use it. The closest thing you have to a guarantee of originality is doing it yourself. The second-closest is asking a friend to brainstorm ideas without posting them online.
How do I sell a comic I wrote? I assume you’re trying to get professionally published, rather than self-published. Check out Nine Surprising Facts about Writing Comic Books. Also, when you submit to a publisher, you’ll probably include a page-long submission letter introducing your work and why they should publish it. When it comes time to write that, I’d recommend reading as many of the articles in the Query Letter category as possible. How to Communicate with Editors is a good place to start.
Blambot has an awesome article about formatting comic book balloons. It’s aimed at comic book letterers, but I think there are some key points also useful for comic book writers doing a script. For example, do you know how to handle translated dialogue or when to use quotation marks?
Only use quotation marks when somebody is speaking off-panel. If the speaker is on-panel, readers don’t need quotation marks to know it’s dialogue.
If you ever end a shouted question with a question mark and an exclamation point, put the question mark first. Readers will have many context clues that the line is being shouted, such as body language and the bolded/italicized text, but the question mark is pretty much the only indication that a question is involved.
Each period should be followed by one space, not two. Double spaces take too much space and look awkward. (If you habitually use double-spaces, it may help to use your text processor’s Find/Replace feature to replace all periods followed by two spaces with periods followed by single spaces).
How to handle text translated from a language besides English. See below. Note: Generally, the “*Translated from [Language]” caption is necessary just once per scene. After that, readers can figure out what language the characters are speaking when you use the <greater than/less than signs>.
Robert Mason is collecting plot ideas in a publically available Idea Bank. Here’s my contribution: The hero has to stop a plan set in motion by a villain that has already died. How will a flying brick save the day if it’s not clear who needs to be smashed? What good will a psychic be if the main “henchmen” are actually innocent delivery boys that have no idea what they’re delivering? How can somebody like Jack Bauer stop a villainous plot if there’s nobody left to torture?
Publishers and literary agents reject quite a few manuscripts on page 1. However, if the query letter is bad, the editor will probably reject you without even looking at page 1. Here are some common problems and suggested solutions.
1. “This is just like Harry Potter meets Dirty Harry.” Comparing your work to another will probably make your work sound like an uninspired ripoff. Also, you can’t assume that the editor likes Harry Potter, or Twilight, or Spiderman, or whatever else you might think is the most awesome work ever. Instead of trying to hitch a ride on somebody else’s bandwagon, talk about your work. If editors think “this will totally work with Harry Potter fans,” great, but let them make that determination on their own.
2. The description of the plot/characters lacked details. “Gary must work with his partner to stop the villain and save the day.” What are Gary and the partner like? What’s the villain like? What’s the villain’s goal? Why should we care if they stop him? A more detailed description is usually more interesting. Try something like “Two unlikely Homeland Security super-agents, an accountant and a fun-loving mutant alligator, must band together to prevent a deranged cosmeticist from destroying humanity.” See more details on how to write an interesting and exciting pitch for your story here.
2.1 The description of the plot/characters forgot to mention the main goal and obstacles. Umm, that’s sort of the point of the book! Don’t miss it.
3. You addressed the letter “To Whom It May Concern,” “Dear Editor” or “Dear Agent.” Not personal enough. If you’re submitting to a publisher, use Google and address it to any editor that works in submissions. Even though the manuscript will probably be evaluated by somebody else, this will show that you have put some thought into this company specifically. If you’re submitting to a literary agency, check whether it describes the interests of each agent on its website. If so, address it to an agent that works on similar stories.
What if the villain isn’t supposed to obviously be the villain the first time he shows up?
1. Give the villain an innocuous explanation for the villainous/unseemly behavior we see, especially early on. If I offered you $50 for something valuable, it might not be that I’m trying to rip you off: Maybe I don’t know what it’s actually worth or am too desperate to offer you the going rate. Or let’s say that criminals are threatening to brutally murder a captured character. A hero that calls for an immediate attack might be genuinely convinced that’s the best way to rescue the hostage. Or maybe he’s actually hoping the hostage will get killed in the crossfire. (Maybe the hostage knows too much or otherwise poses some sort of problem–that might explain why he was captured in the first place).
2. The circumstances surrounding the objectionable behaviors are ambiguous and/or encourage us to sympathize or relate with him. For example, let’s say that the readers know (or have some reason to suspect) that your Ozymandias just killed the Comedian. You could present it as a public service and/or retribution for something unseemly the victim was involved in (such as murdering a pregnant woman). We don’t need to know right away that the villain actually killed the victim to cover his tracks or for any other nefarious reason. If you’re trying to keep it a secret that the character is a villain (and not just an unsavory side-character) but the readers can predict it anyway, you probably haven’t given him enough extenuating circumstances.
3. The eventual villain’s nonheroic traits might actually make him seem more valuable as a protagonist. For example, if you have a group of heroes that actually includes the eventual villain, the heroes might respect the eventual villain as a Batman (a mostly sensible but occasionally brutal problem-solver). Maybe his rough style makes him more competent. Maybe the protagonists are generally gullible and naïve, but he is suspicious and cunning.
4. The heroes are also morally gray. If all of the other heroes are 100% protagonistic, the one that isn’t will stand out in a bad way. If your goal is to keep the villain’s identity something of a secret, that’s probably counterproductive.
5. You have a more obvious antagonist as a red herring. If readers think they know who the main villain is, they won’t think as hard about undercover villains. For example, in the Watchmen, the Soviet Union probably served as a red herring because it had a plausible reason to kill the Comedian (something of a CIA operative) and it played a prominent role as part of the nuclear standoff.
When I typed “superhero” in the Kindle searcher, there were a LOT of books masquerading as superhero fiction. Publishing pro tip: if you’re republishing a book like Aesop’s Fables, The Divine Comedy, The Arabian Nights, Tarzan, Best Russian Short Stories, or Hannibal the Conqueror*, I would highly recommend against selling such books as something they’re not. Mismarketed sales are far more likely to result in disgruntled customers and awful reviews.
This writing analyzer is fun. It’s totally useless for anything but amusement, though. It claimed that a passage actually written by Hemingway most resembled the work of P.G. Wodehouse, which is a bizarre choice for a passage about a man that killed a lion. Wodehouse mainly wrote comedies about foppish dandies more likely to use a club for golf than for anything interesting. (In the program’s defense, alcohol does play sort of prominently in both the Hemingway passage and Wodehouse’s work).
In most novels, comic books and graphic novels, the protagonists know at least one friendly police character. Here are some ways police characters can help the heroes.
1. Alerting the heroes when there’s a problem too large for the police. Common examples include superpowered robberies, jail breaks, and supernatural/occult/magical serial killers.
2. Crowd control (clearing out civilians during or before a superpowered brawl). This helps explain why civilians don’t get killed in the crossfire and gives the police something to do besides watch the fight.
3. Helping the heroes avoid legal trouble. Or, if the cop is REALLY friendly, helping them break out of jail.
4. Helping superheroes maintain a secret identity. “This picture of Superman turning into Clark Kent is obviously fake. At the time it was allegedly taken, I was with Clark Kent on the other side of town.” Alternately, this might help any protagonist avoid a case of mistaken identity/imposters. “That bank robber wasn’t the real Harry Dresden! I was discussing a case with Dresden, so the the robber must have been a shapeshifter.”
5. Passing along messages and packages to the heroes, particularly from a villain. When the Joker wants Batman to see something, the easiest middleman is the police because it wouldn’t make much sense if the Joker knew where to find Batman.
6. Delaying and/or thwarting hostile police officers. In many cases, some police officers are against the heroes, particularly if an antagonist impostor has torn up the town or the heroes are not very careful about collateral damage. In urban fantasy, some police officers may be uneasy about working with a sorcerer, werewolf or other supernatural creature. (“I went through six days of testing before I could take my firearm into the field. How about your wand?)
Here’s mine: Comic Sans is editor Kryptonite. It’s usually too kiddie for the tone of the project and handles capital letters poorly (which is a major problem, given that most comic books and graphic novels are published in all-caps). If you like the feel of Comic Sans but need something for an audience older than 5-13 year olds, I would highly recommend checking out this list of similar-but-more-professional alternatives.
Relatedly: The fonts available on most newly-purchased computers are generally unsuitable for most comic books, webcomics and graphic novels. If Comic Sans looks like your best option, please check out the free font selections at 1001 Free Fonts or Blambots.
(Note: Comic Sans crops up most often in comic book sample pages and rarely (ick) scripts, but like some vampiric Loch Ness monster it has made poorly-documented but much-rumored appearances in the novel-publishing industry. Don’t get in bed with a vampiric Loch Ness monster. Say no to Comic Sans.
What’s the subgenre? (Are we talking about an action with… Superheroes? Military/espionage? A natural disaster? Adventurers? Vampires/supernatural creatures? Mythological figures? etc).
What’s the inciting event? (What event throws the main character out of his status quo/comfort zone?)
What’s the main character like? (Anything that makes him more interesting to prospective readers or suggests his role–CAUTION: naming him does not necessarily accomplish either)
What’s the main antagonist like? (Same as for the protagonist)
What’s the setting like? (Time and/or place)
What’s the central goal of the main character and/or what’s at stake if he loses?
What’s the author’s style like?
Is there an interesting contrast between elements of the title?
If the title doesn’t nail at least three of these, I’d recommend rewriting it and/or starting over. Here are some examples that I enjoyed.
My name is Cassandra and I’m a senior in college (YM and sociology major). Writing is mainly a hobby for me; I haven’t thought much of publishing other than in the last couple years. However, I’m afraid that although my stories have decent plots, they are over-ridden with too much pointless romance. And I like to think there is more to a story than romance.
Currently, I’m doing a complete rewrite of one of my novels. It is a YA action-romance superhero novel. Perhaps comparable to Meg Cabot’s supernatural novels when she still wrote under her name Jenny Carroll (such as the Mediator series and 1-800-Missing.)
Summary: Adaline is a high school student by day and the superhero, Volt, by night. But when her family relocates to small-town Indiana, she’s forced to retire her Volt persona. Can she survive the normalcy of the ordinary life or will The City’s pleas for Volt drive her insane? To top it off, high school athletes have been falling ill with a mysterious life-threatening disease. Throw in a love triangle between her next-door-neighbor and the small-town super and you have yourself quite the shocking story.
I don’t plan on posting too much about my overall plot because I don’t like the idea of having the entire synopsis and storyline posted online. However, I may post scenes that I am having difficulties with or would like multiple opinions on. In addition to this, if somebody is interested in learning more or taking a more active role in reviewing, then I would like to correspond through emails.
Apparently the hangup was that DC Comics would only give him the rights back if he agreed to some (inevitably awful) prequels and sequels. I was expecting an author vs. publisher bloodbath, but this is only a bit more rancorous than “You paid me too much” and “Do I really need that many assistants?”
Should I mention fan-fiction in my query letter? No. Nor would I recommend mentioning self-published works unless you’ve sold at least a few thousand copies or blogs unless you have hundreds of thousands of readers.
cool superhero names. the superhero has all powers. I think your story has more pressing issues than character names.
how long should a novel be. Adult novel manuscripts are usually 80-100,000 words but there is some variation by genre. YA novel manuscripts are usually around 40-60,000 words.
how do i represent foreign text in comic books? If the character is speaking another language but you want to translate it into English for readers, I would recommend something like this.
If the text is in the art rather than the lettering (such as a store sign in Shanghai or a Babylonian tablet), then I would recommend sending the artist a copy of the text in a large font, as well as a screenshot of the text in a large font (in case the artist’s word-processor can’t read the language).
While critics in general are happy to give approval to comic book films (and, I think, many critics do treat them fairly), I think there’s no question that there are elements of bias in many critics’ reviews.
First, look at the language many critics use. When giving a positive review, many will say things like “despite its comic book origins,” or “leaping beyond comic books,” as if being based on a comic book is in some way a handicap.
Actually, I think being based on a comic book (or a novel or TV show or anything else) is a handicap for a movie.
Unwacky: Brett Favre’s first completed pass was to himself.
Barely wacky: Austria’s World Cup team threw a key match to West Germany to screw Algeria. The game got so bad the announcer asked viewers to change the channel.
Wackier: “You were like 50 feet away. How could you be so sure that the ball crossed into the German goal?” “Stalingrad.”
Outlandish: “The Band Is On the Field!”
1. Be careful about needlessly long titles, particularly ones loaded with separate phrases. They’re typically less inviting to prospective readers and harder for people to remember. Unusually bizarre titles, like Saddam Hussein and the Hippies from Space, have more latitude here. (Regardless of length, they will be memorable).
2. If your title does not appeal to prospective readers, start over! Some words that rarely mean much to prospective readers include fictional character and place names. Alternately, some authors use puns. If the reader immediately makes prospective readers smile, fine. If readers will only understand the pun after reading the work, they won’t ever find out how witty the pun is… because they won’t open the book.
I’m changing a lot of content around tonight and many links may be broken until, say, Sunday. I’m doing my best to update the links, but if you find any that don’t work, please post a comment somewhere. Thanks!
If we accept the premise of your story, whether that’s heroes getting superpowers from unlikely insect bites or gaining magical powers, does the rest of the story make sense? For example, you could get readers to buy into a guy getting magical powers and using them to fight a magical mob. But if the story is mostly realistic, like a cop infiltrating the mob, it’ll really disorient readers if a mobster starts using magic on page 200. If you’re planning on using unrealistic elements, introduce or foreshadow them early so that readers won’t be surprised when they show up. (For more on this, please see Holly Lisle and the Case of the Exploding Cat).
Realistic: the premise occurs or could easily occur in real life. Cops infiltrating the mob or students dealing with school, for example. Most superhero stories don’t have very much realistic stuff going on, and that isn’t a problem. Many premises give a superhero superpowers/capabilities through supernatural means such as science fiction, magic/occult, religion, etc. The only thing that matters is whether the reader can maintain the suspension of disbelief.
I was rereading through comments and found this one very sharp.
I’ve never understood the appeal of the power to speak all or several languages in works of fiction, I’ve seen it numerous times in fan fiction, but it never really made sense to me. The whole point of characters going to places where the language barrier is an issue is, well, primarily because the language barrier is going to be an issue, with a few exceptions in a few plots, and discounting fantasy works. Why send Captain Superior to China if the fact that he is an American-born superhero isn’t going to matter? Couldn’t he just stay home and skip a panel or two of flying? How is it exotic if he can just wander into any McDonald’s and order like it was any other Friday?
I agree that it’s important to cut out extraneous elements. However, I think there are some situations where foreign languages would add something to the story even if the main character can speak them.
If you’re interested in publishing and will be in New York City this semester, check out this paid internship at Tor Books. The job responsibilities include: Proofreading Evaluating manuscripts and writing reader reports Various administrative tasks (such as photocopying and filing) Hat-tip to CR. […]
Novelist Paulo Campos has a list of questions to help you determine whether your story is ready to submit. I found #1-9 especially helpful. One of my own: during your last rewrite, how much of the story changed? If less than 10% changed, you’re probably ready to go. […]
Vampires Suck is startlingly bad. How could anybody dig into a comedic vein so rich–ripping into Twilight–and come up with so little? It’s like going to Alaska and failing to find snow. If you’re in the mood for a good Twilight parody, I recommend this fake screenplay. Here’s an excerpt: SCENE 2 BELLA: It’s tough […]
Jay Faulkner is looking for superhero story submissions between 2500-8000 words long. (For longer submissions, query first). Genre: anything with superheroes. “This can be pure comic-book style heroes, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc but the central theme / characters in the story MUST involve superheroes.” Deadline: October 31, 2010. Pay: none. Submission de […]
If you’re worried that your manuscript isn’t as coherent as it could be, mapping your plot can be extremely helpful. To do so: List the 25-50 most important events in the plot. Place one event each on a post-it note. Organize as many of the post-it notes into a cause-and-effect chain as you can. For […]
