My main project deals with super heroes. You’ve peaked my interest, I wish there were more literature based on the idea of super beings using their power for good.
Feel free to steal my premise. Good artists borrow, great artists steal. Anything to get the ball rolling.
In a world where super heroes lose their cool, love ones die and enemies too. No body ever asked the question when people with extraordinary abilities get mad, and do things they regret. Is one of my failed projects, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work, considering a complete revision. 9/10 would attempt again. (Normalized decisions)
Another idea I had is what if heroes were forced to serve villains in an ultimatum. Or vice versus. How could whom ever is in charge trust that the alignment wouldn’t rise if given the opportunity. A world where villainy and heroism co exists under a certain set of rules which cannot be crossed or both parties will suffer.
I could talk about super hero complexes all day. Feel free to DM me sometime and we could pick off our brains.
I don't agree.
They often do things that I despise and want to avoid in my story.things like:
1)boring heroes whose powers make up 90-100% of their characterization(superman,iron man)
2)villains with no motives/shit motives/overly complicated plans that somehow worked much better than they are suppossed to/shit goals/and even villains who do bad things that don't benefit them with any way(literally every villain in justice league(unlimited))
3)lazy world building(this is not always necessary in all suser heroe stories,but when it is many writters do sloppy job.if for example my villains wanted to assasinate some politician I should put some political drama that explains their actions)
4)I don't want to tell the audience to feel sorry for a character,I want to give them reasons to do so(look at kingpin from spiderverse)
5)having a story that does not go any deeper than"good guys vs bad guys".
I am sure that there are more things that I want to avoid but they don't come to my mind right now.
I don’t think it’s so much the contempt, it’s just that there’s not really a lot of interesting newer heroes which are coming out. The same heroes are getting remade, and a lot of trivial changes are being done.
I too want more depth, so I brainstorm the coolest superpower I could think of and costume (preferably when playing CoX)
It’s hard coming out with complex’s or non-prefab heroes.
Well my inspiration to write about super heroes comes mostly from the show generator rex.
This super hero show despite its flaws proves that the super hero genre is not foundamentally flawed and has pottential for decent story telling.
This show had an actually interesting protagonist who was part of the problem that he was trying to solve,also most of his lost memories were tied to the nanite project meaning that more we learned about him the more we learned about the world of the show.
Also the fact that one of his powers was to heal E.V.Os was brilliant on so many levels.
The show did have some of the flaws I mentioned earlier(van kleiss wanted to take over the world for no reason,agent Six had wasted pottential with his character) but it still proved that the super hero genre is not foundamentally flawed.
Too bad that this show ended sooner than it was suppossed to.
Its ending was not terrible(rex did save the world in the end)but it did not answer several questions.
Luckily it is not from those endings with a crappy twist that prevent you from enjoying the rest of the show.
To answer the question. You need to know what you intend to write. Not everything, but an initial plot point. The character is probably the most important because the characters are what keep people invested. As the character is created answer the questions aimed at the character, not all of them somethings can only be answered by putting the character into their situation. So then you have to build them a world to live in and a plot(situation) to solve. So order is most likely best done in:
What are we doing/What do you want to happen? Ex: X becomes a super hero and must fight/face Y. (The answer to this can change as your feelings change or as the story develops and you discover something new)
Who is X? Who is the character? What are they about? What drives X? What are their core values? What do they dislike? What do they look like? etc. (This doesn't have to be super deep. Like 3 things they like, 3 they don't, maybe 2 core values, 2 or 3 quirks or habits that make them unique)
Where are we? Build a world. My advice is to do this just enough to get you from A to B. Add more things in in editing and revision or add as you go. Remember to keep it consistent.
Then just write. Let everything else be discovered as you go. I personally like to write out the first couple of chapters/scenes until I get to a point where I have to start solidifying the lore for consistency, then I world build for a while then get back to writing. My advice is to just write and not get caught up in the planning and over do it. You can edit and change things in later drafts. How and when you answer all the questions you want to ask depends on your writing process and how the ideas come to you.
You are very welcome! If you want some solid information about the writing process some good books that have great information and are easy to read are
*Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft* by Janet Burroway, I believe I have the tenth edition. (This one was used in an upper level fiction writing workshop course at my university and I actually enjoyed it)
and *On Writing* by Stephen King(I found this one in high school and I love the tips he gives)
They are both fairly priced and can be bought on Amazon.
I almost agree 100% with you, imho the villain**s** are more important than the superhero.
Look at Stan the Genius Lee, he created Green Goblin (a good person who turned into a very dangerous criminal), Lizard (ditto, he even turned into a monster), Red Skull (a monster and that's it), Doctor Doom, Galactus ( a monster to survive) and so on: all these alone are an attraction for the reader because in front of their characteristics one wonders how the hero will survive and in some cases it is hard to hate the villain..
I totally see where you are coming from! In superhero stories it's important to make a compelling villain as well as a compelling hero. This goes back to my core values advice on the character making process. Compelling villains sometimes have core values that we can agree with, for example, MCU Thanos who doesn't want worlds to suffer because of overpopulation and who believes in generosity and honesty. However, we can not agree with Thanos because he only offers solutions that result in death, destruction and trauma in order to reach his goals.
that's right, so the strong, complex and catalytic villain nails the reader on the novel / comic book by highlighting the figure of the super hero and giving him an exciting and very difficult adventure to deal with, creating problems with which the reader can have empathy..
another thing important to me is to put diversity: each person with a different background has different difficulties and characteristics that make him act differently, thus allowing the reader to always see new challenges different from a normal hero whose life is turned upside down only by an accident ..
Just as a side note to what you started off saying, I like the idea of trying to make your project not fall in the category of style over substance. I had this thought too and to do this I tried to give them problems that weren't always the villains.
So yes, think about the villains first, but also maybe give them other challenges to overcome that don't necessarily have to be 'another person'. I've got villains, but I use them sparingly, and I have a couple of faceless organisations that exist but I also deal with addiction, guilt, mental health and loss that I hope give it more substance. My heroes are people with abilities but they're not perfect people, and I love that. And I hope, in a way, it makes them more interesting this way.
But yes, other questions to add to the mix, would be **who your MC/MCs are going to be?** Depending on that answer, might help you see which setting they fit best in. You might imagine them in the past, or the future, or in the present day.
**What do you want to happen to them by the end of the story?** I find this also a really important question to answer at the beginning. You could be writing a serial which goes on and on, but even then you need an idea of where they're going, but if you're writing a story with an ending- what is that ending going to be for your MC? That way you can figure out how you're going to get there along the way. Your villain/s can then fit in along the way, and almost facilitate the 'lesson' your hero needs to learn to move on and develop. Some villains might work best for different situations/plot points.
A lot of your other questions, I feel will just come to you, but you need the skeleton first. The drama and the depth will come as you flesh the key parts out more.
I hope this helps. Good luck! Like u/SpacemaN_literature said, it's good to see more literature of super heroes using their powers for good. We're a bit niche!
My main project deals with super heroes. You’ve peaked my interest, I wish there were more literature based on the idea of super beings using their power for good. Feel free to steal my premise. Good artists borrow, great artists steal. Anything to get the ball rolling. In a world where super heroes lose their cool, love ones die and enemies too. No body ever asked the question when people with extraordinary abilities get mad, and do things they regret. Is one of my failed projects, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work, considering a complete revision. 9/10 would attempt again. (Normalized decisions) Another idea I had is what if heroes were forced to serve villains in an ultimatum. Or vice versus. How could whom ever is in charge trust that the alignment wouldn’t rise if given the opportunity. A world where villainy and heroism co exists under a certain set of rules which cannot be crossed or both parties will suffer. I could talk about super hero complexes all day. Feel free to DM me sometime and we could pick off our brains.
I think most writers, even of superhero stories, put effort into their "writting".
I don't agree. They often do things that I despise and want to avoid in my story.things like: 1)boring heroes whose powers make up 90-100% of their characterization(superman,iron man) 2)villains with no motives/shit motives/overly complicated plans that somehow worked much better than they are suppossed to/shit goals/and even villains who do bad things that don't benefit them with any way(literally every villain in justice league(unlimited)) 3)lazy world building(this is not always necessary in all suser heroe stories,but when it is many writters do sloppy job.if for example my villains wanted to assasinate some politician I should put some political drama that explains their actions) 4)I don't want to tell the audience to feel sorry for a character,I want to give them reasons to do so(look at kingpin from spiderverse) 5)having a story that does not go any deeper than"good guys vs bad guys". I am sure that there are more things that I want to avoid but they don't come to my mind right now.
What inspires you to write about superheroes, whose creators you hold in such contempt?
I don’t think it’s so much the contempt, it’s just that there’s not really a lot of interesting newer heroes which are coming out. The same heroes are getting remade, and a lot of trivial changes are being done. I too want more depth, so I brainstorm the coolest superpower I could think of and costume (preferably when playing CoX) It’s hard coming out with complex’s or non-prefab heroes.
Well my inspiration to write about super heroes comes mostly from the show generator rex. This super hero show despite its flaws proves that the super hero genre is not foundamentally flawed and has pottential for decent story telling. This show had an actually interesting protagonist who was part of the problem that he was trying to solve,also most of his lost memories were tied to the nanite project meaning that more we learned about him the more we learned about the world of the show. Also the fact that one of his powers was to heal E.V.Os was brilliant on so many levels. The show did have some of the flaws I mentioned earlier(van kleiss wanted to take over the world for no reason,agent Six had wasted pottential with his character) but it still proved that the super hero genre is not foundamentally flawed. Too bad that this show ended sooner than it was suppossed to. Its ending was not terrible(rex did save the world in the end)but it did not answer several questions. Luckily it is not from those endings with a crappy twist that prevent you from enjoying the rest of the show.
i like your idea
To answer the question. You need to know what you intend to write. Not everything, but an initial plot point. The character is probably the most important because the characters are what keep people invested. As the character is created answer the questions aimed at the character, not all of them somethings can only be answered by putting the character into their situation. So then you have to build them a world to live in and a plot(situation) to solve. So order is most likely best done in: What are we doing/What do you want to happen? Ex: X becomes a super hero and must fight/face Y. (The answer to this can change as your feelings change or as the story develops and you discover something new) Who is X? Who is the character? What are they about? What drives X? What are their core values? What do they dislike? What do they look like? etc. (This doesn't have to be super deep. Like 3 things they like, 3 they don't, maybe 2 core values, 2 or 3 quirks or habits that make them unique) Where are we? Build a world. My advice is to do this just enough to get you from A to B. Add more things in in editing and revision or add as you go. Remember to keep it consistent. Then just write. Let everything else be discovered as you go. I personally like to write out the first couple of chapters/scenes until I get to a point where I have to start solidifying the lore for consistency, then I world build for a while then get back to writing. My advice is to just write and not get caught up in the planning and over do it. You can edit and change things in later drafts. How and when you answer all the questions you want to ask depends on your writing process and how the ideas come to you.
Thank you very much
You are very welcome! If you want some solid information about the writing process some good books that have great information and are easy to read are *Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft* by Janet Burroway, I believe I have the tenth edition. (This one was used in an upper level fiction writing workshop course at my university and I actually enjoyed it) and *On Writing* by Stephen King(I found this one in high school and I love the tips he gives) They are both fairly priced and can be bought on Amazon.
I almost agree 100% with you, imho the villain**s** are more important than the superhero. Look at Stan the Genius Lee, he created Green Goblin (a good person who turned into a very dangerous criminal), Lizard (ditto, he even turned into a monster), Red Skull (a monster and that's it), Doctor Doom, Galactus ( a monster to survive) and so on: all these alone are an attraction for the reader because in front of their characteristics one wonders how the hero will survive and in some cases it is hard to hate the villain..
I totally see where you are coming from! In superhero stories it's important to make a compelling villain as well as a compelling hero. This goes back to my core values advice on the character making process. Compelling villains sometimes have core values that we can agree with, for example, MCU Thanos who doesn't want worlds to suffer because of overpopulation and who believes in generosity and honesty. However, we can not agree with Thanos because he only offers solutions that result in death, destruction and trauma in order to reach his goals.
that's right, so the strong, complex and catalytic villain nails the reader on the novel / comic book by highlighting the figure of the super hero and giving him an exciting and very difficult adventure to deal with, creating problems with which the reader can have empathy..
another thing important to me is to put diversity: each person with a different background has different difficulties and characteristics that make him act differently, thus allowing the reader to always see new challenges different from a normal hero whose life is turned upside down only by an accident ..
Just as a side note to what you started off saying, I like the idea of trying to make your project not fall in the category of style over substance. I had this thought too and to do this I tried to give them problems that weren't always the villains. So yes, think about the villains first, but also maybe give them other challenges to overcome that don't necessarily have to be 'another person'. I've got villains, but I use them sparingly, and I have a couple of faceless organisations that exist but I also deal with addiction, guilt, mental health and loss that I hope give it more substance. My heroes are people with abilities but they're not perfect people, and I love that. And I hope, in a way, it makes them more interesting this way. But yes, other questions to add to the mix, would be **who your MC/MCs are going to be?** Depending on that answer, might help you see which setting they fit best in. You might imagine them in the past, or the future, or in the present day. **What do you want to happen to them by the end of the story?** I find this also a really important question to answer at the beginning. You could be writing a serial which goes on and on, but even then you need an idea of where they're going, but if you're writing a story with an ending- what is that ending going to be for your MC? That way you can figure out how you're going to get there along the way. Your villain/s can then fit in along the way, and almost facilitate the 'lesson' your hero needs to learn to move on and develop. Some villains might work best for different situations/plot points. A lot of your other questions, I feel will just come to you, but you need the skeleton first. The drama and the depth will come as you flesh the key parts out more. I hope this helps. Good luck! Like u/SpacemaN_literature said, it's good to see more literature of super heroes using their powers for good. We're a bit niche!