Superhero/Supervillain world

by Jessica
(North Carolina)

Question: So, the novel I'm writing is set is a Superhero/Supervillain world and is about a preteen girl who discovers she is a Mad Scientist. She goes to a superhero school, only to discover firsthand what she already knows.

Mad Scientists never fight on the front lines.

At first she's tolerant because, honestly, she literally just got her powers recently. Eventually she realizes she's not content merely being the backer to another super with fighting powers, and declares that she, too, will be a Sidekick. What I'm worried about is that it will be too similar to a book I have recently discovered and fallen in love with: Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain. Here are the similarities I have and feel really against changing because of how important to the plot it is.

MC is a Mad Scientist.
She sometimes goes into a trance when inventing.
She goes to a School for Supers.
She's trying to work in the big leagues, even though she's a Mad Scientist (PDTMPIS: kid).
She has semi-sentient inventions that are like sidekicks/pets.
She has two teammates who support her career and she was friends with them first.

Even if my novel is deemed dissimilar enough by you guys, I would really appreciate it if you could tell me if it's too similar to any other novel you guys have read (It's a YA). Thanks.

Answer: In addition to the book you mention, your idea sounds a lot like the film Sky High.

However, originality in the premise or plot is only one factor. Lots of books are inspired by earlier works. What matters more is...

1. Characters: How original and intriguing they are, the unique inner conflict your main character experiences.

2. Style and voice: Do you have an interesting and unique way of telling the story that sets your book apart from others in this sub-subgenre?

3. Twists: What sort of variation(s) on this premise and plot can you introduce that make your book different?

4. Audience: Is your book designed to appeal to a different generation/audience than the earlier works?

Bear in mind that ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the expression of the ideas in words, the unique form your story takes. That is where your originality must come from.

Ideally, you want your story to be so different on the surface that few people will even realize what earlier works inspired you.

But someone would need to look at a rough draft or partially completed manuscript to make that call.

Subtle Super Power

by Dawud
(New York)

Question: How do I take a subtle (super power (one kinda quirky) and write in a way that keeps the tension and the book flowing? My characters in the book have the ability to manipulate hormones through pheromones. But, since this cannot be a fast-acting ability, I am having trouble figuring out how to write it into a scene requiring immediate action without a) sounding ridiculous or b) killing all tension.

Answer: I see your dilemma.

Just a thought, but... I think if I had such a superpower, I would become very good at slowing situations down. I would look for opportunities to be alone with someone for a period of time, so the power had time to work.

I might waylay people in elevators, sit at the next table to them in restaurants, share a cab with them.

Incidentally, I think this kind of power would work very well for a villain. You might have a greater challenge if your character is the hero.

But again, I think your character would have to specialize in the kind of slow approach used in espionage stories -- which can be very suspenseful (hence tension).

If your hero must use violence at some point (when his plan goes wrong and he has to improvise), that may be okay. It can just be something he uses sparingly.

For example, there's the X-men character Mystique. She can fight hand to hand when she needs to. But most of the time she relies on her superpower (disguise) or espionage skills.

The best Mystique scenes in the X-men films are those which make great use of suspense. You watch her slowly carry out her mission while the risk of getting caught grows larger and larger.

Best of luck.

Trauma And Superpowers: How Do They Connect?

by Ames
(Mobile, AL, United States)

Question: I'm currently writing a story where MC1 can control darkness, MC2 can control plants, and MC3 can control machines. I want them to experience REALISTIC traumas that relate to their pasts because I've already decided on their powers, and I don't want to retcon my story too much. So, how would I write a character whose powers are influenced by their traumas? Thanks!

Answer: Well, some people would suggest you've put the cart before the horse, and that perhaps you should have begun with creating the characters and their distinct traits and defining moments and then decided what powers they might gain as a consequence.

However, not everyone works that way. Sometimes you get an image of a superhero, complete with powers, and develop their backstory later.

If the latter is your situation, the first question I might ask is... Do they need to have trauma in their background? Is it essential that all their character arcs begin with trauma? Along the same lines... Do they ALL need to have a character arc that begins with trauma?

While it's true that many characters have arcs that begin with a traumatic backstory, and most people in real life have had incidents and periods in their life that were unpleasant, many character arcs are not trauma based. It's become quite common to give every character a traumatic history, but it's also become a bit of a cliche.

Not that there's anything wrong with that choice, but it is something to think about. Since you are working with three characters, you might also consider giving them distinctly different arcs.

However, let's assume you have a good reason to want all your characters to have a trauma in their past that led to the development of their unique powers. Perhaps you want to write a story in which three people overcome their traumas to emerge as heroes.

I might also suggest you consider having the mechanism by which they gain their powers differ.

One classic approach might be for a character to have a traumatic incident during which their desire to overcome whatever threat they perceived caused them to tap into a previously unknown source of potential within them and led to an unleashing of a specific power.

For example, one character wanted to hide, so they manifested an ability to control darkness. One character called out for help and the only living things around them were plants, so the plants responded. A third character needed a machine to work in order to save them, so it did.

Perhaps that's the kind of universe you envision -- something like the X-men, but with the powers triggered by intense need rather than puberty.

Or you might decide to have one or more characters gain their powers by some other means and the trauma is incidental -- something that influences their personality rather than their powers. They could have both things going on in their life at the same time.

Or the powers could have been the source of the original trauma. For instance, a character is cursed to generate darkness spontaneously and their fear of the dark makes their powers traumatizing... until they learn to control them. Another character is given bio-implants to let them control machines and the experience of the surgery and its after-effects is traumatic.

You might also ask yourself if the various powers are loosely associated with the characters' traumas (e.g. one person's trauma happened at night, so they develop darkness powers).

Something else to consider... In real life, children who are exposed to a traumatizing threat can only imagine so many ways they might have coped better. They may imagine running away, hiding, destroying the threat, or becoming the monster. When they grow up and the trauma is triggered, they may react by acting out one of these strategies. Some people behave like the monster of their childhood.

You might also ask yourself if a character's power symbolizes some aspect of the trauma.

At any rate, whatever you decide will not be completely realistic, because in real life people don't develop powers. What matters is that...

1. The traumas seem realistic, authentic, and believable.
2. The powers follow certain rules consistently. Readers can accept a fantastical premise if it is consistent and follows its own rules. (And if there aren't too many such premises in the same story.)

As for the first of these (making traumas realistic), it's worth noting that, in a technical sense, there's no such thing as a traumatic event. There are only traumatic reactions to events. For instance, some children may find going through a haunted house at an amusement park fun. For others, it may be traumatizing. Some people will enjoy petting a snake. Others find it traumatizing just to be in the same room as one. Some people find horror movies traumatizing. Others find them sexually arousing. Different people cope with physical pain or loss differently. Your characters will have their own unique reactions. What matters is that the reader doesn't find their reactions inauthentic.

Best of luck.

On original way for characters to get super powers

Question: I have an idea for a story about people with powers and the government rounds them up and throws them in these special prisons and kills them. What I can't decide is an original way for characters to get super powers. Every idea I come up with seems to familiar to something else they all either seem like they're a copy of the darkest minds or x-men.

Idea 1:
The government was designing a super soldier serum but everyone they tested it one they end up dying. There's an accident at the lab and the serum gets released in the world and infect millions most of which end up dying but the ones that survive develop these powers. There's something inside them that caused them to survive and for the rest to die.

Idea 2:
They're the next step in human evolution. These people develop there powers at all different times but usually around the age of 13 but some aren't until much later or some have them their whole life. Well they're exposed and the government rounds them up.

I want the main character to be one of the strongest ones and her father to be the head scientist that's studying the superhumans and trying to find a cure and a bunch of other stuff. Can you help me in anyway? Is there an idea you like the best? I can't come up with any other ideas for a bunch of people to get powers. Do you have any other options? I also can't come up with a way for the powers to be exposed. Do you have any ideas? I have been going back and forth between these ideas and have asked others their opinion but nothing helps. I need help. I've been trying to decided for months and whenever I come back around to trying to decide after taking a break because I think I have it it just drives me crazy and I can't think of anything else. Do you have any advice on how to decide.

Answer: Writers certainly have used these gimmicks and others to explain superpowers (alien DNA is another example). Historically, when people believed in "a better future through chemistry," it gave rise to superheroes who got their powers from consuming special formulae. When the world was interested in esotericism, superpowers came from Eastern religious disciplines. When we were worried about nuclear war, mutation seemed a good candidate. When the internet age was being born, The Matrix gave us a hero who controlled the online world.

In other words, the gimmick can come from what is on people's mind at the moment. If you're tuned in to what people are worried about today, that may give you an idea.

(See, I can't give you a solution, just point you in a direction.)

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