Young Writers Society

hi I'm thinking about writing a book about superheroes. And i knew what your are all probably thinking.' unoriginal,boring,same old heroes versus villains, bla bla bla' so if your not thinking that, what the hell is wrong with you. I was wondering if it could work you knew superheroes etc...
probably won't but hey, it's worth a shot. I'm trying to steer away from comics and marvels 'n' all that rubbish.

It's called' Thirteen' and what it's basically about is 13 teenager's aged 13. lol. In the first quarter of the novel, I'm thinking about just giving each teen a back round and how they are coping with there 'special abilities'. And then the crappy bit. All i could come up with is physco mad with power computer genies trying to kidnap and do experiments on the kids.

So that's it. Crap i know. But that's where you come in.
ideas and hints for steering away from the UN-original would be great and any other points would be appreciated. I probably won't even start this book, but it's worth listening to what you lot gotta say.

Actually, you saying super heroes didn't make me think 'Oh no! Cliche alert!'. People can pull off old ideas and give them a new spin. Take Harry Potter: There are a zillion stories about wizards going off to wizard school, yet HP was different. That's the first book that comes to mind, but a whole bunch of others would make the list. Also, sometimes cliche can be good. I know I've read a zillion mangas that all have the same basic plot, yet I still sit down and read through them despite the fact I know the format the plot is going to follow.

I say this a lot: It's about the characters. Why do we want to read about 13 super-heroes? What gems do their personalities hold that make us love them right from the start and right on through to the end? Think on it. It's very important. Now, to the issues...

1) They're all 13. And there are 13 of them. o.O Sorry, that just screams to me some sort of convenience. Why are they all 13? Why are there exactly 13? Do their powers all stem from some incident, or is it normal for some people every now and again t be born with powers? If it's the later, then it's insanely unlikely you'd have 13 born in the same year. I'd suggest you work out the 'science' behind them having powers.

2) THe villains are mad for power and all geniuses. =_= Sorry, but there is no feasible way to use that and not set of the super cliche alarms. The villains are always (almost) some kind of genius (that are they have some super power) and they are (for the most part) always mad for power. Where's your twist? Where's your originality? What reason do you feel you can pull off having such an overdone (your description is too vague to be anything but) plot-line?

That's not to say that overdone can't be done. I've seen a lot of spoof books recently that were quite good. A new take on an old story. Sometimes, the characters are quite aware that they're in a cliche story, in others the basic story is so well masked, you don't realize it until the end. How you tell this story is going to decide if people will read it.

Also, somewhere Snoik has a nice little article on why cliches aren't always a bad thing.

Well, most stories (if not all) have a hero, whether they have special powers, are your average joe, or a homeless kid on the streets. There's always a hero to a book. Plus, cliche isn't at all bad if you can make cliche look good. Like HP, as Valor pointed out. There are tons of wizard books out there, yet HP, even though it was a wizard book, became a bestseller, etc. It's possible, as long as you set your mind to it. ^_^

1. I'd like to point out that 13 is a bit too many? Especially when introducing them right off the bat. The reader will get them mixed up or forget about others. I see the pattern you're trying to pull off, though. You want 13 13-year-olds. Do 3 13-year-olds.

2. The PoV. Again, 13 is a bit too many, in my opinion. I've seen authors switch PoV, yes, but the most I've seen is 4-ish, and that was only because the main group of characters were split up on their quest. I'd stick with one PoV until they all meet up and then are separated. That's when, I would think, you can risk different PoVs. Of course, if you can pull it off, be my guest.

3. Try to make your superheroes as original as possible. Maybe their powers work their best when they sleep exactly eight hours of sleep? Or maybe they have to eat healthy foods and no sugar for effective abilities? Maybe one character's a musician who hypnotizes people from the music they play on their instrument. I have no idea what plans you want, but don't make the "strongest man alive, x-ray vision, etc. weak to krypton" character, or the "Amazon princess who wears the boomerang tiara, the golden lasso, and the bracelets that reflect bullets" character, or the one who was "bitten by a spider and has spidey senses, webs flinging from his wrists, and wears a costume".

4. Secret identities? Seeing as their thirteen years old (each of them [see Valor's comment]), they'll all be in school. It's going to take some creativity to make their school day interesting, especially if you're giving them secret identities. Watch what you do here too.

That's all I can think of off the bat. When I first read your post, I thought of the movie Sky High. You may or may not have heard of it, but it's about a school for superheroes. Watch it or look it up; you might get some ideas.

Hope I helped!

~ Jabber ~

I have nothing against a person trying out superheroes (although I tried it once and it didn't work out). However, do you have something against Marvel Comics? Isn't Superman and the Hulk and all them in that? Come on, Superman rocks!

As for you ideas, I do not like the plot of them being thirteen (and there being thirteen of them). As soon as I read that they were all thirteen, I looked at your age, and sure enough, you're thirteen! So as soon as you turn fourteen, you're stuck with a bunch of young kids that really haven't learned their way in life or anything. This is not to be degrading your age (because I was there once too), but now that I'm sixteen, I look back at being thirteen and think about all that I didn't know and how I didn't know how to handle situations and things like that. Basically, if my trust comes down to a bunch of thirteen year olds vs. 16-20 year olds or so, I'm sticking with the older bunch. Usually, when I do a story, I make characters my age and above. That way, when I turn the next age, I don't feel like I'm stuck with young people to sort through their problems. In a way, I'm growing with the characters. I would suggest not making them all thirteen (but then, that would destroy your title, which I do sort of like).

The others dealt with pretty much everything else. Whatever you decide to do, good luck and have fun!

Hye thanks alot for the great comments, i'm sticking to it but im changing title and making only six kids ages 13-16. At the begining i'm genna intoduce them and then they will all come together when they use their powers to stop a plane crash. And like most they dont get their powers from an accident instead they're born with them and dont no it until adolescence.

Thanks.

Sounds better.