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Wonky Wednesday
Hump Day is the big pivot point for the week and today is no exception. I’m just hoping that my web connection won’t drop in the middle of my writer’s group call again…
🏰 Chivalry Is Not Dead 🤴 It’s Merely Resting 😴
When a man opens a car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife. ~Prince Philip
In truth, I love to open the car door for my beloved wife. Thing is, more than half the time she’s having none of it. “Just get in and start the car.” she’ll say.
Can’t fault a guy for trying.
Even so, I like to do such things for her and she likes to do me little courtesies in return.
Sometimes, we’re just in a hurry and chivalry can take a back seat to practicality.
Either way, I’m just glad to have a chance to cruise around with a smokin’ hot hottie.
🦹🏿♂️ Villainy 🦹🏿♀️
HOW TO WRITE AN UNFORGETTABLE VILLAIN
Abbie seems to have a real knack for teaching the craft of writing in a way that’s clear and easy to act on.
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The interesting thing about her treatment of the Negative Character Arc is that it’s not strictly for villains.
It can lead an otherwise decent character to a state of villainy or just to misery. |
| Another awesome thing about Abbie’s channel is that she backs up her analysis with examples and she really dives into how to use proven story elements in your story by explaining how they have worked in film and literature. |
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Speaking of pivot points, the concept of a character’s misbelief is how they deal with life in terms of their fears. It’s the lie that they tell themselves that causes them to fail repeatedly on the road to self-discovery.
When a character overcomes this misbelief and learns a transformative truth, it’s a positive character arc. When a character falls prey to fear and tragically embraces this misbelief, it’s a negative character arc. Understanding your characters’ motivations, goals and inner scars is crucial to making a memorable and worthwhile story.
How to Find Your Character’s MISBELIEF (or Fatal Flaw)
🕵🏿 Let’s 🔎 Examine 🔬 This 🔍 A 🧩 Bit 🕵🏿♀️
The unexamined life is not worth living. ~Socrates
This is part of the reason I decided to do the first trilogy of The Sentinels series in first person perspective. I’m also writing in present tense. Not only are you experiencing the story from inside their heads, but you’re getting it in real time.
This helps to put things in high gear right from the start. They don’t know what’s coming next, so neither will the reader.
Since we’re head-hopping from one chapter to the next, it gives it a highly individual feel even though it’s an ensemble cast. Golden Age comic books were generally about individual characters. I wanted to incorporate this thematically through the first three books of the series by showing individual perspectives of shared events.
Some of the most iconic superheroes were created during the Golden Age and their adventures reflected their schtick. Superman was the square-chinned foe of criminals and corrupt officials alike. Batman was the inscrutable master detective who could unravel cases that were too perplexing for the average flatfoot of the corrupt and inept Gotham City police. Captain America and Wonder Woman were patriotic heroes dedicated to fighting the Axis Powers.
The only notable exception to this was the Justice Society of America, but even this legendary comic featured the team’s members recounting their individual actions. It didn’t seem to be a collaborative team like the Avengers or the Justice League so much as a superhero’s club.
That being the case, The Sentinels are more like the retconned JSA than the original collection of individual heroes pictured sitting around a round table sharing their heroic exploits. Even so, attorney Lucius Deagle deliberately forged our heroes into a team and partnered them with the ECPD to ensure they would be perceived as partners rather than vigilantes.
Foxfire had his own character arc from 1976 to the 1990s. Captain Freedom had his character arc from 1880 to the 1990s. Mary Christmas began her character arc in the early 90s but, when her train went off the tracks, it got paused for 13 years.
This is why Meirhe is one of the viewpoint characters for The Sentinels: New Blood. Her character arc was interrupted when she was compelled to join The Sentinels. With Tanda joining the team, Meirhe will have to face problems that have been on hold for over a decade. No worries, she’s already over 1,200 years old. That’s like a long weekend to her.
That’s all for today. Plenty to do and not much week left to do it in.