If you write on geeky subjects or want to write on geeky subject, Crossroads Alpha would like you to join our Writer’s Pool.

Crossroads Alpha is an alliance of web sites covering comics, anime, careers, creativity, video games, films, and more. There’s a Writer’s Pool that you can join if you’re interested in writing for any (or all) of the sites involved. Needs, ideas, and suggestions will be posted, and if you find something you’d like, you can contact the site owner and go to work!

You can find out more about the alliance at www.crossroadsalpha.com.

Want to join? Go here and sign up:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ca-writers

Allied sites are:

• http://www.comicsbulletin.com/
• http://www.ganriki.org/
• http://indiehaven.com/
• http://www.musehack.com/
• http://psychodrivein.com/
• http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
• http://tgtmedia.com/
• http://videogamebreak.net/

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Since the series first aired in 1966, Star Trek has made inroad into not just geek culture but global culture.  It is rare to find anyone unfamiliar with the concepts of the series and unable to name at least one Captain.  The show’s prominence and tropes also make it ripe for parodies.  Each series and movie in the Trek franchise has been fodder for humourists.  The franchise even was featured as the first review here at Lost in Translation.

Fan films are getting less expensive to make.  With CGI, many effects that would be too expensive to do practically, like crashing a car or blowing up a model starship, now just needs a skilled artist.  The camera equipment needed has also fallen in price while becoming digital and smaller.  The Canadian low-budget horror movie Manborg was made for around Cdn$1000 and featured extensive green-screening and stop-motion animation.  The Four Players used limited sets and CGI in four separate shorts featuring the characters from Super Mario Bros.  Today, it is very possible to equal the effects of the big screen with inexpensive software coupled with skill and talent.

Star Wreck started as a series of shorts on YouTube.  Five friends in a two-room apartment used blue-screening technology to digitally add the sets needed.  Outdoor sets were found in the Finnish outdoors.  The sixth, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, received a budget sliightly under 14 000 Euros and a feature-length DVD release.  The version watched for this review was the Imperial Edition.  Star Wreck followed the exploits of the CPP Potkustartti, or as the subtitles call it, the CPP Kickstart*, her captain, James B. Pirk, and her crew, including Commander Info, an android, and Commander Dwarf, a Plingon.  The end of Star Wreck V saw Pirk, Info, and Dwarf stranded on Earth in the early 21st Century, trying not to change the course of history.

In the Pirkinning begins with Pirk drunk and tired of being stuck in a primitive era.  He reunites with Info and Dwarf and, armed with the knowledge of where the Vulgar (Vulcan) ship that made first contact is, starts working to build a new Kickstart.  Unfortunately, the man who contacted the Vulgars, Johnny Cochbrane (Zefram Cochrane), sold the ship to the Russians.  Pirk takes his crew, all two of them, to a Russian nuclear facility and convinces them to overthrow capitalism to bring back the Soviet Union.  Among those working at the facility is Sergey Fukov** (Chekov), an ancestor of one of Pirk’s former crewmen.  Sergey also worked at Chernobyl, where he had accidentally turned off the wrong cooling unit instead of the unit in his quarters.

With his newly Soviet Russian army, Pirk convinces President Ulyanov to assist in the building of the new CPP Kickstart.  With control of the Russian army and the new Kickstart and her sleds (shuttlecraft), Pirk overthrows Ulyanov, declares himself Emperor, invades Europe and then the United States.  No country can withstand the invasions, which is sold via propaganda as liberating the invaded nations.  The P-Fleet is built, with all vessels having twist drives (warp drives), shove engines (impulse drives), twinklers (phasers), and light balls (photon torpedoes).  Too bad the P-Fleet was built by the Russians; the maximum speed the ships can maintain is Twist Factor 2.

Another problem Emperor Pirk faces is the overpopulation of Earth.  He sends the P-Fleet out to scout for new worlds to colonize.  Most of the close ones aren’t suitable for human life, as the expendable redshirts would attest to if they hadn’t died demonstrating the lack of suitability.  However, the CPP Kalinka, commanded by Sergey Fukov, discovers a maggot hole (worm hole) from which an alien ship emerges.  Following Pirk’s General Order 3, the instant destruction of any alien vessel, Fukov orders the alien vessel destroyed.  After investigating the wreckage, though, it turns out the occupant was human.

The P-Fleet arrives at the maggot hole to investigate and, if needed, to conquer any worlds beyond for colonization.  The Kalinka is ordered into the maggot hole, Pirk figuring that the rust bucket and her captain would be no major loss to the P-Fleet.  Instead, Fukov reports back that the inside of the maggot hole changes colour.  The rest of the fleet enters the hole and spots two larger alien vessels that use a signal to exit.  Pirk’s crew figures out what the signal was and uses it to exit as well.

At this point, the breadth of science fiction knowledge of the creators is shown.  There’s a space station, the Babel 13 (Babylon 5), sitting near the hopgate (jump gate).  When negotiations break down with Commander Jonny Sherrypie (Commander John Sheridan), Pirk orders the P-Fleet to strike.  The resulting battle is something that many pre-CGI filmmakers could only dream about.  The P-Fleet has the early advantage, with their twinklers and light balls, but once ships like the Backgammon (Agamemnon) get in range, they open fire.  The ships from the Trek part of the parody have special effects similar to what was seen in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.  The Babylon 5 portion, though, use special effects that wouldn’t be out of place on the original series.  The resulting scene is one that should be studied as an example of how to get details right.

During the battle, the Excavator, commanded by Psy-Co (Psy Corp) officer Festerbester (Alfred Bester) appears and targets the P-Fleet’s flagship, mainly because Pirk’s ship is the only one with enough light balls to continue the battle.  Festerbester is portrayed by the same actor playing Fukov, just as Walter Koenig played both Chekov and Bester.  The battle is decided by a twist core split resulting in an explosion that destroys both the Kickstart and the Excavator.

The difficulty in reviewing In the Pirkinning is not just working out how well the parody captures the essence of both Star Trek and Babylon 5, but dealing with watching a foreign language film relying on subtitles.  There is a culture gap between Finland and Canada that Star Wreck demonstrates.  The treatment of Russians was the first indication of the difference between Finnish and Canadian humour.  The subtitles assisted; whenever a Russian spoke, ze subtitles bekame a form of accent as the Russians happily overthrew kapitalism to bring back kommunism.  The subtitles for the unintelligible Scottish engineer were just as unintelligible.

It was obvious while watching In the Pirkinning that the cast and crew knew their science fiction, that they had watched both Trek and B5.  Sherrypie’s penchant for long-winded speeches, the entire mirror universe vibe of Emperor Pirk’s P-Fleet, the dual role of Fukov and Festerbester, the exploding plasma consoles on the Kickstart all show the level of detail and knowledge.  The parody still respects the original works even while poking fun.  Only a fan could get both series well enough to parody without being mean-spirited.  Some of the details may have been lost in translation***, but, overall, the parody managed to pull together two distinct TV series and keep their tone while adding to the work.

Next week, Daredevil.

* For ease, I will stick to the English translation, mainly to keep the pun of the name.
** Pronounced exactly as you’re thinking.
*** So to speak. *cough*

When we create heroes or villains, indeed main characters, in many cases we’re dealing with highly competent people. In the cases of antiheroes and so forth we may not be making such individuals, but in general our “leads” of the tales in our world, who we focus on, are highly competent people. After all you need to have a certain level of ability to do things worth writing about (or just not end up dead early on), though there are exceptions.

In a few cases, the competence is a specific focus of a story in your world – I once hard the delightful term “competence porn” to describe certain forms of literature where characters plan, plot, employ skills, and so on. It’s one I still use and want to promote. So please use it.

Anyway, there’s a point where you can take it a bit too far. The characters are not just good, but good at everything. They become Omnicompetent (also a word I want to promote), and at that point the world starts breaking down because one person’s talent risks seeming unbelievable.

Well it is unbelievable. And that’s the problem.

What Is Omnicompetence?

I describe Omnicompetence as being essentially: a character that is either so good at so many things or good at one thing or a set of things that they might as well be good at everything. The former are Renaissance Men and Women turned up to 11, the latter are people who can manipulate any computer system or master all forms of magic.

Attributing Omnicompetence to people is something we encounter not just in our worlds and settings, but real life. Think of the last time someone said “Person X does Y so they can do Z” and you went “wait, what?” Politics especially is prone to this – I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “X has a successful business, so they can do Y” when Y has nothing to do with having a business.

I’m sure by now you’re thinking about a few Omnicompetent characters you’ve seen and thinking “you know they’re just as believable as the last harebrained political hyperbole I heard.” Which is the point.

Now before we delve further into why Omnicompetence is a world-wrecker and distorts your setting and tales, a slight digression . ..

A Few Caveats On Omnicompetence.

Now before I launch into exploring Omnicompetence I want to note a few things.

First of all, Omnicompetent characters are not necessarily Mary Sues/Gary Stus/Authors pets. At least in my experience they often have reasons for being so good at everything, it’s jut poorly explained and designed. The aforementioned Mary/Gary type characters usually have no believable explanation or for that matter competence – the author takes care of them – and I’ll cover some of that next column.

Secondly, Omnicompetent characters can work in certain settings that have a comedic bent. Buckaroo Banzai, the rockstar-neurosurgeon of the cult film (and a personal fave of my youth) is an excellent example. Parodic characters can be effectively omnicompetent as that’s part of the humor – as well as times that breaks down.

Third, I find Omnicompetent characters are often less annoying if done right, so at times harder to detect. Omnicompetent characters are at least characters, and in the hands of talented creators, their unbelievability may be lessened. Several writers have treated Tony Stark, Iron Man, as Omnicompetent, but also human and fallible. Villains like Doctor Doom and Darkseid are often the same way, from Doom’s sense of class or Darkseid pining for his lost love.

No with that said, let’s get back to Omnicompetence and why it’s bad for your world.

Omnicompetence: Just Inaccurate

So lets get this out of the way: Omnicompetent heroes and villains are just inaccurate. Yes far less annoying than Mary Sues, yes they can be funny, and they can often be written right. If anything they may provide competence porn and be quite enjoyable, even if they’re a little too competent.

But in the end let’s face it, no one is good at everything. It comes off as unbelievable, it is unbelievable, and it distorts your world. The Omnicompetent character is a distortion. An anomaly. Something inserted into the setting but not supported by the setting.

In short, trying to explain Omnicompetence just doesn’t hold water most of the time (though there may be exceptions).

I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of making characters Omnicompetent for a variety of reasons:

• It’s easier to just make people good at stuff.
• We extrapolate on talented characters and people and get it wrong.
• It is easy to dot o make a hero powerful enough to save the day or a villain competent enough to be a threat.
• We think of people that are treated as Omnicompetent and real life and are influence by that.
• It’s fun to write people who know what they heck they’re doing.
• It gives people something to aspire too.

It happens. It’s OK.

Just look for the warning signs.

But what should we aim for in our character creation and worldbuilding to prevent it before it happens?

Competence With Foundations and Repercussions

A character’s competence should, like anything else have competence due to a proper foundation – and have repercussions.

There are reasons for a character to be good at something:

• They know something for a reason.
• They got training for a reason
• They directed their energies for a reason.
• They have some trait or talent for a reason (even if it’s inheritance).

In turn, the act of having or gaining abilities has repercussions:

• They take time/money/effort not spent elsewhere. The character with the three PhD’s may have one heck of a student debt (there’s a superhero story for you)
• They provide a different perspective. Your character who is a brilliant artist may not know how to turn their computer on.
• They affect you as a person. The character with the implanted memories that make them super-skilled is going to suffer from some pretty interesting mental problems.
• They bring people to the attention of others. An amazing wizard who displays precocious skill at 11 is going to get a lot of attention by people wondering about an 11 year old flinging fireballs.

Competence may be its own reward, but it doesn’t come without tradeoffs. They just may be worth it.

When you think about competence in origin and effect, it makes richer characters and richer worlds. Come to think of it, imagine the fun of a character who seems to be nearly Omnicompetent and exploring how they got that way . . .

Beyond Omnicompetence: The Believably Competent Character

In creating believable competent characters – so often our heroes and villains – it’s important to make sure the competence is understandable. The believably competent character.

In short, the characters are competent, but the tradeoffs and limits are obvious. This makes the characters believable and understandable and relatable – and the world and the characters more real.

This may mean they’re talented as all get out. Human history shows us many amazing people with a wide array of skills. I’ sure many of us can think of people who have amazing abilities and knowledge – but they’re people.

Keeping An Eye Out

When focusing on your characters, the competent ones – so often heroes and villains – be on the lookout for Omnicompentence. In turn, by building believably competent characters you can head the problem off and make a richer world.

And a less annoying one, frankly.

Sorry Tony.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

OK gang, I’ve finished my updates to the Writing Prompt Generator.  Added some new intros, spices up a few basic openings, and added a bit more variance to a common phrase or two.

As for now, I think I definitely need to take a break from it, so I’ll consider it “good enough” for now – to judge by the comments I’ve gotten.  However I should return to it in the future.

This is one that was extremely educational.  What stood out was this:

• You need to really vary the openings.  Openings, even mildly different, really seem to inspire people.
• Slight turns of phrase have big effects.  “always,” “almost always,” and “sometimes” are very different.
• You’ve got to have a kind of opening that makes people want to hear what happens next, wonder what happens next, or tell what happens next.  The ending is important as well.
• Little changes in tone, time, opening, description can have vast effects.  These generators are “multiplicative.”
• The economy of words, the fact it has to be one sentence, really means you have to pack a lot into a single set of words.  I appreciate how hard it is to find good opening lines more now – and I write as well.  Analyzing it was humbling.
• This was the hardest generator I’ve done because of the mix of psychology, literature, and variability.  I figured it would be easier than it was.  On the other hand I learned a lot doing it, especially on how to vary language for inspiration.
• Not all generators have to be “done.”  From the start.  Normally I like to release them complete, but it’s fine to take feedback.  In fact, it’s a lot of fun to be frank and I need to do it more.

Next up I’m taking a break, then have some other generators I want to do that are in various stages of design.  Ironically one builds on some inspiration from the start of the year when I asked people for advice . . .

 
– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Welcome to Lost in Translation’s news round-up, looking at information about upcoming adaptations, remakes, and reboots.

Warner reschedules Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice
Warner Bros blinked and moved their movie to March 25, 2016, so that it wouldn’t be in direct competition with Marvel’s Captain America 3.  That moves the film to outside the summer blockbuster months, but may gain a bit with March Breaks in high schools.

Babylon 5 getting a feature film reboot.
J. Michael Stracysnki has announced that he will be writing the script for the reboot film.  JMS was the creator of the TV series, and is hoping to get Warner Bros. to fund the film.  If not, then Studio JMS will provide the funding.  No other details are known.

John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War becoming TV series Ghost Brigades.
The pilot script is still being developed, but SyFy will be airing the series.  Scalzi has a FAQ and an interview with one of the scriptwriters, himself.  This is in addition to the Redshirts TV series on FX.

Shazam movie confirmed; Dwayne Johnson has undisclosed role.
Dwayne Johnson may play either Captain Marvel (get it right, CBC!) or Black Adam, but he didn’t say which.  However, one of his favourite characters is Black Adam.

Casting announced for Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book.
Benedict Cumberbatch has been named as the voice of Shere Khan in the Warner Bros.’ version of The Jungle Book.  This should not be confused with Disney’s remake, which will have Idris Elba as the tiger.

Phineas and Ferb to have Hallowe’en special.
Sure, most of Disney’s properties have Hallowe’en specials.  None had Simon Pegg or Nick Frost recreating their roles from Shaun of the Dead until now.  The pair will join the rest of the cast from Phineas and Ferb in a so-far undisclosed story.  The writing for the cartoon targets the entire family and has been known to throw in references to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the past.

Power Rangers movie has release date set.
Lionsgate has set June 22, 2016, as the release date for Power Rangers.  Now all they need to do is film it.  Cast and director have not yet been named.

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life to be adapted for TV.
Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield, who commanded the International Space Station during Expedition 35, will have his book adapted for television.  ABC has picked up the rights and will have Col. Hadfield as a consulting producer on the pilot.

Minority Report in development for TV series.
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television may be adapting his movie Minority Report, based on the Philip K. Dick short story “The Minority Report”.  The series is expected to focus on the PreCrime unit from the movie.

This post originally appeared at The Oak Wheel on August 14th, 2014.

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Why bother with a fandom?

This is a follow-up to the previous article, Fandom and Fanfiction.

Karen Hunton of Build a Little Biz describes the members of a fandom as having these qualities:

• loyal – they want what you have and aren’t interested in competitors
• avid – they will soak up anything and everything you have to offer
• ambassadors – they will proudly tell people about you and what you do
• protective – they are the first to oust a complainer, a copycat, or a troll
• keen – they are happy to provide feedback, test offerings, do trial runs

Do you want that stuff? Do you want it?

Kevin Kelley explains that you only need 1000 True Fans to make a living. If you have 1,000 people willing to spend $100 on you every year then that comes to an income of $100,000, minus expenses. That is some good stuff right there. And Karen Hunton’s listed qualities are as good a description of True Fans as any you could find.

So how do you develop a fandom?

You need to get them invested

One of the biggest things that you can do is give your audience “feels.” Make them cry. Make them laugh. Make them hang off the edges of their seats. You know this thing.

But the feels, they are important. Let’s take a look at TV Tropes for a moment, shall we? Most works have subpages to catalog: Crowning Moments of Awesome… Tear Jerkers… Nightmare Fuel… Funny Moments… Heartwarming Moments… and more.

As TV Tropes says on the Emotional Torque page, where these are grouped: “The overriding goal of all storytelling is to get a reaction from the audience— a laugh, a tear, a desire to change, or maybe a desire to kill the storyteller.”

And when you deliver feels, the fandom makes so much music about your work that they can make a radio station webpage that plays nothing but that music over and over and over (I must confess that most of my non-story writing is done to Skaianet Radio).

You also need to build a community. Do you see how I bolded that last bit? That’s because it’s important. Fandoms are groups of people. Get them talking with each other. Get them to feel like there’s this super special connection that binds them all together and makes them, in at least that one respect, similar to each other.

(And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll make sure your work is good enough that the super special connection is well-deserved. Your goal is not to con the marks into sacrificing their boondollars for transient things. It is to touch their souls in some way.)

And interact with them. Be approachable. Comment on the forums. Respond to emails. Ask them questions. Be involved. If you are not part of the community then they will not follow you, they will follow the work, and that’s not too good if you want to ever step away and do something else. Or, you know, just plain be supported in your work.

If your fans love you, and not just your work, but at the very least appreciate you because you’re responsible for the work, then you won’t have to worry about living in the gutter because everybody stole your work and nobody passed a penny in your direction for it.

(I mean, there are other reasons, too, but this is a pretty good one too)

You need to get them active

This ties into the community aspect a lot, because when the fans are active they’re usually going to be active with other people, or their activity will spur activity in others. But get them active.

Harry Potter and Lost were very responsible for the creation of the Wild Mass Guessing pages on TV Tropes. Pretty much every detail was an element in somebody’s theory, because both works had proven that it was worthwhile to analyze the little things.

This is how Kate885 described the situation (in a Livejournal post that, unfortunately, I seem unable to find again, a long time later): “Chances are good that we as a fandom have figured out almost every last detail of DH [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]. We are the infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters. The only thing left to do is discern which pieces are true and which are false. But, after two years— somebody has come up with every theory that is theoretically possible.

“I remember, back between OotP and HBP, someone actually came up with the theory that Voldemort could be keeping himself alive by splitting parts of his soul and putting them in containers for safekeeping. Yes, someone managed to correctly predict Horcruxes before we even knew what they were called. If you shoot enough arrows in the dark, sooner or later you hit the target.”

Think about that for a second. Imagine what this is implying. The amount of activity that is behind this.

If you had one thousand fans who liked to spend any portion of their time figuring out the mysteries or future events of your work, do you think that they could probably be counted on to spend a lousy $100 a year on you? Do you think that they would become your 1,000 True Fans?

“Become” is an important word there. Your True Fans will analyze and theorize and discuss, of course, but it is not that someone becomes a True Fan and then analyzes and theorizes and discusses. Rather, there is something in your work that is worth analyzing, or theorizing about, or discussing, and in process of time the person who does that becomes a True Fan.

But you need to have something worth analyzing, theorizing about, and discussing.

Oh, and fanfiction? Gets people invested. Writers and readers both. In case it wasn’t obvious.

When people get active, they get invested. They don’t spend their time writing a story or making a song or creating a goshdurned video game and then turn around and decide “Meh, I think I’ll stop caring about this.” Once they get active enough you’ve got a feedback loop that’ll generally only terminate if you do something asinine, because it is human nature to justify your involvement in something that you have already invested time and money in. Every book they buy increases the odds that they will buy the book, and if somebody has read two-thirds of the way through Homestuck, then you can be pretty well counted on to finish the last third if for no other reason than that you have read the equivalent of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

It’s called effort justification.

But again, and this is where I have to say, “Use your powers for good, and not for evil”— If you decide to try to use Psychology Wizardry to con people into passing over coin for veritable mental poison, then first, it’s probably not going to work out like you want because the Real Good Stuff is common enough that it’ll show your work for the fool’s gold that it is and, second, you’re an asshole and you should feel bad.

You need to give them something to work with

I remember a conversation at Dark Lord Potter that got onto the topic of why the Harry Potter fandom had gotten where it was. It was pointed out that a major factor— not necessarily the biggest, just big— was, paradoxically, that there was so much room for improvement in the series. There were holes, there were things that didn’t make sense, and there were plot decisions that weren’t liked, and so the series straddled this weird place where it was awesome enough to be worth reading but sucky enough that you wanted to go in and fix the stuff you didn’t like.

As evidence, this commenter brought forward the sheer number of Alternate Universe, “Fix,” and worldbuilding fics in the Harry Potter fandom, especially relative to some other fandoms. DLP especially sometimes has a love-hate relationship with JK, lauding her for this quality over here and mercilessly tearing apart the series’ flaws over there. But DLP is also notable for the volume and quality of work that its members produce, and it is in no small part due to this very quality in Harry Potter.

Now, I wouldn’t suggest intentionally sowing flaws in your work so that people can tear it apart. That’s… That’s pretty damn stupid, okay? But it illustrates the concept.

A better example: Some works don’t garner much fanfiction because they’re not well-known, or they’re just not fun. But some are well-known and well-loved, but still pretty sterile. Why is this?

Because everything gets wrapped up. There’s no room to fill in. There’s nothing to explore after the curtain closes. There are no mysteries left.

So leave things open. Keep some threads loose and untied. Give your audience something to chew on.

Want extra homework? Read The Dynamics of Fandom: Exploring Fan Communities in Online Spaces, available here.

Your turn: What else can be done to build a fandom?

Compared to fanfiction sites, it’s just not cutting it.  When you look at all the free sites out there, the numbers don’t add up.

Oddly, I can’t fault Amazon for trying.  This is an obvious market, it’s nice to get approved fanfic, and I can see some companies going for it as a way to find middle ground.

However the issue simply is that the limits are against what fanfiction is about.  It’s often crazy, freewheeling, contrarian, extrapolatory, and at times sheer nuts – or seems to be.  I know enough fanfiction authors of many ages and part of the goal of fanfiction is going outside the property – or inside it in a different way.

And I don’t think you can manage that inside the legal concerns of many major property holders.  Or minor ones.  Not without some serious community involvement and outreach.

So what’s next?  That’s what I wonder – is this a failure, or will some new idea emerge?  Will companies give up?  Will this meander along?  Don’t know.

But still, it’ll be interesting.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

NOTE: I am addressing Mary Sues in this column, which often involves questions of definition. As Mary Sues (and the male counterpart Gary Stu) are often a continuum, I wanted to clarify my definition. My definition is of an “author’s pet” – a character who gets vastly preferential treatment by the author in a way that distorts the story. Thus I am discussing them entirely in the negative.

A Dark Mary Sue? Most people would say that Mary Sues often darken things as it is. They may make works into pandering creations that are hard to enjoy. An author or game creator may be worried that, after so many Mary Sues, a new character idea will be seen as an ego-fulfillment vehicle. Wether they annoy us in literature or gaming or make us worry how others view our works, they’re there, worrying us.

In the worlds we build, we may even be cautious about how we design heroes, heroines, and supporting characters. We take that extra effort to make sure they’re not Mary Sues, or even that they’re not perceived as such. For all people may enjoy a good wish-fulfillment story, there are times they can be quite harsh on other tales (namely ones not fulfilling their fantasies).

So we’re careful with our heroes and our heroines. Perhaps very careful.

But maybe they’re not the ones we should be keeping an eye on.

Through The Looking Glass Darkly

When you’re busy scrutinizing your cast you might miss where else Mary Sues pop up. These authors pet, Mary and Gary are tricky little devils, and maybe you should be looking at the other side of your cast.

Because sometimes they’re the villains. Not in the ruined-my-story-sense but in the fact that real Mary Sues and Gary Stus can be the bad guys. The Villains. The Antagonists. The characters raging at the meddling kids and their pet.

Sometimes they can be even more annoying than Mary Sue heroes. Watching a likable, interesting heroine deal with a well-armed overblown author’s favorite Dark Mary Sue is a great way to kill interest in the story. When the threat is so bad you can’t see anyone realistically coping with it, or so beautiful-powerful-great that you feel like you’re reading ad copy, there goes interest in your tale.

Needless to say if you’re a dedicated worldbuilder, they devastate your setting just as sure as any Mary Sue can. Mary Sues, authors pets, distort the world and make it unbelievable as the author’s blatant biases are more important than an understandable setting. Your suspension of disbelieve flies out the window pretty quick when a Mary Sue makes his/her appearance.

Of course this may be an odd statement – a Dark Mary Sue? Aren’t Mary and Gary supposed to be beautiful, perfect, wonderful, loves, etc.? How do you do that to the character everyone is supposed to root against? How do you Mary Sue-ify them?

Theres something peculiar to many of us writers and worldbuilders, perhaps all of us, in that one time or another we create an author’s pet. Maybe it’s a wish-fulfillment, maybe it’s identification, maybe its a power trip. Mary Sues are powerful, lucky, have it all, and are something we, sadly, get attached to.

But none of these qualities say that Mary Sue or Gary Stu have to be good guys. You’ve probably seen a few of their ilk that were so annoying you wondered why the hell they were the heroes and heroines.

In my experience, a Dark Mary Sue or Gary Stu make it even easier to make their stories a power trip and use of authorial fiat. Consider:

1. The villain has to be a threat. It might get awful tempting to step into their shoes or make them an author’s pet.
2. The villain has power. If you’re on a power trip, then it’s going to be awful easy to fall into the trap of Mary Sue-ing them.
3. Villains are great for angsty backstory and redemption tales, which can be awful tempting to play with a wee bit much.
4. Villains get a lot of attention, and it’s fun to have attention – and thus one may Mary Sue the villain.
5. Villains are bad guys and lack moral restraints (in some cases). It can be fun to write a character without inhibitions or to fulfill one’s fantasies.
6. Marketing. It seems everyone loves a bad guy/girl/woman/robot.

If this starts reminding you of some characters here or there, then you understand what I mean. Ever see a particularly foul character be strangely popular with some people? You get the idea – far more dangerous you may make your own.

Dark Mary Sue’s actually irritate me more than regular Mary Sues – they seem to lean more towards wish fulfillment, provoke even more excuses, and drag the story down – especially if the hero is just someone for the villain to push around.

Things To Watch Out For

So here’s a few signs you have a Dark Mary Sue on your hands:

1. The hero/heroine are constantly outsmarted by the villain and are basically a punching bag.
2. The villain is so charming, suave, debonair, and likable they don’t need an Army of Evil – they should just be able to make a good case of why they should rule everyone.
3. The villain has inexhaustible resources, yet there’s no reason in your world to have said resources.
4. The villain is so lucky, you figure they should just try and win the world in a game of Poker.
5. People dislike the villain as they’re too perfect. THe perfection is more annoying than their actual crimes.
6. The villain is giving voice to things the author thinks a wee bit too much.

See these traits in your villain? Get out the Mary Sue detector and give them a careful examination. YOu may have a Dark Mary Sue on your hands.

Closing

A Dark Mary Sue is a real kick in the worldbuilding, as well as just a poor thing to create as an author. It’s also a bit easy to miss if you’re not looking for it.

Have I see these? Oh, yes I have, and they’ve always crawled up my nose. There’s something partially sad to see an author make a bad guy the author’s pet and have it affect their work or misdirect their talent. Also there’s only so often you can hear “He/she is just misunderstood” before you want to say “no, this character is a psychopathic a-hole.”

I also think that Dark Mary Sues can eclipse good villains or morally ambiguous heroes – the areas of really good writing and worldbuilding. I can think of a few characters like that I’m quite fond of, and I’d rather not see their bad names besmirched, if you know what I mean.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Two updates this time!

First the Seventh Sanctum Tumblr now has a daily random character as well as the random story idea.  This way you get interesting character ideas you can share, discuss, and challenge each other to use.  I plan to add more in the future.

Next up, the Writing Prompt Generator had another update!  I added specific locations as well as metaphorical comparisons to classic stories and legends, plus some tweaks and additions and improvements here and there.

I think one more update and I can consider this “done enough” – good enough for people to use, but something where I’ll return to it to improve it in the future.  Frankly working on it because it not only takes work to do, you have to evaluate combinations, viability, maximizing randomness and diversity, and trying to keep it all “sounding” right.  In a way it’s one of the most challenging generators I’ve made.

So clearly it will be a work in progress for as long as I’m willing to work on it here and there or make some tweaks.

Now let’s try some results:

• And now the the sky is crying – I like this one, it could be a metaphor for raining and suggests a mood.
• His life is almost exactly like the tale of the Genji, only he was a virtual reality programmer. – Perhaps he’s reliving the tale in a game?
• He died in the epoch of war, all because of that book. – A book of advice for warriors leads a person down a fatal path, assuming they know more than they do.
• I was sure he will be sleeping. – What are you sneaking up on him for there.
• Ambition is a lady, and that’s when the murders began. – One woman eggs on people with promises . . .
• I am a mad lady, with my lanterns and my bottles. – And the bottles have candles in them, a woman obsessed with light – to keep the darkness inside at bay.
• That archer will be the love of my life, but that’s a lie. – One archer saves a prince or princess, and they fake being in love with them in gratitude.
• People call him Owen. – I got nothing.
• We survived the poverty by hiding in her library. – A library designed to be an indestructible repository also lets people hide from a horrible bout of starvation, corrupting its intention – so how do you make up for it?
• It was Monday, the day of injustice, and that’s when the murders began. – A court decision results in someone taking justice into their own hands.

Check it out!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

A small change in plans.  With the passing of Robin Williams, it seemed to be fitting to look at something of his.  A look at his filmography, though, shows a large number of potential reviews, from Popeye to Good Morning, Vietnam, based on Adrian Cronauer’s experiences on Armed Forces Radio, to The Birdcage, a remake of the French-Italian film La Cage aux Folles, and to Insomnia, a remake of a Norwegian film of the same name.  A wealth of possibilities to choose from showcasing his range as an actor.  However, one of his iconic roles channelled his stand-up comedy – Disney’s Aladdin.

The part of the Genie in Aladdin was written specifically for Williams, but he almost turned down the role.  It wasn’t until he saw one of his stand-up routines animated with the Genie did he accept.  The result was animated magic.  Williams almost stole the movie as the Genie.  And while the part was written for him, Williams performed his manic improv throughout the movie.

The original story of “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp” is a folk tale from the Middle East, passed down through oral tradition before being recorded in writing.  The tale was added to 1001 Arabian Nights by translators in the 18th Century, becoming one of Scheherazade’s stories keeping her alive.  Aladdin, according to the tale, was recruited by a sorcerer to enter a cave filled with traps to retrieve a special oil lamp.  To help, the sorcerer gave Aladdin a magic ring.  Stuck in the cave, Aladdin rubs his ring, summoning a djinn who helps him escape with the lamp.  At home, he cleans up the lamp, summoning a more powerful djinn.  The new djinn helps Aladdin become rich and marry Badroulbadour, the Emperor’s daughter, despite her being betrothed to the vizier.  The sorcerer finds out about what has happened, though, and tricks Badroulbadour into trading for the lamp.  Aladdin tracks down the sorcerer with the help of the djinn of the ring.  After a fight, Aladdin triumphs, retrieves the lamp, and returns to Badroulbadour.

Disney’s Aladdin follows the general story closely.  There are a few changes.  The sorcerer and the vizier were rolled into Jafar, the Grand Vizier, and there was just the one Genie.  There was no room for a second Robin Williams in the movie.  The Emperor’s daughter received a name change, from Badroulbadour to Jasmine.  While Badroulbadour means “the full moon of full moons”, an name implying great beauty, the name doesn’t flow naturally to an English audience, thus Jasmine.  The story was moved from the far east to the fictional sultanate of Agrabah, a land with classic Arabic stylings.  The changes are minor, though.  The core of the story still focuses on Aladdin and his dream to become rich.  Disney added a few morals to the film, but again the story could absorb the additions with no loss to the core.

With the main plot already handled, other subplots were added.  The Genie wants freedom.  “Phenominal cosmic power!  Itty bitty living space.”  Robin Williams turned in a performance that made the Genie larger than life but still human.  He took a character with absolute cosmic power and made him funny, made him sympathetic, made him memorable.

Disney’s Aladdin works as an adaptation.  It only adds to the story, not removing anything from the core of the tale of “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp”.  Robin Williams, though, added to the story, using his talents to entertain, thrill, and enchant a new generation.  He will be missed.