Being a Better Writer: Underpowered and Overpowered Characters · 8:57pm Aug 4th, 2014
Hello, everyone, new and old! Welcome back—or to, if this is your first—my weekly Monday writing guide post! I've got a great topic today, one that comes by request, and I'm eager to get down to it. But first, some news.
First of all, a big thank you, again, to everyone who read, faved, and upvoted my newest story ("Why Me?" for those who missed it, though that number would seem to be pretty small). Thanks to you guys, "Why Me?" became my first story to hit the Feature Box, and it didn't just scrape along the side. No, no, it hit the number one spot, becoming the most popular story on the site for almost a full twenty-four hours and then staying featured for another two days after that. Even now it's still sitting in the pop-box. So yeah, awesome. And it's still collecting upvotes, with almost four-hundred at this time. Making it my highest upvoted story ever, though given time, "Rise" will probably overtake it, it's not far behind, and a bunch of you new followers have—judging from the metrics—moved right on to see what the fuss is about the Dusk Guard.
Second bit of news, I will be at Crystal Mountain Pony Con this Friday. Probably Saturday as well, since I have a weekend pass. This is one of the smaller pony cons, and will also be my first, but I'm happy to report that I will be sitting in on the Writing Panel, helping talk about writing and fanfiction. If you want a chance to meet me in person and probe my mind a little, that'll be the best way to identify me (as I will not be wearing a giant hat that reads "Viking ZX," nor shirt). 10:30 AM, Friday morning!
And the final bit of awesome news (then on to today's topic, I swear). For the new followers out there that have arrived courtesy of "Why Me?," I am not just a writer of fanfic. Those of you who have checked my profile page might have noticed that there were two books sitting on the right side. Those books are mine; in addition to writing fanfiction for fun, I also write and sell books for a "living" (it's not one yet, but I'm slowly getting there). And Saturday I received a message from a fan informing me of something awesome: Dead Silver, my second book, now has its own TV Tropes page. Awesome. You can check it out at that link and add to it if you're a troper, but beware. If you haven't read Dead Silver, there are major spoilers (and it's a mystery, so spoilers really hit).
Anyway, that's all the news! On to today's topic!
Today's topic stems from a question that I've been asked by several followers on different occasions, making it one of the more common concerns that I hear. The wording and approach usually varies, but the end result always boils down to something like this: how can I keep my characters from becoming overpowered?
The short answer: We don't. There's no such thing.
I can hear the comments being composed from here, through time. Let me clarify.
A better answer would be: That isn't the right question. Because you see, it's not hard for most writers to keep their characters from being overpowered. Unless they're green enough that it seems completely logical to them to give the main character expert-level skills at archery, swordsmanship, guns, gun repair, vehicle repair, vehicle piloting, magic, kung-fu (including the ancient form no one knows but the hero), lockpicking, skydiving, scuba diving, and romance, they won't. That's rookie level writing. Unless you're Clive Cussler, but he gets a pass for making it a success anyway.
The real question that they want to ask, I feel, is this: how do I create a character with enough skills and talent to overcome what I place in his path without giving them too many skills and talents?
Because you see, that's the real challenge that these writers are worried about. They want to create characters that can survive everything that the plot is going to throw at them, but they don't want their character to just magically have the skills to survive everything. And of course, they don't want a character who survives off of dumb-luck either. Both of these approaches will—while they work at first—gradually eat away at the readers enjoyment of the story. They may not ruin it (after all, there are plenty of other moving parts to enjoy), but they certainly will lower the expectations.
So, back to this question. How do you create a character with enough skill and talent to overcome whatever obstacles you've placed before them without making them too skilled? The answer?
You make them clever.
Have you ever heard of a series called Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians? It's by Brandon Sanderson (whose name you should know), and he wrote it, I'm convinced, mostly to just have fun with conventions and tropes. At the core of the series (and this, btw, is from his own admission) is a cast of characters who all have useless superpowers.
No joke. Every last power given to the main characters is a joke in some way. He literally came up with them by thinking of superpowers that would be considered useless. And then, once he had them, he asked "How can I make these useful?" Then he wrote a story.
For example, take the main character's uncle. His power is that he is always late. To everything. Sounds terrible, doesn't it?
Except that he uses this in really clever ways. Sure, he's late for every appointment ever, but he's also late for assassination attempts, late for arrows that would have gone right through him ... he even manages to build his power to the point where he's "late" to pain—any injuries he suffers don't hurt until about fifteen minutes later. Each of the other character is like this. They have low-powered, budget level superpowers that most people would scoff at. But they've learned to use them in unique ways that thrill the reader.
The challenge, then, isn't for us to write a character with as many skills as they need to overcome their trials, but writing a character who has a few select skills and watching them use, combine, and deconstruct those skills to solve the challenges that they face. Just like the best characters aren't those that are perfect but those that carry human flaws and then work to overcome them, the most talented and thrilling heroes aren't those that have every skill they need to succeed, but a limited set of skills that they use in clever ways. Maybe even with a little dumb luck.
Now, it's important to note here that this is going to heavily rely on your knowledge of your character. Even if they only have two skills, yet they somehow use them in improbable ways to escape every situation because they're just that brilliant, not only do they really have three skills (clever thinking being the third), but your readers are going to get bored. You want tension, and for that, you're going to have to know if your character would actually think of the solution. Occasionally, they might even try something that doesn't work, an idea that pushes them further back rather than forward, at which point they re-evaluate things and then try again.
It's not how many powers your character has, it's how they use them in clever and unique ways. Give your main character a skill at lockpicking or safe-cracking and then stick them in a situation where they're in a room and need to disarm a bomb. Or give them a great skill at climbing and then stick them in zero-g, where they have to re-evaluate their own skill from an entirely new perspective.
Because in truth, just about any character can be "overpowered" and "too good" at things, even the ones with terrible powers. If we make them too clever, too skilled, or too successful, then we ruin the tension. But even a character with some of the greatest powers out there can be hideously blindsided or beaten if they're outsmarted or rely only on that one skill. For example, in one draft I wrote the main character was immortal. Kill him, and he comes back in a few hours. Sounds pretty overpowered, right?
Well, not quite. First, he lost his recent memories whenever he died, based on the severity of the killing injury. So burning him to death could make him lose centuries. Worse, that was his defining skill (aside from three-thousand-odd years of existence). When confronted with one of the villains in the story who knew what his power was, the villain admitted that yes, he couldn't kill him permanently, but he could seal him inside one of the hollow concrete supports for the new shopping mall, where he would asphyxiate in darkness, die, come back, and suffocate again until the day they demolished the mall.
See? Amazing power. Horrific downsides. But with clever use, it fixed all sorts of problems. He admits to having jumped off a cliff once after a battle when the doctor amputated his leg just to get it back, which equals clever use of a great superpower. But in other situations it's no silver bullet, and can lead to some fates arguably worse than death. And yes, you will one day see that book.
I could have made that character unbelievably dull. He could have come back immediately, with no lost memory. Or he could have picked up and mastered hundreds of skills over this lifetime. Or crud, I could have made him wealthy (he wasn't) and given him carte-blanche within the story to jump through a lot of hoops that being low on funds kept him from even seeing.
I still feel like I've butchered this, but I hope you've all gotten the idea. It's not about giving your characters every skill they need to win. Its about giving them a few, and then watching them conquer their challenges using those skills in unique and clever ways.
That's it, I'm out of words. See you all next week!
Bravo, this is something I heartily agree with.
I think this also intersects with another topic of import: the term "Mary Sue" and why we shouldn't use it. Because I think that this right here is the real issue when someone brings out that dread term: they're trying to say that a character is boring. But the term "Mary Sue" has gotten so many negative feelings attached that it starts a lot of pointless arguments when used, so I say it's time to get back to basics: it's all about the question you've laid out here. "Is this character interesting to watch/read?"
Ah yes, one of my favorite answers to a yes/no question: mu. It means, I believe, "The question is wrong."
I love reading these. This one makes me want to pick back up that idea for an adventure story about a unicorn whose magic was limited to telekinesis, but he comes up with clever ways to use it.
It's a really good point, there's no solid scale for characters being under/overpowered, it's all relative to the setting and narrative. As an example, consider, say, Dragonball Z and The Hunger Games. Now swap the main characters around, retaining all powers and skills from their original setting.
<.< And there's today's dose of nightmare fuel.
2343538
Hate to burst your bubble, but read Fallout Equestria.
Not being a nay-sayer, just pointing out an example of the idea played out fully and in detail.
2343468
Oh man, if you want to read a great, well, I wouldn't even call it a deconstruction, but a tearing apart of the term "Mary Sue" and why people use it, Larry Correia nails it. I myself have dug into the term a few times, I think, but I don't believe I've ever just flat out tackled it. Maybe one day.
Anyway, you're totally right when you include the word "pointless" with Mary Sue battles. I'll be dead honest: I think a lot of people who throw out the term "Mary Sue" are just using the most within reach term they can to turn their own insecurities into ammunition to try and tear an author down. I don't think I've yet seen the term used on fimfic correctly. At least, not in accusatory comments.
2343538
Yeah, the more I thought about this the more apparent it became that it's just the wrong question.
2343831
Sleep well!
Methinks it also has to do with the 'cheering the underdog' mentality a lot of people have. I do not like observing a medium where the ending is set outright and there are absolutely no challenges for the hero. It is boring if he/she/it breezes by everything and romances the love interest in a heartbeat. But only if they decide to do that. Take the anime/manga Inuyasha. Challenges basically boil down to: there is a threat, his old toys don't work on the threat, he gets a new toy to deal with the threat and it works. Rinse and repeat. I do not find that compelling, as the story does not do too much with the characters except for romance. But I give it a pass because it was one of the gateway stories that got me into manga in the first place.
On the other hand, there is a manga called One Punch Man. A parody of the superhero genre, the protagonist gets a rush from saving a civilian and defeating a monster after being laid off. He decides to train and become a superhero that can defeat everyone in one punch. Unfortunately for him, that means that defeating monsters now becomes as mundane as going to get grocieries. As 'overpowered' as this character is, there is a lot of comedy to be seen in the story. (One thing to note: the original story is drawn to reflect personalities, with everyone else being drawn in detail while the protagonist is slopily sketched. A redraw of the story is available though.)
On FimFiction itself, I particularly enjoy a story called The Mighty Warrior of Epicness. Featuring a cosplayer thrown into Equestria as Final Fantasy V boss Gilgamesh. Sure the protagonist has the power to more or less defeat everyone in the known story, but that is not his goal. Instead, he deals with the ponies via wacky hijinks in a more cartoonish fashion. Compared to the other stories in this subgenre, I like this one because it doesn't take itself too seriously and he has fun with the story. It is a lot similar to how I liked the original story by CardsLafter before he did the rewrite.
2343835
And the first 'arc' of Project Horizons. Interesting to see how the two protagonists differ in usage of their one ability.
2344719
Now I just want to insert that Inigo Montoya image macro.
For the most part, I agree that context is invaluable to dermine the Overpoweredness of a character, but sometimes... well, here is a snippet from a conversation I had with a friend who likes Twilight:
Me: "So is there anyway to kill these vampires?"
Her: "Nope"
M: "I can't cut them?"
H: "They have diamond skin."
M: "What if I poisoned their... whatever they ingest?"
H: "Immune."
M: "Wait-a-minute. If they have diamond skin, that would suggest it (the skin) is rigid. So what if I just smashed 'em with a hamma?"
H: "They are too fast, they will just dodge you."
M: "Ok then. Last resort. I set off a nuke."
H: "Apparently they can outrun that as well."
M: "What. (beat) Um... So what makes these 'vampires' so well liked?"
H: "To be honest, I have no ****ing clue. Something about the vampires being so pretty and be best boyfriend or someother ****."
M: "Best boyfriend? From what I heard, the dude is more or less a creepy stalker."
H: *shrugs*
2343835
There is nothing new under the sun, but that doesn't keep us from writing fanfiction. The important thing is that we tell the story our way, and tell it well.
2344719 Yeah, I'd agree (again) that people now often will just sling the term at any character they don't like in lieu of any actual analysis. I also think it can kinda work in the opposite direction, where an inexperienced author will get lots of accusations of "Mary Sue" and then just get defensive instead of stopping to think "I wonder why lots of people don't like my character?"
Also, I think this post ties into another thing related to this fandom specifically. While I have not done a careful count, it seems fics with earth pony protagonists are fairly hard to find, especially when it comes to the adventure genre. And on the occasions when I've seen it brought up, the response is usually something like "They're not powerful/interesting enough". Now, while that can be taken multiple ways, if it's being intended as "a character needs powers of some kind to carry a story"...that's false. Plain and simple.
2346510
That observation was one reason why I wanted Steel as a viewpoint character in Rise, to show that an earth pony can be just as awesome as the other two types, you just need to look past the face value. Unicorn and pegasus magic is very in-your-face, but the subtle, gradual power that an earth pony holds tends to just go right over fan's heads.
Edit: I mean, there are a couple outright examples of it in the story, especially with Steel and Sabra's portions of the CTF game. They rock a bunch of ponies who underestimate them.
2346457
True. I for one like seeing a concept done multiple times, it's interesting to see how different people execute the same idea. Point in case: All shipping ever.
2346561 I admit, Steel being an EP is a factor in why I like Rise and the Dusk Guard series so much. I wish more authors had your mindset when writing stories.