You need to be careful to avoid making your MC like Superman with nothing that can hurt them.
You need to be careful to avoid making your MC like Superman with nothing that can hurt them.
If it were not for kryptonite Superman would have been boring.
While I find most Superheros more or less boring, in case of Superman I found his attempts to hide his superman identity from Lois Lane in Lois & Clark the least boring.
HM.
You need to be careful to avoid making your MC like Superman with nothing that can hurt them.
Lee Child will disagree with you.
Child has explained that he wanted Reacher to embody total empowerment and the absolute guarantee that "nobody would ever mess with you", removing the everyday anxieties and fears ordinary people experience. While Reacher is occasionally outmatched or struggles in specific physical confrontations, Child structures the narratives so his protagonist's superior size, military training, and tactical intellect always prevail to correct institutional or situational injustice.
I can't find it, but in a foreword in one of the novels, Child states that he created a character who never loses.
I used ChatGPT to help find what I can't remember. It's in the introduction of a later edition of "Killing Floor" (that's the one I read). The following is from ChatGPT's response:
I think this is the passage you're remembering. The important part of Child's explanation is essentially:
"What if, I asked myself, the hero is the toughest SOB in the valley and others need to be afraid of him?"
Child explains that when he created Reacher, he was deliberately rejecting the then-common "flawed hero" model. He wanted an old-fashioned hero who had "no problems, no issues, and no navel-gazing." He then says he deliberately reversed the usual physical-vulnerability setup: instead of the hero being the underdog who has to fear the bad guys, he asked what would happen if the hero were the toughest person around and everyone else had to fear him.
A secondary analysis of the introduction describes Child's objective even more directly: he wanted Reacher to be "practically invulnerable" and preferred "crushing victories rather than ninth-inning nail-biters."
I can see that, but a strong ending doesn't require an invincible strongman. Those 'navel gazing' segment are how you keep the protagonist relevant during the slower segments, worrying about exposure more than whether the giant "S" on his chest is straight and unwrinkled or not.
It's more about making them relatable, with normal everyday worries which readers can more easily relate to. We may want to beat others to a pulp, yet those immature impulses pass once we're past the initial confrontation.
I can't find it, but in a foreword in one of the novels, Child states that he created a character who never loses.
Chuck Norris could have taken him 😉
Child states that he created a character who never loses
Keir Starmer claimed he'd never lost a fight.
AJ
Keir Starmer claimed he'd never lost a fight.
Someone said that Iran never won a war but never lost a negotiation.
Different times, different standards.
It times of opposition, we need strong figures: Captain American vs. the Red Skull, yet in normal times, we respect overcoming obstacles rather than beating others to a bloody pulp.
Outthinking others is just as much a part of overcoming them as overpowering them is, which is what makes such invincible tales so boring, as there's really no challenges to be overcome, just some magical glasses that no one can see past.
Did I also mention Insipid? ;) At least Daredevil wears a mast.
It is indeed a challenge to write about an overpowered MC. One way is a combination of humor, and non-power challenges.
One which was arguably successful was the Invincible Uncle-Grandmaster by Nine Cuts. It uses the tropes of a Xianxia novel, but completely discards the normal scramble for strength. Instead, the MC's challenges are how to fill his time, find large quantities of wine, and plenty of napping.
Napping tales, now there's an inspiring tale! Makes me want to take one rather than wasting my time reading one.
It reminds me of those bygone SOL tales where each chapter featured the "Three 'S'es", shit, shower and shave. I wanted to flush each of those stories down the drain every time I read that … crap.
On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with someone with a specific skillset, trained to excel while still being vulnerable and at least passably sympathetic.
bygone SOL tales where each chapter featured the "Three 'S'es", shit, shower and shave.
I wouldn't want to read that in "Every Chapter" however, in some stories, where a character has been participating in sports, or hard physical work, at least mentioning the "3 S'es" may be okay. Like anything, it is how you do it.
In a Western story, after a cattle drive, or some other story where a shower or a bath is impossible. I think in one of Tom Clancy's novels, a character had done something extraordinary, likely they would get a medal later, the Captain granted them a ten minute "Hollywood "Shower" instead of the typical wet dow, lather up, quick rinse, for months on end. It was a minor, at least to us, but tangible immediate reward.
Anything, even sex, may become repetitive, even boring, if overdone in a story. However, something as mundane as mowing a lawn, may be engaging, if the author conveys the burning heat of the sun, sticky humidity, or the smell of fresh mown grass, the pride in a young boy doing a "Man's Job" or an opportunity to engage the mind, while a physical task may be performed on auto-pilot"
There are plenty of good scenes with a character performing a mundane task, but in depicting the activity, we learn something about the character.
mundane as mowing a lawn
the roar of the powerful three and a half horse power engine as he contemplates the reinstalled blade simultaneously decapitating the stems of dandelions and removing the last traces blood from last nights activities.
Sorry, it's a full moon somewhere.
You need to be careful to avoid making your MC like Superman with nothing that can hurt them.
Lee Child will disagree with you. [answer by Switch Blayde]
As would have the late Ernest Bywater. Six of his seven Clan Amir books feature the high genius Gordon Edward Rodney Rohan Yancey Mannheim Book 2 contains 12 short stories covering his life from 5 years of age until 10 years of age.
IMO, there is nothing boring reading about Gordie/Gerry Mannheim.
HM.