#36. Story Writing Secrets & Universal Tropes: Vigilantes, Superheroes, Villains and Flaws

Enjoy a discussion on creative writing techniques with insightful ideas to inspire your writing  - whether you’re writing short stories or novels.

Today’s show explores story tropes drawn from superhero tales, which we can twist and use for our own stories even if they have nothing to do with superheroes!
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Then it’s time for some new writing prompts using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Listen, join in and be inspired!

Hello imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 36 of Brainstoryum.

Now, bearing in mind the title of this show, I’ll be upfront with you from the start: I don’t really like superhero stories or movies. Every time Hollywood brings out yet another film about Spiderman or whoever, I just groan. Not always quietly!
 
But a word combination that cropped up in the story brainstorms of the last show, reminded me of a rather odd character in Victoria literature, who might be one of the first examples of a modern sort of anti-hero vigilante: Spring-Heeled Jack. This got me all curious so I looked it up, had a little read of some so-called ‘Penny Dreadfuls’, which were the magazines publishing short stories in those days, and it got me thinking about vigilantes and superheroes, and if there was anything useful you and I could take from these story tropes, which are still very much alive and in use today.
 
Because in every story trope, even if it’s in a genre we don’t write in (or even particularly like), there are things to be learned. If the trope is popular and resonates with a lot of people, that means there’s likely something universal in it. Relatable. Translatable, into something you and I might enjoy reading or writing.
 
You don’t have to like the teacher to learn something from them. That’s how I feel about superheroes.
 
But let’s not think of this as a lesson, this is more of an exploration, with a lot of ‘what ifs’ along the way, so pick up your imagination back pack and join me on this unexpected pathway – and don’t forget to stick around for the story brainstorms afterwards.
 
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First, if only for entertainment purposes, have a listen to how Spring-Heeled Jack is described:
 
He’s said to wear an enormous black cloak with a hood which covered him from head to foot; and a tight-fitting garment underneath of a blood red colour.
 
And I quote:

“He threw off his outer garment, and applying the lighted candle to his breast, presented a most hideous and frightful appearance, and vomited forth a quantity of blue and white flame from his mouth, and his eyes resembled red balls of flame.”
 
“One foot was encased in a high-heeled, pointed shoe, while the other was hidden in… something like a cow’s hoof, in imitation, no doubt, of the ‘cloven hoof’ of Satan. It was generally supposed that the ‘springing’ mechanism was contained in that hoof.”
 
(Listen to the recording above to hear me trip over my words and say "Santa" instead of "Satan"!)

Jack's definitely painted as a villain here, and this would have been lapped up by Victorian readers as cheap, gratifying horror.
 
However, of the scary stuff, so far I’ve only found these short accounts, a bit like articles you might find in a newspaper, and there’s not much else continuing in the vein of horror. An attack is described, someone gets hurt or is threatened, but the scenes don’t last long and they’re written in such an arm’s length style. I’m not quite sure whether it’s just the difference in culture back then, or maybe readers found it more terrifying if the style mimicked that of a newspaper article or a police report, so that it felt more real? I don’t know.
 
After a flurry of these very short snatches, a much fuller story begins, which describes the origins of Jack’s character (and this was a popular trope at the time, to tell the story of someone’s life from birth). But this time, in the long story, we see things from Jack’s point of view. I mean, we kind of have to, if we’re tracing his whole life. I wonder: it would have been very difficult to maintain the sense of fear and trepidation about Jack in this format, while watching him grow up, and seeing the circumstances unfold which lead to his decision to become a villain. How can we not sympathise with him when it’s written like that? So this longer story is a big contrast from the short articles meant to instil fear about this unknown, mysterious being who might be a demon.
 
Essentially, Jack is tricked out of his inheritance by a bitter, greedy cousin, and he swears he will get his revenge. But he does have a good heart, and along the way, during these vengeful attacks, he performs good deeds whenever he can, like freeing a young woman from imprisonment by her father - and yes, they are a little extreme, these situations he comes across. Damsels in distress and all that!
 
It is bizarre that his cousin doesn’t manage to work out that the highwayman robbing him of the rent he’s collected on the family property and who calls himself Spring-Heeled Jack, isn’t his own cousin, also known as Jack. But the cousin does work out that the two people are connected somehow; and he believes that this phantom or demon Jack must be employed by the real Jack.
 
(Not the brightest character, but hey ho!)
 
Jack’s namesake, his ‘spring-heel’ is a very expensive contraption which he pays a specialist craftsman to make: he attaches it to his shoe and it enables him to leap very far, very fast. It’s mainly this leaping that makes people believe he is a demon, but later he uses phosphorous to create the strange blue glow from his mouth. (Yeah, don’t do this at home, kids. I’ve no idea how realistic this is – if in reality he might have poisoned himself doing that!)
 
While the story is kind of long, in this ‘telling’ style we don’t get much nowadays - it’s just so wonderfully odd. A villain we can root for, who’s also treading the very thin, grey line of morality: stealing back what’s rightfully his, but then causing terror at the same time, and throwing in acts of kindness too.
 
Reading it made me think about superhero stories from a whole new angle, because it’s an unfamiliar rendition of something essentially very familiar. Probably too familiar! So what can we learn, as writers, from a genre we might not ever want to write in.
 
Let’s look at some of these tropes which haven’t really changed much over the years. We have:
 
Special powers: whether these are a trick, human made, or a kind of magic which is inherited as with superman, or thrust upon the protagonist quite randomly, like Spiderman being bitten by a spider. I personally quite like the pull-your-sleeves-up craftsmanship of someone deciding to develop a special skill or a trick effect. It makes you nervous in case it might not work, it makes you root for them. But either way, a special power or a talent becomes story-worthy when the character is in some way awkward or ordinary, at least to begin with. If the powers are magical, the protagonist might be taken by surprise, possibly reluctant to use them, or are endangered by those powers. A long section of a story might be them trying to deny anything’s changed, while running away from people who are hunting them down or attacking them, before he or she is eventually forced to face the truth. This could lead to them meeting a wise person, a sage who can train them, and there are lots of big movies where you get a training sequence.
 
This is a great way to make your readers feel wonder and discovery; we naturally wonder and discover as the protagonist goes through those sensations, getting to know this power or talent they have.
 
An important detail is that the powers must not be absolute: there’s no use in a story for a protagonist who is all-powerful and can easily get whatever they want. Conflict is the food of story. Our character must desperately want something they cannot get.
 
So let’s try an example. If you’re writing a story that’s rooted in realism, ask yourself, just as an experiment: how might your story change if you were to give the protagonist some special power? Let’s take a murder mystery, because there are plenty of those in books and on TV, and the vast majority are grounded in realistic settings, with not even a whiff of fantasy. What if your investigator is a middle-aged, world-weary character. How might he cope if he suddenly found himself with peculiar abilities? This could add some comedy, and really show us his character, through his habits which persist even in the face of the impossible.

Here's another one: If your investigator is young and uncertain, trying to prove themselves by solving their first murder, that’s also good idea for a character we can relate to. What happens when she discovers an uncanny ability? What if she finds she can read minds or become invisible, and sneak into places without people seeing her? In some ways, her job may become easier, if she overhears a conversation or can spy on suspects unseen. But what if she can’t prove any of the things she sees or hears? What if technology refuses to work whenever she uses her power, so she can’t record anything? This would make her job more frustrating and difficult. It might even throw suspicion on her, if she seems to know too much, and can’t prove how she found out. The best powers are probably the ones that make life difficult or complicated – or might completely backfire.
 
Another superhero trope which might have nothing to do with superheroes or powers:

A passionate cause: This is a really universal trope which you can use in a story no matter what you’re writing, and it might not have even the faintest trace of fantasy. The best causes are the ones that are both personal and affect other people, preferably a whole town, city or even the world. It might not begin as a universal cause – it might begin from the seed of a personal desire for justice, that later becomes part of a much bigger cause. This is a great way to increase the stakes later on, when the protagonist discovers how his problems are linked to everyone else’s. Dig deep to work out how this cause has come about in the first place. Has the protagonist been wronged somehow? Have they lost someone they love, and might they blame it on someone – or an organisation? Do they want revenge, or justice? Might they slip back and forth between the two? And what if they discover more wrongs this individual or organisation has committed, meaning that others would desire such justice if only they knew.
 
A third trope of superhero or vigilante stories is a dual personality, or a dual life. To some extent, we all have slightly different personas, in that at work we have to behave a certain way, when we’re with the in-laws we might behave another way: even in the queue to the post office we behave differently than we would in our own home. So to build a story from this idea of dual personality, we just have to ask “what if?” and take any one of these examples to extremes.
 
Extremes might lead us back to supernatural powers, like Jekyll and Hyde, or someone wh’s able to adopt deep disguises; but whether our imagination leads us to powers or realism, dual personality as a trope certainly leads to secrets. For surely, whatever enhanced abilities our protagonist may have, whether natural talent, crafted or magic, whether chosen or forced upon them, what really grips us and keeps us wanting more are the limitations, the flaws, the difficulties, the restrictions. The rules about who they can and can’t tell their deepest and most impossible secret.
 
So we might not be looking to write about superheroes or vigilantes, ever, but we can still pick up some tips here and there, and twist those popular tropes into something entirely our own.
 
Now it is time to see what new secrets lie in wait for us in the Socks of Destiny.

Listen to the podcast recording at the top of the page to hear the story brainstorms. Sadly, actual magic is not transposable!

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