A Power Club Dramatis Personae II: Villains, Friends, and a Sibling

Last week, we looked at the main characters in The Power Club™.  Now let’s meet some of the other kids who live in the district:

CALVIN GOODRICH—A kid in Damon’s class, Calvin has the ability to create “holes” in reality that lead to alien dimensions. When he was very young, Calvin made a classmate named Suzy Steele disappear into another dimension and couldn’t bring her back. Because his power is so dangerous, Calvin is kept isolated and forced to attend special classes. He is deeply jealous of other powered kids who get to play outside and make friends. Calvin’s lack of socialization is reflected in his poor speaking skills.

RUSTY REDDICK—A year older than Damon, Rusty can drawn energy from the sun and release in destructive solar bursts. Because Damon has the ability to create darkness, Rusty sees Damon as his natural enemy and can’t wait to challenge him to a duel of light versus dark.

LARRY ENDICOTT—A few years older than Damon, Larry can extend his fingers several feet and make them rock hard. As such, he can attack an enemy from several feet away.  Larry lives at the end of Damon’s block and is very territorial about the section of the alley he calls Larry’s End.

ANDY—One of Damon’s school friends. Andy’s freeze breath can freeze any object solid almost instantly. Feeling his power is useless, Andy prefers to play football.

ARIC—Another school friend of Damon’s. Aric wears thick glasses as his eyesight gets worse every year. He compensates with radar vision, which enables him to sense nearby objects in darkness or when his eyes are closed.

SUZY STEELE—As her name implies, Suzy had the power to create a nearly indestructible, steel-like shell around her body. In second grade, she got into a fight with Calvin, who “sent her away” by causing her to fall into another dimension. Calvin couldn’t bring her back (or didn’t want to), and no one has seen her since.

Not every kid who lives in the district has powers. Because the district wants powered kids to have a normal life, their immediate families—including brothers and sisters—also must live in the district.  These kids include:

ELDON NEUMEYER—Damon’s younger brother.  An inquisitive, practical minded kid, “El” feels left out because he doesn’t have a power, yet he resents the fact that he has to live in the district, too. Eldon keeps hoping his brother will lose his power so they can move somewhere else.

These are a few of the characters who live in Damon’s world. But the surface, as they say, has barely been scratched.

A Power Club Dramatis Personae: Who’s Who in Damon’s World

Now that The Power Club™ is available, let’s review who the main characters are and what they can do.  

In The Power Club™, kids who develop super-powers must live inside “the district,” a small, confined series of neighborhoods in which they are separated from “ords” (people who have no powers), other than their immediate families, and have limited freedom. Kids can gain more freedom if they join a special club—if the club accepts them.

The "code names" in parenthesis are not used in the story, and they may or may not be used in the sequels. Damon, who came up with the names, thinks they’re great. Danner thinks they’re dumb. You decide.

DAMON NEUMEYER (“Master of Darkness”)—Age 13, Damon has the ability to create darkness.  He can plunge a medium-sized room into total darkness by creating a “darkspace,” a mysterious environment that appears to be a part of him. Only Damon can see inside the darkspace—images appear black and white to him. No one can hear inside the darkspace unless he opens a “soundspace” for them to communicate. Neither Damon nor anyone else can see or hear what goes on outside the darkspace. Damon has lived in the district since age six and, because kids aren’t allowed to use their powers in public, he hasn’t had much chance to develop his power; hence, the reason he wants to join The Power Club.

KYLE POWELL (“Teleporter King”) – Age 15, Kyle can teleport himself, other people, and objects. The person or object being teleported appears to “scramble” as if its insides and outsides are being rearranged and reassembled somewhere else.  People who are teleported often feel a brief sense of nasuea afterwards. While the distance Kyle can teleport himself or others is uncertain, he refuses to “send” anything out of his line of sight to prevent it from merging with another person or object. Kyle can teleport two people at the same time, but doing so is very dangerous. 

DENISE EVANS (“Forture Teller”) – Age 14, Denise can see the future. Her power, so far, is very imprecise.  For example, she can predict an event which will occur but not exactly when it will occur. Or she may know the exact time of an event but not how it will turn out.  She may sense that others will need her help but not know the exact details.  On the other hand, Denise can predict with alarming accuracy how other people will behave or what they will say. Denise claims her visions are never wrong.

VEE EVANS (“V-Blur”) – Age 12, Vee—Denise’s younger brother—possesses super-speed. Vee does not know exactly how fast he can run because, being confined to the district, he has nowhere else to go. But he’s fast enough to avoid Damon’s darkspace and to zip around unseen by most people, who perceive him only as a fleeting blur. Because of his power, Vee sometimes talks fast and can be very impatient.

ALI REEVES (“Flyer”)—Age 14, Ali can fly—a power most kids in the district would love to have. But Ali, too, hasn’t had a chance to learn how to control her power. Being gravity-less and ground-less, she can easily float away. However, she is learning to have greater self-confidence and can swoop in and out of dangerous situations.

DANNER YOUNG (“Tower”) – Age 14, Danner can grow to enormous heights. As he grows, his strength and weight increase proportionately. His upper limit is 30 feet, but he rarely grows higher than 20 feet. His power gives him enormous self-confidence and an aggressive personality. He keeps his normal height at six feet just so he towers over other kids.

These six principal characters in The Power Club™ are not the only kids in the district with powers. Soon we’ll take a look at others, including the villains.

If you like this post, you may also like:

• "Is 'the District' in The Power Club Evil?" 
• "The POWER CLUB Chapter 1: 'A Special Club' (Revised)"

3 Steps to Boost Your Writing by Thinking Like a Kid

I haven’t been to a comics convention in about seven years.

There are reasons for this—lack of money, nothing in particular I want to buy, and little interest in current comics. 

But since comics formed the foundation of much of The Power Club™ , they remain close to my heart.

This weekend, the biggest comics convention, Comic-Con, is going on in San Diego, CA. Thanks to updates and even a live feed from friends who are there, I can keep up with all the excitement.

The con was also featured on this morning's news. The report spotlighted a middle-aged woman dressed as Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado, complete with a cooking pot with eye hole cutouts for a helmet.

Even when I went to cons, I didn't dress in costume—but not because I didn't want to. Costumes can be expensive, and I also couldn't decide which character to go as.  

(My ideal costume would have been Lightning Lad's 1960s outfit, complete with robot arm.  There's something inherently exciting about a blue cape and lightning bolts as a chest insignia.)

Going to cons and dressing in costume is something a lot of people do not understand—to them it looks silly (no sillier, I would argue, than dressing in costume or wearing war paint to go to a football game).  And yet such silliness—acting like a kid, if you will—can be a vital part of being a writer.

Last night, coincidentally, I watched a program on the National Geographic channel that encouraged adults to do just that: think like kids. The program, Brain Games, explores how our brains function and how we can boost memory—“use it or lose it,” as put by the program’s oft repeated mantra.

In one segment, both adults and children were shown a series of simple abstract drawings and asked to generate ideas for what the drawings could be. Guess what—the kids generated more answers than the adults. We’ll get to why later on.

Thinking like a kid, however, can also boost writing, which involves doing several kid-like activities: creating something out of nothing, combining ideas that at first don’t seem related, and thinking outside the box—the very processes Brain Games suggests can boost memory.

Here are three suggestions for how thinking like a kid can improve your writing:

1. Play, play, play.

Quick question: What’s the difference between work and play?

Both can involve the same types of activities, effort, and even rules (if one is playing certain games).

One difference is that, in play, there are no serious consequences if you fail. Sure, you may lose the game and whatever rewards go along with winning, but that’s all. Play, in its purest form, does not affect your income, social standing, or future prospects.

Kids usually don't worry about these things when they play; neither should you.

Playing is important to writing. If you’re not having a good time writing a piece, why would your audience have a good time reading it. (You always want your audience to enjoy your work, even if you’re writing about a serious subject.)

2. Don’t worry about whether it’s right or wrong.

Remember those kids who were more creative than the adults in the Brain Games segment?  Why was that?

Kids, according to the program, do not have the experience or context to know whether an answer is right or wrong. They do not self-edit or judge their answers.

Do not self-edit or judge your work, either. Save that for the revision process.

3. Change your writing routine.

While most writers find keeping a routine helpful—such as writing at the same time every day, writing in the same space, or even drinking the same type of tea while writing—it’s a good idea to shake things up once in awhile.

It doesn’t even have to be a major shake-up.  For example, I used to write these blog posts while sitting in a particular restaurant. But the last few, including this one, were written in a different restaurant.

A small change, yes, but a significant one. This particular restaurant reminds me of the places my family and I used to go to for breakfast while on family vacations. There’s even a view of traffic cruising along a busy street, as if I were next to a highway.

Mentally, being in this place puts me back in those childhood vacations. The result (after starting out with no idea what I was going to write about) is the post you are now reading.  (And if you don't like this post—well, maybe you're not thinking like a kid!)

Doing something new or something that reminds you of the best parts of your own childhood can put you back in the fame of mind to create, create, create.

If all else fails, put on your cape and fly.

Should You Research Your Novel Before, During, or After You've Written It?

Research—that word writers hate. 

One of the sobering facts of writing fiction is that all writers must research. Does your starship have an engineer?  Do you know how real engineers think, talk, and dress?  No?  Do research.  

Is your story set in an exotic locale?  Have you ever been there?  Do research.   

Does your story take place on a fantastic world of your own creation?  Does it resemble other fantastic worlds with which your readers might be familiar? Do research, my friend.

When In Rome . . .

The importance of doing research surfaced again while writing my latest work in progress. One of my central characters faces a choice that is rooted in overcoming obstacles in his past. 

Without giving away too much, let’s say the character is very long lived and that the incident in question occurred in First Century A.D. Rome.

The problem? I don’t know much about that era.

So, naturally, I will do research. But the question is, exactly when should a writer do research for a novel—before beginning to write, in the middle of writing, or after completing the first draft?

While you can find the method that works best for you, each strategy offers advantages and disadvantages.

Research Up Front

This is the ideal situation if you know in advance where your story is going, and what locations, customs, politics, science, etc., will play a role. 

But sometimes you don’t know exactly what you will need to know beforehand. Even the most meticulous outline can be derailed by an unexpected need to know something, such as how to ride a horse or what do they call that place where ministers sit during church services?  (The chancel.)

Doing a lot of unfocused research beforehand can also bog down your story with “Lecturer’s Syndrome”:  You now know so much about the topic that you have to share every piece of minutiae with the reader, whether it’s important to the story or not.

Research In the Middle

Doing research while writing your first draft is sometimes the only option available to writers who are on deadline. From my own experience, however, it's the least effective strategy.

Researching in the middle means you either continue writing while doing your research or you suspend writing until you’ve found what you need to know.

Researching while continuing to write can be fun. You get to shape your story as new information enters your brain. But the more you learn, the more you realize how earlier parts of your story are “wrong” and will need to be revised or rewritten later. Such a realization can inhibit writers from completing the draft.

 

Suspending your writing is usually the worst choice a writer can make. This means you have to start “cold” again at a later date. Writers, like anyone else, will look for any excuse to stop writing. Don’t give yourself that excuse.

Research After the Fact

The third option is to plow on through your draft and then do the research after you have completed it.

This is the method I am using for my WiP for four reasons:

• You can be really creative when you don’t know much.  (Think of when you were a kid and "had to" tell a fib to your parents. Sure, they caught on, but it was fun while it lasted.)

• The Story is King. The history, politics, culture, and science of a particular era serve the needs of the story, not the other way around. This isn’t to say you should completely ignore facts when writing fiction. However, the story comes first. The King has to have a vision before he knows how the various parts are going to fit.

• Following Anne Lamott’s maxim to give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft, you can liberate yourself as a writer if you know your first draft is going to be bad and that it should be.

• You may already know more than you think you do. There must be a reason why the King wanted me to write about First Century A.D. Rome. I must know something or can relate to something from that era. (And, in fact, as I’ve continued to write the story, details are starting to emerge which will focus the direction my research will take.)

If you don’t know anything about a particular subject, perhaps your King is telling you it’s time to explore.

There are drawbacks to doing Research After the Fact, as well. If you truly don’t know anything about the subject, you can find your character standing at a crossroads without any idea of where he will turn. 

Even if you know a little about the subject, indecision can bring your story to a standstill.

Follow the King

Whatever method you use, don't let research bog down your story. If you find yourself getting stuck, keep in mind that research is meant to get your story across to its audience in the most effective manner possible.

Trust your King and see where he leads you.