Hot tip: give the characters powers that either stem from their personality traits/mesh well with their personality traits, OR are the complete opposite of their personality traits for some added character study, if you’re into that. We’re going to ignore Superman because his power is EVERYTHING, and that’s yet another debate that I’m not about to get into. HOWEVER, he does perform what could be considered some pretty superhuman feats, but I guess I’ll let my superiors debate about that one. Alright, so one of the characters I mentioned previously was Batman, who arguably does not possess superhuman powers. So, for this ask, I want to touch on some of the Big Points that we know and love, seen both in those classic stories, and the more subversive ones. They play around with the genre in a way that makes it their own, ie. But then you have others that, while they are about superheroes, don’t stick to the classic format. Now, part of the question that I want you to ask here when you’re developing the story is: what makes it a superhero story? Is it just the fact that you call them superheroes? Or do they have to fit some kind of criteria? You have superhero stories that seem to fit all the points, ie. It all comes down to whatever suits your fancy, and whatever suits the story - whether you want it to have that classic superhero feel (secret identity, the super suit, the menacing arch nemesis), or if you want to take it in your own direction, making use of some tropes and discarding others. There are a few conventions that seem to remain consistent across the board for superhero stories, but there are always those that manage to subvert even those. There are so many routes to take with this, and to me that’s part of what makes it so much fun to work with. The first thing I want to say in regards to this? Play around with the genre. You are trying to appeal to an audience, but with writing reader-inserts, you are writing your readers a window into the world of a story that they love, and that ought to be a fun experience for everyone. Have fun and do put your own spin on the characters, but I would definitely recommend doing your research on the characters that you’re writing for, and being consistent with their characterization.įinal note on this? Let this be enjoyable for yourself. However, with a reader insert, the readers themselves are more likely to want the portrayal of the characters to be very close to canon, even if you are writing them in an AU. In my opinion, working with these headcanons is a lot of fun, and it can be interesting to see your personal take on the characters. There’s often a lot of debate about fan interpretations of characters, versus canon portrayal of characters - and it’s very easy to let personal headcanons slip into your writings of them, even when writing reader inserts. 
You definitely have to take liberties with the dialogue and actions of the reader-insert, however in terms of describing them (unless you are writing for a specific person, or a scenario that calls for specific traits), they should essentially be a blank slate for the reader to impress themselves upon.Īnother thing I want to address with this is writing the canon characters of the story. So, the reader ought to be as faceless as possible. With every piece of writing you’re taking the chance that someone is going to hate what you wrote - what matters is that you are proud of what you wrote, and that you had fun doing it.Īt the same time - when writing a reader insert, a big part of this is that you want it to be applicable to a wide range of readers.
So a big thing here? Know that you can’t please everyone. So there’s a lot of room for the reader to feel that what you wrote is unrealistic/unrelatable/etc. But at the same time, you as the writer have control over the readers actions/reactions in the actual story verse. Writing a reader insert is tricky right off the bat, because part of the goal is to make it applicable to a wide audience. The superhero genre is always a lot of fun to work with, so this is a very exciting question to answer!Īlright, so there are two parts of this question that I want to address both together and separately: writing a reader insert, and writing a superhero au. Hello there! And thanks so much for your question.
0 kommentar(er)
