I don't think it's either, and I don't think you should be afraid of using it in the way you suggested. Don't most reactions come from some form of emotion - anger, fear, sadness, hatred, even laughter. All can be powerful enough to project enough energy to fuel your character's power, it's how you portray it that counts. If i'm honest, I don't see how you could portray a power without it coming from some sort of emotion. For example, Magneto discovered his power through trauma when he was separated from his parents. Carrie's driving force was initially fear and ultimately anger. Peter Plan can fly by having happy thoughts (not entirely the same but I think it counts). Each of these examples are powerful and memorable and can be used again and again as long as you inject something original into them. Not always easy I grant you. So I say go with your idea and don't worry about someone somewhere rolling their eyes and saying 'this has been done before' because honestly, almost everything has been done before to some extent. It only take a little bit of originality to make it different and make it stay with the reader.
Well, you could make it require detailed visualisation. Or the absence of emotion, as has already been suggested. Now that I think about it, I have written a story with each of both concepts. It can also require physical movements, like katas. (Here we are again at Avatar. Although that one also hints at additional emotions for the powers.)
I've never seen Avatar so can't comment in that regard. But in my opinion, a power that is fuelled through emotion, any emotion, is more engaging in the long term than simply staring at something and making it happen, but that's just my opinion. Besides, the OP wanted to know if it's a cliche to use emotion as the trigger, and I really don't think it is. Regarding absence of emotion, I think what @Walking Dog suggested has definite possibilities, though emotion will still need to play a large part in the story if that is what breaks the 'gifted' person's concentration. Could most certainly work though, in fact the more I think about it the more I like it. But then again.... are we heading back into cliche territory? How many times has someone had to 'clear their mind' and 'shut out all emotion' before they can kick someone's arse? No, I stick with my first post. Emotion works for me, and bugger cliches, everything becomes a cliche eventually.
Omg, that's totally Avatar! I didn't even realise the similarities until you pointed them out. My character will even have the glowy eyes when he's so called "powered up". He is not treated as a "chosen one" though. He doesn't even have a goal except learn more about his now dead mother, who is later revealed to have a mysterious past and may or may not be the bringer of this power to him. There are other things happening in the background, of course, Empires crumbling, new nations formed, but nothing that he has anything to do about or seek to change.
It is actually in the absence of emotion that he has better control, at least initially. He goes through several stages of what he thinks is the best way to control his powers. I might as well also say that, specifically, his powers involve heightened awareness, speed and strength, which his people are already famous for, long ago. There is a limitation to it, of course. Not only can he not control it, use it for too long and he becomes fatigued, so he simply has to grow stronger to be able to use it for longer sessions at the time. Man, trying to explain this too you, I can already tell it's cheesy as fuck. I'm gonna have to come up with more imaginative powers than this.
I agree with all the above. Never saw Avatar and I'm not thinking of super-heros. I've seen it a lot in other genres and I still don't think it's cliché. What's usually boring in this kind of character development is that once they're aware of their powers the story tends to focus too much on the character taming them, finding a master to teach him, go through some sort of long, boring training/initiation. My opinion, but if all this can be kept to a minimum it's all good. The part that I like is when the character is little aware of his powers. The moment the character starts training to become Kung Fu master, not so much.
I write when I have something to say, to craft beautiful words and meaningful story, but I can't do that every day and sometimes you just need to buckle down and move forward with the plot. But then, there's editing; the most important stage where your personality shines through. It's the most grueling stage of writing and takes the longest time for it needs to be perfect and it can't be perfect when your mind fail to picture the beauty you want to express. Which makes me believe you'll never get a story done if you care about it. You need to be mechanical and detached (think commercial) to muster the will to say, this is good enough. Now on to the next story! Anyone else feel this way or am I spouting nonsense?
I think you need some discipline and to learn how to write when there's no inspiration around. That doesn't mean that you'll have be mechanical, just that you have to drop the illusion that writing is something easy and flowing. Writing can often be boring and tedious, but it's needed to get through the story. What good is a half-finished story which no-one will ever read, anyway? And caring about it is the reason you go through the less inspiring days, isn't it? Oh, and speaking of dropping illusions... perfect doesn't exist. Don't try to make anything perfect. You'll end up bitter and unhappy! I'm voting spouting nonsense!
i dunno. i agree with you, but at the same time i'd like to think that i'll reach a point where i go "I'm happy with this." That could be ten years from now, mind you.
But don't they say, practice makes perfect?! Is this an illusion too? That we all stride? Trying to make something readable, or change the world? Have I gone full of myself or do I just care more than I fancy? A gardener waters his plants and watches it grow Yet I let it die for it was not perfect even when sown. I'm voting: full of shit and melodramatic
I used to feel exactly this way...so much so that in college, even though I wrote other things quite regularly, I had to drop my only Creative Writing class, because "writing on demand" was not happening. What cured me was taking News Writing courses and working with tight deadlines on the college newspaper. You literally can't "wait for inspiration" to hit before writing the news. Your "inspiration" is, people need you to describe what's happening, pronto. Writing news for radio was especially helpful for me, because it requires you to be more descriptive. I'd suggest journaling for a minimum of a half hour every day, describing what's around you, without editing. Editing a journal is a no-no, so you have complete permission to write "poorly". Your descriptions will become more vivid, and you'll develop more of a well to draw from. If you can't think of what to write, literally write "I can't think of anything" over and over until you can. (I have lots of journal pages that say that.) Writing is a skill. Skills require muscle, and muscle doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Are some days more inspired than others? OH yeah. But now I can call my fiction writing on demand 60 percent of the time instead of the ten percent when I was in college. When nothing's coming (the "40" days), that's when I polish and edit and do research. For non-fiction writing, my writing on demand ratio is more like 80/20, or 70/30 in a bad week. As another poster said, there's no such thing as perfection. Just write! Good luck!
That's actually good advice. Though I don't feel I have any problem writing descriptions, there may be that I simply lack direction. Perhaps I should strive to find a writers job, as you suggested, which I've avoided like the plague because most people advice not to if you want to become a novelist - don't want to expend your creative juices on the dayjob, you know.
This doesn't describe my writing process at all. I'm super sentimental and attached to my stories and characters, but I don't hold myself to the standard of perfection. The best job I'm capable of? You betcha, and it is sometimes a long and arduous process. It's hard work, but for me totally worth it in the end. I can't always say I'm 100% happy with everything I've written, but I was happy enough to think that other people might enjoy my stories. Turns out I was right.
My favorite youtube trainer always says "Practice makes progress". I've seen enough people on this site who think they're going to make something perfect and then they'll end up never writing anything, or always being unhappy about it and always starting over. They are bound to never finish anything, and then what's the point? I mean, sure, if it makes you happy, write your golden nuggets of inspiration in the hope of one day actually finishing something! But if you'll always end up with something half finished you'll never change even a single person! All this said, I'm not trying to be discouraging! You just might want to drop the standards in order to write something - and actually doing it good.
You don't have to be perfect at writing to write something enjoyable. I go to the bar and hear local rock bands all the time. I enjoy it. I wouldn't say they are perfect.
I'm struggling with this right now I see the outline of the novel but just can't bring myself to eat into it and write it Justt gotta force myself to write a bit every day
When I watch a solid show/movie with solid writing - that's when I'm inspired. Well, it also goes the other way - if I watch something really bad, I'm inspired to do better. Sometimes it's unbelievable how people who get paid for writing screw something so much.
