On Saturday, I sent out a newsletter with a challenge for my subscribers to come up with a unique superpower - something they'd never heard of or thought of before. Something new.
The only thing is that I didn't give them any hints on how to go about that. So I figured I'd do a full-length post on ways to breathe new life into old ideas and captivate your audiences with your powers. Even if you're not a superhero/fantasy kind of person, stick around - you never know when inspiration will strike. ;P
1. Mess with classification
Something I find fascinating is how powers can be classified. I wasn't able to find any one source on this, but most people agree that there are at least five types of powers: physical, mental, spatial, elemental, and geopolitical. Physical superpowers are the ones that affect your body - things like flight and invisibility and super strength. Mental powers include things like telepathy and telekinesis, spatial powers include teleportation and camouflage, and elemental powers control the elements through powers like fire, water, and energy powers (force fields). I personally had never heard of geopolitical powers before this article, but apparently they are "the ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale", whatever that means. XD
The fun with powers like these comes in when you mess with the classifications. Take invisibility, for example. What if it weren't a physical power, but a mental one? Instead of literally turning your body invisible, you cloak yourself in other people's minds so their brains don't notice you're there.
You can also use the classification system to generate inspiration for coming up with new powers. Elemental powers, for instance. We all know about the "four" elements: fire, water, earth, and air. But what about the others around you? Light, darkness, heat, energy? What about dark matter? We don't even know what that is in real life - there's lots of potential for you to make it whatever you want it to be in your story. Or add a whole other category. There's physical and mental, but what about emotional?
2. Create consequences
One of my least favorite things in stories with powers is when the character can use their powers without consequences. Where's the fun in having a healer who can heal all the time, whatever the wound? Your characters suddenly get a whole lot safer, which takes away a lot of your suspense.
Inversely, one of my favorite things to do with powers is create consequences. Instead of letting the healer heal away, I have them take on the literal wounds of those he or she is healing. Not only are you raising the stakes and creating conflict, but add in a dash of Traumatic Backstory™ and you have yourself quite the potential for really any part of your story. Or have it hurt the character mentally. In an old WIP, I had powers that were actual people themselves - people who wanted to escape, take over, etc. My characters were in a near-constant inner battle with those powers, some more than others, and every time they used their powers it got worse.
Your consequences don't necessarily have to apply to the bearer, by the way. Get creative. Maybe using strength means sapping the strength from those around you, friends included. Maybe having fire powers means you can't be around the person with water powers because it hurts you both. Or even shift the consequences away from people and to the world at large: you don't just teleport yourself, but everything you see, which means not only are you removing everything within sight but wherever you land gets flattened.
This is helpful because it will make characters less reliant upon their powers and more hesitant to use them, which not only makes your story more interesting, but forces you as a writer to get more creative and stops you from relying on their powers to save the day.
3. Reverse the powers
Want to come up with more powers instead of just tweaking ones already in existence? Try swapping polarities. Instead of healing, harm. Instead of flying, cause gravity. Instead of speed, slow others down. Instead of shapeshifting yourself, be able to change the shapes of other things. It's as simple as that.
It's Ok to Plagiarize
No, this doesn't mean you can go steal all of Marvel's heroes and write your own story. But everything comes from something, including your ideas. Look at the powers in books and movies and see if you can use those as a springboard for inspiration for creating your own powers. Observe the animals and nature around you and turn their abilities into powers (like did you know an octopus is able to fit through anything its beak can fit through? Plus camouflage, plus squirting ink. Imagine the possibilities XD). Even Pinterest pictures can help. There are "superpowers" everywhere if you just learn to see them.
And ultimately, remember that cliches became cliches because they were good. No, you don't want to write a cardboard-cut-out of Superman, but just because every superhero story has heroes who can fly doesn't mean flying is now bad and shouldn't be used. Your uniqueness comes more in the nuances than in changing the age-old ideas themselves. It's ok - even often advisable - to mix in the favorite tropes with all of your newfangled ideas.
There are dozens of other ways you can tweak your average superpowers to give them a unique, imaginative spin, but I don't have time to dive into all of those in this post. Hopefully this was enough to get your gears turning, though. ;P
What are some of your favorite superpower tropes? What are some of your favorite new powers springing up? Did you get struck by any inspiration while reading this? Who is your favorite superhero?
Until next time,
Take courage, pursue God, and smile while you still have teeth!! :)
JOELLE. THIS IS BRILLIANT. I'm gonna save this for future reference!!! (And my fav thing on this list is consequences. That is THE way to raise the stakes 😅)