Time for Some Super Powers!

I have the honor of hosting Elizabeth Spann Craig today on her blog tour, and she’s going to discuss super powers today. (And you know how I dig super powers!)

12 Super Powers and Super Tools for Writers—by Elizabeth S. Craig/Riley Adams

It’s not easy being a writer.

There’s a lot we’re carrying on our shoulders—crafting worlds, creating interesting people to populate those worlds, mastering POV, pacing the story—and that’s just the writing part of what we do! On top of it all, we’ve got to steel ourselves against rejection, poor reviews…it’s a rough life.

Why should super heroes be the ones with all the cool powers and tools? I know they’re busy saving the world and all, but writers could use some super powers, too. And I know just the super powers and super tools to help us out:

Super Lair: A lair isn’t a super power, but it’s just as important to superheroes. It’s a place for heroes to recharge their super selves. Batman had the Batcave, Superman had the Fortress of Solitude. What would be the perfect super lair for writers? I’m thinking Office Depot. We’d play with Post-it Notes, notebooks, and Sharpie pens in our spare time. We’d leave our lair energized and ready to attack our next chapter.

Superhuman hearing: Ever been in a coffeehouse or restaurant and wanted to eavesdrop on a fascinating conversation that you know could help your story? With superhuman hearing, we’d never again have to surreptitiously move closer to spy on our unknowing victims!

Magical objects: Doctor Strange had the Eye of Agamotto medallion, the Black Knight had the Ebony Blade. Writers could have the never-depleting cup of Java and the indestructible laptop/hard drive.

Speed writing: For those deadlines that sneak up on us.
Reality warping: For those inconvenient plot holes.

Omnipresence: Omnipresence is a must for all those writers with boring office day jobs. You could be compiling the monthly sales report and be at home, penning the next exciting chapter of your thriller—all at once!

Teleportation/wormhole at our Office Depot lair: Okay, just in case we can’t get omnipresence, we could settle for teleportation or a wormhole so we could instantly apparate from home/Office Depot to our boring day job.

Cool transportation: Invisible jet? Batmobile? No, actually, this might be a super tool that writers don’t need. We just don’t get out all that much.

Mind control: To convince the agent or editor we’ve queried that our manuscript is The One.

Endurance and sleep-snubbing ability: For the writer who needs to burn the candle on both ends, without inconvenient consequences.

Time travel: Could be useful for historical writers. Or heck, even SF/F writers.

Unlimited funds: Batman/Bruce Wayne, Iron Man, Geo-Force, Mr. Fantastic? All incredibly wealthy. I’m thinking writers could use a little of that. Writers and money, of course, don’t often go together. But think of how cool it would be—we could write on location for whatever exotic setting we choose. No day job for us!

But what do you think? Got any other ideas for useful super powers we writers could use? Thanks for hosting me today, Alex! I appreciate it.

Bio: Elizabeth’s latest book, Finger Lickin’ Dead, released June 7th. Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the Southern Quilting mysteries (2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink. She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010 and 2011.
Writer's Knowledge Base--the Search Engine for Writers
Twitter: @elizabethscraig

Thanks, Elizabeth! I'll take teleportation. And a Batmobile!