Superhero Sweetheart!

It’s just… so good. And super addictive. I love this new dynamic—partly because it’s unfair, which makes it feel more realistic. I mean, I’d be a civilian, not a hero anyway.

"You know," the villain said. "I could just arrange for you to be kidnapped on the way."

"Really?! That would actually be great."

At the beat of silence that followed, the civilian cautiously tipped their head back to peer upside down at the villain over the arm of the sofa. The villain had lowered their book and was giving the civilian a long look.

No. Not really. That had been entirely flippant, hadn't it?

"Kidding," the civilian said, quickly. "I'm kidding. Obviously. That would be insane."

They slid back down into their previous position, burying their burning face in their phone. Unfortunately, all that awaited them on the screen - yet again - was their ex's wedding invitation.

God. Why had they agreed to go? Being the better person was a stupid idea. Wildly overrated. Hateful, even.

Maybe they were insane.

The villain appeared in front of them. The civilian hadn't even heard them move. The civilian swallowed and tried for a winning smile, though what exactly they were winning at was anyone's guess.

The villain plucked the phone out of their hand, tapping the screen to keep it from going dark, and gave the invite a cursory glance. Then they considered the civilian. Their whole demeanor had changed, away from the civilian's idle - whatever they were - to something else. Their eyes were dark and intent.

The civilian covered their face with their hands.

"So kidnapping, huh?" the villain asked. Their voice sent a treacherous flutter through the civilian's body.

"Sod off."

"Keep that up and I'll have you gagged. Never a good idea to cuss out your captor."

The civilian groaned. At least, they hoped it came out as a groan. Long-suffering and the like.

"You would look lovely," the villain mused. "Dressed up in all your finery, but just a little disheveled from being manhandled into the back of a car. I could get behind it. Remind what colour you were planning to wear again?"

"I was joking."

"Oh, you were absolutely not joking. The relief in your voice was palpable."

"Okay," the civilian said. "So I was failing to think before I talked. That's hardly going to shock anyone!"

"Look at me."

"Could you just let me curl up into a ball and die instead?"

An idle twitch of the villain's powers had the civilian's hands pinned to the sofa cushions, deftly out of the way. The civilian closed their eyes.

The villain snorted.

The civilian felt the sofa dip as the villain sat down, looming, and carded fond fingers through their hair. Then they tugged hard and the civilian squeaked, eyes flying open on instinct.

The villain grinned at them. Feral and terrifying and gorgeous.

"You have no reason to kidnap me, logistically speaking," the civilian said, mouth dry. "It would ruin your reputation if it got out. I'm like, nobody. And as far as the world is aware we don't even know each other. People would ask way too many questions. It's just not worth it."

"It would be fun though," the villain said. "And you really don't want to go this wedding, do you?"

"No. But unlike you, I occasionally have to do things I don't want to do. You know, like a grown up."

"I don't have to let you."

The civilian swallowed, at that. They tried to hold the villain's gaze, steady, but it was impossible to feel steady when they could feel the villain's power all around them.

"It's fine," they said. "I'm fine. I'll be fine."

The villain raised an eyebrow, at that.

"Yes or no?" they asked, softly.

The civilian meant to claw back some flippancy of their own, ask with casual mockery if the villain usually asked permission before kidnapping people. The silence stretched. The villain waited.

The civilian managed a dumbstruck nod.

"Good." The villain stared at them for a moment longer, gaze raking over their pinned body on the sofa like they were calculating something. Then they let go of the civilian's hair and patted their cheek. "Glad that's settled then."

This is an excerpt from my WIP. I'm not close to finishing it, but I'm in love with it. This is one of my favorite scenes I've written.

The characters are:

Erin: the narrator. Spitfire. Doesn't like being told what to do.

Damian: her team lead. Raised rich and is seen in the news as a playboy.

Hazel: Damian’s right hand. Has super speed.

Drake: the shape shifter of the group

There are many others, but those are the ones important for this scene.

Enjoy!!!

‐---------------‐------------------------------

"Don’t you dare go easy on me.” Damian said pointing at me.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

We circled each other. He stepped forward aiming for my ribs. I jumped to the side and aimed for his chin. My fist made contact pushing him to the side.

“You’re not angry today.” He said holding his jaw.

I glared at him. He jumped forward fast, and his fist connected with my side. I stepped to the right and brought my fist towards his stomach. He caught my wrist and held it tight.

“I like it better when you fight angry.”

I tried pulling my fist from his grip. No luck.

“There usually isn’t this much talking during a fight." I paused. "I heard you almost took Drake’s head off. Why are you so angry?”

He pulled me closer to him until we were inches from each other. “He couldn’t have fought me. I needed someone who could.”

I pushed away from him. He kept ahold of my wrist. “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you so angry?”

He let my wrist go. I stepped back raising my fists. He looked me up and down. He swung at me. I grabbed his wrist and punched him in his stomach. He staggered back.

“No one has talked to me the way you did last night.” He said softly.

I glared at him. “So you’re pissed at me?”

He lowered his fists. “I just need you to do what I say. I’m your leader. Is that so hard to understand?”

I huffed and crossed my arms. “No, it’s not, but you’re not doing it right.”

He glared at me. “Why do you think that you can say something like that to me?”

“Because you’re my group leader, and a good leader would listen to their members. Is that so hard to understand?” I mimicked his voice.

He stepped towards me. I glared at him and stepped towards him. A blur rushed past me. Hazel appeared between us.

She had her hands up pushing both of us back. “OK. OK. Let’s take a deep breath. I think you guys need a break.”

I huffed and turned to the elevator. I pressed the button.

“Hey street rat, try listening next time.”

I turned fast. Damian had crossed his arms and was staring daggers at me. Hazel was looking between us. I started walking towards him.

“Listen here you ass…”

A blur came towards me and swept me off my feet. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I was sitting on the floor of the elevator. Hazel was pacing back and forth.

“Well that went well.” I said standing and folding my arms.

She stopped and looked at me. She let out a long breath. “Why can’t you guys just get along?”

“Because he’s wrong and I’m sure you know that too.”

She sighed. “Its not my job to tell him if he’s wrong.”

“Yes it is. You’re his right hand. It’s in your job description.”

1. Find the thing the character wants to say, their deepest and most fundamental truth.

2. Congratulations! That’s the one thing they cannot, under any circumstances, say. Imagine they’re under a fairy curse if you have to.

"Oh, come on now. Don't be like that! You know that I love you."

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Scrivener, a 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo sponsor, is an award-winning writing app that has been enthusiastically adopted by best-selling novelists and novices alike. Today, Scrivener director Julia Pierce is here to share some tips on writing your story’s middle:

We’re midway through Camp and around now, some of you may be starting to experience the curse of the saggy middle. This isn’t just a euphemism for what happens when the need to meet your daily word count target becomes all-consuming and takes precedence over your daily exercise routine. Nope, it’s that bit where the doubts about your story’s structure start to creep in… Is that storyline really as gripping as you first thought? Would the hero really make that choice…?

Unfortunately, writing the midsection of a novel is tricky—it’s where the hard work happens, the plot is driven on, characters grow and plans are tried (and fail). With this part taking up around 50% of the word count, a good rate of momentum is vital to carry the reader with you from your perfect beginning to the novel’s climax. So, how can you pep up your prose? Here are some tried and tested methods:

A recent search for a specific type of site to help me build new characters led me down a rabbit hole. Normally, that would make me much less productive, but I have found a treasure trove of websites for writers.

Bring Characters/Places to Life

There are a few different places you can use to create a picture of something entirely new. I love this site for making character pictures as references, instead of stock photos or whatever pops up on Google Images.

thispersondoesnotexist: every time you reload the page, this site generates a headshot of someone who doesn't exist. This is great if you're thinking about a character's personality or age and don't have specifics for their facial features yet.

Night Cafe: this is an AI art generator that takes your text prompt and generates an image for it. I tried it for various scenery, like "forest" or "cottage." It takes a minute for your requested photo to load, but no more than maybe five for the program to finish the picture.

Art Breeder: this website has endless images of people, places, and general things. Users can blend photos to create something new and curious visitors can browse/download those images without creating an account. (But if you do want to make an account to create your own, it's free!)

Find Random Places on Earth

You might prefer to set a story in a real-life environment so you can reference that place's weather, seasons, small-town vibe, or whatever you like. If that's the case, try:

MapCrunch: the homepage generates a new location each day and gives the location/GPS info in the top left of the screen. To see more images from previous days, hit "Gallery" in the top left.

Atlas Obscura: hover over or tap the "Places" tab, then hit "Random Place." A new page will load with a randomly generated location on the planet, provide a Google Maps link, and tell you a little bit about the place.

Random World Cities: this site makes randomly selected lists of global cities. Six appear for each search, although you'll have to look them up to find more information about each place. You can also use the site to have it select countries, US cities or US states too.

Vary Your Wording

Thesauruses are great, but these websites have some pretty cool perspectives on finding just the right words for stories.

Describing Words: tell this website which word you want to stop repeating and it will give you tons of alternative words that mean the same thing. It typically has way more options than other sites I use.

Reverse Dictionary: type what you need a word for in Reverse Dictionary's search box and it will give you tons of words that closely match what you want. It also lists the words in order of relevancy, starting with a word that most accurately describes what you typed. (There's also an option to get definitions for search results!)

Tip of My Tongue: this website is phenomenal. It lets you search for that word you can't quite place by a letter in it, the definition, what it sounds like, or even its scrambled letters. A long list of potential options will appear on the right side of the screen for every search.

---

"I have to help them!" She yelled jumping from her chair.

"You can't. They want you." He said calmly.

She took off towards the door. He stepped in front of her grabbing her wrist.

"You are more important." He said softly pulling her closely wrapping his arms around her.

"You don't get to tell me what to do." She screamed pushing against his chest as tears streamed down her face.

Hero walked through the mall stopping at a store looking at the window display. Someone grabbed their hand and pulled them away from the display.

"Someone is following you. I'll pretend to be your boyfriend so they'll leave you alone."

Hero's heart sank. They recognized that voice. They tried pulling their hand from Villain's, but Villain pulled them closer and draped their arm around them.

"Don't fight against me. We need to pretend we are dating." Villain whispered in Hero's ear.

"No one is following me. Let me go." Hero turned to face Villain. Villain looked down at them.

"Babe, you're acting hangry do we need to go get some Cinnabon for you." They leaned closer. "Can we please not act like enemies here. Let's just be friends before we try to rip eachothers heads off tonight."

masterlist. main navigation.

@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram

1. Pacing

A fight scene should be fast-paced and intense. Unless it's a final battle with numerous parties, a fight scene that's too long tends to take away suspense. To speed up your pacing, use active voice to describe movement and don't overdescribe your characters' thoughts. Excessive inner monologue will be unrealistic, as people usually have no room to think during intense combats.

2. Character mannerisms

Here's a point that people often overlook, but is actually super important. Through fight scenes, you should be able to reveal your characters' contrasting mannerisms and personality. A cunning character would play dirty - fighting less and making use of their opponent's weakness more. A violent character would aim to kill. A softer one would only target to disarm their enemies, using weakened attacks. A short-minded character would only rely on force and attack without thinking. This will help readers understand your characters more and decide who to root for.

3. Making use of surroundings

Not only the characters, you also need to consider the setting of your fight scene and use it to your advantage. Is it suitable for fighting, or are there dangerous slopes that make it risky? Are there scattered items that can help your characters fight (e.g. nails, shards of glass, ropes, wooden boards, or cutlery)? Is it a public place where people can easily spot the fight and call the authorities, or is it a private spot where they can fight to the death?

4. Description

The main things that you need to describe in a fight scene are :

• Characters involved in the fight

• How they initiate and dodge attacks

• Fighting styles and any weapons used

• The injuries caused

Be careful to not drag out the description for too long, because it slows down the pace.

5. Raise the stakes

By raising the stakes of the fight, your readers will be more invested in it. Just when they think it's over, introduce another worse conflict that will keep the scene going. Think of your characters' goals and motivations as well. Maybe if the MC didn't win, the world would end! Or maybe, one person in the fight is going all-out, while the other is going easy because they used to be close :"D

6. Injuries

Fights are bound to be dirty and resulting in injuries, so don't let your character walk away unscathed - show the effect of their injuries. For example, someone who had been punched in the jaw has a good chance of passing out, and someone who had been stabbed won't just remove the knife and walk away without any problem. To portray realistic injuries, research well.

7. Drive the plot forward

You don't write fight scenes only to make your characters look cool - every fight needs to have a purpose and drive the plot forward. Maybe they have to fight to improve their fighting skills or escape from somewhere alive. Maybe they need to defeat the enemy in order to obtain an object or retrieve someone who had been kidnapped. The point is, every single fight scene should bring the characters one step closer (or further :D) to the climax.

8. Words to use

• Hand to hand combat :

Crush, smash, lunge, beat, punch, leap, slap, scratch, batter, pummel, whack, slam, dodge, clobber, box, shove, bruise, knock, flick, push, choke, charge, impact

• With weapon :

Got tired of always using either "kitten" or "darling" so I came up with some more and decided to share ♡

Doll

Sugar

Dear

Honey

Kitten

Peanut

Sugarplum

Teacup

Boo

Love

Lovely

Sunshine

Button

Perfect

Good lookin'

Snapdragon

Romeo

Buttercup

Gorgeous/Handsome

Angel

Matchsticks

Pumpkin

Cupcake

Sweetheart

Eye candy

North Star

Fruit cake

Muffin

Jelly bean

Dragonfly

Mouse

Cherry Blossom

Firefly

Sweet Cheeks

Honeysuckle

Dumpling

Dream Boat

Bumble bee

Butterfly

Lady Bug

Casanova

Shutterbug

Angel Cakes

Pretty Boy/Girl/One

Sunbeam

Angel Face

Monkey

Chipmunk

Chickadee

Mocking Jay

Golden Boy/Girl

Solar Flare

Sparrow

Bunny

Buttercream

Cutie Pie

Lamb Chop

Hot Stuff

Baby Doll

Carebear

Babe

Kit-kat

Honeybun

Pudding Pop

Sunflower

Roses

Flower

Bluebell

Cinnamon bun

Sweetie Pie

Puppy

Pussy Cat

Dearie

Gum Drop

Princess/Prince

Lollipop

Bear Cub

Teddy Bear

Robin

Pancake

Bluejay

White Knight

Gingersnap

Sundail

Dove

Starlight

Dew Drop

Cuddle bug

Sparks

Peaches

- Writing fight scenes are difficult so here are some of my tips that I like to keep in mind. 

- Don’t drag it out longer than necessary. I know that this is sometimes really difficult because it is hard to tell if it is going on too long. When you feel like your grasping for more details to add in, that’s usually a good indicator that you need to stop. I would say a good limit to set for yourself (if you’re a beginner) is around 8 to 10 pages at most. 

- But don’t make it too fast either. Reread it several times to make sure it doesn’t go so fast that your readers will have trouble keeping up. What this means is that you shouldn’t have the entire scene be action after action because it can become muddled really fast, especially if you’re trying to fit it in a couple paragraphs. 

- Somethings to keep in mind when writing a fight scene include: 

Who’s going to win?

Who do you want the readers to want to win?

Is your character trained or not?

Do your characters have weapons?

Hi anon!

Ah, fight scenes.

Don't try to focus too much on descriptions of every move in the fight. Writing is not a visual art form and putting too much emphasis on how the characters are moving their bodies (or weapons) will take too much emphasis off why they are fighting. In visual art, like movies, they can use music/facial expressions/lighting to create an atmosphere that keeps you in the moment of why the characters are fighting.

Also, visually? Fights are exciting.

I do have some tips for writing -

Beneath this cut is violence/blood.