#powerful character

[writersisland]

"I'm a monster."

"Well, that's a little dramatic, don't you thi- HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT?"

"I TOLD YOU SO!"

[pluralprompts]

Prompt #926

"You seem awfully confident you'll win this fight you're proposing. Have you heard of me through title, or through reputation?"

"I – why does that matter?"

"If you only know my title, then I could understand your courage as ignorance. If you know my reputation, then either you're more foolhardy than I thought, or I'll have to take a fight seriously for once."

[monchdraws]

"If He Can Fly, I Can Fly! I Can Do Anything He Can!" - Meiling

[heywriters]

I'm trying to write a story with a kinda ridiculously competant character and i'm not sure how much justification i need to give them. So far i have them as a 300 y/o immortal who has done little except become at least a bit competant at most things

Ridiculously competent as in they have special powers or they’ve just been around so long that they’ve learned a lot? Either way, what you as the writer want most is not strive to justify their strengths, but rather balance them with their weaknesses.Figure out what your character is not good at. Maybe there are some things they’ve always held a prejudice against and therefore never learned. Perhaps the first attempt at something didn’t go the way they wanted, so theyy never tried again. Adding realism to an overly-competent character will make them less unbelievable while also making them more human. 

For a character who’s just experienced and not “special” there are many ways you can balance their competence. Older people often don’t want to learn the new ways of doing things, and that’s something that comes with age no matter how young your immortal self looks. It’s not always about stubborness or confusion, it’s often just a lack of desire. Your character may look thirty in 2017, but they still feel like a young person in the 1700′s. They’ve learned a lot over the centuries, but perhaps only out of necessity instead of desire.

Is your character even interested in learning? I know people young and quite old who’ve never desired to know more than they currently do. If they had three centuries to learn and explore, they’d stay in the same house in the same town eating the same food and listening to the same things for all 300 years. Your character might not be that inexperienced, but again they may only know things out of necessity not desire.Your character doesn’t mind being a little “backwards” at times- they’ll outlive everyone who thinks they’re weird anyway. They’re competent at most things they put their hand to because at one time or another they had to do it for themselves. Except, maybe their way of doing something is outdated, or the way it’s done now confuses them and they need guidance. Maybe it’s been so long since they had to do something that when the situation arises they’ve forgotten how. 

Then there are the things you don’t want your character to be good at. Maybe they know a lot about something they wish they didn’t or they shouldn’t know in this day and age. Maybe they’re quite free doing and talking about the thing, and it makes other people uncomfortable or hostile. Maybe the one thing they’re bad at is the most important thing they should know, and by being bad at it they expose themselves as an outsider. Then there are the events that they’ve witnessed and, since history repeats itself, they know what’s going to happen next in society or politics because they’ve seen it all before. Do they warn people with their knowledge, or do they hold it in because there’s nothing they can do and no one will believe them? Do they make decisions that will benefit them because they know what will happen, and after the fact everyone’s like “wow, you’re amazing how’d you know to do that?” making them seem spectacularly competent? Or do they use their knowledge to help others at their own expense? (I’m thinking specifically of an immortal character on Doctor Who that saved a village from disease only to be cast out as a witch).Leading back to your stated concern, justifying over-competence, perhaps what we would perceive as competence is really just a character trapped in a loop where the same things happen over and over again. They can’t help but know everything about something because they’ve been through it so many times. It’s not special once you explain it like that, it’s just ordinary. Most people we recognize today for their competence or skill are ordinary in reality, but we perceive them as extraordinary.Before becoming competent, your character has to want to learn new things. They also need to retain a few old things to ground themselves. They need something they can go back to when they’re overwhelmed by the fast-paced world. They need to meet people more competent than them and be taught by them, but they also must know and understand much more than other people. A 100 y.o. today certainly knows more than an 18 y.o. or a 60 y.o., but they also know much less. The world changes faster than the individual, and individuals tire out. Your character may be immortal, but being the best at everything will get boring for them before it gets boring for the reader. Reflect that in your writing, and do your character justice by giving them some incompetence now and then.—Sorry for the length and my sometimes jumbled thoughts. I tried to make this cohesive. Hope it helps!

[monchdraws]

I want to be better, you know? Smarter. Stronger. Just better

[vale5h]

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[juankosoart-blog]

the new sonic game is fucking great. i can not wait