Flaw Your Hero

 "No man can climb beyond the limitations of his own character." John Morley

When developing a hero in your fiction writing, it's important to make sure he's flawed. As in real life, this character should be imperfect. If he's good looking, smart, compassionate, loves children and animals, has a high paying corporate job and volunteers all his spare time working in orphanages and soup kitchens, your hero is too perfect. In other words, too boring!

Spice up your hero by flawing him with arrogance, or a hot temper. Perhaps he's a recovering alcoholic who struggles daily with his addiction. Maybe he was an abused child, and now carries the psychological scars that prevent him from building a meaningful relationship. Could he have suffered trauma (seeing his family killed), could he have been abandoned as a child, could he have been betrayed by a friend?

The possibilities are endless! Transform your hero from plain turkey on white, to turkey on crusty bread with sharp cheddar, salty anchovies, hot peppers and black olives! (Anybody else hungry for a hero sandwich, or is it just me?)

Want more insight into flawed heroes? Check out this article by Bruce Kirkland, Top 10 Flawed Film Heroes.

Who's your favorite fictional hero and what are his, or her, flaws?

Lady Death

Not long ago I watched The Battle For Sevastopol and thoroughly enjoyed it! My husband stumbled upon the movie and we both received an education about the world's deadliest female sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who came to be known as Lady Death. By the age of twenty-five, she had killed over three-hundred enemy soldiers. If you're like me, you've probably never heard of her. Here's more from Wikipedia:

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (12 June 1916 – 10 October 1974) was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II,credited with 309 confirmed kills,^[making her the most successful female sniper in history. Lyudmila was nicknamed "Lady Death" due to her incredible ability with a sniper rifle. She served in the Red Army during the Siege of Odessa and the Siege of Sevastopol, during the early stages of the Eastern Front in WWII. After she was injured in battle by a mortar shell, she was evacuated to Moscow. After Pavlichenko recovered from her injuries she trained other Red Army Snipers and was a public spokesperson for the Red Army. In 1942, she visited the White House and toured the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. After the war ended in 1945, she was reassigned as a Senior Researcher for the Soviet Navy. She later died at the age of 58 due to a stroke on 10 October 1974.

In June 1941, 24-year-old Pavlichenko was in her fourth year studying history at Kiev University when Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union. Pavlichenko was among the first round of volunteers at the Odessa recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry. The registrar pushed Pavlichenko to be a nurse but she refused. 

After seeing that she had completed multiple training courses they finally let her in the army as a sniper. Thus she was assigned to the Red Army's 25th Rifle Division. There she became one of 2,000 female snipers in the Red Army (although female soldiers were still just 2 percent of the Red Army's total number), of whom about 500 survived the war. Although she was in a combat role, she was only given a frag grenade due to weapon shortages. On 8 August 1942 a fallen comrade would hand her his Mosin-Nagant model 1891 bolt-action rifle. She achieved her first two kills and proved herself to her comrades. She described this event as her "baptism of fire", because after this she was officially a sniper.

Pavlichenko fought for about two and a half months near Odessa, where she recorded 187 kills.^[11] She was promoted to senior sergeant in August 1941 when she reached 100 confirmed kills. At age 25, she married a fellow sniper whose name was Alexei Kitsenko. Soon after the marriage, Alexei was mortally wounded by a mortar shell. Kitsenko died after a few days in the hospital. When the Romanians gained control of Odessa on 15 October 1941, her unit was withdrawn by sea to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, where she fought for more than eight months. There she trained almost a dozen snipers, who killed over a hundred Axis soldiers during the battle. In May 1942, newly promoted Lieutenant Pavlichenko was cited by the Southern Army Council for killing 257 Axis soldiers. Her total of confirmed kills during World War II was 309, including 36 enemy snipers.

In June 1942, Pavlichenko was hit in the face with shrapnel from a mortar shell. After her injury, the Soviet High Command ordered that she be evacuated from Sevastopol via submarine.^[ She was too valuable to lose as she was the perfect example of Soviet womanhood. She spent around a month in the hospital; she did not go back to the Eastern Front after her injuries. Instead she became a propagandist for the Red Army. Due to her high kill count, she was nicknamed "Lady Death". She also trained snipers for combat duty till the end of the war in 1945.

What a life! Had you ever heard of Lady Death? Thanks for visiting and have a great week! 

Death of Tuskegee Airman Brig. Gen. Charles McGee

I read today in the New York Daily News that one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen has died:

Brig. Gen. Charles McGee was 102 when he died in his sleep Sunday morning, with his right hand over his heart in a final patriotic gesture, his family said.

McGee battled fascism abroad and racism at home, both in the name of serving his country.

He was part of the group of Black aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps., a precursor of the U.S. Air Force. Collectively they flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa during World War 2.

“Our task was to keep the air clear of German pilots,” McGee said in a 2020 Air Force video.

Their service earned them medals, and their performance paved the way for integration of the U.S. armed forces, according to History.com.

McGee was a cut above even that. He went on to fly for another 30 years as an Air Force pilot in the Korean and Vietnam wars, for a total of 409 aerial fighter missions — a record that still stands today.

Reading about Brig. Gen. McGee brought to mind a book I've blogged about before. I happened to find it by accident one day while browsing at the library.  It's a kid's book (6th grade and up), but a fascinating account for adults to enjoy, as well.

One of the things I liked most about the story was that the two friends featured in it are from Cincinnati. And not long after I read the book, I got to see both of them speak at my sons' school--which is the very same one they attended as young boys!

In John Fleischman's Black and White Airmen: Their True History, we learn about the true history of a friendship that almost didn't happen.

John Leahr and Herb Heilbrun grew up in the same neighborhood and were in the same third grade class. Although classmates, they weren't friends, because Herb was white and John was black.

John and Herb were twenty-one when the United States entered WWII. Herb became an Army Air Forces B-17 bomber pilot. John flew P-51 fighters. Both participated in the high-altitude bomber war against Nazi Germany.  But because the army was segregated and black and white couldn't mix, they never met.

John and Herb returned home safely, but it took them another fifty years to meet and discover that their lives had almost taken the same path through times of war and peace. Now friends, Herb and John have made it a mission to tell young people why race once made a big difference and why it shouldn’t anymore.

Check out this video to learn more about John and Herb, and be sure to read John Fleischman's Black and White Airmen!

He Says, She Says

Men and women are different--especially where communication is concerned! Ever struggle with gender specific dialogue in your fiction writing? Hope these tips will help!

Men are more direct and brusque in tone. They use simpler vocabulary with fewer modifiers, and are likely to use one word responses and shorter sentences.  Instead of talking about people and feelings, they’d rather talk about things.  

Women, however, love talking about people and relationships.  Their language is softer, and they’re more likely to talk around a subject.  “I’m not too happy about this,” she might say, while he says, “I’m mad as hell!”  Women express themselves in complete sentences, and want to share their feelings.

Today, I thought I'd pass this article along from the website Your Tango, written by Richard Drobnick of The Mars and Venus Counseling Center. It provides some information to keep in mind when writing dialogue from the perspective of the opposite sex.

He believes communication should have a clear purpose. Behind every conversation is a problem that needs solving or a point that needs to be made.

She uses communication to discover how she is feeling and what it is she wants to say. She sees conversation as an act of sharing and an opportunity to increase intimacy with her partner.

He prioritizes productivity and efficiency in his daily life, and conversation is no exception. When he tells a story he has already sorted through the muck in his own head, and shares only those details that he deems essential to the point of the story. He might wonder, "Why do women need to talk as much as they do?" Often he will interrupt a woman once he has heard enough to offer a solution.

She uses communication to explore and organize her thoughts — to discover the point of the story. She may not know what information is necessary or excessive until the words come spilling out. But a woman isn't necessarily searching for a solution when she initiates a conversation. She's looking for someone to listen and understand what she's feeling.

Do you have any tips to make dialogue sound more feminine or masculine?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!  

Plastic Man

One of my sons took me to see the new Spider-Man movie, Spider-man: No Way Home , last week and it was phenomenal! I really enjoyed it because of all the nostalgia. That's all I'll say, otherwise I'll spoil everything.

Last year my kids were telling my 90-year-old mother all about their favorite superhero movies. Then one of them said, "We know you're not familiar with any of these characters," but she replied, "Yes I am. I remember Plastic Man."

My first thought was seriously? Then my youngest said, "He wouldn't be good for the environment."

Regardless, there really was a Plastic Man who appeared in 1941, when my mom would have been just ten years old. According to Wikipedia:

Plastic Man (real name Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a fictional superhero first appearing in Police Comics #1, originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by cartoonist Jack Cole, Plastic Man was one of the first superheroes to incorporate humor into mainstream action storytelling. This character has been published in several solo series and has interacted with other characters such as Batman and many others in the mainstream DC Universe as a member of the Justice League. He has additionally appeared in several television and video game adaptations, including a short-lived television show of his own named The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show.

Surprisingly, there is a film in development. Just not sure it'll ever get off the ground. One of the latest articles about the project states that they are shifting to a female lead as Plastic Man, or rather Woman.

Plastic Man is a DC Comic's character and my kids prefer Marvel movies to DC movies. So if Plastic Man ever does hit the big screen, they won't be seeing it. What about you?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!