Super-Team Drama

One of the things that's constant with superheroes is the drama that follows them. They've got rivalries, and hatreds among their peers and enemies. Many add the neuroses that come from living a double life that they feel the need to hide from not only the world, but their loved ones as well, and it's not hard to see that only part of the conflict in these stories comes from fighting the villains.

And drama seems to be the order of the day with the Brigadiers. I think it makes sense, though. These are people playing their roles on a huge stage, and they're widely accepted to be the 'best'. There are probably very few people who could live with that without being changed somewhat by it.

The chief drama of the night comes from the antagonism between John Doe, one of my characters, and his ex-wife. Here's an excerpt of it:

Well, this is it, Erin thought to herself. I guess I can admit to myself now that this has been kind of fun, but it’s probably for the best if someone else handles it. She inhaled, and stepped forward to address the room.

“Achilles told us that you’ve got an important matter for us,” Animus cut in sharply. “I hope you’ll pardon the absences, but we can be hard to pull together on such short notice.”

Erin felt the gentle flick of a lash in Animus’ voice, and cringed inwardly.

“I cancelled lunch with the Secretary of Defense to come here,” the armored form continued. “So please be brief. The five of us in this room don’t have time to waste.”

A blur of motion in the corner of her eye caught Erin’s attention, and she turned just in time to stop John from rushing forward. His lips were curled, and his eyes squinted with rage but her sharp look and her hand planted on his chest stopped him. Turning her back to the dais, she mouthed the word ‘No’ and saw him back down. Are things really that bad between them that she’d try to goad him like that?

While John isn't the one speaking with her directly, his presence has her irritated. (I'm not sure if I've done a good job of showing that, though. I'm tempted to break my own rule to go and revise that a little bit, despite not having finished my first draft.

Animus (formerly known as Annie-Mation) was married to John Doe, one of the has-beens who's working with Erin. Their separation was messy to say the least. There was infidelity, backstabbing, and lots of hard feelings. And now she's running The Brigadiers - the team that Erin and her crew need to convince of the gravity of a threat that they've discovered.

But not all of my writing was this drama. I'm writing a scene with Erin and Wanda talking about old times, and it's got me thinking of throwing in another flashback. One of the folks I've given access to the whole shebang liked one I had in the first chapter and I found a place that feels like it'd be a natural fit to do another one. Of course, it's precisely where I stopped writing for the night. We'll see how that feels tomorrow.

Here's the word count for the night:

Tonight's Word Count: 1,064

Total Word Count: 24,781

Tomorrow night should easily carry me over 25K. And it felt good to have another night over a thousand words, even if it wasn't by much. January was a great month for me in every regard, and I want to try to carry that over. I've been worried about losing momentum.

I'm looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow. But for now, it's almost time for good vampires (and nocturnal writers) to get to bed.