I just found a series on TVTropes that's very much like the novel I've been workin' on.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WearingTheCape

You know, the one I started to write in 2001? With teenage superheroes, a world where superheroes are common licensed, and can merchandise their likenesses, a deep and complex plot and likeable, Whedonesque bantery characters, and so on and so forth, spanning three books?

Yeah, the basic world here is almost identical. The actual characters, and plot, IDK.

The worst part is that it's seems like a really good series, it's dirt cheap on Kindle, and I'd like to read it, except I don't want to appear to be ripping off the series more than I already would be. Then again, many of my ideas aren't particularly original. I just do what Scott Adams recommends; crib from a lot of people better than you and file off the serial numbers. If you use humor, you can call it a parody.

Things I need to tell my teenaged daughters about boys - E2

A Few Excerpts

Your father or male guardian does not have the luxury of knowing your suitors like you do.

Men's opinions on women < women's opinions on men. Got it. Someone who used to be a teenage boy is going to know a lot more about them than a teenage girl. The suitors specifically, probably not. In general, yes.

If things are going well between your guardian and your gentleman caller, your male guardian will dislike your new boyfriend. He'll play with guns if he has them.

Iceowl seems to have gotten their ideas about courtship entirely from sitcoms.

Under no circumstances are males to be trusted. They can be controlled for brief periods during which they are safe. But then they must be either released into the wild or neutered. Domestication is not possible. Under the proper conditions, any male will return to his natural illogical, biologically unrestrained state.

There is a recurring topic in feminist discussion; saying sexist things against women is Not Okay, even as a joke. Broadly, I agree. I would also extend that to men, and am, in fact, personally offended by being compared to an unfixed and untamed dog.

There is nothing more dangerous than an insecure male. All the world's worst wars have been started by insecure men who blame their failures on the weather or other people, and feel their minor successes are worthy of Nobel prizes.

I'm sure Boudica, Queen Elizabeth, and Maggie Thatcher would be surprised to know that. No, wait, you said the "world's worst wars". That's remarkably specific, especially considering that most of the people in and leading the military have overwhelmingly been men, meaning that even if the rate was the same for both genders, it would still give the edge to men. This is only slightly better than the canard "All wars are started by men."

All teenaged boys prefer the company of their male friends to female company. They need time to grow into a non-physical appreciation of women. Right now, the only reason they date women is to practice spawning and then to go back to their friends and brag.

First dogs, now toads. Lovely.

All men have a contemplative side.

Finally, something positive.

Your job is to stay away from it until you can handle what's inside there. Take ten or fifteen years before venturing there. It's full of landmines and useless whining.

Okay, I've got a sneaking suspicion this list was actually written to recruit new lesbians.

Because men deny this contemplative side of themselves as their "feminine side" many are troubled by this aspect of themselves

I like how the closest thing to a positive side in men is the part that's associated with women.

Teenaged boys have a difficult time figuring out how to negotiate their first relationships.

True, but so do gi-

They don't understand the meaning of the term. There is only "doing" or not "doing". Everything in the middle is detritus to them.

...Screw you.

As is true for you, for young males there is a "point of no return" at which for the prospect of sex the male will abandon all common sense and commence the process whether you are ready or not.

Note how no comment is made on the incidence of this state among young men (and exclusively young men). Perhaps it's during the full moon.

However, in both cases, it is nearly unstoppable--and I say "nearly" because the only possibility of getting out clean lies in your ability to generate substantive and believable ridicule. You must be totally disappointed in him. Presuming you're not dating a rapist ( in which case both you and soon your male guardian will be in a whole lot of awful grief. For you bear the physical and mental scars, and he will spend the rest of his life in jail for premeditated murder)

Not only are young men animals who only want to have sex with girls, but their dads turn into murdering monsters the second their daughters are raped.

letting your male friend know the prospect of sex with him is a major yawn is probably the best deterrent.

Because there's no chance a young man will politely respect a young woman's desire not to have sex, and her only hope is being passive-aggressive. I mean, it's not like young women would actually want to have sex with boys, right?

(I'm being sarcastic, but at no point does the essay mention women having any desire for sex. It mentions them having it, sure, but men are the initiators, and women are unlikely to actually enjoy it because men can't understand female sexual pleasure.)

Make no mistake. Your male guardian will cause grievous physical injury (or death) to anyone who harms you. Every day he prides himself on imagining he will do that. Do not pull that trigger unless you are serious. You have seen the movies. Be careful. Some things cannot be undone.

Seeing as movies are well known for their accuracy in depicting healthy human relationships.

Young men do not understand female sexual response. To put a finer point on it: they have zero concept.

Um.

Male sexual response, despite what stand-up routines and sitcoms claim, is often a lot more complicated than "10 stimulate penis 20 goto 10". I know that, and I'm waiting until marriage. The list makes no reference to what men like; merely penetrating the goddess called women is assumed to be enough. No man, ever, likes foreplay, or small boobs, or Albanian Pudding Wrestling, and sex is a burden to be borne by the heterosexual woman, since it is entirely impossible that an inexperienced lover can become a better one by listening to his female partner, so she shouldn't even try.

Your mother has probably told you by now, men talk about themselves obsessively

"A wise and sensible woman has probably told you a generalization."

Three, they're afraid you'll start talking about something that interests you...

Because young men are only attracted to young women for their bodies, and under no circumstances would be interested in someone they actually shared interests with.

The best way to get a guy to stop talking about himself is to go to the movies, feed him, or tire him out. Then, when he's not talking, he'll be dead silent and you'll be tempted to ask what's on his mind. Don't. Wait twenty years. He'll start having a genuine interest in what you're thinking. Until then, watch a lot of DVDs.

So, let's review. Men are animals, sex isn't fun because young men don't know what women want, and men don't learn how to take non-physical interest in women until their mid-thirties, at least.

Young men are frequently ill equipped to handle the emotions that arise from having sex.

And so are young women. In fact, studies indicate people's brains don't fully develop until their late teens, lacking critical decision-making structures.

One, most people have more sense than to sleep around like sluts if only because of the horrible deadly STDs out there not to mention the fact that confident people don't need sex for affirmation (remember the caution about insecure partners!),

"Liking having sex means you're insecure, like a man."

and two, nothing other than bullets or drugs has the ability to wreck your life more than a rotten sexual relationship.

That's not exactly true. Any romantic relationship, sexual or otherwise, can have negative effects on people's health, especially after breakups.

I especially like how it says men aren't interesting, then denigrates men for not being interested in women. Double standards much?

Here's a post about the double standards in gender-based t-shirts.

How not to write smart characters

You don't need to give them big words, for starters.

I read what's probably an unhealthy amount of fanfic. One of the trends I've noted is the whole smart people=big words thing, even when the character in question does not talk that way in canon. Notably, Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

As far as I can recall, almost every time Twilight appears, even if only for a few seconds, she

1. Learns something.
2. Teaches something.
3. Organizes something.
4. Tries to understand something.
5. Some combination of the above.

The show is remarkably consistent with this. Take "A Friend in Deed", where Twi shows up for about five minutes. She spends all of them reading a book or advising Pinkie Pie. That's 1, 2, and 4. These traits became even more important in Season 2, where Twilight became one of the main cast instead of the main character of the series. And since they couldn't resort to the old glasses+sweatervest=smart symbolism, they were forced to pay special attention to how they wrote Twi, especially since they couldn't have her busting out the big words on a show aimed mostly at kids. I can't really remember how Twilight was characterized in it, but Lilpip of "Fallout: Equestria" similarly shows herself to be a clever and resourceful protagonist by being clever and resourceful.

You know that gag where the smart person says something in technical language, and then the regular folks get others to explain it? MLP's used that gag exactly once in two entire seasons. But fanfic has her using big words all the time.

There is a reason the pollysyllabic genius is rarely the/a primary protagonist. Even Holmes has Watson. One notable exception is Cryptonomicon, which has two really smart guys, WW2 Cryptographer Lawrence Waterhouse and modern day computer guy Randy. Waterhouse is, as his dialogue, actions, and thought processes show, really smart. And more than a little eccentric. He doesn't talk quite the same way as everyone, but is still accessible. Even his contemporary, Marine Cpl. Bobby Shaftoe, is fairly smart himself. Randy is a 90s guy, and he talks just like everyone else unless it gets technical, and so, more or less, do his colleagues. Here's a sample of all three!