Nova Rising
After failing to save her own partner, the superhero called Nova is a haunted shell of her former self until a woman from an alternate reality appears seeking help – a woman who looks exactly like her dead partner.
Share
Have an account? Sign In Now
A worn-down superhero is forced to face her past when she’s contacted by the spirit of her dead partner
More concise, but “face her past” seems to be the subjective need. What’s the objective goal? What is the problem that urgently needs to be solved here and now?
(The solving of the present problem would entail resolving the subject need from the past.)
I do like the “face her past” part, but it’s definitely not “the spirit of her dead partner”. As stated, this is a woman from an alternate reality, a parallel universe, who happens to look exactly like the partner. She’s a doppelganger, a look-alike. “Worn-down” isn’t really a good description; More like “consumed with grief”.
The objective goal is to help this mysterious look-alike. The fact that she resembles the partner is motivation. Even though Nova knows intellectually that this isn’t her partner, emotionally she sees this as a second chance.
Good stuff. Keep it coming!
Guilt ridden over the death of her partner, a washed out superhero has a chance at redemption when she is visited by the spirit of her dead partner, who comes seeking help.
Guilt ridden over the death of her partner, a Superhero has a chance at redemption when she is visited by her dead partners doppelganger from an alternate reality, who comes seeking help.
Like this one better. Suggest more urgency: her dead partner doesn’t come seeking help — she comes desperately needing help — or else.
Great effort Jeremy 😀 Your writing is improving in leaps and bounds.
It isn’t a “spirit”, it’s an actual person. And it’s not her partner, it’s a look-alike.
Again, it isn’t a spirit, nor is it actually her partner. I’m not sure why this “spirit” idea keeps coming up.
Good, but do I really want to make the redemption angle so in-your-face? She’s not consciously seeking redemption, she just feels compelled to help. Also, I want to avoid the word “doppelganger” because it carries that “spirit” connotation for some people.
Here’s another piece of the story that might help: Nova’s primary power is as a healer. In fact she is the rarest and most powerful of all healers, a type referred to as “angels”, who are born only once every few generations. That makes her failure to save her partner even more guilt-ridden.
Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions and comments. It definitely helps to look at different angles.
It keeps coming up because it’s hard getting a handle on what kind of… whatever this visage is supposed to be. Always a challenge in sci-fi and fantasy genres.
Yeah, the redemption theme is used so often may read like a gimmick in a logline. But it’s used so often because it works: a character struggling for redemption is more sympathetic.
Is the resemblance to the dead partner merely coincidental or is the challenge the “doppelganger” faces in her dimension similar to the one that led to the death of the partner? Is this a real second chance for the protagonist or simply an imagined one? Is there more to the protag’s motivation than the logline indicates?
Is the resemblance of the “doppelganger” to the dead partner merely coincidental or is she facing a challenge in her dimension similar to the one that caused the death of the partner? Is this a real second chance for the protagonist or merely an imagined one? Is the protag’s motivation greater than the logline indicates?
I think the redemption angle does have to be ‘so in-your-face’… To me it is the crux of the whole story (just going off your logline of course). Maybe it could be phrased differently..?
Nova is ‘a shell of her former self’… why? Because she ‘failed to save her own partner’. I’m assuming (maybe a bit of a leap…) but that because she blames herself over the death of her partner she can no longer perform her unique healing abilities..? The only way over this is through some kind of redemption, which she has an opportunity to do when the doppelganger of her dead partner appears ‘desperately seeking her help’ (thanks to dpg, there) — I guess redemption is her need, helping her dead partners doppelganger is her desire, or, rediscovering her healing abilities to help the doppelganger of her dear partner is her desire…
…’She?s not consciously seeking redemption, she just feels compelled to help…’ — need is an unconscious compulsion — desire is conscious.
Also, seeing as though she is some kind of mystical healer, ‘Superhero’ I think gives a misleading perception of what kind of film this is. I hear Superhero and I think “The Avengers/ Superman/ Spiderman/ The Hulk/ IronMan etc etc etc… Maybe a Superhero is what she is, but she sounds more ‘magical/ mystical’ to me.
I think providing more context of the world in which this takes place might help to define Nova — does it take place in our universe/ galaxy? In our present, or in our future? Obviously tricky with such a unique world (hero with magical healing powers/ doppelgangers from alternate realities…), and you want to keep it concise as possible, but in the end I think it would be worth it.
Very original — Good luck.
When the doppelganger of her dead partner arrives from a parallel universe desperately seeking her help, a mystical healer must overcome her own feeling of guilt if she is to regain her magical powers and save two universes from simultaneous destruction.
A lot of creative license here with the whole “save two universes from simultaneous destruction” bit — but just wanted to up the anti…
How about this:
When her dead partners look-alike comes to her for help, a disgraced superhero gets a chance for redemption when the two hunt her sidekicks killer.