About the story - "Super Screwup"

It isn't easy being the younger brother of the greatest super hero on Earth. Even though Marvin has some superpowers of his own, things never seem to work out quite right for him and he seems to be the cause of trouble much more often than the solution to it. Things get dicey when an especially nasty supervillain pops up to threaten the world while Marvin's brother Megafantastic Man is off in space helping out an alien world. It seems like Marvin is the only hope to save the day. Earth just might be in really big trouble.

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About the author - Wuckster
Ethan Slaughter aka Wuckster has written three full length novels, two novellas, and numerous short stories. He is currently alternating between procrastinating from working on his fourth novel and procrastinating from working on his third novella. He has a particular fondness for absurd humor, but has been known to dabble in sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and any other genre that catches his fancy. When not writing fiction, he often scratches the creative itch by writing and recording songs at home under his musical persona Cosmic Cairns. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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"Say, did you hear I saved the world from an evil madman with a supercharged nuclear weapon while you were gone?"

- from Super Screwup

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Q. What makes you start writing on Wattpad? What is the most memorable moment you have encountered here?

I discovered Wattpad in 2013. I had gone back to school in 2011 in hopes of making a career change and having just graduated, but not having much luck finding a job, I found I suddenly had some time on my hands for the first time in quite a while. I decided to dust off my first novel Tourist Trap, which I had finished writing all the way back in 2004. I had tried sending out query letters about it, but wasn't getting anywhere, so I set it aside and pursued other things. I felt bad that I had kind of "abandoned" it, so in 2013 I thought I'd look around and see if the landscape had changed at all since 2004 and that's when I stumbled on Wattpad. I decided to test the waters and posted a couple chapters and within a couple days I already had some reads and comments, which encouraged me to post the rest of the book. The most memorable moment I've had on Wattpad was when I was contacted by the ambassadors to "feature" Tourist Trap on the site. This was by far the most attention I'd ever had focused on my writing and it brought in a large influx of readers and commenters, which was a lot of fun. Especially since I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that nobody was ever going to read my book. It also brought a lot of comments to the effect of "Where is the sequel?" which provided the kick in the pants I needed to actually write one.  

Q. Your book "Super Screwup" is about two brothers who have superpowers — but Marvin happens to be the one who causes more trouble than saving the day compared to his brother Megafantastic Man. Why did you choose to write this story that way and give this kind of family/sibling type of bond?

"Super Screwup" was written for ONC 2022, and was based on a prompt "With great power comes great irresponsibility," which is a play on the famous Spider-Man quote. The idea of a really irresponsible superhero appealed to me and it seemed to make a lot of sense that he would have a "perfect" older sibling whose example he could never live up to. There are a lot of real life cases of famous successful people who have siblings that just can't seem to measure up. For instance the U.S. President Bill Clinton had a younger half-brother Roger, who was famously a bit of a screwup and had done some jail time for drug possession. Talk about not living up to the standards of your older sibling! That was the type of dynamic I was going for in this story.

Q. "Super Screwup" is such an intriguing name for a superhero story. Did you use this name originally? And what details in the story can prove this name best suits the story?

The title came to me pretty much immediately when I came up with the concept. I didn't come up with titles for my first couple books until after I finished writing them, so this was a a bit of a change for me. It seemed to encapsulate very clearly what I had in mind. I think you can see the title is very fitting from Marvin's actions throughout the story as he seems to constantly make bad decisions, but there's a perfect example right off the bat in chapter 1, when we discover Marvin has been jailed after a night at the local bar devolves into an extended episode of disorderly conduct, drug use, fighting, drunk driving, possible kidnapping charges, destruction of property, and identity theft among other infractions. I took it to heart when the prompt mentioned "great irresponsibility." I do think it's important to note that Marvin generally means well and doesn't intend to cause the damage that he does. He's just kind of immature, susceptible to peer pressure, and likes to have a good time. I think, in essence, that's what makes him a screwup. If he intended to do bad things he would be a villain, but when you get to know him, he's not really a bad guy. The fact that he has super powers has a way of greatly increasing the collateral damage that he causes when he messes up.

Q. Since it is ONC season, what is your inspiration and motivation to write an ONC work in a limited time duration?

I have a tendency to procrastinate when left to my own devices, so for me it's actually good to have deadlines. It keeps me focused and knowing I have to have a certain amount of words written by a certain date helps to light a fire under me and keep me moving. There are always a lot of great prompts for the ONC, which can spark your imagination. Additionally it seems like a lot of people participate in it, so it really feels like you're part of a community and that makes it more fun as well.

Q. What would you rather have: A robotic younger brother in a scientific world or a mermaid little sister in a fantasy world?

In real life I have two older brothers. I've never had a younger sibling or a sister period. I feel like we kind of do live in a scientific world and robot siblings might not be such a far-fetched idea, so for that reason I think I'd rather live in a fantasy world and have a mermaid little sister. I would definitely try to work out some sort of deal with her where she would dive down to sunken wrecks and retrieve treasure for me and in return I'd feed her sardines. Or, you know, whatever else she might want that I had it in my power to provide. I don't know any princes so I probably couldn't set her up with royalty, but if she wanted to date any land-dwelling unemployed musicians, I think I could arrange that.

Q. What is your advice for new writers who want to try writing themes revolving around a healthy relationship?

If you're a new writer the best advice I can give on any subject is to try to make things feel authentic. Not necessarily "real" because a lot of what's fun about writing is going to places that don't exist. However, even in the most fantastical settings, if you have more than one character interacting with each other, they're going to have some sort of relationship. The good thing is relationships are all around us in real life so we can certainly observe and study them, whether our own relationships or other people's. Relationships come in a wide variety whether it be romantic, familial, friends, colleagues, professional, antagonistic, casual, etc. They can also be very complex, so it might be harder than it initially seems to define what a "healthy" relationship is. After all, many times the seemingly "perfect couple" falls apart while an oddly matched pair sometimes has a long-lasting and fulfilling relationship. Sometimes it's easier to identify what makes a relationship toxic, but that can be useful information as well. I personally believe a healthy relationship involves both parties getting something meaningful from it and probably giving something to it as well. At the end of the day the writer has to understand what they believe a healthy relationship is and then communicate that idea to the reader. Perhaps easier said than done, but going back to authenticity, the more it feels "true" and "genuine" to you, the more likely it is to come across that way to readers. 

Thank you so much for joining this talk!

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~ More to come, friends.