Thankful for Stan Lee a True Superhero, a Creative Writer

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

I heard of Stan Lee’s death from my daughter-in-law via text. She was understandably upset. She is the Marvel Superhero expert in our family. She participates in and attends Comic Con International conventions. She has expanded my limited knowledge in the field. It’s a joy to watch her talk about the experiences. To quote her, “He (Stan Lee) either created or co-created almost all of my favorite Marvel heroes.”

I’m in awe of the creativity of the mind of Stan Lee. Something I did not know was that Stan Lee “took over as Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics in 1941 at age 19.” Can you imagine? His rise to editor was a combination of talent but mainly due to historical events. At age 19, Lee worked in the mail room of Marvel Comics when most of the senior Marvel writers were going off to WWII. His appointment as editor forever shaped Marvel Comics future. He was a writer with an unlimited imagination.

Actor “Hugh Jackman, who benefited from Stan Lee’s writing, paid tribute to a man who had a massive impact on his career: Stan Lee. The actor and Late Show host Stephen Colbert shared kind words and memories of the Marvel Comics creator, who died at the age of 95 this week. ‘To the family and to the legions of fans, I remember Stan as a true gentleman who had this glint in his eye,’ Jackman said. ‘He’s a creative genius, he thought outside the box, he created a whole universe, he changed the lives of many people, mine included.’”

“Jackman recalled, ‘If you ever want to get a clear understanding of where you are in the world, and you think, ‘I’m Wolverine, I’m walking into Comic Con, this is my spot, right? This is a good day for me,’ I was on a red carpet and I was the only one on there and no one was taking my photo because at the other end was Stan Lee.’”

A recent article in Business Insider shows how world events contributed to Stan Lee’s creativity that equated to success for Marvel Comics. “Lee's time in the Army came just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Army installed the young Stanley Martin Lieber (Lee's birth name, he changed it to his pen name later) as a telephone pole lineman. After realizing it made a mistake, he was moved to the training film division to create posters and worked as a writer of films, shorts, and comics for the duration of the war. Throughout his life, Lee would use his experiences to influence his characters and his later works — and the Army was a small but significant part of it.”

Clearly, Stan Lee’s fans are everywhere. Another fan was my local barista. The day after Stan Lee’s death, I placed an order in the drive through of my local coffee shop. After taking my order, the barista repeated my order and then said, “You’re a superhero.” I smiled and said “Stan Lee fan?” The barista replied, “Absolutely.” This random exchange makes me smile. It makes me want to explore the world of Stan Lee’s creation. What an author of immense creativity, who created worlds for us all to enjoy. Can you imagine a world without the stories of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor and the X-Men? 

Thank you, Stan Lee. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

How to Write What You Don’t Know

By Becky Muth

One bit of advice every author hears in his or her lifetime is write what you know. That’s great, but what happens when you feel inspired to write about something you don’t know? What happens when characters take us to the places we’ve never been and situations we’ve yet to experience? You don’t have to be a science fiction or fantasy writer to build new worlds or put your characters in unfamiliar situations.

Authors write what they don’t know every day. Cozy mystery author Susan Boyer, unlike the main character in her Liz Talbot series, isn’t a private investigator who carries her Sig 9 in her Kate Spade handbag. Elizabeth Spann Craig isn’t an octogenarian retired schoolteacher, but the titular character of her Myrtle Clover Series is. And unlike Vanessa, one of the main characters in my novelette, Screaming Jenny, I’m not a history buff with a dislike for technology.

The more I write, the more I learn to sit back and enjoy the ride when my characters drag me into the great unknown. In the beginning, I fought the characters of my work in progress (WIP) on this to the point where I would stop writing for weeks at a time. Having learned my lesson, now learning new things is one of my favorite parts of the writing process.

When writing what I don’t know, I like to follow my imagination as far as I can. I’ve never run through the woods while clutching a human heart, been buried alive, or hired the Pinkertons. This didn’t stop me from writing about those situations. When I reached the part I didn’t know, then I did the research.

Here are some tips to help you write what you don’t know:

Go to the library. American comic book writer Stan Lee says the library card is the most important card in his wallet. It should be the most important card in every writer’s wallet. Although Google and Wikipedia offer endless amounts of information, for me there’s nothing like cracking open a book and jotting notes down in a journal within the hushed confines of my local library.

Talk to experts who have the information you need. Talking to an expert will often give you more than enough information to add realistic details to your WIP. At the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Fiction Writers Institute conference, keynote speaker Tess Gerritsen spoke about researching her novel, GRAVITY, which included talking with NASA scientists.

Read random Wikipedia articles. Have you ever used the “Random article” feature on Wikipedia? I’m a little A.D.D. so for me, this feature is good and bad. The good news is, you can learn all sorts of things you don’t know. On the downside, you can waste hours learning all sorts of things that are useless for enhancing your current WIP, but that may inspire future plots.

A final word of advice is that if you don’t know something and are unable to research it, don’t lie about it. Authors often walk a fine line between fiction and falsehood. It’s better to omit something you don’t know than to mislead your readers. After all, a reader who loves your book will tell others about it. Word-of-mouth is always more genuine than any type of social media advertisement.

The next time a character drags you into a situation you don’t know, strap into your seat because you’re in for roller coaster ride of twists and turns into new literary territory. What you learn along the way could mean the difference between a mediocre plot and a blockbuster storyline.

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Becky Muth lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband and their two sons. She loves attending events where she can interact with other writers and readers. When she's not writing or reading, Becky enjoys spending time with her family, knitting, and drawing pet portraits. You can visit her blog at beckymuth.com or follow her on most social media networks under Author Becky Muth. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorbeckymuth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorbeckymuth/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorbeckymuth/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/authorbeckymuth/