I've created a character for a story I have in the works of writing, she essentially has a superpower of being able to conjure/manipulate light. But I wanted to balance this with her having photophobia and also giving some rep to people with lesser known disorders. So how would she live her life on a daily basis? How do you would use light powers if you were given them?
This is super comprehensive! ☝️ I second the idea of taking away light or adjusting the wavelengths to my needs on command. I would definitely be less of a human lightning bug, and way more of a walking black hole or moving shadow for my own comfort/function.
I don't have much more to add, although I do wonder to what extent you intend to have your character affected in this way. For some, this condition is an annoyance and minor inconvenience. For others, it is highly debilitating and a severe detriment to quality of life. I know lots of people in this day and age get hung up on "representation" - whatever they deem that to mean at any given moment. I guess what I'm getting at is this: don't worry overly much about how accurate or encompassing your character is of this condition. Bc at the end of the day, I think we'd all rather be known for our qualities as a unique individual rather than for whatever disability/illness/condition we have.
Go forth and create cool stories! 😎🙏
Yeah, I'd be like Olaf with his little flurry, but then me with my own dark cloud of shade.
One thing that I'm assuming someone with photophobia would have though, that if they were to use light to... I don't know, blind a bad guy, they would be out of commission lying in bed with a serious headache for 3 days afterwards.
Absolutely! I know I'd be puking and bawling with a horrendous migraine. Shudder 🤢😅
And the puking makes the stabby headache worse. Can't win. *sadface*
Oh yeah that’s completely valid!! And I love the walking black hole of darkness idea lol. But one thing I do my best on is to just write people as people. I very much like to include representation and I think it can be very educational and helpful, plus it adds more diversity and depth to works of fiction. But I fully understand that we are more than the sum of our parts and more than any kind of condition or disorder. But that being said, I have a need for being accurate as I can be with anything. Even in a world of superpowers and magic
Wow!! Thank you so much for the really in-depth explanation! I very much do my best to incorporate actual physics and science to superpowers to make them more busted/limited/interesting so I’m really glad you took that approach too! When I write with Light Abilities/Magic it is usually static on the EM spectrum to only be the visible sort of light. (Although I do some bending of the rules slightly for sci-fi shit like solidifying light. I’m very much in love with the idea of bending light to effectively be invisible tho, that’s super clever and dunno why I didn’t think of it 😭
Don't worry about it! 😂 As a vampire I've had centuries to ponder the horror that is light!
Best of luck with your story
The way you made it sound, the power rather sounds like shadow manipulation than light manipulation.
Bending light to avoid the light is one thing and making the light disappear, now that soundslike shadow manipulation.
Technicaly, there's no such thing as shadows! Only the absence of light. If you want to control shadows all you need to do is tell light to go somewhere else.
It was a good thought though! Might work in a fantasy setting but not IRL if that's what you're going for. 🙂
Yeah I completely agree! And thankfully this is where it can work actually. You can effectively recreate darkness manipulation with a light power like this. But for a dark manipulation it’d be a variation in depth. That way they can still be their own things, but still be grounded enough in reality
BUUUUT 😹😹😹 It IS a fantasy world. I mean come mate, it's superpowers and why the bloody hell do we need both shadow manipulation AND light manipulation if ya want to control shadows with the power that's literally called Light Manipulation?
What? 'It was a good thought! Might world in a fantasy setting but not IRL' oh Devils, I didn't know that superpowers like light manipulation are an irl thing ans not a fantasy fiction. 😹😹😹 when did humans got superpowers irl? That's a news for me.
I mean, I do my best to make everything as grounded to reality as I can alongside psuedo-science and stuff like superpowers. Umbrakinesis (darkness manipulation) would just be a differently developed Light Manipulation ability.
Oh come on 😹😹😹 I am working on an IF on twine too and it's superpowers to and I used both shadow and lihht manipulation along with with couple dozen other powers and abilities. I did a massively shit load of world building,..
what I meant is that if there already is a shadow manipulation power why the bloody hell do we male light manipulation/photokinesis to bend/control shadows? If that's the power then say it as it is that it's shadow [darkness] manipulation/umbrakinesis
Light Manipulation is moreso about the bending of light, and what you can do with that. It has varying levels of control and usage. You can definitely use it for a Psuedo-Umbrakinesis. But if you have a developed Umbrakinesis then you can go more into depth with the lack of light. The manipulation of space unaffected by the EM Spectrum rather than just bending photons away from a space. Plus limitations and variations of things exist especially superpowers.
Edit: Typo from autocorrect
Tbh it all depends on how bad the photophobia is and how powerful the power is and it's limits. For me it's like I also have daylight aversion and I actually get sick simply by staying in daylight for too long with skin and eye protection. I get migraine level headaches, nauseous and disorientation. Both my irises has partial heterochromia and sharp lights and even bright colors hurts like shit, worse than migraine.
As for my suggestion, bending light to her [protag character, I assume?] advantage rathen than create or fire light rays/blasts.
As for forming her life and routine around this power, give her some hard tech goggles or something like that to protect herself from getting done by her own light for one thing.
Also I'm to my luck an absolute Nyctophile, so having daylight aversion, photo sensitivity isn't that bad for me. I'm all 'bout nighttime and darkness/shades/shadows. Comgorted by nighttime/darkness more than I am irritated by daylight and bright lights.
Also, for me photophobia doesn't mean I am scared of lights/sun/daylight, it actually makes me sick and that's annoying. So, photophobia is more of an irritation for me.
OP, is it a linear fiction? Hope you'll make it through, G'Luck.
Hey thanks for sharing! This helps a ton fr. Definitely going to go with high-tech stuff here as I think that really works! But yeah the light bending rather than conjuring is defs a solid idea. Also best of luck to you!
And is this story you're working on? Is it a linear fiction?
How do you mean?
The narrative structure, Is it a straight and goes in a single line or is it interactive fiction? Even if it's linear, is it beginning, middle and end in order? And which perspective ia the story gonna be?
Ohh I see, it’ll be a linear story yeah! It’s from her perspective and her brother! They are both in their late teens/young adult years. But it’s a story in a multiverse of many many others I’ve written!
😹😹😹 remember the IF [Interactive Fiction, that is] (It's work in progress name is Beyond the Veil) I am working on, it's set in multi-dimensional build. MC, main character is a dying teen that becomes most powerful mortal. OP character, gets to play/read as an evil character...
My other IF (WiP name Broken Worlds), now that... Is a bit of mind numbing [mostly] post apocalyptic parallel worlds with dozens of variations main characters with crazy extremely small to completely variant differences.
Oooh that sounds fun! IF is really fun tbh and I’ve wrote some IF myself! Although rn LF is my main focus for my specific goals as of now lol for screenplay. But I am also working on a video game that’s a little bit of a secret project that helps establish a solid foundation in the Vast Multiverse I’ve created (been writing content for literally 8 years lol)
I generally write linear stories just to write 😹😹😹 I write 'em and forget 'bout 'em.
Tinted glasses, lamps over ceiling light, sunglasses indoors, squinting, avoiding the direction of light source, pain when there’s only one bright light source in a dark room, looking sleepy in daylight, hats and hoods, lays forehead on table to take a break
The only way is use light is to dim it, use the lack of it against others I guess
Share the book once you’re done writing it, I’d love to give it a go
I appreciate your feedback alot, thank you for sharing! And actually I said story but it’s a screenplay being written ;P I’ll do my best to keep you updated!
For one you should have an underlying cause for the Photophobia since it's a symptom according to everyone I've spoken to. I have extreme photophobia though I don't know the cause yet. I'm bringing it up to my PCP during my next appointment in July. My Optomologist suggested it is probably because I get migraines. I can't look at bright things when the sun reflects off them and I hate turning on the light in the bathroom. I have this smaller light I usually turn on instead. when it's sunny out and the sky is clear I've got a headache. It's like a dull ache if I'm wearing my transitional lenses. The doctor says I should wear sunglasses inside so I'm gonna do that. I'm trying to get some blackout curtains hung up in my new place because the light that comes in through the blinds is irritating while the sun is up. It's great once the sun starts to set and is blocked by things outside. I have my blue light filter on always and I use night mode all day on my phone. I try to keep my brightness low though I turn it up to show other people things on the phone or to see outside. I wear an eye mask at night. Sometimes if I have a migraine I can feel the light when my eyes are closed, probably because I know it's there, my mind screwing me over.
I personally look at the ground a lot when I’m in a room that isn’t super dim. I also squint a lot and sometimes have my eyes start uncontrollably twitching and watering, which I can only reconcile by closing my eyes completely for a few minutes.
Light also causes floaters for me, like colored clouds obstructing my vision. They move with my pupils and are the shape of whatever I was looking at that was brighter than the rest of my environment. Usually I can see through them, but sometimes I can’t.
My room is dark and other people can’t see well in it. Because of my avoidance of light, I am pretty pale, so if your character doesn’t spend much time outside you could incorporate that into their design one way or another. I use sunglasses whenever I’m not in my room.
If I had light powers I would probably slowly dim lights of the rooms I’m in, especially in public areas. It would be hard to notice it’s happening until it’s actually somewhat dim.
But if you’re talking about somewhat unlimited light powers, I would probably use it as a way to trick people with false images, idk there’s a ton of possibilities. I could be invisible or control the amount of light that makes it into my retinas. Maybe if it’s a superhero thing you can give your character the weakness that they can only create light, not deduct it, like a two-way mirror kinda.
It would also be kinda mean, because they wouldn’t be able to dim any of it. That would add a limit to the otherwise nearly unlimited light powers, along with making it kinda ironic which is what I thought you were going for.
So basically hologram/flashbang powers that can be figured out with flashlights and whatever.
Well that's interesting! I think my inclination would be more in line with removing light than really using light.
For me, it's just uncomfortable when there's too much light so I use super dark shades most of the time. Large light differences are uncomfortable too so I'd rather have the light on while watching TV and then wear sunglasses as opposed to using no sunglasses with just the TV on. I suppose light powers could make that whole process easier.
So how would I use light powers? Probably just make the light avoid me. You'd be outside on a sunny day and this black hole/cloud of darkness walks by: that'd be me. I guess I'd be better at hiding in shadows if I controlled light.
You could do some fun things like organize light like a polarising lens does. For example that can allow you to see clearly below the surface of the water with no reflections.
You could bend light around yourself so you're invisible. The military are currently working on doing this with fiber optics.
The obvious answer is you could blind people with light or amplify light like a laser does.
Are there limits to what spectrum of light I could control? Visible light is just a small band on the EM spectrum, X rays and radio waves are the same kind of energy just at a different frequency. That would give you a lot more uses. UV and Infrared have some great uses too and are much closer to the visible spectrum.
Does that help? I'll see if I can think of anything else