The third DIY MFA prompt had us take a short online quiz to determine our “storytelling superpower.” This provides a glimpse at the types of stories you love reading, watching and writing. You can take the quiz here.

I took the quiz twice a couple weeks apart and got two different results. Initially I got the Protector, and then I got the Survivor.

It is pretty amazing how directly the Protector connects with my primary current work in progress. I am writing an action-adventure novel focused on an elite team of soldiers and scientists who battle odd and unusual threats to the world. It’s sort of like Doc Savage and his five sidekicks with a strong supernatural/horror element. This group has appeared in one short story, which you can read here if you enjoy that pulp action-adventure sort of thing. I’m now taking them book length.

Interestingly enough, though, the sort of superhero high adventure described as the Protector’s bread and butter is really just one type of writing I enjoy. In fact, my primary focus tends to be much darker and weirder, both in what I read and in what I write. I’m not sure which “superpower” would lead one to have an affinity for the works of writers like Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, Brian Evenson, John Padgett and others writing in the strange realms of weird fiction. Is “Dark Dreamer” a superpower? How about “edge walker”?

At any rate, it’s a fun little quiz to take that gets you thinking about your approach to writing.