HCC: High Concept Challenge 34, A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be

Tom Russell joltcity at gmail.com
Sun Dec 9 14:42:14 PST 2012


Hey everybody. It's been a while.

As some of you know, I've had some financial trouble for the last few years, and things were looking pretty desperate. I ain't out of the woods yet, not by a long-shot, but this year I did at last find full-time employment with a default management company about an hour's commute away. So I'm making something closer to almost-enough money (things are still very touch-and-go) and getting used to weird, arcane things like "paid time off" and "Christmas bonuses".

One drawback is that I'm finding it difficult to budget my free time; I wake at 7AM, come home between 6-7PM, and have to be in bed by 10:30 or so. That's a very small window of time-- a window that was much larger when I was making much less money, a window that afforded ample time for board-game design, movie-watching (and -making), and of course RACC.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately-- about striking that balance between making a living, actually living, and sleeping.  And I thought about how in the superhero genre, heroes who aren't independently wealthy or living in the Avengers Mansion seem to have it even harder: making a living, saving the world, actually living, and sleeping.

So! Your challenge!

Write a story about a protagonist who has some sort of genre-specific very-important but very-unpaid calling-- superhero, sorcerer, paranormal investigator, what-have-you-- as well as a "normal", forty-plus hours a week job, and the difficulty (or ease) with which they balance their two vocations, their personal lives, and the physical demands of the human body.

I'll set the deadline for December 31.


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