How long is long enough to become a badass?

[Ghost-of-a-Chance]

Simply put, my character X is fit-healthy—she kickboxes weekly, runs with her dogs daily, and has a regular routine—and she’s getting dragged to another world to be made into a badass for plot-identifying purposes. Part of that process will include possibly learning to harness some abilities imparted by a guardian spirit piggybacking on her like she’s the neighbor’s wi-fi. X will be trained by people of a much stronger species and there aren’t any shortcuts. 
How many days would be reasonable to allow for building X from fit to badass? I’m leaning toward between 400 and 600, but considering I’m comfortably chunky and too old and decrepit to care, it’s like a vegan offering opinions on steakhouses. We also have to keep in mind that the world keeps spinning while she’s gone; too long, and she’s likely to come back and find her bank account empty and all her shit on the auction block.

…anyone got any advice?

[Wilde_Guess]

Hi, Ghost-of-a-Chance and all.

My advice would be to make sure that whatever you do to train “X” makes sense in the world of your story, and that you explain it in a way that doesn’t bore the reader.  “X” is being transported to another world, and being given “mystical powers” by a guardian spirit.  So, you’ve already kissed reality goodbye.  You’re also implying that “X” is going to have physical strength beyond what is realistically possible for most human women under any “reality-realistic” circumstances.  Your “400 to 600” sounds like a number of days, so a period of between one and two years for “alien technology and training” or “exotic and forgotten non-Western cultural practices” to make “X” super-powerful can be explained.  Use more than one sentence, less than one book, and make it interesting enough that the reader is willing to continue suspending their disbelief.

Simple enough to say, but it’s a bitch to actually do; I know.  But I’m sure you can do it.

Good luck.

[Desiderius Price]

10 minutes ago, Wilde_Guess said:

Use more than one sentence, less than one book, and make it interesting enough that the reader is willing to continue suspending their disbelief.

Or make the training/fight itself a seven book series… (cough, cough… JKR)

More seriously, some episodes to the training might be realistic, portray an evolution from that elliptical wanna-be of the local fitness gym to the badass you want them to be.  Some mishaps along the way?   Is their life at a complete standstill?  Perhaps take something like… early on, being unable to open the pickle jar at the family reunion, to smashing the glass to shards toward the completion of their bad-ass training?

[BronxWench]

My question would be what sort of weaponry X is being trained to use along with the special abilities. If the guardian spirit is piggybacking on X, then learning the cues from the spirit isn’t going to take as long as learning how to fight with a bladed weapon with reasonable proficiency. Learning to use a projectile weapon is faster since it doesn’t require building both skill and muscle memory.

As far as physical conditioning, if the training is daily and intense, X might make it to badass in under 300 days given X is starting out as fit and healthy. Kickboxing and daily runs implies a seriously good foundation to build on.

[Ghost-of-a-Chance]

So, apparently when I wrote this out, I didn’t word it as well as I thought I did. (Overnights suck.) I also left plenty out because I didn’t want to include anything which could be used to identify the story when it’s finished. Privacy is important when you’re a closeted disaster-bi in the Bible Belt. Let me try again. X being character in question, A being the non-human allies, K being the non-human enemies, and D being the idjit who got kidnapped by the enemies and who now needs to be brought home. D also has a piggybacking spirit (nope, this one doesn’t do anything useful beyond keep people alive) and he and X are related.

The training is only part of the story—a means to an end rather than the whole plot—and other than one outburst from the piggybacker, I’m not pushing X’s abilities beyond anything humanly possible. The intention of her trainers (A) is to teach X to use the spirit’s abilities, or at the very least, how to not get killed during the final confrontation. Because X is human, however, she’s going to be fighting a losing battle. She’s fit, more so than the average American, perhaps, but trying to make her superhuman is impossible without breaking the rules I’ve laid down for the world. This is fantasy realism, not ‘screw it, tiny children can save the world and Santa Clause gives away weapons.’ It’s a spoiler, but…X is going to fail. Fantastically. She won’t be able to harness the spirit’s abilities—it’s an entirely separate entity, not a buff. She won’t be able to take down the baddies, or even fight the baddies. She’s human, and they’re far tougher with fewer weaknesses. She will, however, become a much stronger human, learn how to fight non-humans defensively without getting gutted, and discover that her humanity—or, more specifically, the critical way the C view her on account of her humanity—is one of her greatest strengths. Compare it to a tiny angry monkey demanding a fight while her big buff friends sneak in the back door and free D, then they all make use of a distraction to escape. X is the tiny angry monkey; all she has to do is scream loudly enough and keep their eyes on her.

Fighting-wise, I’m planning on the majority of said training involving endurance, strength, the usual, and some hand-to-hand, mostly defensive. I might include non-lethal weapons like staves at one point; the C mostly use their fists, claws, and teeth, but the use of bladed spears and daggers isn’t uncommon. I’m intentionally giving X only enough time to make marked improvements, but not enough to become, say, John Wick.

The timing is important because the date of the attack is supposed to coincide with another event, and that event occurs regularly. (For instance, a full moon, or something like it.) The first number of days (plus some) represents the number of days in a year on the A’s planet, while the second represents the number of days in a year on the C’s planet. Choosing a time closer to the first number would allow more opportunities to immerse X in the world of the A, the lives they live, and her love interest’s friends and family, but it might open up confusion regarding the timing of the event. Choosing a number closer to 600 would leave X experiencing all of this twice and risk her coming home to find herself declared dead despite the protective measures taken, but it would give more time for the romance between X and her love interest to grow more organically.

…I think I got the most of it this time. Anything else I missed, just ask. I really appreciate y’all’s help with this; Reddit’s writing sub is surprisingly judgy about asking for help with your writing, and you can only ask on the Fanfiction sub about original fiction so many times before getting the boot.

[Ghost-of-a-Chance]

Just a quick word. I’m putting writing on the back burner for a while. When I started this topic last night, I didn’t expect to get word this morning that my parents lost another furbaby. I grew up with that particular furball, and I’m devastated.

I’m going to spend a few days just hugging my cats. I’ll come back to this when I’m less likely to cry. This was the last thing I needed right now.

[Desiderius Price]

5 hours ago, Ghost-of-a-Chance said:

Just a quick word. I’m putting writing on the back burner for a while. When I started this topic last night, I didn’t expect to get word this morning that my parents lost another furbaby. I grew up with that particular furball, and I’m devastated.

I’m going to spend a few days just hugging my cats. I’ll come back to this when I’m less likely to cry. This was the last thing I needed right now.

Many sympathies.  I’ve got an episode/chapter of one of my stories that took a darker direction because I was starting to draft it when I lost a fur baby… (and I’m the human that discovered the queen cat had kittens).

[Desiderius Price]

7 hours ago, Ghost-of-a-Chance said:

So, apparently when I wrote this out, I didn’t word it as well as I thought I did. [snip]

While I saw this earlier today, I was at work and couldn’t exactly type out a lengthy reply.

My idea is to research the military, like average boot camp times, and training times for the elites like army rangers, navy seals, that sort of thing.  As there’s aliens involved, maybe slip some “bad-ass-powder” formulation into X’s food to accelerate the progression?