 Action/Adventure: May 11, 2011 Issue [#4381] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: Villains you love to hate Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Welcome to this week's edition of the WDC Action & Adventure Newsletter.
"As there is a use in medicines for poisons,
so the world cannot move without rogues."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Greetings, my fellow adventurers.
Consider the challengers to your quest, your adventure in prose or verse. Without a challenge, obstacles to overcome, it's not an adventure, but mere exercise in prose.
The villains, the antagonists, be hey mortal or of other ilk, have a reason for acting as they do. Your character, and readers, want to engage and overcome (or not) the obstacles the villain or antagonist throws their way.
These villains are the characters you love to hate ~ but do you hate them for the right reasons. Do you learn what makes them 'evil' and what drives them to be truly 'bad.' Maybe your villain isn't 100% evil - maybe he/she draws your sympathy. But to be a villain, he or she must be capable of doing some bad things; and they need to be convincing.
Villains who are evil 'just because' quickly get boring.
Your villain, just like your 'hero', needs a reason to act as he or she does, what drives the villain to be so villainous. Consider the following possibilities:
 Greed -- the desire or compulsion to have more money, power, more anything.
Power - To rule, command, be at that top of the heap (regardless the nature of the heap).
Revenge - To avenge a loved one, vengeance for past betrayal.
Fear - Yes, villains can be afraid - of a person, a country, a gender, you name it.
Knowledge - Being the first or only one to control others with knowledge, another form of greed I'd say?
Insanity - Yes, there are the nuts and crazies who will thwart your adventurer just because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hatred - The villain hates the adventurer, perhaps the result of a past encounter either with the adventurer or one who recalls the adventurer in mannerism or the quest. Hate can also be directed towards humanity in general, a city, nation, culture or form of being.
Not all evils are the same. Your 'evil' may be a born bully or fiend - or maybe the formerly bullied kid who becomes the real bad guy. Get to know your bad guy. It's important to your adventurer as well as your readers to know the why of your evildoer.
What was the turning point that made him evil? Was there
Sometimes you just need to get to know your villain just a little bit more. Even if you don't include everything into your story, knowing the back-story for your character can help. A few things that can help you give life to your villain include ~
How did they get there? What made them evil? Was it an event, a trauma? Was it their upbringing, their childhood - or lack of childhood? A physical difference or lack of difference?
What do they like? They have to like something or care for something in their life - a person, a beloved pet, a place called home, the scent of fresh cinnamon buns? There has to be something.
Consider writing the bad guy's story. It's a fun exercise and, whether or not the full story ends up in your adventure, knowing his or her story yourself, as writer, will translate to a more believable and real adventure to engage your readers.
Write On~engage your adventure!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Check out these adventures and I hope you let the writers know how they've engaged you with both the good guys and the bad guys with a comment, a review, or by engaging in the adventure
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Thank you for sharing this exploration, this adventure, with me. I invite you to explore both your adventurer - and your villain - and see how they interact to weave the adventure.
Until we next meet,
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading |
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