BE A HERO AT VILLAINY

Lately I’ve been writing about characters, what makes them work and how to do them better. I’ve looked at the hero and anti-hero and we’ve examined how to write more depth and give our characters the real touch.

But what about the villains, the real antagonists, the truly bad guys (and gals)? (For our purposes here, I will refer to the bad guys as “he” or “they” and that is NOT meant to exclude the most terrific evil villainesses!).

What makes the reader love a villain? Is it the clothes? The style of your writing? The weapon he uses? Is it the POV or the struggle of his character? What’s the secret to a writing your best?

We writers are told to make characters relateable but how do we do that and make a villain seem true?  Some suggest that it’s good to use shame or guilt to inspire turning to the “dark side.” Using the character’s foibles against him makes a good backstory but doesn’t endear the character per say. Their personal journey into darkness is interesting but that alone will not keep me with him.

It’s the STORY and the one issue that motivates and drives the story that makes me go with an author to the dark side. What I can relate to is a problem and how the bad guy intends to solve it. The hero and the villain will tackle the problem differently and independently (most likely) and I am going along with each because I NEED to know how it works out and who does the best job.

Yes, I want to feel their pain but I don’t want to know why the pain matters. I want to be where they are, when they are. Then I will have empathy or sympathy, or even delicious hatred (as the author molds me). Why the pain exists isn’t as important as what the villain intends to do about it.

I’ve written about making characters real by using dialogue that feels authentic. You do that in character mistakes. Yes, your villain’s limitations are interesting but so are their screw-ups and their obstacles. When they mess up, they are suddenly human, and we FEEL for them, even when we know they are the bad guy.

We cheer for a villain who won’t go down. We love to hate the clever, the sneaky, the witty, the nice ones who can also be very mean. Most of all, we love their stories because they mirror the struggles and mistakes of the protagonist. They share the same goals. Different purpose. Different reason. Same desire. Different use of it. Think of when a bad guy and a good guy have a bonding moment (or a m/f relationship). They may share the same outlook or same desire, but the reason for their want is what makes the story hum. 

As American author Chuck Clousterman said, “The villain is the person who knows the most but who cares the least.”

Remember that most coaches and teachers will tell you that the villain IS the story:

• A murder isn’t about death. It’s about the mystery of it, the whodunit and why the villain hid it.
• A theft isn’t about the stealing. It’s about the reason, the need to steal. Whodunnit certainly but how. We need to know why yes, but more important is what happens next because of the theft?
• Do we always need a happily ever after? No, because real life doesn’t work that way and villains can keep us coming back because we’ll HOPE to find it and we’ll be nodding our heads when it doesn’t happen. 

We hear a great deal about the villains “moral dilemma” and this is the choice the villain made and why he must continue doing what he does or has planned. THIS is what separates the villain from the protagonist and why the villain is the most important character.

Most of all, I think most villains don’t see themselves as the “bad” guy. They are only doing what they think they are forced to do for personal, professional, or moral reasons. This is their whole reason for being.

Villains then are the most necessary, the most dynamic, and the whole reason for the story.

Look for darkness around the corner. Turn out the lights and create the drama. Make the reader – and me – believe in the darkness and we will become your villains “frenemy,” fall in love when the lights go out and, though I hope the good guys win, I can be convinced to be content when they do not.

Villains forever! Make yours work and you will be a reader’s hero of villainy.

Thanks for stopping by.
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

ARE YOUR CHARACTERS REAL TO THE READER?

I’ve been on a character-defining kick of late. You can see my latest Fireside with the Phoenix chat video here and watch me go nuts as I show you how to examine your character for real features. (You can also see how I screwed up and forgot to allow my phone to auto rotate!). I like characters that seem real, even if they are supernatural or alien. Characters that have “issues” and quirks are some of the most fun.

Here’s a question I posed a few years ago: What’s your Quirk?

I have a thing about sitting with my back to a front door when in a restaurant or anywhere that has people moving in and out. Comes from my father who served in the military, was a crew chief in Korea, and who didn’t like the idea of anyone “sneaking up” on him. I came to see the value in this philosophy and, also having served in the military, I saw it as a smart defensive posture. This philosophy is a permanent part of me. I act on it without thinking. I can sit sideways to the door though this will make me a little uncomfortable. This is my quirk.

A friend of mine claims she isn’t superstitious but when she sits down to eat, she always turns her spoons upside down so that the hump faces up. When I asked why, she shrugged and said, it was something she started as a kid. Her grandmother told her that bad luck settles in the cracks and bowls. She would rather not consume any bad luck or bad karma, so she turns her spoons upside down. Quirky.

Do you have a little quirk that makes your friend smile? (or wince?)

When we read books, the characters that stand out to us have characteristics that become classic or are indelible. We remember things that are original as well as beautiful or classic. Iconic characters have physical characteristics that are memorable, sayings that are endearing or catchy, and habits that make characters easy to understand.  And when they are quirky, well, that can make us smile and laugh because their foibles or quirks are ours!

From biting the nails, to turning spoons upside down, to the cop who can’t sit with his back to the door, the quirk is what makes the character real. Think of Ron Weasley from Harry Potter and his ratty, second-hand clothes. Think of an evil villain who whistles just before he kills. Think of Scarlet O’Hara who procrastinated with “tomorrow is another day.” Are your characters stereotypes?

Are your characters imbued with quirks that can make them seem more real or endearing? Do they do things that make us smile and laugh or want to scream, “run!”  as we read?

Switch things up. Take one of your characters and change them. I call it “re-coloring.” Not just skin, but qualities and emotions, motives and emotions. Make them different. Lose the stereotypes. Forget the norms. How do they change?

Do yourself a favor and look at your character sheets. Find ways to add a quirk, something unique. If you do, you will give your book flavor and the character will become more three-dimensional for it. Those are the characters we want to know. They will be the characters we remember long after the last page.

Just like my friends who make room for me so I don’t have to sit with my back to the door. Quirky. But they remember!  I try to make my characters memorable not because they are perfect. But because they aren’t and that makes them real.

How about you — are your characters REAL or just pretending? We might only pretend to like them if that’s the case.

Thanks for stopping by! Tell me what you thought of my video, if you would. And tell me how you develop your characters into real people.

I remain,
Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

Writing is a solitary business. Writers build offices, private “caves,” or special hideaway places to where they can retreat and live in worlds they create and with people they birth. These absences might be for a few minutes, a few hours, or become the hibernation of an entire year, depending on the writers and their projects.

Plenty of writing pundits offer advice on this solitude. Some will declare that such time away is necessary and must happen if a writer is to succeed. Other experts will shame writers declaring that withdrawal into a special, private place is self-indulgent nonsense and unnecessary. Other authors – best-selling trendsetters – use their success to guide and direct authors for or against this solitude. Right or wrong, what is the “write” way? 

There is no one way despite all of the voices who declare they know.

I would like to offer that the solitude is a writer’s singular choice. Personally, I believe every writer needs a designated space designed for that writer where creation and imagination are the primary purpose. Just as the office worker has his or her own desk and space (even a cubicle), so does the writer require a designated space. This special “corner” announces “this is my work,” and must be respected. This special place gives a writer a sense of purpose and a private place to meet that purpose. As I said in the beginning, writing is a solitary business and should be treated as a business.

But I must also insist that though the writing work is done in solitude, writers cannot afford to live their lives alone. I don’t mean the kind of singleness that comes with living alone. Your living status, marital status, or sexual need isn’t what I mean by alone. Writers require contact. Writers need people.

And how, you ask, does that meet up with the solitary writer?

You see them in the coffee shop, libraries, on the grass under a tree — the writer working on a laptop, or writing in a notebook, earbuds or headphones on. These are solitary writers but they are not truly alone. They come out of their writer caves to mingle, to find like folks and get understanding smiles, to listen to stray conversations, and generally to observe behaviors. Writers need input to keep their work interesting and the best way to get it is to emerge into the world and be with the very people that end up as characters in the stories and novels readers come to demand.

My attitude is authors need people. They don’t always WANT them, but they – we, me – NEED them. People are fodder (sorry, not flattering, but true). And writers want to observe and listen in their solitude place, separate and alone. That doesn’t mean no socializing because writers certainly know how to “get down and dirty” with the rest of the world. But writing can only be done alone (even sitting in a crowd of people, the headspace is solitary).

(Beloved writers who are fun-loving cut-ups)

Wait, you say, there are writers who chose to be alone and without people!

Yes, there are writers who opted out of public life and chose seclusion instead: Bill Watterson (author of Calvin and Hobbs), Emily Dickinson (author of many books after death), Harper Lee (author, To Kill a Mockingbird), and JD Salinger (author, Catcher in the Rye). Add to the list William Faulkner and Edgar Allan Poe. Some will want to argue that they were solitary and reclusive because of fame, but for most of these writers, this would be patently untrue. And if you don’t believe they mingled despite their hermit lives, then you would be wrong.

Perhaps writers are life’s lurkers. They keep to their space and fringe walk with others. 

So here’s my advice to you. Create that private sanctuary, the cave, the office or even just a corner, were the writer in you can imagine and create. In in a house with kids and pets, you need a quiet singular place to call your own where magic can be born. Then use it. Sit yourself in this space but do not petrify there. Go out and be in the world. Interact. Observe. Remind yourself what the pulse of the world feels like. Listen and feel the rhythm of many voices, young and old. Mingle, breathe, touch. Be one with your living world and then be only from it.

Writers need input. But in the end, writers MUST have solitude. It is who we are, it is what we are.

We are the Solitaries and we are proud!

Thank you for stopping by. Let me know your habits and share what you’re working on. Now I’m off to find some people to listen to and spice up my book’s conversation!

I remain, Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry