Tag Archive | villains

Writing Dilemma

Sep19

So here goes nothing. Writing style lol.

Question for my writerly friends : How far down a dark path can you take a character before they lose all hope of being redeemed within the story and/or with the characters in the story?

And I’m talking about abandonment of responsibility (in a relationship) and fraud level stuff. It’s itching at my brain right now, because I’m writing that character right now. Or rather, I’m writing the aftermath of his selfishness.

Or cowardice.

Or just taking wrong advice and running with it. Letting it compound and multiply, unaware of the ramifications because of course the person who gave the advice never told him of the ramifications. The potential fall out. He’s naive.

He’s a sheep.

I don’t know if I, as the writer of the story, can forgive him being a sheep. Not thinking it through.

I know within a story a bad hero can be redeemed. I’ve read it. I’ve written about it with my post of Ari Wright. This isn’t about realizing you’ve made a mistake and correcting it though.

It’s changing the very fabric of the way the man thinks and reacts to his own mistakes.

What thinkest thou?

Redeemable?

Disposable?

It just might be the flex my writing muscles need. To see if I can redeem this character that I, the writer, loath.

Or I might just kill him off.

Writing

Sep17

I have been writing again. Consistently for the past little bit, and I’m very, quietly excited about it. As well as reading an obscene amount of books. But here’s the thing about reading so much…

You learn what tickles your writing fancy. But it’s also how you learn to handle things like.. a huge info dump.  How to take a severely flawed character and make them likeable. Reading is how we learn the nuts and bolts of both the art and craft of our genres.

When I was a baby writer, I read and read, then when I went to write it came out a bit like what I’d just been reading. Blue Sword Duology, anyone? Those stories, short and otherwise, will never see the light of day and even though I might not make money from them they were valuable.

Their value was in the practice. The practice of sitting down and writing. The practice of dialog, plot, setting. Yes, I was following a formula laid down by someone else, but it worked. I learned.

And even when I couldn’t write I was still learning the art of story, just from the consumer’s perspective.

Right now I’m trying to figure out if one of my characters is a villain or a dumbass. And if he is a dumbass, can he be realistically redeemed?

If it was me? Hell no. But my other characters aren’t me. So now I’m trying to find empathy for a character who I not so proudly claim is a dumbass. I know what the confrontation is, the start of it. It’s a ways off, so I’m going back to some of my fav authors and seeing how they handled it.

Wish me luck!

Plotting it out

Jan3

Through editing, and writing new words, I’m probably just about 2,500 – 3,000  words into the new story. I’m really enjoying writing it, even if last night I discovered to my chagrin that my bad guy is not a bad guy at all and may possibly even be one of the heroine’s greatest allies. SIGH.

My characters up and do this all the time. They don’t want to be purely good, or evil. It’s just a horrible situation made worse by the involvement of a child in it, and people are going to play the roles they are going to play.  Which is going to make it interesting…

THere will be no one villain to this story.

Don’t get me wrong, there will be bad guys, people who should be smacked down with a braodsword (btw- I write fantasy LOL).  But the main driving force of the WHOLE novel isn’t them. THey only factor into Part 1, not parts 2-4.

The rest is going to be pushed through by situation. By a mother’s feirce love for a child who isn’t quite where he should be… Well, you’ve read the blog. If not, go forth and explore. It’s something that I’m familiar with, and it is enough, more than enough, to sustain a story.

So. Old Lord Orlando is going to end up being a Stand Up kind of guy. I can deal with that. I think it will make the story even better, too. Even if I do have to scrap those words.

Because at least now I have a great lead in and know where I’m going.

YAY!