Some people like to write villains, just as some gamers really like to play evil characters.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For writers who like to write villains, writing non-villains can be a challenge.\u00a0 And the same is true for writers who don’t like to write villains.<\/p>\n
Before we can talk about this, a few caveats.\u00a0\u00a0 Characters are not the writer.\u00a0 All competent writers can create characters very unlike themselves (and not just taller, stronger, more physically attractive, either!)\u00a0 Much of a writer’s research is “people-watching”–observing people of all walks of life, in different settings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So someone who’s never been a doctor or a helicopter pilot can–with research–write believable doctors or helicopter pilots.\u00a0\u00a0 Similarly,\u00a0 writers who are not nasty themselves can write nasty characters, and writers who aren’t saints can write good characters.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0 every writer also has a set-point for the good\/evil axis, in terms of storytelling, just as they have for appetite.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some find villains easier or more interesting to write, and some find heroes easier or more interesting to write.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am not claiming any particular virtues–I’m certainly not perfect or near it, as my friends would tell you–but I find heroes much more interesting than villains.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The worst people I’ve known don’t fascinate me–they bore me even as they repel me.<\/p>\n
I think Tolstoy got it backwards:\u00a0 all unhappy families are alike, arising from the same character flaws and social blunders.\u00a0 Happy families are all over the map in how they stay happy…they’re talented at having the clock tell the right time when it’s sideways, upside down, or two feet under the muck.\u00a0\u00a0 And that<\/em> fascinates me.\u00a0\u00a0 How do they do<\/em> that?\u00a0\u00a0 How are some people–with every reason to be sour, angry, vindictive, destructive, and just plain mean–actually cheerful, steady, kind, forgiving, helpful, and just plain good?<\/p>\n A case that’s achieved national attention (but was a local issue for us)\u00a0 showed up again on TV as a 48 Hours: Mystery special Saturday night.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The featured character was Laura Hall, then a college student, convicted of accessory crimes in the murder of another young woman, Jennifer Cave.\u00a0 Laura Hall’s then boyfriend was convicted of killing\u00a0 Jennifer Cave.\u00a0\u00a0 (The program is available on the 48 Hours website.)\u00a0\u00a0 What was notable about Laura Hall, from the first, was how strange her thought processes were–those of us in the area, seeing local TV interviews early on, were aware from the first that she was a singularly unpleasant young woman.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s clear that she is oblivious to normal social assumptions–cannot connect her behavior to its effect on other people–and considers that the real injustice is her plans for her life being interrupted.<\/p>\n Among the chilling statements made on that program:\u00a0 she claims she did not report the dead body in her boyfriend’s bathtub to the police because “I wasn’t ready to process that,” and\u00a0 when asked if she felt any compassion for the dead woman, a look of surprise at the question and then “I didn’t know her.\u00a0 I’d never met her.”\u00a0\u00a0 So why would I care?<\/em> was hovering in the air, in her expression.<\/p>\n As a writer (leaving aside my reaction as a member of our society)\u00a0 every word she said was insight into the mental processes of a villain.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Totally focused on her own plans, her own welfare, her own life–to a degree that none of us, I suspect,\u00a0 have felt since we were toddlers.\u00a0 Other people don’t count.\u00a0\u00a0 Other people barely exist, except as enablers or obstacles or enemies.<\/p>\n People focused on one narrow interest are boring to those who don’t share the interest: we all know bores who have only one topic of conversation.\u00a0\u00a0 People focused only on themselves–at a normal level–are boring enough, and repellent enough.\u00a0 We know those, too–they talk about their marriage, their kids, their house, their job, and it’s hard to get a word in edgewise.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet they don’t walk in on a body in the bathtub and fail to report it.<\/p>\n A villain’s perspective is different than ours.\u00a0\u00a0 And–against the current theories of evil in fiction–I don’t think bad people cannot be wholly bad, or that they don’t know they’re doing bad things when they do them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Most of us recognize that we sometimes do wrong knowingly…not accidentally, not trying to do something good and failing.\u00a0 Sometimes we just flat get mad and kick the dog, break the window, scream an insult: and we know when we do it that we shouldn’t, but we let go the reins.)\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t think villains wouldn’t be villains if we really understood them (or more interesting, either.)\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t think it’s necessary (or advisable) for writers to try to present\u00a0 rationales for the villain’s evil acts.<\/p>\n Hall did not think she was doing a good thing when she drove her boyfriend to Mexico to get away from the police (who were wanting to question him about that body in the bathtub.)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 She knew it wasn’t “good” in the conventional sense, but “good” is not in her mental checklist.\u00a0 Prudent is, though she’s not very good at prudent (most people her age aren’t.)\u00a0\u00a0 “Processing” events to put herself in the best position is. \u00a0 Pursuing her own plan for her own benefit, no matter what, is.\u00a0\u00a0 She’s not particularly skilled (yet) at these things either–she can’t act well enough to hide the underlying sociopathy (as sociopaths with some charisma can) \u00a0 and so the narcissism and lack of empathy and underlying anger and vindictiveness show.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She’s not particularly flexible in her planning.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She does not care who gets hurt as she pursues her goals.\u00a0 In fact, from taped phone calls, she relishes the thought that some will get hurt as she does that.<\/p>\n So here–for the writer–is an example–not the only–of a villain.\u00a0\u00a0 As it happens, in the current group of books I have more than one villain, mostly (so far) operating through intermediaries.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But more than one of them needs to be onstage, directly interacting with other characters, in this book and the next.<\/p>\n I don’t like writing evil POVs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It feels like climbing into a bodysuit that’s lined with someone else’s sweat and excreta: it stinks, it’s slimy-sticky, it’s disgusting.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If at all possible, I want to be in someone else’s head and let the bad guy\/gal do their bad stuff, and “my” character react to it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That worked for #1 villain in this book.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But #2….#2\u00a0 has been sort of hovering on the margins of the plot since Oath of Fealty<\/em>, like a tropical depression making its way slowly across the Atlantic from Africa, growing day by day, until it’s a hurricane in the Gulf.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And that threat–definite, but not well-defined–needs to be very well defined by the end of the story.<\/p>\n Two books ago I wrote a chapter in that villain’s POV and left it out.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve now put it (with updated references) into Book IV.\u00a0 It may or may not stay, but it will help me look for better ways to show how this villain thinks–what this villain’s aims are, and enough of this villain’s psychology for the reader to find it believable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I hope I don’t have to much more time in #2’s mind.\u00a0 \u00a0 Though I wrote that chapter years ago,\u00a0 villain #2 thinks a lot like Laura Hall.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All that matters to #2 is #2’s personal goals, feelings, and success.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, I’m struggling to stay in that POV until either I make is useful in the book or find a way to show the essentials while staying in other POVs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Given a writer’s memory, there’s really no way to take that mental shower, or “brain-bleach” as one of my friends puts it…the nasty thoughts the villain would have are in my head now and I can’t unthink them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I keep wanting to convince the villain not to be (something that didn’t work with Barranya and isn’t working with this villain.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Couldn’t #2 be satisfied with this other?\u00a0\u00a0 Wouldn’t #2 be happier to have friends than terrified minions?\u00a0\u00a0 No: #2 is determined to have [very large list] and won’t compromise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some people like to write villains, just as some gamers really like to play evil characters.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For writers who like to write villains, writing non-villains can be a challenge.\u00a0 And the same is true for writers who don’t like to write villains. Before we can talk about this, a few caveats.\u00a0\u00a0 Characters are not the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,5],"tags":[22,62,107],"class_list":["post-1258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-the-writing-life","tag-characters","tag-craft-of-writing","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1258"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1269,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions\/1269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}