True menace is hard to write.
Spoiler: Writing a good villain is not about superpowers. It’s also not about backstory. Both of those can help you write a menacing antagonist, but they can also make your antagonist simply silly, or so sympathetic that readers forget to be scared (I’m looking at you, Loki).
You’ve been told your story needs conflict. You’ve been told that each scene needs to have tension. You might have even been told you need to be writing villains, memorable antagonists that can supercharge your plot.
But unless you’re writing a fantasy novel, you might not be sure how to do this. You associate villains with Darth Vader and Jafar from Alladin.
What do bad guys look like in realistic literature?
So much of what most of us consider to be good writing requires the writer to create a believable scene and realistic characters—or if not believable and realistic, close enough so that the reader willingly suspends their disbelief. Today’s article and corresponding writing practice is all about throwing those rules out the window by writing about weirdos.
“If character is the foreground of fiction, setting is the background,” the narrator of Writing Fiction tells us. But how do you create engaging settings that enhance your story? And how can the popular writing software, Scrivener, help you create setting sketches perfect for particular your story?
When writing a series (or even just a really long novel), at some point, the characters become known, their dynamics set, and readers can almost guess how characters will feel about a given plot twist before it happens. Fans go beyond love for characters and form deep connections … and expectations.
Some readers love to simply love their characters and enjoy their next adventure. But don’t discount the fun of killing your darlings to shake things up.
