by Guest Blogger |
“Curse Your Sudden Yet Inevitable Betrayal!”
Sometimes the characters that we think are good guys turn out to be bad guys. How do you create believable traitors?
In The Lord Of The Rings, Saruman was Gandolf’s friend and mentor, the wizard that he trusted most. In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo turns to his old friend Lando Calrissian.
Many dramatic scenes in fiction begin when the hero realizes too late that a trusted friend is actually working for the other side. As writers, we create all kinds of characters, good guys, bad guys, innocent bystanders. Creating characters that end up turning on their friends, however, has some particular challenges.
by Liz Bureman |
On the recommendation of a coworker, I started reading Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy. The books are apparently known for Follett’s meticulous historical research, but when I first opened Fall of Giants, I was wondering why no one had warned me about the seven-page list of characters.
Seven. Pages. Of character names.
by Sophie Novak |
What’s the most important element in a piece of writing? Is it the plot, the characters, descriptions, dialogue, or the style? Obviously, you can’t single out only one. A powerful work succeeds in combining all of them in a unique mix producing a master creation.
A mundane theme can be saved by a great writing style; poor dialogue can be replaced with a fantastic storyline, and descriptions can be skipped altogether if it’s not your cup of tea. Undeveloped characters, however, are not to be hidden or overlooked by anything else. So, how do you build a strong character?
by Liz Bureman |
This past weekend, ABC Family had a Harry Potter marathon. My roommate recorded the first part of the Deathly Hallows, and we’re watching it now as I’m writing. It’s oddly fitting that the close of this discussion of heroes, villains, anti-heroes, and anti-villains happens while watching a film of the series that encompasses basically every shade of hero and villain that we’ve covered.
by Liz Bureman |
I don’t have a very big DVD collection, but one of the discs on my shelf is Catch Me If You Can. I really enjoy this movie, for a few reasons. I love anything that is based on a true story, plus you really can’t go wrong with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Come on now.
By nature of the story content, you have a pair of characters who are on opposite sides of the law, but they’re both painted as sympathetic characters. DiCaprio’s Frank Abagnale, Jr. is clearly meant to be the one whom the audience sympathizes with, but Carl Hanratty, played by Hanks, is the man on the right side of the law. He’s clearly the anti-villain to DiCaprio’s anti-hero.
What other degrees of anti-villains are there?
