The Most Important Character in Your Book

Two words.  The Villain.  Here's why:

You can't have a book without a villain.  There's no story.  No driving conflict.  No monster to defeat at the end so the hero can say "Ahh, well done" to him/her self.  A book can have a so-so hero with a great villain and still be an awesome book (cough cough lord of the rings cough cough frodo cough cough), but a book with a so-so villain is doomed to fail.  You must, and I mean MUST, nail this super-important character.  He must be the single most developed, thought out, motivated, interesting, personality-filled person in your story (aside from your main character, the Hero.  More on him/her later).

So, what can you do to create this amazing person?  How can you create a great villain?

This probably should have been the title of the post.  Let's start over, shall we?

How to Create a Frightening Villain

by Watzzit Tooyah

     Like every character in your book (EVERY character), the villain has to seem real.  He has to have real thoughts, emotions, and most importantly, motives.  The villain can be as big, evil, and superpowered as you want, but what will convince the reader that he is worth fearing is how real he seems.  The dark lord who wants to destroy the nation suddenly becomes more interesting when we learn that it was the same nation that wrongly banished him years ago. *THOR/AVENGERS SPOILER* Loki suddenly grabs our attention and seems more deadly when we realize that he was adopted, and secretly is the Frost Giant prince *END SPOILER*.  Giving your villain a past makes his present actions more real and believable, which will go a long way towards making him feared.

     Obviously, the villain must be powerful—certainly the most powerful person in your story (how you define the word "power" depends on your genre/story).  Even Gandalf fears Sauron; Luke is soundly beaten by Vader; Mama Oti never takes on the Shadow Man; the Sand Man is beaten by Pitch Black; Joker usually beats Batman first time around... you get the picture.  For whatever reason and in whatever way, the villain is superior to even the best good guys.

     Also obvious, the villain must be...well...villainous.  He has to be morally evil.  Maybe he doesn't see himself as evil, but he is.

These are what a villain needs.  What makes a villain great, though, is different.  There are different ways to make a villain interesting:

1.     Make the villain and hero connected.  Cheesy example: Darth Vader is Luke's father.  There is, of course, the simple method of making the hero and villain physically related.  Other methods:

•      The Hero and Villain share similar backstories.  They've been through a similar traumatic incident or share a state of being.  Examples: Jack Frost and Pitch Black, Po and Lord Shen, Luke and Vader (besides being father/son, they share a similar childhood, similar force powers, similar training, both influenced by Palpatine...)
• The Villain needs the Hero to complete his nefarious plots.  For some reason or another, while the Hero is trying to stop the Villain, the Hero is actually helping the Villain.  Examples: the Toa and Makuta Teridax, Sora and Organization XIII, Jack Blank and the Rustöv, Leif and the Shadow Lord, etc.
• The Hero and Villain like each other.  I can only think of one movie that uses this amazing link, Treasure Planet.
• The Hero and Villain are similar characters.  They share similar strengths/weaknesses, wants, likes/dislikes, and such.

It may take extra work to implement such a link, but if you can manage it, it makes both the Villain AND the Hero infinitely more interesting.

2.    Make your Villain believe he is doing good.  In the Villain's twisted mind, what he is doing is morally justifiable or downright good. Examples: Revile the Undying, Anakin Skywalker, Galbatorix, Ra's al Ghul (from Batman Begins), etc.
3.     Make your Villain minimally moral.  For example, there are certain things even your Villain wouldn't do.  This works well with your Villain believing he is doing good.  Examples: Darth Vader (again), the General in the film version of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.  Of course, most truly great villains are pure evil, so use this sparingly...
4.     Make your Villain literally unstoppable.  In this case, you could make the Hero somehow cause the villain to stop himself...  I have no examples for this.  Maybe the Omnidroid from the Incredibles?


And here are some random ideas I just thought up just for you to get your creative juices flowing (whatever that means, Anastasia says that all the time...):

• Make your Villain something completely weird for your genre.  For example:  A dark wizard in a Star Wars style sci-fi or a gang leader in a medieval fantasy.
• Take whatever Villain you are currently formulating and suddenly reverse his/her gender.  It's interesting, isn't it?
• Give your Villain a devoted, actually menacing right-hand man.
• Give your Villain a passion for something that he can't resist.  Ex: pie, candy, fashion, cats, fast cars, etc.
• Make your Villain a computer program.  This never fails to be interesting.
• Make your Villain a creature.
• Make your Villain a turkey sandwich.  At least he would be original, right?
• Make your Villain your Hero.  Good luck with this one....
• Make a fast car chase scene where the Hero is chasing the Villain (instead of vise-versa).  Include helicopters, motorcycles, oil slicks, etc.

I hope this randomness actually helps you.

Remember that the most helpful thing you can do to make a great villain is to give him motives!  So stop whatever you are doing right now and grab a piece of paper.  Start writing about your villain.  Invent his/her entire past, from his childhood on.  What makes your villain bad?  What has he/she gone through that has turned him into the man/woman that he/she is today.  Why is your villain out to get your hero?

Once you completely figure this out, you are practically halfway done writing your book.

That is all,

Watzzit Tooyah

How to Write a Novel: The Middle

Things are really. Really. REALLY. S-L-O-W.

You're so bored and awkward you just want to run away screaming. Or curl into a corner and die.

This is the Middle of your novel.

And yes, it is very scary.

This is going to be a shorter post because really the best cure for the Middle (and sometimes for WB) is a good strong dose of CONFLICT.

Conflict is the most important part of any story. But unfortunately you can't just throw random conflict in any part of a book. Like, randomly, in the middle of a heartfelt mommy-daughter hug, ninjas, when the book is about pirates, bust into the cabin and kill everyone. Well, I guess you could make this work, but really it's most most important to make sure the conflict moves the story forward.

Conflict should always contribute to a storyline in some way. It should never drag a story down or slow the progress of the plot, but advance it and cause the hero to make some hard decisions. It's true that conflict doesn't always have to be some physical battle between your hero and his enemy. Conflict comes in many packages: emotional, physical, natural, etc.

1. Physical Conflict
Physical conflict is the most common form of conflict ever. Physical conflict consists of your hero faces physical foes, such as the villain, thugs on the street, getting run over by a car, and battling a monkey over his bike lock keys. Physical conflict is a very good and convenient way to add spice to a boring piece of prose, since you can make PC out of almost any situation. The important thing to remember while dealing with PC, though, is to make it significant. Don't let it be something the hero brushes off as he gets ready for the real deal; make it important. Make it worthy of his time. If thugs attack, make them take his wallet with his secret agent ID in it. If a monkey takes his keys, don't let him have them back. If a bus breaks down, make it burst into flames. Don't make it easy. >:}

2. Emotional Conflict
Being a girl, this is my favorite type of conflict. I love this kind of conflict because it adds depth to your characters and shows that they, too, have problems with their lives sometimes. Emotional conflict consists of your character in a battle against his emotions, or someone else's. Sometimes, your hero can even be at war with himself, in a general term. For instance, my character Eadën competes with his emotions on a daily basis. His past haunts him and he wants to get away from it, and he is afraid of himself because part of him wants to hold on to his dark side. This causes awesome EC. He is fighting against himself to forget what he did in his past.

2. Natural Conflict
Natural conflict is conflict that comes from natural sources, mainly nature. Storms, floods, tornadoes, rockslides, and avalanches all count as NC. Natural conflict works best in books where the villain is nature (such as a novel about a lost boy who wants to get home from the forest he was deserted in and must face the elements in order to get back to his house, for instance), but they are useful in all novels as momentary conflicts. I know it is really hard to get NC to do something that matters in a novel, but it is possible. One way to make sure is to keep the bad things coming.

Things should never, ever, ever be easy for you protagonist. You should always keep throwing stuff at him until he cracks, and then throw some more. Always make things as bad as possible. Could this get any worse? should be his motto. That is how you create good conflict in a novel.


Ciao,

A.C.

Author Talk with Mel N. Choly

Hi! A.C. here, and we at The Writer’s Block are so excited about our first Author Talk! Today, we have Mel N. Choly hanging out with us. She is the co-author of The Orion trilogy, to be published soon, and is working on numerous personal projects.


1. Mel, can you tell us why you started writing? What motivated you? Why do you love it?

What began my sad existence as a writer? I write so everyone can have the joy of reading how I think. My motivation is to give people a world where they can lose themselves in a totally unreal existence. And I love it because I’m an artist. It’s just what I do. I’m a very specific artist, also.  


2. What are you currently working on?

As you said, I am working on The Orion. Also a dreadful book which drains my creativity like a leech, The Tower Series: Isles of Ruin. Then of course my beloved book, Chasing Shadows: Fear Strong, which is perhaps to become a series of its own. And against popular belief, The Tower Series is not a... ahem.... ‘rip off’ of Lord of The Rings. Do not listen to the deceitful demi-demons that plague the author world with their lies and smelly breath. 


3. What do you struggle with as a writer?

Unruly characters. Many of my most loved have pasts that make me—the author—shudder straight out of my pants. Because of this, they tend to be a bit... rebellious. On example: I was writing a perfectly fine book one day when one unperfectly fine character said something he wasn’t supposed to and the strings of fate and destiny were torn cruelly from their original perch and left to hang in empty air. One might say, “why not just delete what the character said?” but to be frank, what he said was quite genius and a witty come back to be envied. So it was worth bloody sweat and the long days it took me to slowly retie those strings and recreate my book in a totally new sort of way. 


4. Some watch movies, read books, or look through magazines. What are your main forms of motivation and inspiration?

First of all, magazines are nothing but pictures of vomit-worthy gossip about the latest nutty soul that decided to lick a barbie doll to it’s untimely death (that’s a long story about a woman. I’m not going to point any fingers but I’ll give you a hint... MILEY CIRUS.). 
In conclusion, I prefer to to read other books that are like my own.


5. Can you tell us what it was like to co-author a book? Was it difficult? Were there any slappy fights between you and your co-author?

Anastasia, my dear friend, has a one track mind. Once she has an idea, she has to have it in the book. I suppose it doesn’t matter much to me, but when it comes to humiliating one of my dear little characters, it may come to momentary blows. Then we make up over a cup of tea and some chocolate. After that, we play some polo, read a bit of poetry, procrastinate a little more, then we might go back to writing a month later.


6. You mentioned you were working on The Tower Series. Can you tell us more about your upcoming series?

The Tower Series is an extremely complicated book, but I will try to communicate some understanding. 
In an island named Saquraphine, there are seven ancient rings forged long ago for the protection of the land. When a dark, magical fog invades the land, poisoning the soil and sea, the rings come in handy once again to lock up this powerful creature in a tower, so long as the bearers of the rings keep the rings on.
thousands of years later, the story begins with a twelve year old boy names Jec, living with his adopter and teacher, Thymas, in a little library. One fateful night, Jec believes he’s found one of the ancient rings that Thymas has told him so much about. But if no one is wearing it, and the strange, mystical history of Saquraphine is true... The magical fog’s tower  must be weakening, and the creature inside has had years to plan a perfect escape. So it is poised, ready to strike, but it has to wait for the perfect moment, when its prison has weakened enough for it to emerge. No one knows when that moment may be, so Jec is forced into a crazy adventure with eight unlikely friends, two unearthly stalkers, and one very powerful villain.

I hope this makes sense.


7. Finally, Mel, we come to the biggest question of all. Why are you so melancholy?

Some people believe that, when given a name, that person is destined to live out it’s meaning. Mel means ‘Dark Beauty’ and while I sustain belief on the beauty part, I believe the dark part is quite true. I suppose living with such a terrible childhood may have helped a little, but I don’t know the exact reason. Or maybe I do, but I won’t tell you.

July 2013 Writer of the Month Award: Angelina Zoe

WOOHOO!!!

We at Writer's Block are SO EXCITED to announce this month's winner of Writer of the Month!

Congratulations to Angelina Zoe for winning Writer of the Month!

Angelina is a young teen writer set in her elven ways and a beginner-expert at bashing WB. We recognize her power at memorizing movies after a single viewing and her ability to twist her ankle in the most amazing ways possible.

Click here to view Angelina's full WOTM bio!








Until next month,

The Writer's Block Authors

Character Development: The Protagonist Part I

Hello fellow writers,

It is I again, Angelina, and I am here to help rid the world of... I cannot bring myself to type those two dreadful words... WB.  You know what those two initials stand for, those daunting words.  But I am here to try help it vanish for, hopefully, a long while.  This is only one out of the many posts that I will be submitting to help out our characters.  Here we go...

Probably the most easiest thing when writing a novel is character development.  Well that's a big stinky lie.  While character development might be fun, it can be boring and frustrating at times.  I know when I start to think about writing a new novel, the first thing that's really developed in my mind is the main character, the sidekick, or the villain.

 Most of the time it's the main character, or the hero of the story.  So this is the perfect time to reach into the area of your brain labeled, "forgotten but still loved characters who have never been developed," and remodel, revamp, renovate, change, and/or improve someone that is neglected and overlooked for a long time.  Pull out that disregarded character and give it some love!  Once your character is revived, I'm pretty sure that you will get some inspiration and momentarily defeat writers block!  (Can I get an amen?  Anyone?) Are you ready?

1. The Hero

We will start with the protagonist, or, as I like to call it, the hero.  Our hero starts out as just a little idea, something really small and unimportant.  But we see something in the tiny thought and think about it.  And as we think, it starts to grow, and grow, and grow, and grow, until finally the idea is big enough to be a character!

Our hero!

Now our hero can be two things.  Either a flat, boring, and very predictable character, or... an original, awesome, and not so much predicable character.  I don't know about you, but I prefer the second of the two choices any day.  So once we have decided which you want your character to become, then the real fun begins.

2. The Original vs. the Flat

A lot of what makes a good plot is a good character.  Most people would disagree and say that a good plot makes the character good.  But it's the opposite.  So it is absolutely critical that your hero (or any character for that matter) has a good foundation.  Original... not flat.  Compare.

Flat:  Bobby never missed a day volunteering at the hospital and he had a nice summer job at the local cafe.  He was well mannered, polite, and always made good grades in school.  Everyone loved the outstanding teenager Bobby.

Original:  Bobby never missed a day volunteering at the hospital and he had a nice summer job at the local cafe.  He was well mannered, polite, and always made A's in school.  Everyone loved the outstanding teenager Bobby.  But no one really knew the real Bobby.  While at home, he stole other people's credit card numbers and maxed them out, buying things for his own pleasure.  He sold pirated movies for extra cash and made fake i.d.'s, vending them to criminals and other online hackers. 

Let's compare the flat version of Bobby's life, to the original version.  In the flat version, Bobby's a good kid.  He volunteer's at the hospital, he works a summer job, and he gets good grades at school.  End of story.  Not much of a novel there.  In the original version, Bobby's secret life is unknown.  He's a hacker and a criminal.  Now there's something that would catch the attention of a reader.

Let's just put it this way.  Which version would you rather read about?  Which one would you rather write?  Which one catches your attention?  The original is so much more intriguing than the flat, and there is a lot more depth to the character.  Depth is all about a good plot.  And beneath a good plot is an even better character.

3. Flat or Original, Your Choice

Now let's decide about our own hero.  Will he/she be a flat character, or an original?  That is the beginning of character development, and the most important and critical point of it.  Once you have decided the life for your character, then their personalities will surface.

I hope this post has helped you.  There is so much more to character development, but I couldn't put it all in one post.  I will have more, though, so do not despair.  And remember to keep your forgotten character in hand, for in the next couple of posts, you might just get some inspiration for your... HERO!

Until the next post!

-Angelina Zoe