Tales of Fascination

Professor Moriarty, Medusa, Voldemort, Big Brother, The Dust Witch, Uriah Heep, Bryce Walker, Montresor, Randall Flagg, U. N. Owen. Different characters, different genres, yet they have one thing in common. Villainy. 

Villains. In books, the characters you love to hate. Sometimes the antagonist, sometimes the protagonist. Some bent on world domination while others on revenge against one person. We turn each page hating the villain for their evil genius, their Machievellian scheming, their one-step-ahead planning, or potentially their frustration at the hero if they’re the main character.

Many writer blogs detail how to create intricate and engaging villains. They explain why it’s important to give the villain some redeeming qualities, how to make them real, and how they must relate to your hero. This blog assumes you’ve read those foundational tips. I would rather detail how to view your villains from a different perspective. This may give your villain an edge that makes them stand out. Following are four unusual tips to consider when writing your villains. And to illustrate my point, I’m going to use the characters from Dudley-Do-Right. In particular, the mustache-twirling, sneering, Snidely Whiplash as an example for each.

In case you’ve never seen a Dudley Do-Right cartoon or if it’s been a while since you’ve seen one, here’s a recap. Dudley Do-Right is a Candian mountie who is always inadvertently foiling Snidely Whiplash’s schemes. He desires the love of the fair Nell, but she only has eyes for his horse (Horse). The unusual triangle of horse, mountie, and girl is that extra element that made this cartoon special and a worthy segment of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.

First tip. When considering the main evil trait of a villain, other blogs may advise you to emphasize one main characteristic. Is your villain power-hungry, steeped in wrath for your hero, or ambivalent to all tender emotions? This tip suggests you take a look at the seven deadly sins. Religious or not, the list is a good reference for writers in building characters. The sins are comprised of anger, pride, lust, sloth, envy, greed, and gluttony. Often, writers choose greed, pride, and wrath as the main element to build their character’s personalities around. Instead choose one not often used. How about sloth, lust or gluttony? For sloth, how is an inert villain a force to reckon with? Say you’re writing an office drama and you have a ladder climber who is notoriously lazy. Let your villain, a slothful antagonist, thwart your main character who is energetic and full of innovative ideas.

Let’s use sloth again with our foursome. What if Snidely Whiplash, despite all of his efforts, was rejected from the Royal Canadian Mounties because he was deemed “lazy.” “Lazy, am I?” says Whiplash. In his latest scheme, he decides to use the simplest of traps in the world, a covered hole, to trap Dudley, and it works! All of his other schemes are too complex, require too much effort, if only he relied on his sloth, he would have been the victor years ago.  

Another interesting approach to your villain is to upset all his/her/their carefully-laid plans. Why only frustrate your hero? Throw some chaos at both of them. The villain putting his fingertips together and saying “everything is going perfectly according to plan” is a cliche. Introduce a random element, a third party which complicates both of their actions, and watch them try to recover. Your heroes shouldn’t have to be the only ones who suffer, you know!

So a common plot of Dudley-Do Right is he kidnaps and ties Nell to train tracks. Let’s say this time he also kidnaps Horse so Dudley can’t possibly get their in time. But this time, Nell, furious that Horse was kidnapped, frees herself and punches him, storming away. Whiplash, sits up from the ground, eyeing his captive, with newfound admiration.

Still a little stale? Have you tried making your villain a hero instead to spice things up? I don’t mean you should write your story from the villain’s perspective, gaining sympathy from your reader. The villain does not become the main character in the same story. No, the villain stands in the hero’s situation at the start of the story and the plot unfolds from there. The evil queen, in all her malignant glory, is the persecuted stepdaughter to a legitimately kind Queen Snow White. Professor Moriarity, evil genius that he is, decides to become a master detective. In this case, the hero may not even be in the story.

Back to Do-Right. The scheming Whiplash has just entered the Canadian Royal Mounties and has been assigned Horse. Inducted with a clueless Dudley, he plans to climb the ladder. Is his horse on his side or not? And why does Dudley keep getting the breaks?

And if all else fails, give a thought to switching your villain for a different one. Perhaps you have one that didn’t work for a different story, or one you’ve been saving for a future novel. This is extreme but even if you write a chapter of your current story with a different villain and throw it away, it may inspire you to think twice about your current archenemy. The movie, the Avengers, does a great job pairing Loki (Thor’s villain) with Iron Man in one conversation. It’s a fresh approach to both characters.

In our continuing example, Dudley Do-Right was part of the Bullwinkle and Rocky show. What if Boris and Natasha, enemies of Bullwinkle and Rocky, became Dudley’s nemesis instead of Whiplash. Instead of “stupid moose and squirrel” you get “stupid mountie and horse.” Imagine one of Boris and Natasha’s bizarro schemes with Dudley as the hero.

Upping your game on your villain will result in better characters all around. Do you have any thoughts of how you could make your evildoers any better? If so, get to work!

Projection, a science-fiction novel by Tabatha Shipley, has an interesting premise. What if, by embedded technology, you could project your thoughts on a screen? And what if that same technology glitched and you started showing private memories to the public?

This is the dilemma of sixteen-year-old Emma Johnson. An average girl in the near future whose largest problem is getting to History class on time finds herself in an embarrassing situation of displaying her memories, and sometimes her fantasies, in front of everyone. Before the glitch, Emma lives a normal life. She has best friends in Bella Norte and her sometimes-boyfriend Tyler. Another handsome classmate, Alex Slater, however has taken notice of her. He asks Emma out for coffee. Is it a date? Emma sure hopes so.

From there, the plot progresses into a series of mishaps I won’t explain here. Events turn serious rapidly. The malfunctioning chip under Emma’s skin is only the start of her experiences, and the story has another innovative idea concerning memories awaiting the reader later. No spoilers here.

Emma is a believable and likable person right from page one. She and Bella act and sound like teenage girls in the future. Pairing that with a great science-fiction idea set in an “average” family situation and you have an absorbing novel. While I enjoyed reading about Emma and her day-to-day struggles, the book took its time to get to the central idea. Personally, I wish the last quarter of the novel had lasted longer. I would’ve preferred a little less of Emma’s day-to-day travails and more of her adventure.

Ms. Shipley creates a near-future world that is both believable and fantastic. She sprinkles nice little details like paying for coffee with your mind or comparing two black and orange buildings as tigers through the novel. One idea that I thought was wonderful was how she uses projections to describe how others see Emma. The main character gets to see how others view her through their projections. Sometimes this doesn’t match how Emma sees herself. Very innovative!

This novel is a worthy addition to your library, and I believe a young adult reader would like it more than I did. If you like science fiction set in a world similar to the one we live in with a nice adventure near the end, you’ll want to pick up Projection.

Blaze, a delightful new novel by Hope Bolinger, tells the story of an academic year in the lives of four students at a new academy after the school they love burns down. Danny, Michelle, Rayah, and Hannah all must find a way to adjust as they are accepted to King’s Academy tuition-free. But like all offers that are too good to be true, this one comes with a heavy price to pay.

One part adventure story, one part dystopia, and one part allegory, Blaze starts off innocently enough on a first day of school where the main character’s largest worry is dealing with a difficult teacher. From there, the day devolves into a fiery mess with our foursome wondering when they will return. Coincidentally (perhaps), Danny and his friends receive an invitation to a private academy. All four receive a free ride to the exclusive King’s Academy. They instantly decline, preferring Emmanuel, their poorer, religious-based school.

It’s not a spoiler to reveal that they all end up at King’s Academy. What first appears to be a paradise turns into the opposite as the students face terrible food, unfair athletic trials, and a gruesome hazing. And this is at the start of the school year…

Blaze is a wonderful YA novel of the trials and tribulations of four different but likeable students navigating their way through a challenging school year. While the story gets far-fetched at times, the anxieties and fears of Danny, Michelle, Rayah, and Hannah feel sincere, and the efforts the administration takes to stamp out religion in particular did not seem extraordinary. Contained within are some grotesque descriptions of every abhorrent smell possible as well as some witty writing. When Michelle makes Danny guess what another character named Jeremy (Jeremiah) texted her, he answers “Jeremiah was a bullfrog?” Or this gem “…there were plenty of things harder to like. Like taxes, death, and anything Benjamin Franklin said.”

The story is told from Danny’s point-of-view. His voice, guiding the reader through the plot, is often funny and authentic. Of the supporting friends, my guess is everyone is going to love Hannah. Her wicked sense of humor and her unique perspective are an absolute riot, especially her speeches at competitions. She’s not only funny, she provides a critical edge to the other three without overdoing it. The highest praise I can give another author is to say “I wish I had thought of that.” In Hannah’s case, I wish I had thought of her character for one of my stories.

The story concludes at a momentous scene and—without giving it away—I will have to wait for book two to see how it turns out. Clever, hopeful, well-written, and as I said at the beginning, delightful best describe what I thought of Blaze. It comes out June 2019 and is a worthy addition to any bookshelf.

As it happens so often, I happen to read two novels that are similar in some way. In the last month, I’ve read “Renegades” by Marissa Meyer and V. E. Schwab’s “Vicious,” two of my favorite authors. Both are urban fantasy novels about superheroes, both have a main character (or two) who is a villain, and both explore moral ambiguity, but the similarities end there.

This isn’t a blog reviewing the books other than I recommend both novels. The reader is in the hands of two talented artists. That said, I’d like to explore our fascination with morally ambiguous lead characters or outright immoral protagonists. Are we naturally attracted to darkness? Keeping in the superhero genre, most people claim Batman’s villains are more interesting than its hero unless, like in “The Dark Knight Returns,” Batman himself becomes morally ambiguous.

I’m not attracted to evil characters or narratives describing the fall from grace of a character. Why? Because it’s too easy. The path to villainy is rarely difficult and the short-sighted decisions of the fallen character too shallow. Sometimes the author peppers a few redeeming characteristics, but usually their actions are so reprehensible that it overshadows any sympathy I have. I would rather read about a character who struggles with a moral choice. There’s something satisfying to me about a character who sacrifices something in order to make a life-affirming choice.

Nova Artino is the villain of Meyer’s Renegades. After a quick, horrific backstory of why she hates superheroes, we find her early in the book about to assassinate a superman-like figure in the Renegade world. I don’t want to give away the plot but I liked Nova. Meyer keeps her honest but on the other edge of the law. Filled with self-doubt and starting to understand the heroes point-of-view, Nova struggles to remain faithful to her nefarious mission. Naturally, it helps the “good side” isn’t as good as advertised. While the end of Renegades sets up the next novel in the series, Archenemies, Meyer pulled off the balance of good and evil in Nova…but just barely. If she had described a character with slightly less of a conscience, I would’ve lost interest in Nova early in the novel.

And then there’s Vicious. A study of two villains who start as best friends but end up hunting each other, Vicious weaves a magic spell because of V. E. Schwab’s superb writing. This is a book that has no right to be as good as it is. It’s rare when I dislike all characters in a novel yet feel compelled to keep reading, but that is exactly how I felt reading this novel. Nasty and gritty, here we have two main characters who aren’t redeemable in any way. I wasn’t thrilled that Schwab relied on religion to make one truly reprehensible—as this is a modern stereotype—but the motivation of the two characters are actually similar. In some ways, this is one story where the plot is more fascinating to me than the characters. I’m more interested in what will happen than in how the characters will evolve, or perhaps…devolve…might be a better term.

I won’t compare the books as they are too different to contrast against one another. What is interesting to me is how both drew me in and made me want to read to the end. Sure, in Renegades, there are heroes as well, but I found the hero passages not as interesting as the villain chapters. Vicious has no heroes that I could find. As a reader, I likes my heroes to lean toward the “light.” I shouldn’t have enjoyed these books as much as I did, so why did I keep reading?

I think the descent of evil characters and either rooting for a change (Renegades) or rooting against them (Vicious) drew me in. I can’t help but be satisfied watching the villains stumble themselves, or find inside a glimmer of light inside, all the while knowing they won’t convert. It’s the literary equivalent to a negative proof in geometry. If corruption fails, then there’s something to be said for purity. Often I’ve heard people read about evil characters because they see some of themselves in them. I don’t subscribe to that argument. Sorry, I can’t imagine myself murdering people, and when I do read something evil that reminds me of myself, I’m not entertained. For me, focusing on my faults is my non-fiction reading, not my fiction. It’s just not a draw for me. It’s more about watching villains rise and ultimately fail. When the author decides to let the “bad guy” triumph, it’s usually more of a cautionary tale, not something to be admired. At least, I hope not.

Heroes and heroines, bad guys, what do you seek when you read a book? Every good protagonist requires a decent antagonist. What are you looking for as you read? For me, I’ll always root for the hero, and if the book doesn’t allow me to do that, I will root against those dastardly villains!