Our Heroes Can Fall, But Can Our Villains Rise Up? May 8, 2014

I am an absolute, self-proclaimed fangirl, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I might find myself browsing forums on televisions shows I am obsessed with like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. For those of you who follow the show, you know that the recent tie-in to Captain America: Winter Soldier was a massive game changer for the series, and revealed that someone we thought was good was really bad. Like really, really bad. It was a big shocker, but what surprised me even more was how many posts I have seen from fans hoping that this bad guy never gets a redemption story arc and just stays bad, which got me thinking about how villains are treated in fiction. And in particular, fantasy.

We’ve already discussed How To Write Real Villains and how to Turn Your Heroes into Antagonists, but what about redeeming a villain? More often than not we see villains that are simply power hungry or have ideals that would walk hand in hand with the Nazis. There’s really no excuse for Sauron or Voldemort, so it is easy to root for Frodo and Harry. But what about a villain that is doing all the wrong things for the right reasons? Is there still no hope for someone willing to sacrifice their very soul for the greater good?

I’m not saying the character on S.H.I.E.L.D. is heading that way or a triple agent or any of the other theories out there. But I am saying, shouldn’t we give the writers a chance to explore that? This got me thinking about my own series and a recent conversation I had with a reader who sympathized with the rebel Cahirans in my book. The group as a whole has the right ideas, but they have the absolute wrong methods. There’s a huge grey area because you see a group of people fighting for a cause they believe in. Whether or not they turn out to be the true villains of the story hinges on whether or not they win or lose—because let’s face it, the winners are the ones who tell the story.

If we look at our own history and the wars that have been fought in the name of freedom, there were always two sides (There usually is with a war). And it is easy to look at something like World War II with Hitler heading up one side and see it as black and white, good vs evil. But what about the Revolutionary War, which gained America independence from Great Britain? Was there really a good and evil side to that war, or merely two opposing sides willing to fight for causes they believed in?

So if grey area exists in real life, why do some people feel there is no room for it in fiction? Is it a matter of needing more clear cut boundaries than what we receive in life? Or is it lack of imagination? And more importantly, are we, as writers willing to explore that grey area, even if it does get a little uncomfortable?  Head over to the comments section and tell me what you think!

❤ Mara

How to Write Real Villains March 30, 2013

One of the biggest challenges in writing fantasy is creating a real villain. More often than not, they’re one dimensional, power hungry cartoons who don’t actually seem to have a good motive for their evil ambitions. Just like the protagonist, the antagonist requires a level of depth that constructs and develops them like a real person. But since so many genre writers fall into this trap, it’s easier to create a villainous character when following these four simple rules:

Rule 1- Give Your Villain A Life: Don’t plop the villain into the story for convenience. Give them a back-story, a life with ups and downs that led them to the point where the reader meets them.

Rule 2- Give Your Villain a Motive: As I said before, many stories contain rambling villains who chase the ball but don’t know why. Give them something to work for. A goal they want to obtain.

Rule 3- Let Your Villain Grow: Just as the protagonist develops, grows and changes with the conflict, so should the villain. Even if it’s for the worst.

Rule 4- Treat Your Villain With Respect: If you’ve ever seen a Bond film, the villain will reveal their evil plot, or ramble on about how they will beat the hero. Don’t do this. Ever. If you’ve built your villain with the aforementioned rules, they will act first and ramble later.

Now, Rule 5 is more of a writer specific rule. Something you as the author are required to understand but the reader doesn’t necessarily need to know. Rule 5 is See Your Villain as They see Themselves: People with ill will towards others do not see themselves as evil, vile or villainous. Try to understand and comprehend your villain as the hero in their own right. Believe it or not, good and evil is not all black and white. There’s quite a grey area in the mix.

With these rules in mind, you’ll be able to create a dastardly villain that is not only believable enough to jump off the page, but so multidimensional that the reader may at one point sympathize with them or perhaps even root for your villain to succeed.