Do you ever loose your way while writing a story? Even with Scrivener, and its brilliant organizational software, I found myself a bit lost. I’ve got the action all going, and the place, and the weather, and of course, the food that they’re eating. I just can’t quite remember who the bad guy is. You know how you’re supposed to have tension in a story?
Well, just like with Fagin’s Boy, I keep putting the “bad guy” hat on different people. I guess it’s because I don’t like to think ill of anyone, that I really have to have absolutely no empathy for my antagonist. Trouble is, when I get to writing about him or her, I get to know them. And that’s where the empathy starts! So I’m going to go over my notes this weekend (at a coffee shop, yeah!) and see if I can pin down what my thought process was about that. I’m sure to find something useful.
In the meantime, I’m going to keep writing!
Here’s the current word count:
Day One – 1,998
Day Two – 2,122
Day Three – 1,820
Day Four – 1,820
Day Five – 1,930
Day Six – 1,601
Day Seven – 1,729
Day Eight – 2,363
Day Nine – 2,175
Day Ten – 1,782
Day Eleven – 2,124
Day Twelve – 2,008
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Recently I updated my notification email list and added it to my Contact page to make it easier to find. So, if you’d like to be notified of any new releases, or new covers (I’m having the cover for Fagin’s Boy redone by the brilliant and creative Bookfly Design to make it more in line with the entire series about Oliver and Jack that I’m now writing), or if you would like to know about any freebies or giveaways, you can sign up at the Contact page.
And here’s today’s treat, which a friend of mine showed me while we were having coffee. (At the current moment, Xfiniity/Comcast has determined that I am not allowed to go anywhere on the internet. So I’ll come back later, when they are able to bear the bandwidth a two-year old could manage better than them and post some funny cartoons. Update: Two hours later and I have internet. Amazing.)
The comics here are from a website called oglaf.com. I don’t know the story of why or how, but some of these are damn clever! A lot of them are NSFW, but if you’re a fully grown adult, I think you can take it. I picked these two because they related directly to writing. (You’ll get much better resolution on these images if you go to the artist’s site.)
This first one is called “The Blank Page.”
The second one is called “The Muse.”
LOVE the cartoons. I think I’ve been to that website before (I remember the adult stuff.) Now I have to check it out again!
About antagonists: I don’t like black and white, good and evil characters. I like reality. No one is all evil or all good. So it may be telling you something about your story that you have empathy for your villain(s). Keep it in the story! Please don’t try to take that empathy out. Suffering villains ARE compelling even if they deserve the bad things coming their way as the hero triumphs.
The best books and movies and series are the ones where the villains surprise the creators and the audiences and become the break out stars. How often have you read about your favorite show behind the scenes only to discover that the writers and actors had no idea their break-out star would be the bad guy or the badder guy who’s not super bad but not good like the hero. I can think of so many! Here’s a short list off the top of my head (and if you haven’t seen the shows, no matter, just believe me.) Point being: suffering anti-heroes/bad boys/girls can rock.
Daryl (Walking Dead)
Sonny Steelgrave (Wiseguy)
Damon Salvatore (Vampire Diaries)
Erik Northman (True Blood)
Niklaus Michaelson (The Originals)
Hannibal Lector (Hannibal)
Dexter (Dexter)
Walter White (Breaking Bad)
Lestat (Interview, etc.)
Barnabas Collins (Dark Shadows)
Spike (Buffy)
A lot of vampires here, but that’s okay, I like vampires, which actually addresses my stated point. I like that line from Star Trek’s “A Balance of Terror”: “In another universe, we could have been friends.”
Weren’t they great? I love the clean style and the quick quips the characters say.
Of course you are right about antagonists, they need to have depth and dimension just like the protagonist does. But the villain in the current story doesn’t feel very villain-ey, so I keep sloshing around as to what his background and motivation for being such a bad guy is. And he’s not really a bad guy, just more of an a-hole with no filters. I think the real issue is that the story is more of a gentle interlude between Fagin’s Boy and the hellish situation that awaits Oliver and Jack in the next installment. So you’re right, I have to trust what the story is telling me, while I’m telling it. (And maybe stories can be, simply, gentle interludes…)
And yes, I’ve heard of most of these folks (especially Barnabas), these bad guys with kinda mushy hearts or some soft spot inside of them that they can’t quite keep hidden all the time. But they must keep their sharp teeth, they mustn’t ever be tamed! Like Diego, in The Foundling. He kept his teeth, didn’t he. I think I’m a little terrified of having control (or imagining that I have control) over such a strong character. I guess I’ll just have to keep typing the words and see what shakes out.
Your comments are lovely. Thank you. : D