{"id":1206,"date":"2020-10-21T14:10:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T18:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2020-10-21T14:10:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T18:10:37","slug":"what-villains-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/21\/what-villains-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Villains Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good luck and courage!<\/em> to all who will be starting NaNoWriMo before I post again. I admire you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 13, 2020, Chechu wrote, Sorry if I write something wrong: English is not my first language. I am from Argentina, I speak Spanish. I have a question. I\u2019ve started a novel but I\u2019ve got stuck.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve got the two MCs defined and a less detailed image of other characters. I have an idea of the conflict. I know what the MCs want and, of course, is related to the conflict. I want the characters to grow, to get better, to overcome themselves and I want the conflict to push them in that direction. The problem is that, though I know what the villain wants, I can\u2019t picture what he would do to try to achieve it and, in consequence, the obstacles the MCs are going to have to fight.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some months ago I wrote the first chapter. And I couldn\u2019t start the second because there\u2019s going to be a conversation that\u2019s going to introduce the main girl to the conflict. And I don\u2019t know how to do that conversation because there are a lot of things that I haven\u2019t decide (or found out) about the conflict yet. Specially because I am not a very political or strategic person so I don\u2019t know what a man who wants to obtain a place of power would do to achieve it (the villain).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also there\u2019s magic in this world, for the main masculine character is a mage. And the girl is very artistic. So I want to focus on things that I really like, like magic and art, and bravery, heroicity and magnanimity. But there is a politics conflict and they care. They want to bring the true king back to the throne, though it may be difficult and dangerous.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know what to do. Any advises?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing Ballerina wrote back, I would say to write the chapter anyway, as much as you can, then go back and fix it later.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also do some planning on a different document to figure out the conflict a little better before writing the chapter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m with Writing Ballerina on writing notes in a different document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I start a story, I don\u2019t know much more about my characters than age, gender, and the situation I\u2019m going to thrust them into. I discover them through their actions, reactions, thoughts, feelings, and what they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the villain, we might focus on the challenge he faces rather than on him and get to him through that. All we know about him is that he\u2019s power hungry, he lives in a monarchy, and the true king is not on the throne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can ask what the obstacles are to his gaining power. Let\u2019s imagine for starters (because we have to start somewhere) that the true king went hunting one day five years earlier and didn\u2019t come back. His grieving queen sent out search parties, but every lead turned into a dead end. The queen has been ruling in his absence and doing her best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our villain will look for weaknesses that he can exploit. Time for a list! We can list the possibilities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The queen doesn\u2019t have the common touch. Her subjects think she\u2019s stuck-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Skirmishes have broken out on the border with a neighboring kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Unlike the king, she knows no magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Before he vanished, the king nearly emptied the royal treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 A drought has brought about widespread food shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You think of five more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we don\u2019t want to make things easy for our villain. Another list. What obstacles will he face?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The western provinces where the queen grew up know her best and are fiercely loyal to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 She is very smart and a good strategist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 He gets bored easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Her son and daughter are skilled at magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You think of five more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can stare at our lists and think of strategies a villain might use to exploit the kingdom\u2019s weaknesses and get around its strengths. This may call for lists for each weakness and each obstacle, because there probably are several approaches to every one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, we stare some more, looking for links among the strategies. Might the same person who is fabulous at bringing people to his way of seeing things also be wealthy enough to replenish the kingdom\u2019s coffers\u2013or have a magical power that will help him do so? We\u2019re not going to use all the ideas we came up with in our lists. Once we begin to flesh out the villain, we can let some of them go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, we can\u2019t give him all the power. We need to think about what he\u2019s bad at too, what may trip him up. This calls for another list, considering as we write it how our new ideas fit in with what we\u2019ve already decided. Once that\u2019s done, I\u2019d suggest writing the next chapter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success, alas, isn\u2019t guaranteed. We may have to rethink and revise and go back to earlier chapters to plant things that we didn\u2019t see ahead to. The great (and terrible) thing about writing is that it\u2019s endlessly fixable. Pity the poor actor who garbles a line in front of a full house. That mistake cannot be unmade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 In the scenario above, your villain, Boran, spies on Serena, the captain of the queen\u2019s guard, and discovers that she spends half an hour alone every day on the castle ramparts, planning the day\u2019s deployment of the guards. Boran goes up there to meet her and see how persuadable she is to helping him\u2013what levers he can pull with her, how she might be vulnerable. He plans to kill her if he can\u2019t use her. Write the scene and show both his strengths and weaknesses. You decide if he succeeds with her or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Boran, in armor, rides to the border where the skirmishes are taking place. Write a scene showing what he does when he gets there. Does he fight on the side of the queen, or on the other side? Does he fight at all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Boran convinces the steward of the castle that he should be appointed the prince and princess\u2019s tutor. Write what happens during the first lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good luck and courage! to all who will be starting NaNoWriMo before I post again. I admire you! On January 13, 2020, Chechu wrote, Sorry if I write something wrong: English is not my first language. I am from Argentina, I speak Spanish. I have a question. I\u2019ve started a novel but I\u2019ve got stuck. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}