  Action/Adventure
This week: Calling All Bad Guys Edited by: Storm Machine  
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In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is. ~Taylor Swift
As children, our imaginations are vibrant, and our hearts are open. We believe that the bad guy always loses and that the tooth fairy sneaks into our rooms at night to put money under our pillow. Everything amazes us, and we think anything is possible. We continuously experience life with a sense of newness and unbridled curiosity. ~Yehuda Berg |
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It isn't easy to be a bad guy. You get tossed around with so many names, you hope someone sticks with antagonist or maybe villain. But just because a character needs to be a bad guy doesn't mean he needs to be that typical overarching dominate-the-world guy who appears in so many plots.
The protagonist is often the good guy. We start there, root for him, and wait for him to win over everything else. Despite overwhelming odds, we expect him to win over the bad guy. Sometimes we even cheat to make sure the good guy wins.
We must never cheat to make sure the good guy wins. Cheating leads to bad writing and fans don't forgive that easily. Sure, there exist a few beloved series where the villain runs around doing things for no apparent reason except to trip up the hero, and the hero escapes beyond all expectations of the reader.
But do you really love that book? Is it your favorite without reservations? Or do you secretly submit pieces that bother you to the Evil Overlord lists of Things Not To Do? You know the ones I'm talking about: 6. I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.
I just finished a book where the reader was supposed to believe the first character we were introduced to was the bad guy. Little bits dropped in from another character also led us to believe he was bad. Then the book took a turn. A big turn. Suddenly, despite the character's mistakes and faults, that labeled bad guy turned around. Someone was a bigger bad guy, and that kept me glued to the story until it finished.
Both major characters had backstories, too. Each one had families and friends or people who had been left in the wake of destruction.
One of my struggles in my current work is identifying the bad guys as well as the good guys. Making each of them into rounded characters and giving them reasons to be who they are. Creating friends and enemies that drive the character into the direction I need, then adjusting when the unexpected occurs.
The unexpected generally occurs. Even if your villain is a evil mastermind supergenius, no one thinks of everything all the time. Allow your bad guy to surprise you as well as your reader.
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| |  | My New Friend (E)
A boy doesn't like to deal with his reality, so he creates a friend to help escape it.
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BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
There's one very good thing about pain- it means that you're alive.
Of course, if you want to talk crazy wounds - try "The Last Stand" with Arnold Schwarzenegger - the guy gets a bunch of injuries, including a knife in his leg, but then he grabs the knife, yanks it out, and stabs the bad guy with it in his leg, causing the bad guy to give up in pain - real tough guy huh?
And for crazier pain - "Drive Angry" staring Nicholas Cage. Now, the guy's an escaped convict from Hell, so his anatomy might be altered, but in one instance, he gets shot in the face, apparently killing him. However, like three minutes later, he wakes up, kills a few guys, sits in a church pew, rests for a minute, kills some more, and then gets into a high speed chase, and his aim with a gun is still good. As for the end - well, I'm not going to spoil it, but that's even crazier.
Hollywood has their own brand of possible.
Quick-Quill 
So true. I'm reading a story by someone held captive. Her knowledge of mental patients "masks" gives her a real background. It helps to know how to see behind the masks of real people. Her character's revelation my help someone who reads her book.
Very interesting.
ENB
I completely agree with the injury thing. While we may hate to have to beat up our characters, it is impossible for someone to run through a whole battlefield full of fighting people and come out with not even a scratch. Believability is key in an adventure story even if it is fantasy.
Plus the scars from older battles might scare away new opponents! Or attract suitors. Perhaps just invoke memories. |
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Action/Adventure: June 04, 2014 Issue [#6353]
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