 Mystery: November 14, 2018 Issue [#9225] |
This week: You're A Villain To Someone Edited by: Jeff  
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"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the
fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science."
-- Albert Einstein
Trivia of the Week: Australian writer, artist, and comedian Ash Lieb is only 36 and about to enter his third decade as a content creator. He wrote his first novel at age fifteen, and held his first solo art exhibit well before that when he was only eight.
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YOU'RE A VILLAIN TO SOMEONE
This week, I want to do a little thought exercise. In a previous newsletter back in August ("Sensible Villainy" - "Mystery Newsletter (August 22, 2018)" ), I talked a little about the importance of making your villains understandable. It's even better if you can make them sympathetic. As has often been said, "The villain is the hero of his or her own story." It's a way to re-calibrate your point of view to make your villains more believable.
This week, let's give that a try.
Chances are, you're a villain to someone. Think back to the times in your life where you know you've done something wrong. Maybe intentionally, maybe not... maybe you've had a really hard life full of poor and/or tough choices, or maybe you've had a relatively uneventful life and are generally well-liked. Either way, the odds are still pretty good that at some point you said or did something that hurt someone else, and that someone really despised you for it. The size and scope of the offense and whether or not the offense was forgiven are not important here. What is important is that you take some time to reflect on what happened and why it happened.
When I was in high school, the internet age was just beginning. The school introduced "keyboarding" and "computer applications" classes instead of the old school "typing" classes on old IBM Selectric typewriters. Unfortunately, the student body was a little ahead of the administration on how to use computers and secure them. The computers for the computer classes were on the same network as the rest of the school network... so those of us with decent computer skills were able to get into places we shouldn't: grades, class schedules, teacher personal info, etc. Thankfully, none of us were nearly malicious enough to do anything seriously damaging... we catfished some teachers and fellow students, created fake accounts to send emails, etc. One brave student tried to change his schedule to get put into his friends' classes (which is how all of this was eventually discovered).
At the time, we were indignant about the trouble we got into. We didn't see the big deal; after all, weren't these computer classes supposed to be an opportunity to learn how to do things? And we weren't trying to do anything bad, we were just having some innocent fun sending friends emails they thought were from their teacher, or finding out a teacher's address and checking it out to see what kind of house they lived in.
With the passage of time and the accumulation of a lot of years of life experience, I can see now how we were villains to the administration (and the other students we hazed). Granted, it was a somewhat less fraught time than it is now and we lived in a sleepy little small town. But as an adult whose spouse is a teacher, I can definitely see the potential risk and cause for concern if a student were to find out where their teachers lived. I can understand the concern and fear that would be caused by students rummaging around in a computer system that potentially allow them to modify faculty salary information, or the permanent files of other students. Even if the worst case scenario didn't come to pass, we were still the malicious little punks that gave them their first cyber-security scare.
Throughout high school (and for a good many years afterward), I didn't see how I could be the villain to anybody. I've always been quiet, well-behaved, polite, respectful of others, etc. I don't make a habit of antagonizing people, and in most cases I actually go out of my way to avoid causing pain or discomfort to others. Me, a villain? Pfft. No way! Never! But I was a villain in that particular situation. I hurt and scared people even though my friends and I thought we were just having a little harmless fun. I wasn't being intentionally villainous, but I bet if you went back in time and asked the principal or the computer applications teacher what they thought of me, they wouldn't have very nice things to say about that particular chapter in my life.
When you're creating villains for your stories, it's rare for someone to start off that way, an antagonist and enemy from the very beginning. Most villains start off, as the saying goes, the "heroes of their own story." Or if not a hero, at least an innocent and/or well-intentioned bystander.  Take a few moments to think back on your life and consider the experiences you've had and what might cause other people to see you as an antagonist in their own stories. Then, when you're next writing a story with an antagonist, apply that thought process to that character. Think through the experiences in that character's life that led them to become an antagonist to your story's protagonist. Was he or she always rotten, or did some things happen along the way that shaded and changed their perspective on the world?
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"Blogocentric Formulations"
"New & Noteworthy Things"
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EXCERPT: He wasn’t sure if he was still asleep or had finally woken up. His head was still heavy and thoughts disoriented. The blinding flash was still playing into his eyes. He tried to sit up. Saline lines and blood channels entangled him from all sides. The steering wheel had crushed right into his ribs, but they don't really hurt. The morphine was good. He doesn’t remember what had caused that accident, he wasn’t drunk, he knew. Did he see her face?
EXCERPT: "I was feeling great until the phone rang." My eyes popped out of my head when I saw the caller ID. How could it be? The call was coming from my friend Keisha. Why did that freak me out so much? Keisha was dead. I threw my phone away from me and tried to collect my breath.
EXCERPT: The woman in a black hood and the dress, reminding itself mourning clothes of a widow, who has recently lost her beloved husband, accurately stepped over a threshold, having almost hooked by a door’s handle with a hanging on her back and attached to a belt scythe. Having hushed to a cat, who has rushed under her legs and was just going to start crying “meow”, thereby breaking the blissful silence, so loved by this woman, she looked around and methodically put away from a pocket of her black as night dress a book of impressive thickness.
EXCERPT: Ruby’s eyes fluttered open. She stared at the grimy ceiling above her. Ruby turned her head to the side, away from the disgusting ceiling, but the walls weren’t any better. If anything, they were worse, with grease and stains covering them and small holes all around on the wall, presumably from previously placed thumb tacks and pushpins. Ruby sat up.
This is not my room, she realized with a gasp.
EXCERPT: Flow felt the first indications of transformation as the sun sank beneath the horizon and the pale moon began to dominate the sky. It was as if his mind was rising with languor from the depths of the sea to the surface light. His skin felt the slightest breeze as the thick fur fell off. The structure of his face became flatter and his jaws weakened. He looked down at where his hands should have been, but they remained as paws. He gritted his teeth as he realized his prayer for his hands to return had been futile. His metamorphosis, always occurring at the full moon, lasted just one night. He often wondered which was intended to be the greater punishment this one night or all the days and nights he existed as a monster.
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Feedback from "Mystery Newsletter (October 17, 2018)" about authenticity:
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  writes: "Sometimes both the crime, and the law's response has to make sense for the world. Discworld's Sam Vimes always says "Look for who stands to benefit most from the crime"."
Sam is very wise, and I completely agree. 
Espinado  writes: "If I understand your point I am going to have to disagree with the third paragraph. One does not need to explain how roads are built or how steam/internal combustion engines work when using them in a story. I much prefer stories where tech or magic is only touched upon in passing. Unless the knowledge is key to the story, details should be minimized. For example:
"... it was going to be 14 hours before the warp-gate recharged; so we were all stuck on this barely functioning space station for that long. Longer if we don't get a ship working. This would be far easier if any of the 'droids worked. The longer I think about it the more I regret taking this mission. ..."
We know, without a complete monologue on how a "warp-gate" works, that it has something to do with spaceships and that it needs recharging before it can be used. We don't know how it works; whether it is instantaneous transfer to a different place, or if it uses unicorn tears for power. We don't need to know any of that for it to be used in a story.
"... The wizard leaned against the table. Clearly the effort at creating the Qualer has exhausted him even though the entire incantation took on a few minutes. It gave me a sinking feeling, as we needed a hell of a lot more than one if we are going to survive Ran-Kan's skeleton army. ..."
From this we know that using magic takes a toll on the user. We don't need to know why that is, just that it does.
It seems to me that knowing what it does is more important than how it does it.
Just my opinion, I have other if you don't like this one (stolen from Groucho Marx.)
Dirk"
Thank you for writing in! And while you make a fair point, I think there's a danger to putting too many things in your writing that are never explained. Many audience members love to know the how... just look at any online community for Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Babylon 5, etc. and you'll find tens of thousands of people debating those very details of a story even when those details aren't included in the original material. I'd also point out that in both examples provided above, while a "warp-gate" and "Qualer" may not need additional context in that particular moment, the author at the very least should understand the mechanism by which they work if they are to be prominently featured in the narrative, even if the details aren't included in the actual story. Otherwise, without an understanding of the mechanics, there's a risk that their use could be applied inconsistently in the narrative.
All that said, this is largely an issue of personal preference. As you said, "[You] much prefer stories where tech or magic is only touched upon in passing." Others have different preferences (hard science fiction and military sci-fi, for example, are genres where a great many readers have a voracious appetite for the minute details). As with so many other aspects of writing, detail levels are subjective. There is no perfect amount of description or explanation that will satisfy everyone's tastes.
Thank you again for your feedback!
Quick-Quill  writes: "Jeff another educational NL. I love it. My story I last told you about has a situation where she didn't want to use a DNA kit. After hashing my reasoning with my wonderful, critical sister, she shrugged and said, "Change the setting to pre-DNA. Set it before Ancestry and 23me even were available." Voila! that settled that. Now I have to go back and reset the date and make sure everyone knows its 2010 or so."
It's amazing all the workarounds authors need to find to combat modern technological advances. Low battery or no-reception cell phones are a popular feature in many stories, as is choosing an earlier time period. I've found that the best way to establish a non-contemporary story is to feature prominent news or culture from the time period. If you want to highlight the fact that it's 2010, you might make passing references to the Burj Khalifa opening (Jan 4, 2010), the devastating earthquake in Haiti (Jan 12, 2010), the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (Apr 20, 2010), the World Cup in South Africa, the death of Dennis Hopper (May 29, 2010), someone listening to "Hey Soul Sister" by Train on the radio, passing a movie theater where Toy Story 3 or Inception is playing, etc. Little passing details like that can give your reader a great sense of time and place without being too over the top.
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