Writers in the Storm

Writers In The Storm welcomes back award-winning author and RWA RITA-nominee, Shannon Donnelly.

Today she’s talking to us about villains we love to hate and how to keep them from becoming a cardboard stereotype whose every action is predictable and boring.

By Shannon Donnelly

Nothing marks a writer as a beginner as clearly as the cliché bad guy.

This is the bad guy who is ugly inside and out with no redeeming qualities—this is the “boo-hiss” melodrama mustache twirling villain. And this is an easy fix in any story.

What’s that easy fix? Lots of things can help, but here are five quick fixes:

1. What does this character’s mother love about him or her?

Give every character a mother. In the animated movie Despicable Me, it was funny that the main character (a villain) was largely motivated to please his mother. His opponent—another bad guy—was motivated to please his father. This gave both characters additional dimension and something we all can relate to since we all have parents.

Now the character’s mother may not be someone who bakes apple pie—maybe she’s a bank robber, or she murdered her husband, or she’s otherwise no dang good. But figure out what does she love—and how does she hope her son or daughter turns out better? Maybe she’s proud her daughter is a hit-man? Maybe she thinks her son is just misunderstood? Maybe she thinks tough love will give him a better backbone? Maybe she thinks if she just harps enough at her daughter the girl will marry well?

Parents matter—even to a villain.

2. What does this character love?

We all have our favorites—even if it’s just a kind of ice cream. Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire earned his way into fame portraying a cold blooded killer—but the killer had a soft spot. He loved cats. He’d look after stray kittens, was kind to them—and he was a sociopath. Because of that one soft spot—that love—he was more than just another guy with a gun.

That’s what you want for your bad guys—find out what they love and show it in the story. Make it important.

3. Why does this character do bad things?

Motivations matter—they really matter for your villains.

It’s not enough that the bad guy wants the heroine for his wife (no matter that she hates him). Why does he want this? Does he really want her money? Is he obsessed with earning her love for another reason? What are the deep, deep roots for what the villain wants?

A villain who just wants to take over the world is dull—it’s been overdone. So give him better reasons. Look at real people—Alexander the Great wanted to take over the world. And his basic reason was to show up his father who’d been good at conquering, too. (See how you get back to parents so easily.)

No one is born bad, so what twisted your villain into someone who does bad things?

4. What would make this character a hero?

Turn the story around and look at it from the villain’s point of view. What actions would make this character a hero?

We’re all heroes in our own story—we do things that may be wrong but at the time we think we have good reasons and they are right actions. Even Hitler thought he was saving Germany and building an empire that would last a thousand years—in his mind, he was restoring his people to greatness (the problem being it was his ideas of “his” people).

Maybe your villain has great reasons for doing what he or she must do—maybe she or he even regrets the need for bad actions. Or maybe your villain has no regrets—what must be done for the good of all must be done. Righteous villains can be really scary people.

5. Give your villain a trait you’d love to have.

Make your villains easy for you to love (makes ‘em easier to write, too). Give them, a trait or traits, you’d love to have.

Maybe your villain is a decisive person, able to make up her mind at once. Maybe your villain is like Cruella de Ville and is a style-monster. Maybe your villain sings opera and keeps songbirds.

Make this trait also matter to the story—Cruella’s obsession with black and white fashion drives the story in 101 Dalmatians.

It’s that kind of love/hate that keeps readers intrigued with any bad guy—and you’ll have a lot more fun writing a villain you’d also love to be.

What kind of villains do YOU love to hate? Who are your favorite villains of all time?

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About Shannon:

Shannon's writing has repeatedly earned 4½ Star Top Pick reviews from Romantic Times Magazine, as well as praise from Booklist and other reviewers, who note: "simply superb"..."wonderfully uplifting"....and "beautifully written." Her book, Under The Kissing Bough was nominated for a Rita.

Her latest Regency Historical Romance, Paths of Desire, can be found as an ebook, along with her Regency romances, out from Cool Gus Publishing.

Blurb:

NO MAN’S MISTRESS…
She wants a rich lord for a husband—she won’t end like her mother, abandoned and broken.

NO WOMAN’S FOOL…
He wants to prove to his friend she’s the wrong woman—he knows too well the pain of a bad marriage.

WHEN AN ACTRESS CROSSES PATHS WITH AN ADVENTURER IN 1813 LONDON…
The last thing either wants is to fall in love, but when desire leads to a passion that won’t be denied, how can the heart do anything but follow?

Find at Amazon.com
Find at BN.com

DON'T FORGET: Shannon also gives online workshops and is the author of Story Telling; Story Showing, an ebook that compliments her popular online class Show and Tell: An Interactive Workshop.

Find Shannon online at:
Website: www.sd-writer.com
Twitter: twitter.com/sdwriter
Facebook:  facebook.com/sdwriter

Today Writers In The Storm welcomes Charlotte Carter! Since it's Labor Day weekend she's keeping things relaxed, easy and ever so sweet by sharing her wonderful spiced nectarine recipe.

Charlotte is a multi-published author of more than fifty romance, cozy mystery and
inspirational titles. Her books have made Waldenbooks Best Selling lists and have been translated into a half dozen different languages. Her awards include winning the National Readers’ Choice, Orange Rose and Romantic Times Career Achievement contests.

By Charlotte Carter

Everyone I know is going to get a jar of Spiced Nectarine Jam for Christmas this year. Again. They have for past four years.

We have a dwarf white nectarine tree in our backyard. About four years ago it started going crazy producing fruit. One year my husband, who prepares and freezes the fruit for my jam making (bless him!) saved all the pits. He had harvested FOUR HUNDRED nectarines!

Even total strangers have received the gift of Spiced Nectarine Jam. Last year I filled 25 jars; I’ll do that and more this year. Three more batches to go!

The nectarines are positively, absolutely Organic. No spray. No fertilizer. Hardly any extra water. (My husband isn’t exactly fond of gardening.)

Since it’s hard to send jam via the internet, I thought you might like the recipe. The jam’s really yummy.

Spiced Nectarine Jam

4 Cups prepared fruit
7 ½ Cups sugar
1/4 Cup lemon juice
1 tsp each of cinnamon, cloves & allspice
1 packet of Certo

Combine fruit, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, cloves and allspice in a large pan. Bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add packet of Certo. Stir to cool and skim foam for 5 minutes. Pour into jars. Use either self-sealing jars or cover with melted household wax. (This recipe can be used for Spiced Peach Jam.)

Happy jam making....

Do you garden? What do you preserve from your garden? Do you have any easy recipes to share?

Don't miss Charlotte's upcoming books

Montana Love Letter, Love Inspired, 10/2012
Home to Montana, Love Inspired, 3/2013

By Laura Drake

Press On Regardless. I know you’ve seen this phrase before. It’s one of those old sayings, and like dialog tags, they become invisible after awhile. But it’s more to me – it’s my mantra.

We start this writing journey, naïve, excited, and hopeful. Actually, we’re that way because we don’t know enough to be scared. And that works wonderfully. Like a young woman, pregnant for the first time. Older women shake their heads and think, “If she only knew what she was getting herself into.” But at the same time they smile, and wish just for a moment, they could feel that thrill, of everything ahead.

So you begin. You open a Word doc, and start typing. Along the way you learn about the characters, you learn about the plot, you learn about POV. You’re still excited, but you now have RULES. They’re walls that define your direction. That’s okay, you think, I need structure, because I'm so going to sell this book.

Time goes on. You learn more. You’re in the middle of the book (or the second, or third) and the walls have closed in. Your story is lost and you’re wandering a maze, trying to find it, wondering why this seemed like fun in the beginning.

If it helps, every writer goes through this – almost every book. I wish I could tell you that it gets better.

If you know me or if you’ve read WITS long enough, you’ve seen that I’m driven. I get up every morning at 3 am (even now that I’ve retired) and I write every day. I’ve sold 4 books now. I’m in the middle of writing two more. Sounds impressive, huh?

I have to let you in on a little secret: I’m scared. Every single 3 am I sit down to write, every new chapter, I’m afraid. I’m afraid I don’t know what happens next. I’m afraid the maze is going to open up to a blank wall, and I’m too far in to find my way back. I’m not kidding – seriously afraid.

I’m no different than the person who has good ideas, but who, sitting in front of a blank screen, freezes up and never writes. Except for one thing:

I Press on Regardless.  I sit down, every day, afraid that THIS is the day that nothing will come out.

But guess what? Something always does. Some days what comes out is crap. Some days something comes out that is so perfectly what I wanted to say that I’m in awe that I wrote it. Many days, it’s just (hopefully) decent writing.

What I’ve realized through pressing on regardless is that my fear is an illusion. You’ve heard the acronym for fear:

F – False

E – Evidence

A – Appearing

R – Real

It’s true.  It’s the little man, behind the curtain, flipping a switch to make flames come out of the huge scary mask. It’s not real.  I know, it feels real. Every single day.

I believe that women can understand how fear works better than men, because we experience PMS.

No, really. As a teenager, you’re ruled by the hormone-induced mood swings, right? They’re REAL.

But sometime, maybe your late twenties, you get blasted with the emotion you stand back and think, ‘What’s this about?’ You look at a calendar, and the light bulb goes off.  Oh.

You discount the emotion your brain is conjuring, and you go on with your day. As you get older, you recognize it faster. The emotions never stop (well, there’s menopause, but that’s a whole different post.) The emotion always just as strong. The difference is, you learn to press on regardless.

Fear is the same. It never stops feeling real, but you can push through it. I promise, it’s just like the Wizard behind the curtain, or PMS (I have no idea how I put those two together, but it kind of works, doesn’t it?)

You don’t need to know everything about writing to be a good writer. You don’t even need to know what’s going to happen next. All you need to do is to sit down. Today. That’s it.

And when you get scared, Press on Regardless.