Hello, writers. Many thanks to the doughty dconrad for hosting WO! last week, with a diary on the protagonist’s friends which segues nicely into my topic this week: The protagonist’s enemy.
Last week I was at the Highlights Foundation, presenting on villains. (By the way, when the HF say scholarships are available for their programs, they really mean it. And full scholarships at that.)
The attendees were working on fantasy novels. The activities I did with them were aimed at helping them develop the villains in their novels. (These activities would also work for other secondary characters.)
First, they each did a bubble map to get to know their villain better.
Then, I asked them each to sum up their novel in a single sentence, less than 20 words in length. There doesn’t need to be anything catchy about the sentence; it’s not a log line, it’s not meant to sell the book. It’s utilitarian. It’s just the character and his/her problem.
Example: A boy learns he is a wizard and must save the world from the evil wizard who killed his parents.
If it’s impossible to write such a sentence, then there may be a problem with the novel.
Once they had written the sentence, I asked them to reverse it. Make the villain into the hero of the story. So it’s still character + problem, but now the villain is the main character, and the problem may only be a problem from his/her point of view.
Example: A wizard’s valiant attempts to return from the dead are continually thwarted by an annoying boy wizard.
Once they’d done that, they were well on their way to working themselves into the villain’s point of view.
So, for the last activity, I asked them to free write. Put themselves into the villain’s point of view. Think about the hero (the alleged hero!) of the story. The Callow Youth, as it were. Write about the hero, in first person from the villain’s point of view. (That is, the villain is “I”. The hero is “he” or “she”.)
Keep writing for five minutes without stopping.
Tonight’s challenge:
Do the four steps above. You can share any, all, or none of them. Tell us what you learned about your villain as a result.
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