Writing Villains by Priscilla Brown

 

 

 

Scottish laird, Australian  journalist - and villain at work 

https://books2read.com/Dancing-the-Reel 

 

'There's no hero without a villain' 

 (https://www.brainyquotes.com/mark_pellegrino_959913

 

 

How would fairy stories be without their villains?  Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and many more involve malevolent characters intent on harming the 'hero' or 'heroine' by eating them, denying them something they need or want, or making them stay at home to do the housework.

 I would like the characters in my contemporary romances to be 'nice' people with 'normal' every day  lives.  However, such paragons would not make an interesting strong story, and I need to deal with the challenge (to me) of giving my individuals problems, conflicts, tensions, ups and downs.

Enter villains.

In such a romance, the main characters are heading to a 'happy ever after'. or at least, a 'happy for the time being', and the role of the villain is to set them apart. This troublemaker has a single-minded personal agenda, a motivation for interfering with their developing relationship. On an early draft of Dancing the Reel a critique suggested  that the character I'd built as the villain needed redemption. I was surprised, and had no idea how to redeem her without compromising most of the plot. However, having considered this, I decided that as she was such an unsympathetic personality totally focused own her own ambition and attempting to walk over everyone in her way, redemption would be misplaced. In fact, the very suggestion of it led me to strengthen her personality, actions and dialogue, so that, while still credible within the story, this villain is unlikeable. Ultimately, she fulfilled her necessity to the plot, so I wrote her out in a tactic pertinent to her behaviour and preferred lifestyle. And the hero and heroine eventually arrived at their 'happy ever after'.

Wishing you lots of enjoyable reading, Priscilla

https://bwlpublishing.ca

https://priscillabrownauthor.com