IMPORTANT UPDATE

Hey everyone, I know I haven't posted in a while. That being said, I am moving this blog over to wordpress and you can follow it there at https://anotheraveragewriter.home.blog. In the next few days/weeks I will be moving the posts on this blog over to that one. I do not know if I will be deleting this blog, but I definitely will not be using it anymore.

Hope to see you over at my new space! Please be aware it is still a work in progress, as I'm still setting it up, so it's not in its final stage yet but you're welcome to make your way over there.

Villain Vs. Antagonist

*I want to apologize for my lengthy absence. I got caught up in school life and let this blog slip by the wayside, but I am trying to get back on the ball again because writing is my life.*

You may already know the differences between an antagonist and a villain, although sometimes they are one and the same even if the terms aren't interchangeable. In this post, I just want to go over, in my mind, what separates (and brings together) the two terms.

I touched on villains a bit in my post Creating Your Villain, but there is so much more to discuss.

I. Love. Villains. I love them. If you have an intelligent villain, chances are I'm rooting for them and not your hero. Like I mentioned above, I've written about them before and I'll write about them again because you can never dig too much into the concept of the villain.

So that is why we need to at least look at the differences between a villain and an antagonist.

Just like protagonist is not synonymous with hero, antagonist is not synonymous with villain.

In order to make sure we are all on the same page here, let's look at the definitions.

Villain:  1. a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime 2. a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot

Antagonist: 1. a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another 2. the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work

(dictionary.com) 

Though, at first glance, these definitions may look similar, there are a few key differences. Notice in the number one definition for both terms, the word "person" is used in the description. And then notice that the word villain basically describes an evil person who is "devoted to wickedness" while the word antagonist describes a person opposing or competing with another. So, in short, a villain is an evil, malicious person while an antagonist is simply a person who is competing or up against another.

Now take a look at the second definition for both. These relate the terms to their uses in literature. The villain is a character who constitutes, or creates, an evil agency in the plot and the antagonist is the adversary of the hero or protagonist. 

So the villain is an evil person and the antagonist is not necessarily evil, but they get in the way of your protagonist. For example, in Harry Potter, Voldemort is clearly the villain while Professor Snape, for much of the series, is an antagonist. 

One thing to acknowledge is the antagonist is either an opposing force to your protagonist or the opposing force. So a villain who is against your protagonist is also an antagonist. But, while a villain has to be a person or character of some sort, an antagonist does not. An antagonist is just what we call the force that your protagonist is up against. 

An animal can be an antagonist, a force of nature (like a hurricane, or even a geographical location like a jungle or desert), the whole of society, even your protagonist can be the antagonist if they are having inner struggles. If your protagonist is struggling with fear, envy or pride, then their fear or envy is an antagonist because they are the opposing force. 

If you think about these terms in all the different ways they can be used, it can get confusing. When you start considering the fact with a villain or human antagonist, your protagonist is an antagonist to them because they are your villain's or antagonist's adversary and that if your villain was the main character of the story, they would be the protagonist and the "good guy" would be the antagonist, it can make your head spin. Once you've got it down, though, it's really not that confusing. 

Some people have slightly different ideas about characteristics between an antagonist and a villain. Some articles I've read say that one difference is that an antagonist is someone who doesn't necessarily believe they are in the wrong and that an antagonist can change, but I don't really like that idea because that suggests that the villain can't and I don't really think it illustrates the difference. 

The main thing I want to say and want you to understand from this post is that your story needs an antagonist but it does not need a villain. An antagonist provides conflict and if your protagonist has no opposition then the story will be over quickly. 

Hopefully, this didn't confuse you too much and made some sort of sense and now you can go and create the perfect antagonist for your story.

Your Protagonist and Their Goals

Before you sit down to write your story, there is something you absolutely have to know.

What is your protagonist's goal?

This is a very important question for you to have the answer to. It shapes your entire story.

We already know all about no conflict, no story, so it's crucial to know that if you don't have a goal, you don't have conflict. If your protagonist isn't trying to achieve something, or have some sort of ultimate goal, nothing can get in their way because there's nothing to get in the way of. So, no goal = no conflict = no story.

Now we just have to figure out just how to come up with a good goal.

Notice the title of this post is not Your Protagonist and Their Goal, it's Your Protagonist and Their GoalS. They need to have more than one. They need the one main goal that drives the story, but there also needs to be smaller goals for them throughout the story.

For the sake of this post, I'll be referring to them as the primary goal, which drives the main plot, and secondary goals, which drive the subplots. It's really important that your character has a desire for something and that it's made obvious as soon as possible. Kurt Vonnegut gives a very good piece of advice in this area. He says, "Make your characters want something right away, even if it's only a glass of water."

Now, a glass of water would be considered a secondary goal, but it is a goal nonetheless. The point here is that when you begin your story, your character has to have a goal already in mind. It doesn't matter how small or big the goal is as long as it's there.

Here are some steps you can follow to help make sure you have some good goals for your story.

1. Decide on a goal
There are a million different options you can choose from when figuring out your character's goals. To help narrow down your choices right from the beginning, though, you can choose if it's going to be an external goal, or internal goal. An external goal would be something like finding or discovering something, defeating an enemy, resolving something, or doing something while an internal goal would focus more on changing an attitude or point of view, becoming a better person or trying to get someone else to change. Once you have that question answered, deciding on a specific goal will be much easier.

2. Why is this your goal?
Now that you know what your goal is, you need to know why this is your character's goal. Why does he/she want to achieve this? What's their motivation? If the goal was a glass of water, perhaps your character would want it because they were thirsty. But why are they thirsty? Did they just run a marathon? Are they stranded in the desert? Have they been locked in a cell for three days? Having a goal is something for your character to achieve, but they need a reason to achieve that particular goal or no one will understand what the big deal is. They may also want it even if they aren't thirsty. Perhaps they are painting with watercolors, getting a drink for a sick friend. Even wanting something as simple as a glass of water can start in interesting story.

3. How will this goal affect your characters?
Like everything else about your story, the goal needs to affect your character/s in some way, shape, or form. Achieving (or not achieving) their goal needs to have a personal impact on them. How will reaching this goal change them? What will happen to them if they aren't able to achieve it? Even if you plan on having your protagonist achieve their goal, it's still good to make sure you know what would happen to them if they didn't reach it. This allows you to portray your character more accurately.

4. How do your secondary goals connect with your primary goal?
While your secondary goals need to be different than your primary goal, they have to make sense together. You don't want five or six different stories going on at the same time, you want five or six different conflicts in the same story. One goal is boring, but five goals that lead the protagonist in five different directions is confusing. Keep in mind that you are writing one story and you need everything you write to ultimately move the story forward. All goals, while different, have to connect in one way or another.

These are four pieces of advice to get you started on creating a good story with strong goals. The better you know your goals and why these goals are important to your protagonist, the better you will be able to write the story.

Why Insta-Love Rarely Works

*Before I begin, I want to apologize for my lengthy absence. My computer broke down and has been in the shop for the last couple of months and I have had very little access to a computer since that time. Just wanted to let you all know that I haven't disappeared.*

If you've been following me, you probably know I touched on the idea of insta-love a bit in my post Writing Romance Without Being Cheesy, but I want to go a bit more in depth with it today.

So, what exactly is insta-love? Well, if you look around, different people define it different ways, but there is a consensus that it revolves around the idea of love at first sight. For the purposes of this post, insta-love is when two characters consider themselves in love after having only spent a maximum of 24-hours in each other's presence.

And if we are honest, this happens a lot in literature. It's popping up everywhere in YA literature but even in other places. I mean, ever heard of Romeo and Juliet? That is the classic insta-love story. Why is it everywhere? In my opinion, because it's easy.  Sure, some people genuinely think it's cute and romantic, but the fact is writing insta-love is quick and to the point. You get to skip all the inbetween stuff (you know, the part where they are getting to know each other) and jump from seeing each other across the room to soulmates.

But the inbetween, the stuff that's being skipped over is the most important part of a love story. Why are we leaving this out?

Before you add some insta-love into your story, give some thought to these points which usually make insta-love hard to appreciate.

1. Many times, authors write as if insta-attraction = insta-love
I can understand insta-attaction. It's not hard to believe that people might have some kind of attraction to one another after hanging out for the first time. But love? That's where you start to lose me. I'll believe they enjoyed each others' company, want to hang out again sometime, but I'm not about to believe they are in love. That's going a little too far. You love people you know, you don't love people you talked to once.

2. With insta-love, it's hard to believe these people are in love for any reason other than that they are both hot
It's sad but true. Two hot people meet. Bam! They're in love. They meet once and for the rest of the book, they don't stop thinking about each other and spend the rest of the book trying to find the person they know they love. Honestly, these people basically know nothing about each other. So they were charming the first time they talked. Maybe even the second time. But you can't really love someone you've had a few conversations with. Mostly it just seems the character is in love because the other person is physically appealing. Like, what other reason do they have? They don't know each other on a deeper level than what's on the outside. They haven't had the time to know each other that way.

3. Sharing one experience together isn't love
Sometimes, two people meet each other because they are stuck in the same situation. They are stuck in an elevator, next to each other on an airplane or hiding out during a storm and by the end of the experience, they are in love. Well, that's not really how love works. Falling in love is a bit more than a crush, or wanting to spend more time with someone. That can happen within a few hours. Falling in love doesn't happen quite so fast.

4. Insta-love is basically falling in love with a stranger
Admit it, that's kind of exactly what it is. If you don't know the person's flaws, fears, past, what makes them happy, sad, angry, laugh or cry, you don't really know this person. If your characters haven't had been with each other through thick and thin, helped them through tough situations, they don't know each other on a personal level and having them fall in love just seems ridiculous.

These are not all the reasons that insta-love doesn't always work well in a novel, but in my opinion, they are some of the biggest. A couple of other reasons that it's difficult to do realistically is because it doesn't set the stage for a long lasting relationship. As the couple finds out more about each other, not just their perfect hair, dazzling smile and charming conversation, they may drift apart. Until they see each other at their worst, they can't really know if they are in love. It's easy to be in love with someone who doesn't show their dark side when they are with you.

If your characters fall in love right away, they lack connection. And so do the readers. It's hard to understand why these characters are in love and we won't care when they break apart. Also, in many of the books I've read that involve insta-love, 90% of the book is the two characters yearning for the person they barely know and it's quite a turn off.

If you have a love story in your novel story, really think about it. Is it insta-love? How well do your characters actually know each other? It's not easy to write a captivating, realistic romance within a novel, even as a subplot. Using insta-love robs the reader of the love story and it's taking the easy way out. We want to know your characters and see that they know each other before they decide that they are soulmates.

Is Your Novel a Soap Opera?

What's a story without a little drama? Stories need conflict and conflict means drama. And let's be honest, we like a little bit of drama, but we don't want a constant stream of it.

So, does your novel have appropriate drama or soap opera drama?

Soap opera isn't a typical term to use when writing a novel, it's just a phrase I use to describe a story with too much drama because soap operas are full of drama. And some people like that, I guess, but it doesn't always work so well in a novel as it does on TV.

It's not always easy to tell when your story becomes a soap opera because the line where you cross into soap opera territory can be a thin one. Sometimes it's not until I'm rereading my work that I realize I've written a soap opera.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if you need to tone down the drama.

1. Is my character overreacting?
I see overreacting a lot in books I read in situations like "my best friend likes my ex-boyfriend oh my gosh how could she? I thought she was my friend," and "you lied to me? I'm never talking to you again!" For every day problems such as those, you don't need such a dramatic reaction. It's okay to have an overreaction in the moment, because sometimes people overreact, but to keep it that way the entire book is a little much. Have your character overreact if they are going to acknowledge later on that they were overreacting.  For every conflict, there's an appropriate amount of drama and you don't want to over-do it. Don't make it so that a little dishonesty/betrayal between friends is the end of the world.

2. ...how about under-reacting?
You need to watch out for this, too. If you have a character under-react to something, it can be a problem. I once read a book where, near the end, the protagonist's parents discovered that she had been molested several times as a young girl and they were just like "I'm sorry honey" and then basically went on with their lives. And I kind of just stared at the book for a while thinking "seriously?" If your character is going to under-react, they may as well not react at all. Sometimes, depending on the situation, you need a dramatic reaction. Make sure the drama fits the conflict.

3. Who is the victim?
Keep in mind that everyone should not react to the same situation in the same way. Some people may not need to react at all. If your protagonist isn't the person who's being lied to or cheated on, make sure they don't take those events personally. Paying attention to which characters are affected by the dramatic situations will help you write the reactions appropriately.

4. How easily can the problem(s) be fixed?
If you are writing about a situation that really isn't that big of a deal in the big picture and, it probably has a simple solution. Which means if your characters are spazzing out about it, the drama needs toned down. It can be annoying to the reader if your characters are hung out on a problem that they've already solved five or six different ways in their head while waiting for your characters to move on. If the issue can be resolved quickly and easily, don't draw it out for three or four chapters.

5. Do I have too much going on?
Be careful not to throw too much at your character at once. Not only is it hard for them to deal with, but it's hard for the reader to follow along. It also has the potential to throw you off course. If you have a character who is dealing with several big issues (mother dying, spouse cheating/divorce, single parent, job loss, estranged family), that's going to require a lot of reactions and can very easily become too much reaction.

6. Is this a pity party?
When your character is going through some tough stuff, it's hard not to make them feel sorry for themselves. And a little bit of that is okay. What you don't want to do is make it self-pity central. No one wants to read a book where the main character is just feeling sorry for themselves. I know. I've read some books like that. Recently, I read one where the main guy kept remembering that he was sad his wife was dead every two lines for the whole book. So the book was basically him having a pity party. And it was really boring. So be very careful you're not going overboard with the self pity. Give your character time to take it in then move on with the story. They don't have to forget their hardship, but don't keep bringing it up unless it moves the story forward.

And also, lighten up! Even dramas and tragedies don't have to be solemn all the time. Give your reader a break from the heaviness every once in  a while. A lighthearted moment every now and then can seriously help reduce the level of soapiness from your drama.

Remember, you want some drama. But you don't want a soap opera.

Are You Feeding Your Reader Too Much Information?

When writing a story, there is a lot of information you have to give your reader. You have to give information about the characters, setting, plot, conflict, relationships, etc and if readers don't have this information, they won't be able to follow the story very well.

As the writer, our job, which is sometimes difficult (or always difficult if you're me) is choosing when and how to reveal this information.

Of course, there is information that the reader needs to know right away, like who the characters are, the setting, and what is even going on. When I am reading a book I typically go into it thinking "who are you and why do I care?" And the reader needs the answers to those questions as soon as possible. You don't want to be in the third chapter of a story and still not have a basic concept of the plot.

Remember, your reader knows absolutely nothing when they are starting the book and you know everything and it's your job to make sure they get all the information they need in a way that's interesting and not confusing.

Besides the basic information, eventually, your reader will need to know the answers to all those questions you've been asking throughout the novel. You'll need to reveal twists, turns, and motives. Much of this is typically revealed at the end of the story, when everyone finally gets all the answers. Want to know why the villain did what he/she did? It will probably be revealed at the end, which is okay. You don't want to give something like that away in the middle of the story because it takes away from the tension and suspense.

Don't wait until the end, though, to reveal all the information you've been building up to or your reader is going to feel overwhelmed and have a hard time keeping up with it. Give information  little by little throughout the story so your reader gets hints and save the big reveal for the end.That way, your reader isn't totally clueless and they still get the climax they've been waiting for.

Just be aware that you can't reveal everything at once because that is throwing too much information out there. Your reader will get an information overload. I know this because it's happened to me before. More than once. Some authors just pile information on you. They either tell you nothing or everything at once and it's not good for the reader. Keep your reader engaged by giving them hints every now and then.

That is a good strategy for the information your reader has to know by the end of the story. Like, if your villain is your protagonist's father but they don't know, that would be the thing you want to reveal at the end, but that is not the time to reveal the family history. When you share the relationship of the villain and protagonist, the reader should already have a good idea of the protagonist's family history. You don't want to spoil a moment like that with a history lesson so get it out of the way beforehand.

So, what about the information the reader needs to know at the beginning, like figuring out what exactly is going on? Well, there's not one right way to do it, but there are wrong ways. One way that gets boring really fast is the question and answer session where one character is asking questions and the other one is answering them all which happens in way too many books.

Like, say there is a magic tree that your main character needs to know about, and you have a secondary character that has all the information that the protagonist needs so you have a dialogue that goes something like this:

MC: Where do I get this magic?

SC: From the Magic Tree, of course!

MC: Magic Tree?

SC: Yes. Long ago, a magician planted a tree where he would be able to keep all his magic and when he passed on, he left his magic in the tree.

MC: How am I supposed to get the magic?

SC: Using the magician's retrieval spell.

MC: But where am I supposed to find this spell?

SC: In his spell book, I think. Or somewhere in his abandoned house. Everyone was scared of him and they figure he's still haunting his home so no one's been up there since he died. Everything he owned should still be there. Including his spells.

MC: So, I just go to his house, find this spell, find the tree, recite the spell and I have the magic I need? And then what? Will I be in danger? Will anyone be able to take it from me?

SC: After you recite the spell, you should have the magic, and yes, you will not be safe. There are many that are after his magic. And if someone kills you, they will inherit the magic from you.

But, anyway, hopefully through that less than brilliant dialogue I just wrote out of nowhere, you get an idea of what I mean. Any question the main character asks, the supporting character has an answer. And sometimes it's okay for another character to be able to answer the questions of the MC, but if they have a series of questions and they all get an answer, that's a boring way to find out what the main plot idea is.

It's just a method the author uses to quickly give the reader the information so they can get into the story and, sometimes, it's unrealistic that a secondary character knows so much. It's telling the reader, not showing the reader.

There are much better ways to give this information. For example, perhaps the MC, instead of asking all those questions about the Magic Tree just goes to the magician's house and happens upon the retrieval spell without really knowing what they're looking for. That way, they get what they need, the reader is in the know and they discovered the information on their own, nobody told them.

Hopefully, you get an idea about what I mean. Choosing when and how to give information is important to the story because the right sort of lack of information is what keeps the reader reading. They finish a story because they want the answers and if you throw everything at them once, it's confusing and chaotic. You have to do it carefully and sparingly and make it interesting. It's really not fun for the reader when the MC gets all their questions answered without having to do anything.

Using Backstory the Right Way

I have mixed feelings about backstories - both as a writer and a reader. Usually, I don't like to read backstories. I find them tedious. I acknowledge, though, that sometimes they are needed. When I write, however, I always feel like I need to add a backstory or no one will know where my characters are coming from or why they choose to do what they do. But this is not the case. Even if it may feel like it, sometimes you don't need a backstory.

Yes, sometimes your readers need to know certain parts of the history of your story, but if you can manage to add it throughout the story when appropriate, instead of taking the time to write a backstory for your readers then it will flow much better.

As a  reader, reading backstory feels like I'm not reading the real story. Either I have to read this history before the story starts or the story is interrupted to give me a history lesson about what's going on. The history should be incorporated into the story, not separated.

Backstory can be useful to your story and even interesting for the reader if you use it correctly, though. When used the right way, backstory can add to your story, rather than take away.

Don't use backstory in the first chapter. Ever. When the story begins, the reader doesn't care about what happened then. They care about what's happening now. Once they have become familiar with your character and are involved in the story, they may not only willingly read the backstory, they may actually want to the history. Just not in the beginning. Give them time to connect and care for the reader before they get a history. 

Make sure your backstory is relevant to the front story (what's currently happening). Think whether or not it really needs to be there. Don't put it in because you think it's interesting and the reader might also find it interesting. That's a waste of time. Put it in because it reveals something about your character the reader needs to know and moves the story forward. If it's not relevant, it doesn't need to be there. What I will sometimes when I really want to write out the backstory, but I know it's not needed in the story I'm writing, I will actually write it out anyway. Separately, though, for my own benefit. That way, I will have it when I want it and it enables me to better understand my characters and write the story more efficiently. So I write backstories a lot, but I don't always incorporate them into the finished story.

Quick and to the point is the best way to go when writing a backstory. Yes, the reader may be interested in the backstory, but don't interrupt the story to give 2-3 pages of history. Give a paragraph or a couple of sentences. Don't beat around the bush. Just say it.

Once you're sure that you are going to include a backstory and that it's essential to the main story, you need to decide how to incorporate it and there are several different ways to do that.

Spread it throughout the story
This is often a good choice because instead of overwhelming the reader with information, you are just giving bits and pieces as needed. This way, your reader gets all the information they need without feeling like the story gets put on pause. In fact, if you do it really well, the reader may not even realize they are reading a backstory because it fits perfectly into the scene.

Flashback
Flashbacks and memories are another option to use when writing a backstory. If the character is remembering something, it doesn't feel so much to the reader like it's happening solely for their benefit. But flashbacks aren't always the right way to go. If you use a flashback, make sure it doesn't last much longer than a couple of paragraphs so as not to bore your reader and don't put a flashback in the middle of an action sequence. That will erase the tension.

Have another character need to know the information
If another character is ignorant of the information, and needs to know it to move the story along, then having someone give a brief explanation is a good way to add some backstory without being too tedious.

Dialogue
Putting a backstory into a dialogue between characters makes it simple for the reader to follow along. It makes it a conversation, and not a history lesson. If two characters are discussing it (not just for fun, but because they have a reason to be discussing it) it can fit much better into your story than a narrative.

However you do it, make sure it's realistic! I cannot emphasize that enough. In way too many books I've read, there is unrealistic backstory/conversation. Usually this occurs between the antagonist and protagonist. It will be near the end, when the villain has been found out, and the protagonist will just be asking the villain how/why they did what they did and the villain will explain everything to them! I cannot tell you how much this annoys me. In what way is explaining your evil plan and the motives behind your villainy to the person trying to stop you realistic? It happens in so many movies/books that it seems normal for that to happen. But it's not.

This applies to backstory because many times, an antagonist explaining their villainy is backstory. And it's a good thought to keep in mind when writing. Always ask yourself  "Is this a realistic moment to give a backstory?" and if the answer is no, then don't write it. If you're unsure, don't write it. Try to figure out if the backstory would fit. Try it out. See if it works. Don't add it in if you're not sure it fits at the moment. Never guess.

If you add backstory because you think it's interesting and you think the reader will find interesting, or you know so you want the reader to know, you're proud of the history you created, something like that, it will never work. It will cripple your story. Backstory, when used correctly, helps a story in so many ways. It gives the reader a better understanding of the character, it reveals fears and motivation and can also thicken the plot.

As long as looking into the past helps your story move forward, everything should be fine.