Creating Villains
One of my children today, out of the blue, guessed the identity of someone whose duplicitous behavior I had intended to shield from them. I was kind of stunned that my child brought it up, since it's a person who is outwardly quite friendly. Which shows me that (a) my kid is both intuitive/smart, and (b) people can expend a lot of energy pretending they have pure motives or that they are something they are not (or any of a variety of public/private masks elements), and chances are, they're not fooling everyone.
Which got me thinking about villains. I am toying with a YA proposal with an obvious villain, but I will likely have a betrayal in the book--in other words, NOT an obvious villain, and of all the things I have to pull off in writing, this is one of the ones I struggle with the MOST.
Since I know who the bad guy is, I have a hard time not tipping my hand. But if I try to write it as if I DON'T know who it is, then it can feel false--not enough of a hint. And I have to admire the authors who REALLY pull this off. It's a true talent for the plot twist. Me? Not so good at that.
Not only that, if an author (or movie) pulls it off for ME, then they are generally really, really good since I spend a good portion of any thriller movie, book, or even cop show (hello, Law & Order), trying to figure out the bad guy!
So who does this well? Have a book or movie that really "gotcha"? Anyone else struggle with how to clue people in to the bad guy? Or even the maybe-bad guy who is actually the good guy?
And, while I'm on that topic, one thing I loved about Severus Snape is that complexity--and I thought Alan Rickman was brilliant in every movie. He didn't quite fool me (I assumed he was deep-down good), but the complexity was wonderful.
8 comments:
I think Rowling might have told Rickman the ultimate secret of his character because the movie always felt wrong. In the books though, it was well written because you could see that if Harry had been Harriet and looked like Lily then Snape would not have carried so much hatred.
I think the brilliance of fictional villains is in the small ways they betray themselves. I would hazzard a guess that your real life one said something untrue about you to your child (maybe overheard by kid) and he/she knew right then that something wasn't right.
The evilest ones want to turn your children against you. Be careful of the seeds they plant.
Richmond:
I have no idea . . . truly. Kids can be amazing sometimes, though. They have finely honed bullshit detectors. :-) That's one reason I love them so much!
As for villains . . . yeah. It's as a writer trying to do it in such a way that the HINTS are there in small ways without overdoing it. TRICKY! And I don't believe I have mastered it yet.
Severus Snape is way yummy.
It's best if a movie or book involves me so that I don't care who did it. Because if I'm reading for who did it, the book is doomed. My writing brain ignores the "facts" as the author presents them, and zooms right in on the craft of the book for the answer, which generally makes it obvious.
Besides, if I'm right, I'm irritated I could so easily guess it. If I'm wrong, then I'm just plain irritated, LOL!
Ooh, you just gave me some ideas for my shiny new idea that I plan to plot next month.
*rubs hands together*
Natasha:
WOW! Brilliant point. I feel that way, too . . . only I didn't realize that's precisely why I feel that way.
melanie:
Just put me in the acknowledgments. LOL!
Snape didn't fool me. I figured him out from book one, and that was from Dumbledore's faith in him. In that way, craft had my answer, and also that I trusted the author to bring it all right in the end. So she did good. :)
But I like duplicitous characters. Probably my most duplicitous character is one called Landri. She's a tribal leader and a whole lot of what she does is ugly. But she definitely rides the fence between good and evil and in the end, good will win out. One of my critters said she doesn't like Landri, doesn't feel sympathy for her. Well, she's not supposed to be sympathetic, so I guess I'm doing that well. I hope by the end though the reader understands her. Kind of like with Snape.
I guess my friend Stuart has written what I'd call one of the most duplicitous characters: a killer driven to more killing. Might be a good book to study. You never quite like Fegan, but there are definite reasons for the nasty things he does. He has good reasons for keeping it secret, too. One thing that struck me is that no one ever gets very close to Fegan, even when they try.
So maybe the secret lies in motivation? What drives the character to do what he does and to hide it, as well? And maybe that lack of brutally honest closeness would be a clue without giving away too much. Especially if there's a character who shows the capacity for real closeness as comparison. Okay, I'll shut up now. :D
Try Michael Connelly's The Poet.
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