It’s been a while since I saw a film that was so good I practically combusted over it. But I just saw the Dark Tower, and oh my sweet, sweet deliciously-evil villain heaven was it bloody amazing.

Now before anyone whips out their red pen and corrects this post:

Two caveats:

ONE – This post will contain some spoilers, if you haven’t watched the film and intend to, please don’t read on.

TWO – I have not read The Gunslinger by Stephen King, that’s the book the film is based on. Therefore all comments are in relation to the movie the Dark Tower only.

I lied, there’s a third caveat, this is all my opinion. If you don’t like the Dark Tower movie, I can’t do anything about your bad taste in films. :p

Why am I talking about Dark Tower? Because it had a villain that was off the chart. And you know how I swoon over a good villain. But Walter (the villain) was also a total cliché, and yet, despite that, he worked. Like really, REALLY well. So well, that I was salivating literary story joy all over the screen.

Which means the film provides a cracking lesson on how to make a clichéd villain work: 

First, what constitutes a clichéd villain?

In 13 Steps To Evil – How To Craft A Superbad Villain, I give you a whole list of clichés to avoid. But simply:

“Clichés are words, phrases, expressions or scenes that have been overused to the point they’ve become predictable and unoriginal.” p.117 13 Steps to Evil, by ME!

For example:

• The priest saying ‘Does anyone object?’ and the protagonist’s true love bursting into the church
• A villain or a witch with a ‘muhahaha’ laugh or a cackle
• And then I woke up and realized it was all a dream

Why was Walter from Dark Tower a cliché?

Cliché 1 – Black 

For a start he only wore black. Not something I mind, given my fave color an’ all. But still. A black clothed villain is a cliché, even if Walter was particularly stylish and unacceptably handsome.

Cliché 2 – Lack of motive AKA evil for the sake of it

Now, I refused to believe that Stephen King wrote a book with a motiveless villain, so as soon as I got out of the movie, I googled it and discovered, that of course, in the books, he has an excellent motive. However, in the film, not so much.

Walter is one of those, evil for the sake of it villains. His mission is to destroy the tower and reign life ending apocalypse over the universe by letting in all the hell demons and beasts that are outside the universe.

Cliché 3 – A hoard of motiveless minions

There’s one thing that a dark-lord-evil-for-the-sake of it villain is great at, and that’s amassing an army of minions who do absolutely everything the villain says in fear of death, but with frankly, zero motive. It makes it a bit hard to swallow for the more seasoned plot critic.

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But enough of the bad stuff. Because despite everything I just said, Matthew McConaughey nailed Walter. He was an amazing villain, and yes, that was partly because of his acting but also because the role was written well.

Here’s how he combatted the cliché

ONE – Coohey – Look Over Here…

Divert attention away from black.

Think about the weapons your villain might have, or the mannerisms, or physical features. What is it, besides the black clothing that makes your villain evil and interesting? Make those things the defining feature rather than the use of black clothing. That way the clothes become background noise in amongst your strange and quirky villain.

Walter’s got so many other features, his narcissism, his Jupiter sized ego, his disturbingly warped mindset, his ability to wield amazing powers of villainy delight and sorcery. The black clothing was practically invisible. If I hadn’t been looking for it I might not have seen it!

TWO – Hurt The Hero 

Heroes need to suffer for their win.

Readers don’t give a damn whether your hero runs off with the maiden, or if he dies pulling hairballs out of his pet cat unless, that is, you make them invest in the hero’s journey.

And how do you do that? By giving the hero a character arc and having a villain that makes your hero’s life hell.

And boy does Walter make Roland pay. Walter ruthlessly kills everyone that walks with Roland and murders everyone he ever cares about or loves. Dead. ALL OF THEM. Without exception. The last of which is his father and it throws him into decades of isolation and self-loathing. GENIUS.

THREE – Target everyone’s weaknesses

Not only does Walter hit Roland (the hero) where it hurts, by killing everyone he loves. He does the same for the protagonist (Jake). Jake is a young psychic boy, and who the story is about. His dad is already dead, so to make Jake vulnerable he prays on his only weakness, the only thing he has left – his mum. Walter kills Jake’s mum and the rage Jake feels over it, sets off his psychic powers, enabling Walter to track him down.

Not only does Walter target people’s weaknesses, he does so with an unrelenting consistency that is terrifyingly brilliant. He is one bad motherfu…

FOUR – Make the villain impossible to beat unless…

…Your hero gets over their personal barrier, i.e. their character arc.

Walter IS impossible to beat. He’s stronger, more manipulative, more cunning, and more devious and the whole universe is terrified of him. There’s no way a single gunslinger (Roland) can beat him. Especially when Walter has broken Roland mentally.

Roland’s character arc is a lie arc. I’ve talked about the lie your character believes before. But Roland, in particular, believes that he is no longer a Gunslinger because his heart isn’t pure because he wants revenge more than he wants to protect the tower.

It isn’t until our cute little psychic kid helps Roland remember that he is still a Gunslinger at heart, that he’s able to make the shot that kills Walter.

And there you have it. Four ways to beat the cliché.

Have you seen the movie? What did you think? How else have you included a cliché in your book but turned it into an awesome character?

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains

OUT NOW

Click this link to purchase and then click the logo of your device or regular bookshop, and it will take you to the right page.

You can also get a FREE villains cheat sheet by joining my mailing list just click here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post Villain Clichés That Work – Four Lessons From The Dark Tower Movie #MondayBlogs appeared first on Sacha Black.

I know, I know. I can hear the groans of  ‘about freaking time, Sacha. What took you so long? It’s not like you’ve been writing for 7 years straight, Sacha, I mean Geeeez.’

All I can do is raise my weary eyebrow, wipe the sweat off my brow and down my glass of champagne.

FINALLY, today is the day I take the first steps toward fulfilling the dream little nine-year-old me had. Because right now, at this very moment, I get to put on that shiny gold badge I’ve been lusting after for an eon.

Today I become an author.

Fuck yeah, I do, people, Fuck YEAAAAAH I DOOOOOO!

The time for talking is over. 13 Steps To Evil – How To Craft Superbad Villains, is here.

Let me ask you a question… Do you want to write the best villain you can?

I’m guna assume the answer is yes! Well, finally, I can help.

For those of you that don’t know, for the last few months, I’ve been writing a non-fiction book called 13 Steps to Evil. It’s been carefully designed to give writers a step by step guide to creating the most kick-ass villain possible.

And today is launch day.

13 Steps To Evil is now on sale and for one week only, you can get it at the bargain price of £1.99. After the 7^th June, it will go up to its normal price of £2.99. So make sure you download it ASAP to avoid missing out on the launch promotion.

You can buy your copy here:

AmazonUK

AmazonUSA

Also from iBooks, Kobo, Nook, Inktera and Barnes & Noble. Just click your usual bookstore or device logo and it will take you to the right store.

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Alongside the launch of 13 Steps To Evil, I’ve created a short villain’s companion course and free checklist to help you put into practice all the things you’ll learn. In order to make sure you have the support you need, there’s an exclusive Facebook group where you can work through the course with others and ask questions. I’ll also be on hand to answer questions too. If you’d like to join the course, click here.

If you do purchase a copy of 13 Steps To Evil, and you have a few spare minutes, I’d really appreciate a short review on the site you bought it.

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Want to know a little more about 13 Steps To Evil?

Here’s the book blurb

13 Steps To Evil has been carefully designed to give writers like you, a detailed guide to creating the most kick-ass villain you can.

Are you fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains? Frustrated with creating clichés? And failing to get your reader to root for your villain?

In the book you’ll learn all kinds of awesome stuff like,

• How to develop a villain mindset
• The step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up
• Why getting to the core of your villain’s personality is essential to make them credible and believable
• What evil pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs

Finally, there’s a comprehensive writing guide to help you create Superbad villains. I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching and interviewing writers to make sure 13 Steps To Evil is tailored to your exact needs.

Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge. It will also help you master the perfect balance of good and evil as well as strengthening your villain to give your story the tension and punch it needs.

You’ll get the same dark humor, you find in my blog posts and newsletters and I use a ton of well-known examples to help explain the steps.

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HERE’S A SHORT EXCERPT

Why Writers Fudge Up Their Villains

Villains are like newborn infants. So much glorious potential. Until we writers get our grubby mitts on them and balls it up. With the careless flick of a pen, we can turn a finely sculpted baby villain into a cringe-worthy cliché because we didn’t make him bad enough, or we create something so heinously evil it’s unrealistic.

A villain might be a plot device, but he still needs a purpose and a goal, or he’s unworthy as an opponent for your hero (See STEP 3 for motives and goals).

While researching this book, writers told me all kinds of problems they encountered while creating their villains. From getting the dialogue right and avoiding clichés, to knowing how evil to make a villain, to how to reveal her motives without using blatant exposition.

Behind all these issues lie two basic barriers that are the Achilles in every writer’s villainous heel:

1. Depending on the point of view (POV) the book’s written in, the villain is usually seen through the eyes of your hero.

A solitary POV gives you a page-limited amount of time to show your villain’s best, most authentic and devilishly evil side. Page-limited to the point it makes it eye-wateringly difficult to convey her backstory effectively without information dumping. You have to be better, clearer, more tactical and more concise with your words to create superbad villains.

2. Writers are hero worshippers.

We love our heroes and protagonists more than our spouses. And as a result, we spend shameful amounts of time honing our protagonist’s muscular heroics into shape. But that relegates our villain (the plot-driving conflict-creator) to the corner of our book, complete with a nobody-loves-you-anyway hat. In other words, writers don’t pay enough attention to their villain.

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I’ll be on a blog tour for a couple of months, so make sure you check out these awesome authors sites for my guest posts.

Don’t forget to get 13 Steps To Evil while it’s on sale. You can use this link, just click the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page.

If you’d like to join the villain’s short course, click here.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post 13 Steps To Evil – How To Craft Superbad Villains Is HERE! appeared first on Sacha Black.

I’ve been thinking about my own antagonists/villains in my WIP, and what I can do to develop them and make them more hateable because they’re loveable.

Your villain needs a redeeming quality or positive trait. 

Even Voldemort has positive traits. As Tom Riddle, he is charming and handsome, and as Voldemort, he is patient and intelligent. This, although you never really like him, at least makes you feel sorry for the mess Tom ended up in. Hence you empathize with Voldemort. It gives depth to his character and draws you into his story. Isn’t that the point of stories? To be drawn in and empathize with the characters? I like nothing better than that feeling of finishing a novel or a series and feeling bereft like I just lost a friend. To me, that is the mark of a good writer, and personally, I think empathizing with villains is one of the key elements needed to do that. Make the reader feel for your villain. Make their craziness, their insane ideas and philosophies seem plausible just for a minute. Momentarily make the reader care about the villain, before slapping them back to reality with a chunky slab of crazy villain.

But How?

In developing my villains, I use six simple sets of questions/principles to create what I think is an authentic baddy. These aren’t meant to be comprehensive solutions to the best bad guy you can create, but a starter for ten on basic elements you need.

1. History

No doubt you created a rich and full personal history for your protagonist and probably for most of your supporting characters too. But did you do the same for your villain? It’s important to know how they got that way, rather than just having an evil character for the sake of it. So I’ve started to ask myself lots of questions:

• Why are they a villain?
• Did something happen to them?
• What was their childhood like?
• What was their relationship with their parents like?
• Did they ever have a boyfriend or girlfriend?
• What’s the best thing that ever happened to them?
• What’s the worst thing that ever happened to them?

And loads more, have you got any key questions you ask your villains, I would love to add them to my list…?

A lot of these questions will lead you to the answers and information for some of the points below, like where they get their morals or reasons/motives from.

2. Positive Traits = Realism

There’s nothing worse than a flat villain. A villain who is evil for the sake of it. No one is evil for the sake of it, and no one is just plain evil. That’s an exaggeration you can only get away with in very young children’s books, and even Disney films the villains have at least one positive redeeming quality. You need to make sure you give your bad guy at least one positive trait. It gives balance to all their negative ones, and with balance comes realism and believability. It makes them human, relatable. After all, humans aren’t all good or all bad, so your villains shouldn’t be either.

Maybe they are kind to a sidekick, or a pet – take Voldemort again, he has a pet snake which he loves called Nagini. It’s redeeming quality – to love another thing and gives him depth and authenticity.

3. Emotions

Villains need emotions just as much as heroes and supporting characters do. It gives them validity, authenticity and encourages conflict. Emotions drive the plot and show historical wounds. Emotions mean weaknesses, which mean blind spots. Blind spots mean a hero can exploit his weaknesses and beat them.

4. Morals or Reasons

“I want to destroy the world….”

“Ok, why?”

“Because I do….”

Sounds pathetic right? You need to give your villain a reason to want to destroy the world. Not just because ‘they do,’ no one will accept ‘because I do’ as a valid reason and it will make your villains seem false, flat and unbelievable.

But better than reasons, are morals. Giving your villain morals makes them truly insane. If they have morals they not only think what they are doing is right, but they think it’s just and for the better good of everyone else. It also makes it harder for the protagonist to destroy the villain if they aren’t all evil. I spoke about Dexter and his anti-hero ways, and the fact that his morals are what make him and his TV series. The same principle can be applied to villains but in reverse. I guess like an anti-villain.

If you have ever been drawn into a villain’s master plan and momentarily agreed with them, let me know in the comments. I have, the last time it happened was with Virgil, in the final book of the Disturbed Girl’s Guide to Curing Boredom Trilogy, its one of ‘those’ books, one that made my most inspiration books ever list. Virgil sucked me into his evil virus-releasing world-destroying plan, with a well argued and to be honest, quite logical plan for destroying most of the population! But of course, I came to my senses.

5. Motive = Conflict

This is part and parcel of morals and reasons. But is the most important aspect of your villain. It’s the why behind their plans. Without the why you don’t have a good enough villain. The ‘why’ gives you conflict, the fundamental disagreement between villain and protagonist. Conflict gives you plot and believability. You don’t have to have reams and reams of why explanation either. Take Captain Hook he hates Peter Pan because he cut off his hand. Or the evil Queen in Snow White, she’s partly driven by vanity, but that leads her to be envious of Snow’s beauty. 

6. Character Arc

Your protagonists should through change and grow as your story progresses, and so too should your villains, even if it’s just a spiral downwards. If your villain is the same at the beginning as they are at the end, then what was the point of the journey and the battle with the protagonist? They flat lined and I imagine quite a boring villain.

Questions I’ve been asking myself include:

How does the story affect the villain? Do they get more evil and bitter? Or do they see the light and get redeemed? Or maybe I should just kill them off!? How do they feel about what happens to them? What is their goal or objective?

Whatever you choose your villain’s journey to be. They should end the story different to how they started it.

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If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page.

You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet and a villain’s short course by joining my mailing list just click here.

Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

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