Tag: villains

“Woobie” Anti-Villains & Sympathy for the Devil

“Woobie” is a funny word I recently discovered when researching. This anti-villain doesn’t want to be evil, but they have no choice, do they?

The Evil Has Landed: Villains Could Be Much Like You…or Even Me

Much of what goes into forming villains that gets underneath the audience’s skin is to understand—really understand our story—make sure it is strong enough and then search out those pain points that will likely exist in our readers. That’s how to know what variety of evil will unravel them the most.

The Villain: Crafting Scoundrels, Sinners & Substance of Legends

All stories require a core antagonist (the force/character that is responsible for generating the story problem in need of resolution). This said, there are many different types of antagonists. While all villains are antagonists, not all antagonists are villains. The villain might only be one of many types of antagonists, but they have a power …

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Conflict: Elixir of the Muse for Timeless Stories Readers Can’t Put Down

Conflict is the core ingredient required for story. It is the magical elixir with the raw power to transform a story we think we’ve heard a million times before into something wholly unique and mesmerizing. FYI, there are no new stories, only new ways of telling the same stories. Just getting that out of the …

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Bring on the BINGE! Creating Villains Audiences Can’t Get Enough Of

Many of us have been there. It’s late. We know we have “adulting” to do in the morning (which is in two hours). Our sensible self has been nagging us to get our @$$ to bed so long we smothered it with a pillow around midnight. Whether it’s a book, or Netflix or HBO or …

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