[isabellestone]

Build-a-Villain Workshop #1

Looking to develop your villain further? Trying to build a villain for the first time?  Look no further for here is a simple guide to building a fearsome villain for your story. Disclaimer: I’m a fantasy writer, this will be fantasy based. 

Step 1: Choose a Motivation

While this can be anything, some common motivations are: Power, Legacy, Revenge, Respect, Protectionism, Hate, Love, Indifference, Drive for Utopia, and Infliction of Pain. Now you might be thinking I can understand why the last one is villainous, but some of the others seem okay! Remember, a villains motivations should be understandable, and their goals can be noble, but it is the means that make them “bad.”

Step 2: Decide if They Really are “Bad” 

Despite my previous statement, some villains are just trying to achieve noble goals by noble means. This is actually a really good way to get your audience thinking about your theme if it ties in well. The flipside of this is my personal favourite – make the heroes bad too. 

Step 3: Design Their Personality 

There are a few traits you’ll want to consider in particular and in the extremes. Make sure to chose the side that your hero will struggle with more. Villains should be handcrafted challengers, designed to ruin your hero. 

Intelligence vs Stupidity - A villain who can scheme intricate plots is terrifying, but extreme stupidity leads to recklessness and unpredictability, good for control freak heroes. 

Short Temper vs Controlled Emotions - Short tempered villains are a threat to anyone close to them, while those that can control their emotions can be highly manipulative. 

Calculated vs Irrational - This again leans into the trade off between the unbeatable factor and the unpredictability factor. Both are equally fearsome.

Charismatic vs Black Seep – Why do their followers believe in them? Is it because they can talk the hind legs off a donkey or was your villain an outcast come to take their revenge. 

Don’t underestimate the stupid, short tempered, irrational black sheep. They often have intelligent advisors pulling their strings while their stupidity causes chaos like no other. 

Step 4: Ask Yourself Why? 

Not just Why did my villain set out on this path? or Why don’t they see the harm they’re causing? but also Why have I reached the end of a post specifically using ‘they’ pronouns and imagine a white man with black hair and dark eyes? Because many of you will have done just that, particularly for the intelligent, manipulative villain with more power than you could ever imagine. Ask yourself why intelligent, charismatic villains with goals outside of revenge and love need always be a man. Some villains are just heroes who don’t understood the cost of their actions. Ask yourself why they shouldn’t be diverse and stereotypical caricatures. 

This post is quite long enough. I reckon I’ll do a part 2 if you guys like it :) 

[If reposting to instagram please credit @isabellestonebooks] 

[100puddingcups]

*Hears distant banging in the middle of the night*

My sister after a short pause: oh dear. That's not good

[100puddingcups]

So I was banging this bag of frozen peas on the bench bec they were all stuck together and wouldnt come outa the bag and my mum comes in and is just like "what in the world are you even doing making all that noise?" And I just hold up my bag of peas and she just sorta goes "oh I see. Carry on" and turns around and leaves and then I start smashing my peas again.

[100puddingcups]

Me: this time when I press shuffle on spotify, I'll let it play shuffle

*first song comes on*

Me immediately: haha no

[100puddingcups]

Note to self

When my sister asks me what I would do with $100 randomly in the middle of the night do not answer with "I dunno.. maybe mint chocolate?"

She wrapped them like a pass-the-parcel too

I dont know if I'll ever find my cat again.

He's made himself a new home in the paper

[ousia-poetica]

Do not confuse good taste with luxury, the first is the son of elegance, the second of money, the one is usually simple, the other vulgar.

[100puddingcups]

A FLOOFY BABYYYY

[100puddingcups]

I think the funniest thing about high school is the younger years always swearing their pants off at everything and the older years just not.

Year 7, 8 and 9: fucking bullshit you faggot

Year 10, 11, 12: frick frack apple snack, gosh diddley darn it dude why

[100puddingcups]

So I read this thing that said to open the nearest book to you at that moment and the first sentence on page 206 would describe your love life and

Thanks Obama

But what does it mean??

[writing-prompt-s]

Every person gets a familiar at the age of 16, that they can call out into the world. They come in all shapes and sizes… literally. It’s no exaggeration to say that your future hinges upon the familiar you get, but… well, nobody’s quite sure what to make of yours, a fox the size of a house.

[100puddingcups]

All the better to floof you with.

[writing-prompt-s]

You have just been abducted by a UFO. While you are figuring out what just happened to to you, a frantic alien bursts into the room. “You have no idea how many rules I’m breaking, but my Human Studies final is tomorrow and I need help.”

[100puddingcups]

"I gotchu fam," I say as someone who has experienced first-hand the terror that is finals.

[100puddingcups]

What even is the point of package approved serving sizes? Because if you think I'm only eating 20 skittles or less in a sitting you are sorely mistaken

[100puddingcups]

I think tf not

[100puddingcups]

What even is the point of package approved serving sizes? Because if you think I'm only eating 20 skittles or less in a sitting you are sorely mistaken

[catasters]

[100puddingcups]

The face of no regrets

[atraversso]

That friend who can handle all your grumpiness

[100puddingcups]

This is what I need in my life right now ngl

[soyeahso]

There are a couple of things about current shipping culture that confuse me.  

1. The focus on whether or not a pairing will become canon as a reason people should ship something or not.  Do you not understand what the “transformative” part of “transformative works” means?”

2. This idea that saying “I ship that” means “I think that, as presented in canon,this is a perfect, healthy relationship that everyone should model their relationship after.” 

Sometimes shipping something does mean that.  Sometimes shipping something means “Person A is a trash bag who doesn’t deserve person B but I would love to explore how Person A might grow to deserve Person B.” Sometimes it means “I want these characters to live together forever in a conflict free domestic AU.”  Sometimes it means “I want Person A to forever pine after Person B.  Nothing is beautiful and everything hurts.”  And sometimes it just means you like their faces and want to see Person A and Person B bone in various configurations and universes. 

[mominmudville]

Listen to your parents, kids.

[handypolymath]

This really should be one of a handful of Public Service Announcements randomly and chronically inserted into one’s dash.

[violent-darts]

Hell man sometimes it means “these two are TERRIBLE and I want to watch them burn like a catastrophic forest fire as a proxy for all the shit I don’t actually want in real life (like to light my own apartment on fire and scream) and then laugh at the destruction at the end.” 

[mikkeneko]

All “I ship it” really means – really – is “I think there’s a story in those two, and I want to hear it.”

[mad-madam-m]

All “I ship it” really means – really – is “I think there’s a story in those two, and I want to hear it.”

[megaceros]

[kindofapieceofshit]

a wavy platypus?

[spaghettifromthevoid]

[moonrat02]

PERRY THE WAVY PLATYPUS?!

[100puddingcups]

[isabellestone]

A Guide to Writer Lingo - Drafts

When I was new to the writing community I was confused about what to expect from each draft. When is draft 1complete? Where’s the line between draft 2, 3, 4+? How much editing goes into each one? Does each draft serve a different purpose? Now I’ve been here for a while and on my 3rd draft, I’m ready to answer those questions. 

There are no set rules on drafting.

Everyone’s drafting process is different. Some people move onto draft 2 before even writing an ending to draft 1. Some people like to do a draft 0. Some people call their outline draft 1. What I’m writing below is what I’ve seen to be the most common meanings.

Beat Sheet - This is written before the outline and follows the Save the Cat! plot structure. It breaks the story down into key plot points, spread out across three acts. 

Outline -  This can be a written document, a spreadsheet, revision cards on a wall, or not exist at all (shout out to the pansters). This is where the main plot is laid out from start to end, including subplots, and divided into chapters. 

0th Draft - Also called a dirty draft, some authors use this name to take the pressure off while drafting. If you struggle to accept that your first draft won’t be as good as you want it to be, it might be worth doing a messy 0th draft that no one but you will ever read. 

1st Draft - By the end of the first draft, a book should have every chapter written at least once. The wording might not be perfect, subplots might need consolidating, plot twists might need foreshadowing and clarity might be required on a number of things. Most people share their 1st draft with a critique partner, a first reader or an alpha reader, but personally, I like to ensure contingency in my 2nd draft and then share that.

2nd, 3rd, 4th+ Draft - This is where the waters get muddy because every writer does these very differently. I create a new draft every time I do a round of edits from start to finish, chronologically through my book. I also start a new draft on each round of beta reader feedback, but really there are no real rules about drafts 2+ and you can divide them as you see fit.

Which draft do I submit to agents/publishers? 

Again, there are no hard-set rules on this. It is advised that you do not submit your first draft. You should have completed at least one round of edits and have had a few beta readers before submitting to agents as they want clean manuscripts without plot holes, contingency issues, and grammar mistakes. 

I hope this has helped and feel free to add to this below as drafts are hugely subjective!

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