Scott Oldford Site

Tag: writing tips

  • 3 Ways to Create a Compelling Villain For Your Next Story

    3 Ways to Create a Compelling Villain For Your Next Story

    Whether you’re writing a novel, novella, short story or a work of flash fiction, sometimes you need an eye-watering source of evil to spice things up. Something that provokes feelings of disgust, fear, unrest or something that people love to loathe.

    Usually, this comes from the tale’s main antagonist or villain.

    In other words, a character who makes life unbearable for everyone or everything around them. A person, animal or force that is worse than Genghis Khan, Hans Gruber, Count Olaf and Lord Voldemort combined.

    Every reader loves to loathe a villain.

    If you’re sitting there, scratching your head looking for the inspiration you need to conjure up that skin curlingly disgraceful or spit-worthy character you need to make your story complete, follow these three simple steps.

    1.Think of the kind of evil that will suit your story

    We’ve established that you would like to create a real nasty piece of work.

    You know, the kind of character who would steal Christmas gifts from an orphanage, or snatch a blind old lady’s guide dog. But, what you don’t want to do is choose the wrong kind of evil for your story.

    To make sure you don’t choose the wrong evil traits for your character, sit down in a comfy seat with the outline of your plot or your draft so far and consider the kind of antagonist that will slip into your story seamlessly.

    Think about your setting, where the story will take the reader, the relationships between other key characters, the conflict and the resolution.

    If you’re going for a tale that includes all-out guts and gore, then perhaps a murderous, cannibalistic madman or woman will work wonders. But, if you’re taking your reader on a tightly-wound psychological journey, a vindictive, calculating intellectual will suit. Of course, the latter character could be capable of committing a murder, but portraying them as loud, brash and manic in the context of a psychological mystery might not do your story justice.

    Think about the core traits that will work for your character. Write them down, refine them, and you’ll be able to build a portfolio for your antagonist.

    2. Give your antagonist a name and a look, then, take a step back

    Now you’ve identified the sort of skin melting pure evil that will sprinkle a wonderfully sinister element to your work of fiction; it’s time to give it a name.

    Christen that character and the rest will follow.

    Much like when you’re trying to write an eye-catching headline for an article, giving your character a name will help you define them.

    Naming your character will also help them jump off the page in all their toe-curling, snarl-making glory.

    Essentially, you’ll give yourself an extra boost of evil inspiration (this calls for a Dr. Evil-style pinky-to-corner-of-mouth moment).

    Before you conjure up a title for your antagonist, sit back, close your eyes and harness those evil thoughts.

    Think about what you hate and what gets your goat. Consider a person from your past who embodied everything that’s wrong with the world. It could be the science teacher who told you you’d never amount to anything, or that ex who treated you like a piece of proverbial dirt. Also, use those feelings and those people to define the aesthetics of your character. Was that science teacher portly with breadstick fingers, or your ex spindly with intense goggle eyes?

    Use this to help name your character — organizing your thoughts on paper or screen as you go.

    Brainstorm a number of names, being as plain or as wacky as you like — you’ll know what feels right for your story — go for a cuppa, and come back to your workstation to settle on the name of your despicable creation.

    Now you’ll be able to link those core character traits to the name and help connect the dots that will bind your character’s being.

    At this point, you should stop what you’re doing and take a break. An essential part of the ideation process, stepping away from your project and resting your mind for an hour, a week, or even a day will help your ideas incubate.

    3. Create your character’s persona and go wild

    When marketers are trying to target potential customers, they use buyer personas to craft content that will strike a chord with them. Creating a character for your story is no exception.

    Now you’ve bestowed your antagonist with those core evil character traits and given them a name, it’s time to make them real — at your own peril, of course.

    To help give them an all-important human element that will appeal to your readers — and this applies even if your antagonist is an animal or a monster — you should create a full ‘evil character persona’.

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    You can craft evil character persona by looking at certain character traits, personal attributes and other information including age and background.

    To help you bring your antagonist to life, here are the headings you should use to fill in the gaps:

    • Age
    • Brief early life bio
    • Economic or social background
    • Likes and dislikes
    • Signature item of clothing
    • Main source of evil
    • Reason for being evil
    • Main weakness
    • Main strength
    • Current incentive for being evil
    • Most skin curling physical feature

    By working through this checklist methodically, you will be able to create a full background profile for your antagonist and have them jumping off the page in no time — just don’t look directly at them.

    By now, you’ll have a detailed three dimensional source of evil for your story. Not only will you feel more emotionally connected to your character, but it will be like they’re in the room with you (scary thought) — which will of course, have them jumping off the page throughout your story.

    An antagonist that will fit into your narrative like a glove and have your readers groaning in anger — literally.

    Did this help you come up with your most evil character yet? Let us know by leaving a comment.

  • Writing Fiction? 10 Common Writing Errors That Make You Look Like a Newbie

    Writing Fiction? 10 Common Writing Errors That Make You Look Like a Newbie

    You’re about to work on your first big writing project. Whether it’s a novel, memoir, or short story, you don’t want everyone to know it’s your first (even if you’re shaking in your boots, just a little).

    Many first-time writers fall into traps that can decrease the quality of their piece, and these newbie blunders can diminish their credibility.

    New writers fall into these habits for all kinds of reasons: putting pressure on themselves to write something enormous and profound, attempts to mimic other authors, and probably in the most common occurrence, a bad case of writer’s block during their first big project of their career.

    The pressure is on and your brain has gone into panic mode, resorting to comfortable cliched phrases.

    Not to worry: these writing pitfalls can be easily sidestepped with some awareness.

    Here are 10 of the most common writing errors that new authors should strive to avoid.

    1. Including too many cliches

    Just because it’s the most popular phrase doesn’t mean it’s the most effective. Consider your personal experiences before plunking down a common saying or phrase — those unique reactions are what give you an edge as a writer.

    Even when writing fiction, use your own perspective to your advantage as you play with metaphors and other ways of developing your story.

    2. Writing inauthentic dialogue

    Suspending disbelief is easy when the dialogue in your story universe sounds natural. Dialogue is extremely hard to do well, but can also make or break your story.

    Listen to conversations around you; take note of verbal ticks or idiosyncrasies that appear in normal human speech.

    3. Rushing the plot

    Getting your characters from Point A to Point B is certainly important, but not so much as providing a solid foundation for these transitions.

    Whether you decide as you go or map out your character’s story beforehand, ask your editors or critique group if they can name the cause and effect of each major event. DIY MFA’s mapping technique can help you organize the interwoven events that take place over the course of your story.

    4. Choosing a cop-out ending

    “And then he woke up” is a perfect example of a cop-out: an ending that negates all other given information that the readers have been led to believe is useful in analyzing the plot, characters, and ending.

    After fully engaging with the universe you’ve created, your readers don’t want to feel tricked!

    5. Abandoning or using your characters

    If a character suddenly makes an “exciting” choice that makes no sense with his or her aforementioned stable traits, your readers will instantly question your motivation for inserting that choice into your story.

    To avoid this pitfall, take special consideration when choosing your point of view. An event in your character’s life that might read as mundane in a typical third-person scenario might come across as more significant in a first-person voice.

    6. Repeating syntax

    An entire paragraph — let alone an entire novel — of “The [adjective] [noun] [verb-ed] the [adjective] [noun]” sentences will not hold the attention of your audience, no matter the reading level.

    If you’re cranking out a first draft, don’t spend too much time worrying about this. But if you’re ready to have a colleague review your work, scan each page for this predictable repetition.

    7. Not trusting your audience

    Over-explanation can be just as harmful to your work as under-explanation. As mentioned earlier, your audience does not like to feel deceived, and they certainly do not like to feel belittled, either.

    Much of the joy of reading is discovering your connection to the author’s writing. Remember to let your readers dig into your story independently.

    8. Changing the setting excessively

    Unless constant shifts in space and time are essential to your piece, you need not create pauses after every event. Connecting to a piece of writing is challenging when there isn’t at least some sense of fluidity.

    While there can be many settings, timelines, or universes — and creating an unusual format is always an interesting feat — consider whether every shift is a necessary one.

    9. Not doing your research

    Even if you “write what you know,” it’s critical to verify your information for factuality, especially if your story is heavily based in realism.

    Say that your story’s villain is a world-renowned scientist; you’ll lose your readers with the first innacurate algorithm. No one is scared of a mad scientist that can’t even do the math for his own experiments.

    Figure out how to access the databases at your local public or university library to locate journals, documents, and other research to support your story.

    10. Forgetting your audience

    “You can’t win ‘em all,” they say, but you can win over the hearts of your particular demographic. Know who you’re writing for and who you plan to reach, or you risk reaching nobody. If you’re in love with your historical fiction piece, don’t write to please the romance enthusiasts.

    If you find a couple of cliches or other common errors after your first draft, don’t sweat it!

    We’ve all come across at least one of these holes in our own writing. In the end, a good portion of creating fresh, interesting work relies on trusting your own instincts.

    Keep an eye out, use good judgement, and most importantly, write from your own experiences and your own heart.