Comments on: Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 3: Stumping Howard at Conduit

By: BrainWyrms » Blog Archive » Podsuming for Tuesday the June finale

BrainWyrms » Blog Archive » Podsuming for Tuesday the June finale — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:10:58 +0000

[...] Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 3: Stumping Howard at Conduit [...]

By: Mike Barker

Mike Barker — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:44:47 +0000

A bit delayed, but we have a transcript…

http://mbarker.livejournal.com/117201.html

By: Obi

Obi — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:06:28 +0000

Saint Dane (villain) from Pendragon wants to destroy the universe in order to build a new one because he thinks people make bad decisions, so, naturally, he should be ruling everything because he makes better decisions, or something. I bought it because destruction of the universe wasn’t his end-goal, just a point he had to reach in order to make his own, super spiffy universe of all hail Saint Dane. He was also some sort of spirit thing instead of a normal human. That’s why he thought he was qualified for the Dictator of the Universe position he hoped to open up.

By: Jin Kang

Jin Kang — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:21:27 +0000

Hey Dan, Totally unrelated but I came across this today: Bacon Love Story [consumerist.com]... thought you might be interested, as well any others who are fond of god's gift that is bacon.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:53:53 +0000

In fact, you could probably get away with building a trilogy around that concept. Beat the villian in Book I, but only barely. In Book II the protagonist(s) discover there is a greater threat brought on by the villain’s machinations, and strive to not be bested by it. Book III wraps it all up.

Hmm, maybe the villian can be an evil overlord who rules the world and enslaves half the population but in book two it turns out that the evil overlord was really holding the destruction of the world at bay from a bigger menace. And maybe we can have a cool magic system that lets people eat specific metals for power and fly around doing cool Ninja attacks by pushing off metal coins … Wow, I think I’m on to something here. Hope no one has beat me to it.

By: Andrew Jack

Andrew Jack — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:23:25 +0000

I agreed with the comment from Howard about making the aliens believably human, or at least human like. I think back to the aliens I’ve enjoyed the most, most of which could be found in Babylon 5, and it was their human characteristics that appealed to me the most. Of course with the Shadows and the Vorlons they were sufficiently inhuman to make differentiate them fromt he other races but even then tiny touches of humanity gave them hooks as characters.

I’ve just gotten through listening to all of the writing excuses podcasts, and every single one has taught me somethign worthwhile. Thanks guys.

By: John Brown

John Brown — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:20:38 +0000

The main role of villains and antagonists in stories is to generate suspense, anxiety, and fear in the reader. There are other effects–mystery, poignancy (about the human situation like in Les Mis). But those are secondary.

For the main things to happen the villain has to be a credible, significant, and immediate threat…all the way through the book until he or she is smushed or wins.

If he’s not credible, the reader realizes there is no real threat. If the threat is not significant, who cares? If it’s not immediate, again, who cares?

So how do we do that? Make him or her smart, powerful, a few steps ahead of the hero, and dedicated to doing something we root against (because it’s just plain wrong or because we love our hero and want the best for him and they’re pitted against them). He has to be able to put the hero on his heels most of the way through the book, and our poor hero is scrambling to adjust.

You can have all sorts of villains–liked by many or few, kooky or calculating, eccentric or plain, noble or sadistic–just as long as they remain significant, immediate, and credible threats. The minute they lose threat status, the game’s over because at that point fear, anxiety, and suspense in the reader vanish.

By: AlanHorne

AlanHorne — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:03:52 +0000

Wow. A lot of useful stuff here. As far as megalomania goes, I don’t try to make my villains megalomaniacs. I create my villains, I give them their appearances, their personalities and their backstories, and if those things lead up to megalomania, I let it happen naturally and organically. If those things lead to some other motivation, I make that their end goal.

And I greatly appreciated the question about making aliens seem alien. My sister has just recruited me to help her write a book about aliens, and, quite frankly, I have no idea what I’m doing. Darn it, Jim: I’m a fantasy author, not a Sci-Fi nut!

By: Zoston

Zoston — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:41:55 +0000

@K. Solomon I’d suggest removing the black and white villain aspect. I think you could write a good story about the heroes getting caught up in the conflict between the exiled leaders (who return and are rousing up whoever will still support them to start a civil war/coup) and the conqueror, where you slowly reveal that in fact neither side is totally right or totally wrong, that the conqueror send the old leaders on a goose chase to grab power, but that the old leaders aren’t any better rulers as far as the common people are concerned.
Just my thoughts when reading your post.

By: K. Solomon

K. Solomon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:38:57 +0000

Re: Cherise
That’s actually something I’ve come up against in one of my stories (unfinished). The villian has conquered several countries, and instead of killing the leaders, merely exiled them by sending them on a “quest.” They get their countries back once they return, quest completed. In the meantime, he’s been pandering to the population, setting up schools, recruiting (not drafting) the young men into the army, providing for their needs, and etc. The only catch is that the quest is bogus- just a way of getting rid of those in charge without setting himself up as a despot. And as time goes by, and the they don’t come back, the people begin to lose faith in them… yeah, did I mention how that’s an unfinished story?