WRITING VILLAINS by F.M. Meredith
WICKED WEDNESDAY
Please join me in welcoming F.M. Meredith as my guest on Wicked Wednesday.
As a mystery writer I’ve created my share of villains. However, sometimes the guilty party in a story isn’t really villain, but rather someone who reacted in a violent way to circumstances.Most writers have been told that a hero or heroine shouldn’t be all good and a villain shouldn’t be all bad. I suppose that’s true in many cases, but if you’re writing about a sociopath or a psychopath it might be difficult to come up with a “good” trait to give them.Most readers, myself included, seem to favor characters who have a bit of wickedness in them. And it’s also fun to really hate a bad character.One of the worst characters I ever wrote about—and I had fun doing it—was a really bad police officer. He was nothing like the police officers who get in trouble today; this guy had no redeeming qualities. And yes, I based him on a police officer I knew many years ago, but made the character far worse.Of course there have been other true villains in many of my mysteries, but in others, the person who committed the crime didn’t fit the definition of a villain.In my latest book, I have two villains. One is a convicted criminal, Omar Padweitz, set upon getting revenge, and the other is Elford Lemus, the leader of an odd religious sect. I had fun writing about both of themBlurb for
A Crushing Death
: A pile of rocks is found on a dead body beneath the condemned pier, a teacher is accused of molesting a student, the new police chief is threatened by someone she once arrested for attacking women, and Detective Milligan’s teenage daughter has a big problem.Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Crushing-Death-Rocky-Bluff-P-D/dp/1610092260/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457618775&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Crushing+Death+by+F.M.+Meredith
Marilyn Meredith aka F.M. MeredithLatest Books : Not as it Seems and Violent Departures Visit me at http://fictionforyou.com/Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/
As a mystery writer I’ve created my share of villains. However, sometimes the guilty party in a story isn’t really villain, but rather someone who reacted in a violent way to circumstances.Most writers have been told that a hero or heroine shouldn’t be all good and a villain shouldn’t be all bad. I suppose that’s true in many cases, but if you’re writing about a sociopath or a psychopath it might be difficult to come up with a “good” trait to give them.Most readers, myself included, seem to favor characters who have a bit of wickedness in them. And it’s also fun to really hate a bad character.One of the worst characters I ever wrote about—and I had fun doing it—was a really bad police officer. He was nothing like the police officers who get in trouble today; this guy had no redeeming qualities. And yes, I based him on a police officer I knew many years ago, but made the character far worse.Of course there have been other true villains in many of my mysteries, but in others, the person who committed the crime didn’t fit the definition of a villain.In my latest book, I have two villains. One is a convicted criminal, Omar Padweitz, set upon getting revenge, and the other is Elford Lemus, the leader of an odd religious sect. I had fun writing about both of themBlurb for
A Crushing Death
: A pile of rocks is found on a dead body beneath the condemned pier, a teacher is accused of molesting a student, the new police chief is threatened by someone she once arrested for attacking women, and Detective Milligan’s teenage daughter has a big problem.Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Crushing-Death-Rocky-Bluff-P-D/dp/1610092260/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457618775&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Crushing+Death+by+F.M.+MeredithMarilyn Meredith aka F.M. MeredithLatest Books : Not as it Seems and Violent Departures Visit me at http://fictionforyou.com/Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/
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