Lessons Learned

So I read a book by a highly respected author and it… disappointed me. No names, no title, because this shouldn’t be personal. I’ll be examining that book for my next few posts. Just trying to pick apart why it didn’t work and what I can do differently in my own stories.

My first issue was with the villain. He was all swagger and bluster, with an incredible arrogance. He was so indignant that his enemies were defying him. Just because he was invading them, torturing and murdering a certain segment of the population, oppressing everyone else — why could they not see his greatness?

Which sounds like a villain, right? But that’s all there was to his character. There was no characterization, it was all shtick.

Plus, for the first 3/4 of the book, his reputation as a villain was way out of proportion with the abilities he showed on the page. When he finally started doing evil stuff, as opposed to just badgering underlings, the author was so coy about it. He would look at “the thing in the cage” and gloat over what he’d done. But I had no idea what he actually had done. Maddening!

As a writer, I can guess that the author was trying to create suspense about a Big Reveal. As a reader, I felt like I was being played games with.

This is my first lesson from the book, because I have a hard time with villains, too. I usually have two POV characters who are in opposition, and I tend to focus on their conflict. The so-called villain is left as an afterthought. I really need to not be such a weenie, I guess, about fully inhabiting my villains.

That said, playing games with the reader is definitely not the answer. What do you guys think? I could use a few tips for creating effective villains.

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