Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review discussion
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Freedom at Feronia
Writing Technique
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I don't let my bad-guys talk (am I a bad writer?)
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Richard
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Oct 23, 2014 12:22AM
I've noticed that when I'm introducing a (ahem) unsympathetic character (or bad guy), I tend not to give them any dialog lines. I have no rationale for this, it just feels bad, doing that. My books are single POV, linear time, even though written in 3rd person. Sometimes I have the main character say she doesn't remember what the bloke said, but mostly I have another character report what they said, with disparaging comments. At first I thought this was odd, but I seem to have incorporated it into my style. Is this a common ailment, and should I be looking for a cure?
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are all your bad guys just silent mooks nothing more than punch clock villains? give them more personality! even if they're gonna be whacked in the next few chapters. makes your universe interesting
it's not that they don't talk. The ones in my second book rant and rage all the time. I just don't quote them.
In movies and TV actors always want to play the villains because "they have the best lines."I guess it kind of depends on what you write, but I've always found that the interplay between protagonist and antagonist is the most fun thing to read and write...but then I love dialog.
However--except in my very first novel, which will never be published without a massive re-write--the demarcation between good guys and bad guys in what I've written tends to be rather ambiguous.
There is no good guy
There is no bad guy
There's only you and me
And we just . . . try to kill each other!
The antagonists in my book were an extremist group, and I had the protagonists find more moderate people to talk to. The bloke I didn't write dialog for was the leader.
Well that can work sometimes. If you need a mysterious threat kind of character, then people talking about them but never seeing or hearing them directly can work.Orson Welles called that the "Star Part" where they talk about you for an hour and then you appear...check it out in this video (the pertinent part starts at 2:10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMOVV...
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I love stuff like that in books, especially when it is subtly done so that it's (hopefully) imperceptible to the average reader. For me, it's like I've discovered the invisible elephant in the room. In my own writing, I try and include things like that for readers to find. Let them assume they know all about something, and then tell them right at the end that Bruce Willis was actually dead the whole time. Or don't tell them what's in the briefcase at all.If you've done a good job writing the character, the character doesn't have to say anything at all.
Hi Christina, I wouldn't describe any of my writing skills as purposeful, but I have found when reading it over that it conveys my characters' attitudes to the antagonist well. I do include cheesy adventure-story tropes like (evil-laugh) we will meet again!David: 'subtly' yes. I have a vague idea that it's a good idea to be subtle, but not totally clear how to do it.
Thanks for the thoughts, folks.
