In case you were dying to know, Beauty and the Beast magically kept itself together and was...well...good. A lot of people came. I'm pretty sure the Beast made some babies cry. Success. I have a sneaking suspicion they decided to do a Disney show so they could bring in the mojo this year since last year was Urinetown and Thoroughly Modern Millie (not very popular amongst the non-musical enthusiast crowds). I'm cool with that. I like having an audience.
ElanaJ had a post about villains or dem bad guys today. It got me to thinking. Do villains have to be mustache-twirling, Voldemort-esque peoples? Because I don't think I have any of those. I don't think my story has any BAD guys. There are only people who want the same thing as Meg. Only one person can have it, so conflict ensues. Is this not okay? Do I have to insert a character full of EVUL? Tell me, for I must know.
Soon, the Percy Jackson fic battle begins. And I think Kioko already wrote one. I am extremely jealous of people who can just whip stuff out in like two seconds. I am so slow. I crawl along like a turtle. A dead turtle. Plus, I have to do two short story assignments for my class. And the novel, of course, seeing as I am falling behind. I think I'll push my goal back to the first week of August. But I'd rather be done before first semester starts.
So I think I might slow down and do a fanfiction piece now/over the weekend, because everyone needs a short break from their novel once in a while. I am at a good place to hit the pause button.
Hmmm. So tell me how your writing week is going. Anything exciting?
Hey Icy Roses.
ReplyDeleteMy obsession is Norse mythology, which I've incorporated in both the novel that is currently out with agents (apparently a lot of agents I queried loved the spin on the myth) and my WIP. The first one is YA urban fantasy and the WIP is YA paranormal.
I'm half way though the final Percy Jackson. It's really good.
Okay, first things first, Voldemort is definitely not mustache-twirling. He doesn't even have a mustache, because he's all snake-like and has no hair. *creepy* I think the mustache-twirlers and the Voldemort-esque people are actually two different types.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway... I don't think you necessarily need an evil force in your novel -- I think some of my favorite books and movies are the ones in which there's really no bad guy, just a whole bunch of people who want a whole bunch of different things. It's probably more realistic that way. I know Great Scott doesn't really have a villain -- it's Mage against society, and Marvelle against herself.
I think there are certain types of books that need a bad guy -- for example, the urban fantasy type of books with wizard PIs and such naturally lend themselves to villainous characters and probably a force of evil. So does epic fantasy. Realistic YA fiction, on the other hand, really bugs me when it has a "bad guy", i.e. the one really popular preppy girl and her entourage who pick on the nerdy main character just because, because it usually doesn't happen that way.
Hmm... interesting question. I might just have to do a blog post on this now...
Going better this week than last. I decided to put my current story down because I was stymied and go back to my first WIP. I'm finding that that one is better than I remembered and this makes me happy.
ReplyDeleteStina, I like Norse mythology too. ^-^
ReplyDeleteJenita, good point. But when I say mustache-twirling, Voldemort-esque, I just mean evil. Of course there are lots of different kinds of evil, and mustache-twirling villains are not like Voldemort-esque villains! I am horrible at writing villains though. I like to see the good in everyone.
Elizabeth, thanks for dropping by. I think WIP's always seem worse when you first look at them, so perhaps it is better policy to return to them after a break. Good luck!
I think the most important thing is to give the readers something to connect to your villain with. Few people are completely good or evil. I think the gray area can make them very interesting.
ReplyDeleteYay for B&B! I love that show. :D
Hope you had a fabulous weekend! As for us, we don't do evil all that well. Even our good guys end up being sort of likeable. We really need to step it up a little...we're way too PG.
ReplyDelete