Written Whispers

Been awhile hasn’t it? Sorry about that but I’m sure you all understand that sometimes well, sometimes we just need time to get things back together- a rule that I’m no exception to. While I don’t doubt my web traffic suffers every time I take these small unannounced vacations there is a plus side to me taking a step back to watch things for a bit. Actually, there are quite a few plus sides but I’ll just stick to the main one for now.

I’ve finally figured out the particular direction I want to take this site and what I want to do with it. I had a vague idea before- powered by a bit of naive ambition that always helps me to get my ideas moving but once the steam runs out… without direction it’s hard to move anywhere let alone forward. Just like editing my novel- I needed a battle plan of sorts and now that I have I think you’ll see a lot more potential in this site… hopefully.

I’m still in the ‘returning’ phase of hiatus and I have a few things I want to see to before I start in on my plans (my other community site is finally going to get the attention is deserves) but you can be assured things will start moving again. Keep in mind, I’m saying this more for myself than for you but it’s always nice to feel like I’m talking to readers than just myself. *wink wink*

That’s all I have to say for now. I want to make a real blog post on my blog-blog and then get some novel revisions in before my sugar high dies down. Nighty night.

Random Reading:

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

General Update

I’m still alive. Recovering from the flu (and migraines) so it might be a few more days before you see fresh content here. Less than a week but probably more than one or two days.

Random Reading:

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing

General Update

I’ve come to realize that in my nervousness to get this site up an running that come to leave out something very important- the personal touch. My thoughts, feelings, and perspective on the writing life. I haven’t posted much about them since starting this little project. Not because I didn’t want to but because this is a different sort of project for me and I was worried about how well it would be received.

When I started writing about writing I worried a lot that people would try to tell me I didn’t have the right to. I’m not quite a published novelist yet, I don’t have an MFA, hell- I’m still learning but in a way that’s what’s important. I originally started this blog to pass on the learning experience I’m having right now.

I may not know everything but I’m walking the path and that’s what matters.

So, I say to you, my fellow writers, in whatever you do be it by choice or cosmic joke- do it with all your heart and follow your gut no matter what you worry others will say or if others say nothing at all (sometimes the scarier thing). Have confidence because so long as you listen to yourself and go where your writing takes you you’ll never go astray.

This post is hereby dedicated to some of my more recent writer buddies and acquaintances but mainly to two people I’ve started to read regularly: LisaB and Clue-Sama, happy writing to the both of you.

Randomness of Sorts

While doing some research last night I found this cute little forum full of useless information that was almost completely unrelated to my search. Thinking I had just wasted a good 15 minutes of my time I took one last scroll through the threads hoping I could find something, anything, that might have been useful.

I didn’t.

But (and yes, I know good sentences don’t start with -but-) I did find something else.

Poster One:
“There are three good rules for writing a novel. Unfortuantely, no one knows what they are.”  ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Poster Two:
But one of them is probably to check the spelling, “unfortuanately.”

If I was that person I think I’d be embarrassed. I’m no spelling queen, not by any standard, but to have one’s mistakes pointed out like that in a forum related to writing… it’s just not cool and I found myself quite thankful to have my itty bitty spell checker installed and then I remember I haven’t done a software review in awhile

So, here it is.

tinySpell is such an awesome bit of software, I’m not really sure where to begin. True to the name it’s tiny, non-invasive, and perfect for those of you who need a spell check that won’t get in your way. It’s also good for those of you who are easily distracted or the computer illiterate who might find more options to be more of a problem than they’re worth- not that tinySpell is lacking in features, not by a long shot but the way it’s set up it does all the work for you and you seldom have to play with the settings.

*Note: There are two versions of this software, tinySpell and tinySpell+. For the purposes of this review though I will only be discussing the free (non +) version of this program though if you are interested in purchasing it- it only costs $10.*

Multiple Applications - tinySpell works with just about every Windows application you can think of, in fact I’ve yet to find one it doesn’t work with. Notepad, WordPad, MSN/Yahoo/AOL and other instant messenger services installed on your computer, etc. It even works in Paint while you’re typing! Even better- if you find an application it doesn’t work with you can easily add it to the applications list.

Different Interfaces - Not everyone enjoys the same interface. I, for example, hate the little red squiggles of most traditional spell checks with a passion while my sister hardly notices them at all. Well, while tinySpell doesn’t have little squiggles, thank goodness, it does have three different ways you can interact with it so you’re bound to find the interface you’re most comfortable with.

By default it continuously runs from your launch bar (the little menu just across from your start button) as seen in the screen shot above but you can also either open up “Spelling Dialogue” which displays the window shown in our next screen shot, the one with the red word ‘typedwrong’.

You can also have a little reddish, but easily ignorable if chosen, tool tip appear over your most recently misspelling (see the chat screen shot). If you click it the spelling list will open right there and replace the word for you. Very handy and it disappears as soon as you move on to the next word without you having to click on it or see all those little annoying red blotches everywhere (*glares at all the squiggles of the world*).

Custom Dictionary - Most of the time with a new spell check I find myself having to add some of the most common words from my vocabulary- this is not the case with tinySpell as you can see in the screen shot to the left I’ve only had to add a few words in all my time of using this product (probably about a year now) and the few words I have added… well, I wouldn’t honestly expect to find them in a dictionary in the first place.

Sound & Alerts - Don’t like the tool tip bubble? That’s alright, your computer can beep at you every time you make a mistake, if the sound annoys you then you can upload one of your own or turn it off altogether.

No Fuss - The spelling list can be opened with the simple click of a mouse or hot key so no opening and closing programs for you not even on start up because by default tinySpell starts running from the moment you boot up your computer until you decide to shut it back down again.

Options/Settings are amazingly simple and easy to understand despite how feature rich this program is. Everything from changing the color of your correction text to the sound of your notification beep- it’s all there in one small window and if you do somehow manage to mess your settings up or do something you regret you can just hit the default button and everything will return to normal again.

**New** The latest version which I just now updated to includes easy access to a web based dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia.

I’m sure there are more features for this program that I haven’t listed yet but since I can’t think of them at the moment you’ll just have to visit their homepage and find out for yourself.

Operating Systems

• Version 1.8: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• Version 1.5: Window s 98

Pros

• It’s Free!
• Small download at a size of about 590 KB.
• Small functioning size. If you’re like me you value your desktop space and find yourself never having enough of it and if that’s so then this program is perfect for you. It takes near to no desktop space whatsoever.
• Works with many different programs but if at any point you decide you want to disable it for a select series of things it’s as simple as a click from your mouse.
• Dictionary is easily editable. I’m going to take a shot in the dark and guess I’m not the only one who’s click ‘add to dictionary’ and regretted it later with other standard spell checks. Well, with this program you can actually view a list of all the words you added and edit or remove them accordingly.
• No annoying squiggly lines!
• Sound can be disabled.
• tinySpell is available in several different languages.

Cons

• As far as errors being reported in your launch bar you won’t be notified until you hit your space bar and often, if you have the beep and or tooltip disabled, you could be well on your way to the next word by then and thus never know about the previous error in the first place.
• If, while correcting a word, you click on the word or try to retype it and then click the correct button the word may end up doubled instead of replaced or occasionally typed in the middle of your error. I think they’re working on this or it may have been fixed in the most recent version but I haven’t noticed yet.

-

My overall opinion? It’s definitely worth the download and the less than 30 second installation. Keep in mind, I don’t get anything out of you installing this. No one asked me to give this review, I’m just providing it because I’d like to help out my fellow writers.

Random Reading:

Better Spelling in 30 Minutes a Day (Better English Series)

Free Freebies, Writing Software

Welcome to the very first post for Monday Muse! What’s that? The longer explanation can be found here but to sum it up in a nutshell it’s just my little way of kicking your Monday Muse into action by placing offerings of inspirational randomness at her possibly literal feet in hopes that she will become so hyper you just can’t not write for the rest of the week.

This week’s sacrifice includes a photo (taken by yours truly!), some random factness, as well as a few writerly quotes. Next Monday I’ll be a little more organized and hopefully have something a little more inspirationrk twal for you to enjoy.

First to the photo!

This happens to be one of my better dashboard shots, only one amongst the twenty some I took trying to capture an amazing double rainbow. It was pretty timely too because it made me think of renewal and ‘beauty after the storm’ so to speak during a time when I needed to focus on these things most.

What do rainbows made you think of?

Some writerly factness found here along with many others:

• Edgar Allen Poe always wore black;
• Emily Dickinson only white;
• Mark Twain also attired himself in white, with shirts he personally designed that buttoned down the back.

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood.  I’d type a little faster. ~Isaac Asimov

I even shower with my pen, in case any ideas drip out of the waterhead. ~Graycie Harmon

I’ve actually considered that last one myself once or twice because some of my best ideas come in to me in the shower but alas- where the pen will thrive in the shower the paper will not.

Now, before I end this muddled post, there’s something I’d like to say. If ever you’re having trouble kick starting your muse or just trudging through your daily writing ask yourself this question and think about it for a moment- I’m sure you’ll find your writing spark again.

Why did you begin writing in the first place? Seriously, what is it that called to you and pulled you into a world wrapped in words with endless possibilities?

Random Reading:

The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Monday Muse

Alright, I’m going to be trying something new here for the next week or so, maybe longer if it works out like I’m hoping. I’m going to start scheduling some of my posts so that this site will be updated more regularly and thus hopefully giving some of you a reason to keep coming back. The rest of my posts are going to show up whenever they show up like they always have but unlike before I’ll have some stuff show up regularly throughout the week.

Monday Muse - Let’s face it, Mondays are hard. For many it’s the beginning of the work or school week after a busy or far too short weekend that left most of us wishing we still had more time to recuperate and definitely not wanting to drag ourselves up and out to get around to all the things we have to do.

Your muse is no exception to this curse.

So, every Monday I’ll be putting up a new meme, writing exercise, photo and other such inspirational guides to help kick start your into action. This has nothing to do with Prompt of the Moment by the way- that’s something totally different that will still be whenever the moment strikes.

Wednesday Resource - Wednesdays have been dubbed ‘resource day’. That’s all I really have to say about that- not very exciting but hopefully helpful to those who need it.

Friday Feature - This is actually something I’ve been planning on doing for awhile, more so now that I have such a lengthy list going. I’m always finding these blogs that are just awesome and intriguing and I’d love to send some traffic their way because they’re so awesome but I seldom add the bulk of these blogs to my links because I just can’t make the time to get around to them frequently enough and I’m more favorable to my friends blog (sorry but it’s true).

How do I fix this then?

Why I just make a post about it of course. I won’t make promises but I’d like to feature several blogs here every Friday if I can, little nooks in the blogosphere that call out to me for one reason or another and really do deserve a loyal following of readers. If you know any blogs like this and would like to nominate someone or even yourself let me know. I can’t guarantee anything will come of it and featured blogs are subject to my own tastes but you never know.

Random Reading:

Grant Writing For Dummies (For Dummies (Career/Education))

General Update

This post is dedicated to a new writing buddy of mine, I’ll call her Coda for the sake of her privacy. She’s a new writer working on her very first novel. She’s very talented and making some wonderful progress -but– there’s a lot she’s still learning about the writing world and as we were talking today she brought up one very important topic.

Copyright protection.

As soon as she mentioned the possibility of her work being stolen I knew this was an important topic I should write about. A lot of new writers don’t know what they need to about this and sometimes what they ‘think’ they know isn’t all that accurate– speaking from past experience.

There are a lot of myths about copyright protection, so many in fact that there’s no way I could cover them all in a single post– try as I might. So, since it would be impossible to tell you everything you might ever need to know in one post, I’m going to try to do it in three. This first one will just be a few resources that I myself use. The next two posts in this series will include, 1. when you need a copyright, and 2. why you don’t always need one.

Three great free resources for those of you with blogs or websites who are concerned about the protection of their work:

Copyscape.Com – This is the first site of it’s kind that I ever found and they’re very popular. You can put in any link to any page on the net and this site will search everywhere for copies. This site also offers a paid service called Copysentry that will routinely check the internet for copies of your work. They also offer (free) banners of various sizes, shapes, and colors like the one to the left. You can use them whether you are paying for Copysentry or not. While they might not deter every their they can sure scare a whole lot of them away.

CopyrightSpot.Com – This is a fairly new service (provided by the same site as the one below) that’s very similar to CopyScape but a little more narrowed down. You can use this site to search for plagiarized versions of your work. Something that this site has that’s original too it though is that it currently has two specific searches. One geared towards finding copies of your web pages and another towards finding copies of your blog. Why is this so important? Because more often than not blog platforms are using a slightly different feed structure than the average site.

And saving the best for last…

MyFreeCopright.Com – You’ll see this banner on any site or snippet of writing I own that’s exposed to the internet. This site helps you protect your writing, photos/art, and music by letting you register for a free copyright online. Others can click to view that you are registered with this site and that it records the time of each of your creations electronically. By signing up and entering your RSS/Feed data of your blog for example it’ll update your copyright each and every time you make or alter a post and email you as soon as it’s done so you have further proof should someone ever steal your work. I love it. Click on my banner in the sidebar to see my copyrights for this site and my blog.

Here are two sites you might be interested in looking at if you’re worried about infringing on someone else’s copyright:

Top 10 Copyright Myths

9 Common Copyright Myths for Bloggers

Random Reading:

The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs to Know

Resources

Oh, I hate it when people get this wrong! You wouldn’t believe how many people don’t know this little bit of grammar as simple as it seems but maybe I’m overreacting.

What am I talking about?

The use of a versus an of course.

Is there any rule you can follow or an easy way to remember this?

Yes there is! Better yes- it’s really quite simple. Read the following two sentences aloud and listen closely to how they sound.

1. He pulled a white rabbit out of his hat.
2. He pulled an white rabbit out of his hat.

Now read these two.

1. May I have an orange after lunch?
2. May I have a orange after lunch?

If you haven’t caught it just by listening- the first sentence in both selections is the correct one.

Still not quite sure why? Let me explain.

In the first pair of sentences “a white rabbit” is correct because a almost always comes before words starting with consonants. An as in “an orange after lunch” is correct because it almost always comes before words starting with vowels.

See, I told you it was simple. A before consonant. An before vowels.

BUT- with every rule there is always an exception, one I only learned about recently in this case but I think as far as that goes I should direct you to this article by Grammar Girl because I learned it over there and it’s only fair to give credit where credit is due.

Grammar Crumbs

Alright, for this prompt you’ll need to grab some of your favorite characters either from one of your own stories or just off the top of your head. If you’re not feeling very creative go ahead and pick the character out of one of your favorite stories but it’s better if it’s one of your own.

Now, ask yourself this: What would your character drink…

• At a social function? Like at a formal ball, party, maybe even at a family dinner.
• At their convenience? From a vending machine or a gas station. Anything on the go.
• To recharge or wake up? Maybe their version of morning coffee to get the day started.
• To relax? Like after a rough day running from the bad guys.
• When happy? Their favorite perhaps.
• When depressed? A pick me up or comfort drink.
• And lastly what would they least like to drink? Something that have drank but really prefer not to.

Think about this for a few minutes before scrolling down.

Now take one of your characters and put them in one of the listed situations above. Write a scene about the situation and their drink of choice in that situation- it doesn’t have to be something fantastic, a perfectly normal day in their life for all I care, the fun part is coming up.

Now, take that same situation and swap their drink of choice out with a totally different drink. How do they react? How does the situation change? Is it hilarious? Will it doom their social standing? Or will something else happen?

Feel free to post your responses, or links to your responses, in the forum. The artwork above is by Mari Keiyou and is copyright, please don’t steal it. The characters depicted above are some of my own from my novel ‘Kat’s Tail’, please don’t abuse them.

Random Reading:

2009 Writer's Market

Character Exercises, Prompt of the Moment

I’m going to include this here only because so many writers are running their own blogs or websites. Sadly, not all these writers are web savvy and may not know some of the pitfalls awaiting them. I’ve been programming, designing, and managing sites for a few years now and while I’m not a pro I do have something to say especially concerning this topic.

Someone left me a message on BlogCatalog a few days back asking me to link with them to help increase both our page ranks. I put it on my magic mental to-do list of things to check out and finally got around to it today. First tip- whenever someone offers you a link exchange make sure you check out their site carefully before committing. Linking to a not so great site is just as bad as having no links at all sometimes, trust me, it’s a mistake I’ve made a lot in the past with some very obvious results.

In the offer for link exchange they said they had many writing tips on their site which is why I even bothered in the first place. When I got there though what I saw caught me off guard. The link led me to the News category of the blog, not the main part which almost caused me to miss something pretty big. I wouldn’t have caught it if I hadn’t been wondering why all the posts had to do with news about PayPal and various credit cards.

Second tip- don’t just give it a glance, click around a bit. Often a site will look pretty good at first glance, the keyword is glance. The brain is a funny organ in the way it can take bits and pieces of barely assimilated information and make it look like one thing one moment but a totally different thing once you’ve had a moment to process it all not to mention a second look.

The site was… hmm, how to word it? In a nutshell they were selling essays to students ‘in need’. I have to give credit where credit is due- they did offer a number of essay writing tips, few that I found useful but a tip is a tip be it useful or not. Just like not all advice is good advice.

This third tip is probably the most important. It won’t matter one way or the other if you pick a good site or a real crapper if you don’t go over the details and make sure you don’t get screwed over. My third tip is to read, reread, and then read it all over again. Just like glancing at the site- if I hadn’t taken a second look at that message they sent me I might have missed the slight insult in the offer.

I say insult not because they called me a name or said something bad about my sites, they didn’t, no. I was insulted because they must have thought I was stupid. They wanted me to put an in post link here on WW to their Essay site. In return they would give me an in post link on some obscure blog they hadn’t even bothered to add to their BlogCatalog account- a blog that wasn’t even related to… anything! Some of you might be saying ’so what, a link back is a link back’ and that’s true but part of search engine optimization is about where your links are coming from and quite frankly I didn’t think it was very fair that I link to them directly and they link to me indirectly.

In the end I said I turned the offer for link exchange down for a totally different reason. Not because the link back was unfair, not because the site was totally unrelated to mine, and not because I didn’t personally find it helpful. Nope. None of those reasons.

I turned the offer down because I believe people should do their own work. Not only that but I don’t generally encourage people to pay for things, in fact I have a policy on one of my other sites to never ever sponsor things that cost money. Instead the goal was to find them as many free resources as I could because of scams and such. Back to my point though- I’d like to quote another BlogCatalog member. I hope they don’t mind but as the saying goes it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

“No, I won’t exchange links w/you. Sites like yours contribute to the dumbing-down of the population & lack of analytic reasoning. Your “services” promote dishonesty & lack of integrity among students.Those running sites like yours value $ over having an intelligent populace. We all lose in the end.”

~Response from a BC member by the name of Troilee. She too runs a writing blog that you can find through her profile.

While I often find myself looking at the school system and seeing a need for change I can’t deny there is a reason for some of the ways we do things. Having kids, or college students, do their own essays for example serves a purpose. You’re not just going to school to pass, you’re going to school to learn the things you need to know on your path through life. If you’re not interested in learning go to vocational school. Pick a trade and go just to pass, save the resources for those of us who actually want to fill our brains with knowledge.

Once more I must give credit where credit is due. The person running this Essay site has a good idea as far as entrepreneurship goes. Lots of people are willing to pay for the easy way out and I did leave a decent abet vague site review to make up for my refusal, but while it’s a great idea I’m not willing to promote that sort of thing and I really hope no one reading this would want to promote it either.

Random Reading:

McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (College Teaching)

Blogs & Such, Scams & Other Things To Avoid

Hey, everyone, sorry I haven’t posted in a bit but life’s been… life. Time for an update.

What’s new with me? Well, for starters, I have purple hair now. *grin* There’s a photo on my blog if anyone’s interested in seeing it. I’ll have a post up there either tonight or tomorrow about ‘why’ it’s purple but for now you’re just have to wonder. Also, never mind the slightly blank look on my face- I took the photo without my glasses on and since I was taking it myself the flash was -right there- so,… yeah.

Lots of new stuff coming soon, even when I’m not posting I’m still writing, reading, writing about writing, and reading about writer so there is always something. Some things to keep an eye out for in the future include:

• An interview with the wonderful Jessie Carty!
• Two new reviews for some of the latest writing software on the net.
• And some awards. To who? What kind? Well, you’ll just have to read and find out.

Still seeking guest posters! Look above for the contribute link. Please, even if it’s just an opinion, so be it it has something to do with writing, I want to hear it.

Random Reading:

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

General Update

Your character finds a genie. Take it from there.

Things to think about:

• What was the genie trapped in? You don’t have to go with the traditional lamp. You could use a perfume bottle, shoebox, Pepsi bottle, boom box (think about it), pickle jar, etc…
• What does your character wish for?
• Do the wishes work out as planned or do things go wrong? (Should they be really careful how they word things?)
• What happens next?

Random Reading:

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (Mentor)

Prompt of the Moment

Alright, who here has ever- in a fit of boredom, typed something random into Google just to see what would pop up?

*raises hand tentatively*

Wanna see what I found?

Everything below is for the search term ‘me’. These aren’t all of the results, just the ones I found (occasionally relevant and) interesting enough to share. All are set to open in a new window and have been tested on my slower computer. Only one is super image heavy and I give a warning right by it.

In order of found’ness:

1. FutureMe.Org - I love this, the idea is to write yourself, or more specifically- your future self, a letter. Based on a book.
2. Inspire Me Thursday - They sum it up best saying “A weekly dose of inspiration for mixed media artists and creative types to nurture their muses and CREATE!” I personally believe this site is a great asset for any writer and plan on spending a lot of time looking it over myself.
3. Inspire Me, Now! - Lots of images on this site, in fact, it’s all images but they seem to load very well even on my older computer. Another great site for writers seeking something, often a strange something, to write about. Worth a look.
4. Make Me Super - Make yourself or any other into a flash based superhero via photo. Very funny and nicely done.
5. Down For Everyone Or Just Me? - This one is really awesome for those of you running your own sites/servers. Have you ever wondered if your site was down or if it’s just you/your computer/internet? Type the url in here and find out. I’ve come to love this site very much.
6. Bite Me! - Uhm… alright, how to sum it up… A web comic of awesome proportions that one has to see for themselves. Warning: My humor might differ slightly from the average beyond strange person. Probably not good for younger teens and children to look at this and keep in mind- it does get better as it goes along.
7. Read Me - Anyone and everyone running a blog should really give this a read. It’s a disclaimer of sorts that you can add to your own blogs for whatever purposes you might need it for.
8. Mary Me, Leslie! - Now I’ve heard of a lot of strange things in my relatively short life but this is just cute. Who says we computer geeks don’t know how to be romantic? … We’re just a different brand of romantic than what you usually hear of… from moderately sane people.
9. Me & Goji - This is really cool! You can custom make your very own cereal and these people will make it and send it to you. You add all kinds of ingredients and they’ll tell you the vitamins and how healthy it is or isn’t and it’s just wonderful. Better yet- it’s affordable.

Random Reading:

2009 Writer's Market

Randomness of Sorts

Say what?!

Yes, you read it right. Like your villains, your antagonists, fiends, and bad guys or girls.

Why? Well, that’s going to take a bit to explain. To get started let’s look at the following as it sums up my thoughts better than I can word them.

“In the old days villains had mustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today. They don’t want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an ordinary human being with failings.”
-Alfred Hitchcock

You have to be realistic. Yeah, there are some pretty nasty people out there in the world who do some pretty mean things but a murderer doesn’t generally kill someone just because they’re bored. Either they’re trying not to get caught for something, revenge, or maybe they have some mental issues that stem from a poor childhood.

Someone trying to prevent your star character from achieving their goal is doing it for a reason. Either they want something from your character or they lose something if your character gets what they want.

You have to have balance. Think about it this way, okay, your bad guy, Jeff, doesn’t want your star character, Jane, to win an upcoming race. Okay, that’s a pretty neutral thought. Let’s add a little more to our plot. Jane has to win this race or she won’t have enough money to pay off some other villain who’s kidnapped her sister. That’s a pretty good motivation to win the race.

Now, remember Jeff doesn’t want Jane to win the race. Why? Well, maybe his mother is sick and the prize money would pay for her treatment. They both want to win the race. They both need the prize money for really good reasons. So, what is it that makes Jeff the villain and Jane the heroine of this story?

How they go about getting what they want.

Jane is honest and works hard everyday for a month, sometimes running till she’s too tired to make it back home at night. Practice, practice, practice. That’s her motto.

Jeff practices too because he really needs that money and has to do everything he can to get it. So, he puts tacks in Jane’s running shoes, messes with the track, and lies to try and have her disqualified. If you didn’t know his mother was sick you’d think he was just being cruel for no reason and while to your main character that’s the way things might seem, it won’t make much sense to your readers.

What does this have to do with liking your evil-doer?

Everything.

Pick out one of your favorite characters. Not one of your own because that’s too hard for this little experiment but your favorite from a book you’ve read or a show you’ve watched recently. What is it you like about them most? What makes them so appealing? I’m not talking about looks or attitude but in reference to their plots.

If you’re like me and many others you might have a thing for the underdog, someone who doesn’t seem to have a chance but doesn’t give up no matter what and even when things get tough and tears are streaming down their faces they still manage to hang on by a thread. You might have a thing for the character who is self assured when trouble rises and seems so strong that it doesn’t phase them. Or maybe you like the character who does whatever is needed to be done without complaining and they don’t stop until it’s done.

These are just three basic types of heroes who happen to have a lot in common but what is that main thing that attracts us all to them?

Passion.

Your villain has to have a passion too. They’re passionate about getting what they want. Reasons aside, even if you ignore the why of what they’re doing they still have to be good at it. Yeah, a fumbling villain could be kind of funny and easy to mock but is that what you’re aiming for? Or do you want the kind of character your readers will love to hate? Maybe you want your readers to eventually sympathize with your bad guy? Or, if you’re writing horror, to fear him or her? Either way, your villain needs passion and in order to give it to him or her you as the writer need to have a deeper understanding of them.

Even if you never tell readers that Jeff’s mom is in the hospital- you need to know this so you can give him passion.

“I like villains because there’s something so attractive about a committed person — they have a plan, an ideology, no matter how twisted. They’re motivated.”
-Russell Crowe

Also, keep in mind that villains are people too and thus have feelings like everyone else. Alright, they might not always be human but they can still be angry, bored, annoyed, true- but they can also be frustrated, depressed, desperate, sad, or even in love no matter how sick and twisted they might go about expressing it. Unless you make them emotionless or invincible don’t let the little things slip by. You don’t need a building to fall on him to kill your bad guy. Emotions and a build up of tension could just as easily lead to his eventually downfall.

To sum it up:

“A villain must be a thing of power, handled with delicacy and grace. He must be wicked enough to excite our aversion, strong enough to arouse our fear, human enough to awaken some transient gleam of sympathy. We must triumph in his downfall, yet not barbarously nor with contempt, and the close of his career must be in harmony with all its previous development.”

-Agnes Repplier

Like your villain. Love them if you must. Why? Because without them you have no story. They are a tool, an alley, and an important asset for any scribe.

Rules of Writing

What books are on your protagonist (main character) bookshelf?

What books are on your antagonist’s (villain) bookshelf?

Is there a difference?

What do these books tell you about your characters?

Random Reading:

The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child (Sears Parenting Library)

Character Exercises, Prompt of the Moment