Sign Up For The Newsletter | Grab the FREE eBook
“A villain is just a victim who’s story hasn’t been told.” - Chris Colfer
So this piece of motivation is more craft-based than getting-you-off-your-ass-and-writing-your-story-based.
When you’re writing, sometimes it’s difficult to do justice to characters you don’t like, because they are supposed to be unlikeable. I have that problem with some of the characters in the #WhoIsTalyaNightingale novel, in fact, it’s a normal problem to have.
What you need to do is remember that, likable or not, even your villains have backstory. It doesn’t have to be backstory that you overtly include in the story, but it does have to be backstory that you, as the author, know. The more you know about your character, be it hero or villain or that one character who pops up on one page early on and is never seen again, the more you’re going to be able to create a believable, rounded character who-in some cases-my exist in the real world.
You know how to do this with your favorite characters in your story, but sometimes you have to focus on the ones you don’t like as much, or you risk parts of your story falling flat, because you don’t KNOW your characters as well as you should.
And you never know what might happen once you do start getting to know some of the characters you may not have spent as much time on. There is one character in the #WhoIsTalyaNightingale universe who originally showed up in one scene, and now has aa backstory, an important role in the entire storyline, and has turned into one of my favorites (not that I don’t love say, 90-percent of the characters in the ‘verse).
Characters evolve, but they won’t if you don’t take the time to get to know them.
Here’s to a productive week of writing. Don’t forget to sign up for the #MondayMotivation Newsletter by clicking HERE. The next newsletter is slated to land in your inbox tonight!
*#MondayMotivation quote found on my Pinterest Board: Inspirational Quotes About Writing
