@nownovel – Jean's Writing

Then you need to understand your villain.

We’ve heard lots about a protagonist’s motivation and character but often times we forget that the villain is just as important.

I don’t know about you but I struggle with making sure I understand my villain’s motives, back-story, and desires.

How do I go about giving the necessary importance to a villain without overshadowing the protagonist?

Well, when I needed this information, a post from Now Novel popped into my email with all the right answers. There are examples and suggestions to make sure your villain is scary as hell.

What did I learn from this post about bad guys?

All villains have a history. Don’t forget to incorporate it into the story.
- Their backstory explains how they became a villain.
Show why the villain has power and influence over the protagonist.
- Are they scary, intimidating, powerful…
Explain how the villain gets away with their devious actions.
- Sneaky, great liars, pretty, convincing…
Let your villain be vulnerable.
- Everyone, even bad guys have a weak spot, find and exploit.
Give the villain a story arc.
- Do they grow worse, or better over the story?
Understand Villain’s motivation.
- Is it greed, jealousy, hatred…

Click the link at the bottom and read the entire post from Now Novel.

What did you think? Get any ideas for your villain?

Do you have trouble writing about the bad guy?

Leave me a comment, I’m dying to hear from you.

Creating villain motivations: Writing real adversaries at Now Novel.

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And how to avoid info-dumping?

FYI, I’ve been working on my latest book for the past year and boy-howdy this has been a big issue for me.

Not sure what writing with good exposition is?

It’s like beautiful painting when done right. But done wrong, turns into ugly info-dumping.

Too much information in a story all at once drives me nuts. How to weave it in so the seamlessly so that the reader absorbs the information without distraction, now that takes a little talent and a lot of hard work.

So what is the difference between info-dumping and good exposition?

Bridget over at Now Novel (link below) just wrote a terrific blog post that gives us examples to live by. And for me, this couldn’t come at a better time. I just finished ripping about a thousand words from my WIP because it contained too much info.

What did I learn about writing “good exposition” from this post?

With dialog, make it realistic.
- Remember how people have conversations. No one dumps their family history all at once when they meet a stranger.
Use to set up the history of a place.
- I can use a characters’ present and their past or even future, to flesh out historical details of their lives. But it’s important to merge the description with the scene settings.
Write descriptions with rich atmosphere.
- use personification of objects to enhance. Give an inanimate object human-like character to show your setting’s atmosphere with a metaphor or an analogy. What’s the difference between metaphor and analogy?
A character’s personality.
- Peppering a scene showing glimpses of a character’s personality, development, fears, loves, hopes, etc. can make the character 3D.
Open by describing puzzling, dramatic events before the novel begins.
- Sowing curiosity, in the beginning, can develop a reader’s desire to search for an answer.

This is just a glimpse at the information Now Novel shares about avoiding info-dumping and writing with good exposition.

To read the entire post click on this link.

Good exposition examples: Narrating your story’s background

My tip…

Read, read and read some more. Read good books, bad books, newspapers and magazine articles. Because unlike TV, and movies these venues must engage the customer with words. Fake news is a good example. These writers paint such a vivid picture readers fall for the story.

Did it help you understand how to avoid info-dumping?

Do you have any tips to share that will help me write better descriptive scenes?

Tell me, how you insert information.

I love your comments, keep them coming.

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