Maybe you’re like me, and find it difficult to write a really good villain. I mean - a really bad villain. Or even just a pretty bad nemesis.

The funny thing about our writing weaknesses is that sometimes all we have to do is identify them and suddenly we start coming up with tons of solutions.

That’s what happened to me about two years ago, when I realized that I was having trouble writing a nemesis for my main characters. Time and time again, it was one of the key elements that was missing from the stories I wrote.

Once I noticed this pattern, I started seeing villains all around me - as if merely noticing their absence from my writing made them suddenly appear in my everyday life. A friend would forget to call me back and she’d become a self-absorbed boss who neglected and overworked her employees. My housemate would leave the milk out and suddenly he was a freeloading couch-surfer taking advantage of all his friends and acquaintances.

I would notice someone’s flaws and think about what they’d be like if those flaws were embellished to outweigh good qualities and positive traits. Suddenly, my villains were born, one after another like a little herd of evil trolls.

I make up characters in my head all the time. Sometimes I write down my ideas, drafting a character sketch. Most of them never make it to a story, but the really compelling ones do. Now that I’ve found a surefire way to harvest villains from the world around me, the characters in my head and the pages of character sketches have really started to pile up.

Those of us participating in NaNoWriMo are probably hitting that point in our novels when the villains start to emerge. For anyone who wants to write good fiction, you need a character in there somewhere who creates tension and who is at odds with the forces of good. Even for poets and nonfiction writers, the ability to write a complex villain will only improve your writing and help you better understand the subjects you write about (especially if some of them are dirty rotten scoundrels).

For this week’s writing exercise, pay attention to the people around you. Nobody’s perfect. Even those you love most dearly have shortcomings that you can exaggerate to a fault. Take their flaws, quirks, and moments of moral lapses and exaggerate them into a character fraught with nasty traits.

A few tips:

• Some of the most compelling villians are not completely evil. The most interesting characters in a story are those who have some combination of good and bad qualities. It’s how you balance those qualities that puts them on the side of good or evil.
• We’ve all encountered people who aren’t very nice — a nasty coworker, gossipy family member, or verbally abusive customer. Most of those folks have a good side too. Use them as models for your villains.
• If you don’t want to use family and friends as models for your villains, then look to television, books, movies, and the news. To ensure that you don’t commit character theft, find good characters who are flawed and turn them evil, bad, or just plain mean.

Most importantly, have fun! Villians are the characters we love to hate because they often are the harbingers of obstacles and challenges through which the heroes of our stories prove themselves. Whether you write totalitarian bad guys like Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter fame or more subtle, complex nemeses like Catwoman from the Batman comics, give your villains plenty of color, character, and complications.

But don’t let them get too deep inside your head.

Have a great weekend writers!

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Writing fiction, whether short or long, can be a very trying experience indeed.  So many writers of fiction have different processes for achieving their writing goals that it’s hard to sift through what works and what doesn’t.

Writing is a process that requires skill, determination, adaptability, and plenty of time.  Here are some suggestions for improving your fiction writing skills, gleaned from trial and error over time.

1. Start With a Seed


Some great fiction books are simply a product of asking the question, “What if…?”  Starting a new work of fiction requires just a small seed to get you going.  Beginning without too much baggage can really help get the ball rolling.


2. Let the Story Tell Itself


Think of yourself as a medium, or a vehicle, for a story that wants to be told.  You may have some idea about where things are going, but don’t create too many constraints for yourself.  The story will unfold if you are ready to work hard on keeping up with what it has to say.


3. Use Realistic Characters and Dialogue


This is accomplished through many different approaches.  As a writer, you must learn to hone your powers of observation and watch people and how they interact.  Research can come in a variety of forms, from reading other authors to watching movies as well.  Keen observation skills and personal experience will help guide you through this aspect of fiction writing.


4. Write What You Know


This is a well-known mantra for fiction writers, yet many fail to adhere to this simple principle of fiction writing.  When you write about things you know and experiences you’ve had, the writing is easier to read and comes across as more authentic.


5. Close the Door


When you’re ready to get down to business, find a place where you can go to tune the rest of the world out.  If you are planning on writing a long work of fiction, you will essentially be “living in the story.”  Be prepared to shut yourself in as you work on bringing your tale to life.


6. Keep Pushing Forward


Don’t get caught up in the past; keep writing each day without taking time to go back and reread.  The time for reading what you have written will come, and that’s when you can fix any inconsistencies.  Keep writing and worry about the minute details during the revision process.  Dedicating specific amounts of time regularly will help you to get the project finished sooner rather than later.


7. Put it Away When You’re Finished


When you feel your story has come to a close, put it away.  Get it out of your sight and try your best not to revisit the work while the story is fresh in your mind.  Putting some distance between writing and editing will do you and your story some good.


8. Start a New Project


Get started right away on something new to increase the distance between you and your previous work.  This will help you to come back with a new perspective and keep your productivity level high in the process.


9. Return to Your Finished Product


After some time has passed, pull out your manuscript and read the piece with a pair of fresh eyes.  Chances are you will find ways to improve upon and revise the story to make it flow more smoothly.


10. Revise and Edit


Cuts will have to be made and the revision process can be time consuming, but will help out when you’re ready to share your work with another reader for their opinion.  Make sure that you polish your work as much as possible before giving it out to others for their opinions.  Eliminating clutter and proofreading errors will help to get honest feedback without trivial details getting in the way.

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of distance learning universities. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com.

Scribizzy - Web Content Writing

I’ve known for quite some time that I would launch a new site specializing in web content writing. This is work that I enjoy immensely and I feel like I’m really good at it too. Now that I’ve been immersed in the world of freelancing for over a year, I felt it was time to truly establish my services as a bona fide business. Hell, call me an entrepreneur.

Scribizzy offers web content writing and related services for website and business owners who want to build a successful online presence (that’s my elevator pitch - like it?). It was a labor of love and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

The site features a blog that focuses on doing business online and will feature lots of tips and insights that I’ve learned as an online professional. I’ve never really felt that Writing Forward was a proper venue for those posts and now I have a place where they are far more suitable. If you’re interested in setting up an online business of your own, I promise that you’ll find the information in the Scribizzy Blog useful, so please check it out and let me know what you think! Psst… don’t forget to subscribe and leave some comments!

Sticky Business

Scribizzy’s getting its first big push by some long time friends, the Men with Pens. As a participating contributor in the Sticky Business Contest, Scribizzy’s giving away a Website Starter Package. If you’ve ever had a brilliant idea for a business of your own, then this is the contest for you — with nearly $20,000 in prizes for entrepreneurs, it’s a content you simply must enter. While you’re there, check out the Pen Men’s latest site design. They’ve given it quite a makeover!

Updates on the NaNo Front

Launching a new website during the first week of Nano probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I’m still feeling confident, especially since last night I managed to cross the 10 thousand word milestone on my NaNoWriMo novel. I’m still in it to win it and now that Scribizzy’s all polished and launched, I should be able to catch up quickly. Hey, I’m only about 7000 words behind. Hmph, that’s nothin’!

What news do you have? Making headway on NaNo? Got a new site or announcement of your own? Let it all hang out in the comments section!

America the Beautiful

This is and will remain a blog about writing, for writers. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the biggest news of November, which is that the United States has elected Barack Obama as its 44th president. It’s a historical time for America and a time when all Americans should be proud of the freedom, diversity, and hope on which this nation was founded.

There are moments when we watch in awe as history happens right before our eyes. For me, the most defining historical moment I had witnessed in my homeland were the events of 9/11, a sad and painful attack on America and all that she stands for.

Today I know what it is like to witness a national event that is joyous rather than sorrowful. Last night Americans celebrated their country and the land of liberty by dancing in the streets, cheering for unity, equality, and ultimately, voting for hope over fear. What a wonderful time to be alive!

Now, let’s get back to writing. Before we do though, let’s all, as writers, stop for a minute and think about how this moment in history will shape the way we write. This election and the forthcoming presidency holds a special place for writers, who will document these events in history books and articles, who will debate them in op-eds and blog posts, and who will pen their personal thoughts and feelings in journals and diaries and memoirs. I invite all Writing Forward readers from all around the world to share their thoughts about what this election means to us as writers.

WriMos Unleashed

NaNoWriMo is well underway now and I was off to a running start, completing almost a thousand words before dawn on November 1st. Fixing my attention on the election for the past two days has proven to be a bit of a setback but I’m confident that I can make up lost ground over the weekend.

If, for some reason, you’re interested in tracking my progress, I’ve added a widget to the sidebar that shows my current word count. Watch for some serious headway this coming weekend!

Fiction Forward

Posts may be sparse this month as I focus on NaNo, but they will be focused on fiction. Since fiction is sharing the spotlight with NaNoWriMo, we’ll probably do another fiction focus in a few months. I do hope to write and post a few tips and resources for fiction writers, so stay tuned and as always, if you have a favorite fiction resource, online or off, please share it in the comments.

Welcome to November, writers. And welcome to the presidency, Mr. Obama. Next month we’ll be celebrating holidays and the closure of yet another year, and in honor of the holiday season, we’ll be talking about the writing community. Please be a part of that community and keep on writing.

Last year, over one hundred thousand people participated in NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) and this year, the folks at the Office of Letters and Light (that’s Nano’s headquarters) have raised over $160,000 to keep NaNo free and available to writers all around the globe. In fact, for our friends in other parts of the world, like Australia and New Zealand, NaNo is already underway.

If this writing exercise, which is probably the biggest writing exercise in history, appeals to the novelist in you, then head over to nanowrimo.org and sign up. You’ll get access to the forums, NaNo mail, and you’ll be able to forge a support system with writing buddies who are also participating. Visit Procrastination Station whenever your muse goes into hiding.  Subscribe to the official blog, and keep track of your word count using the handy dandy online widget. And please, if you decide to join in the torture fun, then please don’t forget to add me as your writing buddy. You can find my WriMo page by clicking here.

Happy Noveling everyone, and Happy Halloween too!