antagonists

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Villains - why so serous

Does your villain need more evil?

Is your story good enough

Is your story good enough? In fact… you’ve probably been exploring and sweating to make your protagonist more real, more dynamic, and the suppo


Deals, Decoys, and Dirty Tricks for your Characters

Your hero’s trapped

Your hero's trapped by his enemies, no way to run or fight—unless he can take what those goons really want and use it against them. Your villain nee


No Creatures Needed

(or, anything They can do

(or, anything They can do in, We can do in better) The darkened sky shifts as the breeze kicks up, switching dry leaves about the roots of


Everything I know about evil I learned from Thunderbolt Ross

What does a villain want,

What does a villain want, or what drives character conflict of different kinds? Actually, with so many ways human beings can make trouble, we writers


Can A Villain Want To Be Evil? Case study: LaCroix

Maybe the first rule we h

Maybe the first rule we hear about writing villains is “No villain believes he’s a villain.” That is, in a story or in real life, even the peopl


Conflict – or How Many Sides to the Dark Side?

Did The Phantom Menace ha

Did The Phantom Menace have it right? —Yeah, a cheap shot, nodding some less-than-stellar Star Wars. But if the question is wha