Advice

There are few things I love more than a good villain. You know the kind, the one that gets under your skin, the one that makes you worry about what he’s going to do next, even that one villain who makes you giggle and want to follow him instead of the hero (Loki anyone?).

I try to include all types of villains throughout my writing. There’s so much to work with, but one important thing about a villain, they have to have a reason. If your villain has no rhyme or reason for what he’s doing, there’s not much point to the story is there? The hero might be trying to stop him, sure, but why?

When writing a villain, there are plenty of paths to choose. Did the hero somehow wrong him? Perhaps in the past? Perhaps it was the beginning of the book when he accidentally broke the to-be villain’s favorite magic wand.

There has to be goals, end games, plot lines to look forward to.

Is your villain unpredictable, is s/he psychotic? Does he simply want power? Was s/he dropped on his or her pretty little head one time too many?

Many villains are brought into light by their craving for power. They want to rule, they want to be the best, they want what they’ve never had before. Other villains exist because they always had power. They’ve never been told they couldn’t have something so they take whatever they want, they fear no consequences.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard when it came to writing villains, however, was that almost every villain sees himself as the hero. He’s the one in the right. The hero is standing in his way, stopping him, preventing his ultimate dreams and goals. The hero is in the wrong from his point of view. For this reason, it is very hard to change his mind or make him see otherwise, though many hero’s try to reason their way through it before they ultimately have to fight.

The freedom with writing is that you can create whatever you want. These are all just some pointers to keep in mind when writing your own villains. Why does he want the hero out of the picture or dead? Why is he fighting against the hero?

Happy writing!

This is a question encountered often. Writers from all platforms get asked this, including aspiring writers their selves. Now that I am published, I am certainly asked this all the time. It’s quite possibly the most often asked question ever. For authors anyways. Even I asked this question before I was published. People my age, people older than me, people who know someone who “wants to write” have asked me. It’s a big question, and the way it is answered can have a great impact on people.

So, what’s your advice for aspiring authors? Write the damn book. And finish it.

Finish the book!!

I cannot emphasize this enough, nor can I tell you how many people say to me “I want to be a writer, but I can never seem to finish my book.” It sounds obvious, but I lost count of how many people say this or a variation of it to me. You have to absolutely push forward and finish that book.

What do you expect to accomplish without that book? Don’t make up excuses. You don’t have time? Spare 15 minutes of sleep and write. Write on your short 30 minute lunch break while you stuff your face. You can chew and write at the same time. You don’t know what to write next? Just start writing anyways, you can always delete things later, but writing a little might give you some insight to the direction you want to take your story. This applies to writer’s block, too. No excuses. Write and finish that book. Push yourself because only you can.

The other advice I can give is that if you have finished a book and you want to become a published author, re-read your book and then edit it. You are not ready to become published until you edit your book. Why do I say this? Because I thought I was ready until I finally went back and read my novel. After that, I could not believe I was sending out an unedited manuscript to agents for viewing. When I finally sat down and edited, I learned a lot about my writing style, including how to better it. There is nothing more beneficial that you can do for yourself than to critique your own work, but on that note, don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re better at this than you think you are and letting others see and read your writing, getting their feedback, will help boost your confidence in yourself.

Good luck to all my aspiring writers. I did it. So can you 🙂

Much Love,

Author C.M.Herndon

Defy the Universe

Villains

What’s Your Advice For Aspiring Authors?