Villains Better be Worth the Trouble

When it comes to bad guys, (or girls), I think there is a distinction between the bad guys who are just plain bad, and the bad guys who are bad for a good reason.

In Killer of Killers, the main plot follows the MC, Trent Smith, who goes up against two main "villains." Neither one of them start out bad. It's the turn of events that define their "badness." Sure there are some mad dogs in there, but their parts play out in subplots.

In Killer Eyes, Trent meets a new antagonist - Ming Sang, and she is something to behold. She's an expert in Martial Arts, like Trent, drop dead gorgeous, and the leader of the Killers Guild. But who are the Killers Guild? Do they kill for the heck of it? Are they just hired assassins? Were they always like that? Who formed them and why? The answers to these questions create a three dimensional antagonist.

The bottom line is that your antagonist(s) better be worth reading about. What makes them bad? Are they evil just for evil's sake? If so, that's kind of shallow, imo. Something should drive them to evil.

It's best to remember, that your hero is defined by his enemies. A weak enemy makes for a weak hero. It may not necessarily be true in real life, but in a book or story, it's almost always true.

But even in real life, the heroes we remember most went up against impossible odds. I can think of two off the top of my head.

King David and King Leonidas.

It would have been no big deal if David slew a guy the same size as himself.

And who would have cared if King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans went up against an army that also numbered 300?

The villain(s) better be impressive, or your story won't be.

Keep on Chuggin'

Whew! Got through the road block last night. It was a struggle for a while, but when you keep on chuggin' you finally get somewhere. The trick is not to spin your wheels. Every time you write, you just gotta make sure it adds to your story SOMEWHERE.

I found that if you get clogged at one point because for whatever reason you can't figure where to go from the point you left off, go to a point somewhere else and MAKE PROGRESS. Whether it is something that you can insert in a section you already wrote, or a place somewhere further on that you haven't reached yet, go ahead and write it if you know what's going to happen then or what should be included somewhere else.

Then when you work your way back to where you left off, you may have a better perspective of the overall plot to go ahead and proceed. I think I made it happen. So back to work and let's keep on chuggin'.

Bogged in the middle of WIP

On page 195 and at 55,000 words. Sounds good right? But it doesn't reveal what happened when I strayed from the outline. I talked about it before. Yeah, the solution is write, write, write, like I said then, but wait! Don't just write for writing's sake. I caught myself doing that twice and deleted it. You've got to write for the story's sake, and make sure it brings you to the climax you need to have in your story.

I mentioned in a prior post that veering from my outline caused me to hesitate. That was serious. It put a roadblock in the plot. So why did I do it? Well, at the time, I thought it would improve the story. I still think it does. I've added subplots, fleshed out the characters, and made the book more three dimensional. All of that is very important. You don't want just a flat plot, shallow characters, and a linear story line.

So in came the additions, and I am at the point where I have to do a lot of thinking. I mean thinking about how to make it all work towards a compelling climax and conclusion. I know what I want in the end. It's just getting there.

OK, back to work.

Adverbs, Passive Voice, and those darn similes!

An anonymous commenter made a great point yesterday on Nathan Bransford's blog. He or she ranted, if you will, about the way today's writers are so trained to avoid using adverbs and passive voice. The point was that sometimes adverbs and passive voice are the better way to write a sentence, particularly when the story is being told in a way that it is better to not use too many words or take too long to make the reader understand what's happening.

I agree with that commenter. Even Nathan admitted it was true. Instead of using so many more words to describe what someone is doing or how they're doing it, a simple adverb, ie: one word, will suffice in a much more efficient manner. I agree with that.

About the passive voice, I have found in my writing that the advice is sound. That is the advice to NOT use passive voice. In a rare circumstance, a passive voice can work, but I stress, rare. Whenever I reread my manuscripts and I find a passive sentence somehow got in there, I quickly change it to active, and the prose is improved for it, I must admit. In my two plus novels, I may have a couple passive sentences. That means no more than one per book. And the reason better be a good one. Otherwise I suggest that this advice be followed.

But the adverb thing? I would say hell yes, use adverbs, but, of course, don't overuse them, don't rely on them, and always check dictionary.com for a better verb, and if it works without an adverb, then go with it.

I routinely browse through random books whenever I find myself at a book stand or bookstore. I find adverbs all the time. I also find a lot of similes. The standing orders are to not use similes. I agree with that, although using one now and then is acceptable if it's not a familiar one and the sentence is improved for it. In my two books, I might have half a dozen. That means maybe three in each. Like everything else...don't overdo it.

Imagine my shock when I browsed through a random book and found SEVEN similes on the first page alone!! I didn't bother checking out page two. Sheesh, was that some bad writing. And it was published. Go figure.

Trent Smith, the Killer of Killers

He was the world’s greatest martial artist – a master of the world’s deadliest art. Once revered, he became feared, and for that he blamed his homeland. America was no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. It had become the land of murder and the home of corruption. But for a man like Trent Smith – it was the perfect hunting ground.

That might be the jacket copy of my debut novel, Killer of Killers, repped by Ange Tysdal of AKA Literary. I haven't talked too much about it in this blog, as I have mostly discussed the sequel, Killer Eyes, which is my WIP.

Even though Trent Smith is an American, he lived and trained in Japan for over twenty years. During that time, American chemists invented a drug that would revolutionize the medical field. But the side effects were murder - literally, which led to repeated acquittals, and the aforementioned corruption. Trent runs into trouble in Japan, and he decides to take it out on the perceived source - walking killers.

Trent spent a decade as an undefeated martial arts champion, so he figures no one can match him in a head to head fight. With that in mind, he goes home and becomes a vigilante. Everything goes as he expected until he meets two special women. Ah, but love has got a lot to do with it. So does sex...and so do drugs.

Although Trent begins his path of Justice in a somewhat naive manner, he quickly learns the ropes on American streets. He changes by the end of the story, but in two ways he doesn't.

1-No one can match him in a fight
2-Justice remains his top priority

Here's hoping you can read about Trent Smith and his amazing journey that takes place across America and in Japan.

Female Villains??

I was just thinking about the heavies in stories. It seems that with all the stories out there, most villains have been male. The villains in both of my prior books were male. Sure, there's the fairy tale villains from Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella who were female. But unless it's a wicked witch or evil stepmother, the villain is usually male.

In Killer Eyes, I make it clear from the start, the main antagonist is female. Chinese, too. Off hand, I can't think of any story where the main villain is a Chinese woman. But I haven't read every book or seen every movie, so I'm sure my story is not the first. But she is an impressive woman. Not only is she extremely beautiful, but she's very deadly, both in hand to hand combat, and with a bevy of special tricks, including fingernails, each dipped in a different kind of poison. So one scratch from one fingernail might not kill you, but in combination with scratches from other fingernails, her scratches can kill you, or render you unconscious, or paralyzed, or put you in a daze, or put you under her control.

So watch out for strange women. She has already taken advantage of Trent in this way. But now he knows what to watch out for. This book is a lot of fun. Yep, Trent Smith is my all time favorite character. Not just because he's the world's greatest martial artist and a master of the world's deadliest art, but because he is unrelenting in his pursuit of justice. And the road he takes to achieve it is filled with people like Ming Sang. You can't judge a book by its cover. Or can you? Maybe sometimes.

Kings Will Rise Up

The sixth of ten songs on Rockin' the Afterlife. Gettin' there.

As for Trent Smith...he's working out at Joe's Workhorse Gym right now, and just gave a free demonstration of his martial arts expertise at the expense of an overconfident braggart. Needless to say the braggart is no longer overconfident nor is he still a braggart. Joe's gym is in downtown Manhattan. (Originally it was in LA, but too much is coming down in the Big Apple, so Trent's got to stay put on the east coast.)

In my outline, I had him in California all this time, and I was at a crossroads to figure out why would he be zipping back and forth so many times in such a short span of time. My conclusion was to have him just be in New York and NOT be going back to California. But I had to rewrite all those LA scenes to take place in NY instead.

I also had to change an LA baseball team into a NY one. It makes more sense anyway, since the ballplayer on that team is supposed to be under the East Coast honcho's umbrella. That's why we got to be flexible. We're writers, after all. You understand. It's the greatest thing. We're literally world builders. We create characters...events...problems...solutions...we have all the power.