The week goes reasonably well (see update below), each day filled with adventures as we explore Merida and surrounds with visiting friends, who go back to the States very early Saturday morning -- leaving us with about one week left here in this truly amazing town.
Progress on GOALS this week (blue = done, purple = in progress, red = not yet!).
- Add another 2500 words. Wrote 1,659 new words. Keep working the SNOWFLAKE. Use 750words x5/7 days. 3/7 so far. Participate in Weds WIPpet's snippet.
- Blog 1x Writing blog, 2x ROW80. Posted Weds. Read others x8. Read x4 so far.
- Continue decluttering e-mails and researching my story.
- Write up some of the travel highlights. Not yet.
A word about villains. Allen told me that he doesn't write about villains because he doesn't believe that people are intrinsically evil. I never quite thought about evil that way, so in constructing my current 'bad guy,' I went through an exercise to describe what may have influenced 'evil' behavior from various persons from my own life. I made a rather startling discovery.
When we're children, and something very bad happens, it's like a beast comes out of a closet, and we're terrified. We fall back on fight or flight. We may never understand truly bestial behavior (and I don't particularly want to write about a psychopathic villain).
The act of writing out what may have motivated 'bad' behavior led me to understand the villains I have personally experienced -- actually did suffer from evil in their own lives. In each case, the individual was unable to break the cycle. I came to understand their motivation in a way that transformed them from that ravening beast in the closet, still fearful, to a person with perhaps more than one tragic flaw. They're not quite so scary. And I'm back to drafting my character sketches (hopefully more multi-dimensional for the bad guys), still Step 3 in Randy Ingermanson's SNOWFLAKE.
Have a great week! See you Sunday. Meanwhile, check in with other ROW80 writers on our FACEBOOK group or our WEBSITE to check in with other ROW80 writers! Here's the picture of the day:
 |
| Capstone of funerary chamber, Ek Balam, Puuc style. Roughly 3' high, painted limestone. |
 |
| Detail of black 'ink' drawing of Maize god. |
Those images are... just wow.
ReplyDeleteI always saw villains as the protagonists of their own stories. Evil may exist, but often is more of a clash of contrasting values and needs. We call the fox sly and cunning, evil... but it has kits to feed. My grandmother called cats evil because they played with their prey and hunted even when they had homes and plenty of food... but then she could never accept hardwired behaviors and training for all that she was very prone to repeating the same negative behaviors over and over again to the point she was abandoned by most of her children for years...
She wasn't evil either. I'm not sure I believe in villains or evil at this point. Damaged? Yeah, I definitely believe in that
Love the telling detail in your comments, especially that image of cats as evil (and your grandmother had a reason), as well as that sense that she could not recognize the impact her behavior would have on others. In many ways, this is a tragic story, but one that I appreciate very much as I'm still defining what the 'bad guys' might do in my story. Found another article re sympathetic villains here: http://rmfw.org/how-to-write-memorable-villains/ Thank you, Eden
Delete