Writing the bad guy

If you’re creating stories, sooner or later you’ll need to write a bad guy.*

Word of the week

fox:  /fɒks/ 

(noun)  A small carnivorous animal of the dog family, with a pointed muzzle, large ears and a long bushy tail, usually with reddish brown or silver-grey fur [Family: Canidae, Genus: Vulpes].

(noun)  A crafty, cunning or sly person.

(noun)  slang  A physically attractive or alluring man or woman.

(verb)  informal  1. To deceive or outwit somebody by means of slyness or trickery  2. to confuse or baffle someone  3. to keep an eye on someone without seeming to do so  4. to be too difficult for someone to understand or solve.

The seed

… but the seed of doubt was there, and it stayed, and every now and then sent out a little root. It changed everything, to have that seed growing. It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise. 

 

From Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

What lies beneath

In fiction, as in life, all is revealed through the actions of our characters.

Characters, like people, don’t always tell the truth. They often say what they think is true, or what they’d like to be true, without arriving at a clear expression of their most salient psychological reality.

Usually it’s because they hold multiple truths – layers of thoughts, feelings and motives - which are tangled together in complicated ways.  They may not always be aware of them. Or they may be hiding them, from other people or themselves.

It was a lie, of course

Ender nodded. It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn't hurt a bit. But since adults always said it when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.

When I was barely onto the third page and the tight, pacy narrative was serving up these penetrating insights, I knew I was about to read something really, really good.

Ender's Game: classic military strategy meets dystopian YA speculative fiction. 

I'm loving this book so hard, right now. So, so hard.   

Words of the week

Observer’s paradox: (in social sciences) Refers to a situation in which the phenomenon being observed is unwittingly influenced by the presence of the observer/investigator. 

Verisimilitude: /vɛrɪsɪˈmɪlɪtʲuːd/ (noun) The ‘lifelikeness’ or believability of a work of fiction. The word comes from Latin: verum meaning truth and similis meaning similar.

Subtext: /ˈsʌbtɛkst/ (noun) The content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly by characters or creator, but is implicit, or becomes understood as the work unfolds. The unspoken thoughts and motives of characters - what they really think and believe.

Perspicacious: /ˌpəːspɪˈkeɪʃəs/ (adj) Having a ready insight into and understanding of things.  (NB rhymes with curvaceous, sagacious, tenacious, and vivacious).