Villains Aren't Totally Evil Just For The Pure Sake Of Being Evil

Villains can be totally evil, but they shouldn't want to be evil just for EVIL’s sake! They need legitimate motivations for their wonderful evilness… like power, money, they want to take control of people. We must ask, “Why are they villains?” Did their environment shape them into being a villain, what was their childhood like, and who pushed them to that point in their lives?

One way to build your villain’s life is to write a biography. Get to know this evil person’s parents and siblings. What kind of life led them to villainy? All villains believe they’re in the right. We hear "everyone is the hero of their own story.” Villains understand that they're being bad in the eyes of the rest of the world around them and they just don’t give a crap... or they value their goals and wants more. They truly know that they are not doing good, they just love being the bad guy. Or, are they the hero in their own story?

These iconic shadowy villains hanging out in the corner looking scary or curling their mustaches have never worked for me. I want my evil villains to have a deliberate interpretation of being evil. I want to see and feel the actual harm they have caused other characters, what their evil actions have cost people and society at large. All of this plot and story building should show us why the heroes are better. Don't just tell me, "these guys are evil, that’s why... and the heroes will win in the end." Give me reason to care and some evidence to prove their worth to me, the reader.

I really like stories where the heroes encounter the same problems, the same story arcs as the villains... but each make different choices, which in turn show us how each affects those characters and shows why the heroes are on the side of right and the villains are on the side of wrong.

Really good writers, like James Butcher, the author of the Dresden Files, show how human their villains can be. Some are wonderfully crazy, some are seeking fantastic power or money or fame. Some believe they're the lesser of evils out there, and some are so far beyond humanity that they legitimately do not understand what's wrong with their actions, because we’re nothing to them. But they are never evil for evil’s sake... there's that compelling reason. We want and need more from our villains than just being evil.

#Villain #Villains #Evilactions #Hero #heros #Evil #Evilness

Editing Before the Editor Gets It

by Toni Rakestraw



I just read a terrific post on one of my favorite blogs... Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds. It was about the editing (revising) an author must do before the book gets sent for editing. If you don't do this step, you should. Go read his post now: Laser, Hacksaw, Spanner, Hammer: A Post About Editing. I'll wait.

I can't stress enough how important this step is. No one spews forth a perfect rough draft of a novel that needs no revision. No one. Every single novel needs this extra step. Sometimes, heck--who am I kidding--most of the time, this step is actually many steps done over and over and over. And Chuck's right... this is where the art happens.

Sure, it's amazing to get all those words out on the page in a rough draft. Not everyone can do that. But to get those words honed and crafted... that's where the actual skill comes in. Getting the rough draft done takes dedication, but revising that rough piece of writing into a real story is art. That's what separates the wheat from the chaff.

Then, when you turn in your piece of word art to your editor, they can polish it so you shine like the celestial being you truly are. Now where did I put my sunglasses?

#ChuckWendig, #editing, #revision, #TerribleMinds, #writing

Let's Talk Editing...

by Toni Rakestraw

On Sunday, July 28, I was lucky enough to guest on John's Google Hangout, Rakestraw Book Design Live Events. I had a lot of fun and we spent an hour talking about editing.



We talked about editing, who needs editing, the different types of editing, working with an editor, dialogue, and a lot more.

#differenttypesofediting, #editing, #iseditingnecessary, #whoneedsediting

Investing in Your Book

by Toni Rakestraw



I urge you to invest in your book.

What does that mean? It means a lot of things.

First, you need to invest the time to do it right. Take your time writing and researching your book. Revise it. Get feedback. Are there holes in your plotline? If so, fix them! Are your characters flat? Fill them out! A rough draft isn't enough.

Get it edited. Allow enough time for a good edit, don't expect 150,000 words to be done overnight. Give your editor the time to go through it carefully. Rush jobs usually result in something being missed because they were rushed. Can you do your best work when you're in a rush? Schedule enough time in your production timetable to allow for a proper edit. Then add a little bit more for bumps in the road, like an unplanned for revision, or a family emergency. It's better to be ready ahead of time than to be squeezed for time at the end.

Proofread it. After you, your editor, and your trusted beta readers have all read it, get someone else to go over it for errors. If you can afford it, pay a professional. Trust me, even after all those others have gone over it, there will still be some errors. No one is perfect enough to catch everything. Could you? If you were given a 50,000 word manuscript, could you catch every single error? Especially if the author wanted it in a week or two? That's why the more sets of eyes you have go over your book, the better. And spell check doesn't catch everything, either. It doesn't know the difference between there, their and they're. Or to and too. Or rein and reign. Or wait and weight. Or right and write. All it knows is if they're spelled correctly.

Get a good cover design. If you don't know the first thing about designing a cover that looks good, find someone who does. It's worth the money to have one that catches the eye. People do judge a book by its cover, whatever they may say.

Your book represents you. This is your product that you want people to buy. Putting a substandard book out there can create a reputation that will follow you no matter how much work you put into later publications. Today's readers aren't shy about complaining in a review about shoddy writing or editing (or lack thereof). If you fix your book later, those reviews are still there. Those readers have already told their friends and the damage has been done.

I know I harp about this repeatedly here, but I can't emphasize this enough. As an author, your book is you. Do you want to go out in public with a big smudge on your face? Of course not! So why let your book do the same? Yes, editing and a good cover can cost a lot of money, depending on who you hire and the length of your book. But isn't your book worth some scrimping? Isn't your reputation as an author worth it? Many editors, like me, offer payment plans. Payment plans, however, don't work well if you're on a quick deadline (just another reason to plan well for your production time). We also offer a discount for payment in full, so there are multiple ways to save some money on editing services.

You want to put your best book forward.

#editing, #importanceofediting, #writing