Writing Villains

I had a thought while watching Scooby Doo cartoons the other day. The good ones, from the 70s, "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?"... and that's kind of important to my thought.

The bad guy in this particular episode (Decoy for a Dognapper) was especially shady, and I mean that literally. He was a silhouette, appearing for brief instances and wreaking havoc in his trench coat and hat, leaving all his evilness to the imagination.



This made me think. As a kid, the villains in my books and movies/shows were simple. Shadowy figure, no personality, no identity. All we needed to know was that he was the Big Bad. But as I got older, the bad guys began to become blurry. A trend I've noticed recently is that the bad guys are all semi-good guys. Even if they don't really have any redeeming qualities, we learn their backstory and discover why they are evil. We become sympathetic to them and see them as real people with problems.

This was probably innovative at some point, and I see how it makes sense in some stories. But whatever happened to a shadowy, secretive, silhouetted bad guy we could trust to be evil?

After watching this episode, I thought long and hard about some of my villains. None of them are hard and fast bad guys, and I think the line between good and bad is too blurry in some of my work. I think many stories could do well to return to an idea of letting their bad guy wear a trenchcoat and hat and staying in the darkness. It may be trite, but it sure makes them scarier.

The Road to NaNoWriMo 2010

I've been working on my NaNoWriMo09 novel a bit. Really wish I had it done by now, but 2010 has really kicked me in the ass for a while. I think things are back on track now, but my writing has been severely lacking.

Good thing NaNoWriMo10 is right around the corner! Only 3 months away. Which seems like a long time, til I remember that I really want to finish Providence before starting a new NaNo novel (though I say this every year and never get the old novel finished before starting a new one). And I need to start thinking of a story for my '10 novel! I also want to make a cover for both. Err, rather, have my wonderful graphic designy husband make a cover for both :)

I think I'll post a bit from Prov soon. An excerpt, if you will. And set some goals for my last 30,000 or so words I want to write on it by Halloween. That's only a little over 333 words per day for the next almost-90 days. I'm sure I can pull that off! I mean, in the last two years I've successfully written over 50,000 words on a new novel in 30 days. Of course, neither of them have endings...

Enough procrastinating. I'm going to write. At least 400 words, before dinner. Yippee!

Back to the Writing

This blog began in August 2008 as a forum to rant, vent, discuss, and share writing-related thoughts. I blogged about my first NaNoWriMo in November 2008 (which is still not finished, sadly) and inspiration I received from authors like Stephen King and Donald Maass. I shared excerpts from a few of my main WIPs, and I vented when I got stuck writing.

But, writing kind of got lost from my life for a while, and it got lost almost entirely from my blog before that. So far, 2010 has been a pretty crappy year. I actually was thinking of creating a mid-year blog at the end of June to show just how bad of a year it's been for me. However, I recently did some intensive writing, and things are starting to look up.

Case in point: My most recent short story was selected to appear in an anthology of short stories at the end of the summer! More info on that later. But, it's pretty awesome news! Which means, I need to get back to the main purpose of this blog -- writing. Maybe I'll get around to creating a second blog; one for life, one for writing. But for now, this will be mostly devoted to writing. Again.

For now, I think I'll try my hand at June NaNo and see what I can crank out this month while I'm still unemployed (on that front, I have a much-anticipated interview on Friday with the company I really want to work for, so more on that next week!). It's summer summer summertime! And I'm spending everyday at the pool -- granted, it's a 22" deep inflatable one in my backyard, but the kids like it so I'm happy -- and doing yardwork. And writing. Maybe taking a few months off has been good for me, because I'm feeling pretty good about the words lately.

Stay tuned. I have a feeling I'll have more writing news in the future :)

Writing Again

This will be short, otherwise it'll turn into a procrastination tool.

I graduated on Sunday, Mother's Day. It was a great weekend, though my new shoes blistered my feet and my new dress was hidden beneath my rental gown. I didn't even cry.

I've rested the past few days. Did a little reorganizing, washed some laundry, caught up on sleep and television. The feeling is strange, really -- I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, because I have no homework and no job. But after a little while, I get restless. What if I get a job tomorrow? And I go to work 40 hours a week without getting the chance to rearrange my office or color-code my closet? (Save your snickers for later, color coordination is very efficient.) But then after I start working on these things, I figure they're not that important. After all, there's always tomorrow.

So, today, despite the nagging anxiety that tells me I should be cleaning something, I wrote. It's not a lot, not yet. 305 words of action and description. But I haven't written since Daddy's funeral four months ago.

It feels kind of good now, but the first few words were painful. Physically. The anxiety that crept up was overwhelming. The blank page in front of me wasn't full of endless possibilities, but rather the absence of working out my creative side for so long. Like getting back to running after an injury, I had to stretch, and it hurt at first. But I've pushed through for 305 words and it feels a little better. This is just the first few steps, though. In between reorganizing the garage (which really does need to be done) and vacuuming the whole house, I think I can manage to run a few sprints, metaphorically.

Hopefully I can keep the energy up to finish the race, because I need that satisfied feeling to keep the anxiety at bay. I love writing, and I missed it. I hope I don't have to again.

Milestones

Today would have been my parents' 26 wedding anniversary. Yeah, they've also been divorced for 4 years. But they were best friends afterward, and I honestly think they were on track to get back together. Not for the kids' sake, which is what kept their marriage going when it probably should have ended long ago. But for themselves. And so, despite their 4 year separation, I know my mom is hurting today, on a day she usually celebrated with my dad. It's the first milestone since his death less than 3 months ago. And Sunday will be another one.

My birthday. Daddy used to cook me whatever meal I wanted, no matter how big or ridiculous, for my birthday. He'd try out a new cheesecake recipe every year, and even though I didn't get "gifts," it was always special. In 4 days, I'll be celebrating my birthday without him. I won't be alone, though, thanks to a recent change to my husband's schedule that allows him to be off for my birthday. That's something I guess.

The first year of milestones will be the worst. I know this. The first year of milestones without my grandma, with whom I was extremely close, was devastating. But this is unimaginable. My birthday, my brother's birthday only 3 weeks later, my college graduation 4 days after that, then my little brother's 15th birthday 4 weeks later. ... I just can't fathom any of us going through these big events without our dad, but we're going to have to.

I have a test tonight. A test I really need to get an A in, because I have gotten D's (unheard of under normal circumstances) on the first 2. And I can't concentrate because every random object or sound makes me think of him. I know it'll get easier one day. But that day's not today, and I don't think it'll be anytime soon.

I'm praying for strength to help me through these next 31 days of school, because with my concentration level what it is it'll be a miracle if I can keep my grades up. And the excitement of graduation is dampened by the pain of knowing who won't be there to see it.

That's it for my depressing blog. But I can't help it. If you read this, thanks for listening.