Our Twitter handleOur Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. Remember, the question is optional! November 1 question: November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?
MY ANWSER: Yes, since July 2013. I won last year for the first time in November, but only because I included all my writing, just my project. I don’t know that I will take part in “the push” for 50,000 this year, but I will BE writing and editing. Want to be my friend here is my profile info.
My top five strengths are: Connectedness, Adaptability, Intellection, Empathy, Input.
Number five input clarifies my constant need to always learn something new and explains why I am such a fiction writing course-acholic. I can’t get enough.
Now you are asking what does this have to do with negative character arc?
Nothing, unless you use the 34 skills to enhance your characters’ villainy (which I do), but it was an interesting way to lead into talking about my delight in discovering Abby Emmons on YouTube.
I became addicted to her writing style methods and perspective on writing fiction, which is very similar to my own, with great aesthetics and fun presentations. I am not as organized or aesthetic-minded as she is, and I learn a lot from watching her. And yes, I own a few of her courses, course-acholic, remember?
What is a negative character arc?
The simplest way to look at it is when a character, through life circumstance, situations, or tragic events, goes from bad to worse in choices, outlook, and attitudes.
Abby Emmons says, “a negative character arc is simply the lie the character believes and embraces as their truth.”
How does the negative character arc work?
First, what is a character arc? A character arc is most often described as a transformative journey the main character must take throughout a story from beginning to end.
The Positive ARC: Character starts out with a need/want. Often unhappy in present circumstance, they face obstacles they must overcome to learn the lesson that will return them to the happy status, and get them what they desire. OR they start out happy, it’s taken away, and they spend the story finding their way back to their new happy.
The Negative ARC: The character makes bad choices, behaves badly, and gets worse. They decline morally and hold the negative perspective as their truth. You see this in tragic stories, and it works well for creating villains, but ultimately never ends well.
The Flat ACT: These are stories where the character does not change. You often see these in detective type stories where the character has all the skills and knowledge needed to solve the crime-think Sherlock Holmes. You may see in supervillains and comic villains where the character has no backstory, remaining mysterious, illusive, taking great pleasure in their own villainy. K.M Weiland talks about Wonder Woman being such a flat arc character here.
In this article, I am focusing on the negative character arc, specifically for antagonist, arch-nemesis, and villains.
Anyone who knows me knows I am a Star Wars superfan. Star Wars gives me joy and was part of the inspiration why I started writing. Okay, why am I telling you this?
Emperor Palpatine is a super villain. He acts out of his own selfish desires and causes great harm to others without remorse. This negative character arc brings him to a tragic end through his own arrogance and false belief that his knowledge in the Sith arts makes him all powerful and ultimately undefeatable.
The Emperor is a flat character in that he never grows or learns. He is a character whose sole focus is to conquer the universe. Palpatine is the definition of evil, as defined by Holly Lisle.
Holly Lisle says, “Villains act against that which is good, taking definitely evil actions that result in horrifying consequences that envelop the hero and others.” How To Write Villains.
Darth Vader’s negative character arc starts in young adulthood, born out of fear creating a lie he holds as truth — a truth that consumes him, shaping all his choices until the point of no return.
This eventually turns him into the big bad until years later, when he grows and learns when faced with the choice of losing his son or choosing to do the right thing, no matter the cost.
This shifts him into a redemption arc, but the big bad still meets with his tragic end. He learns the truth of his choices too late, the consequence of the negative character arc. Abby Emmons Redemption ARC.
There are three types of negative character arcs.
The disillusionment Arc: The character believe a lie, learns the truth which is much worse than the lie. This arc has a nasty twist.
The Fall Arc: The character believes a lie, learns the truth but rejects it, and adopts a more destructive lie.
Corruption Arc: The character knows the truth from the beginning but suffers emotionally damaged or deception by someone or a situation in life. So, the character accepts/embraces a lie that reinforces their false belief, which shapes their negative outlook and choices.
Check this article by Abi Wurdeman on Dabble.com to learn about the 8 traits a negative character must have, such as a powerful lie, a believable journey into darkness, a plot driven by a negative character arc, plus five more.
Abby Emmons says, “The negative character arc stems from the lie the character believes. The disillusionment, fall, and corruption arc are all based on the lie the character embraces.” On YouTube.
Anakin aka Darth Vader fears losing someone he loves because he could not save the most important person in his life — his mother.
The lie he believes is — if he becomes a powerful enough Force user, embracing specifically the Sith philosophy, he can save the woman he loves from death which he foresaw in a force dream-vision.
Vader’s flaw is his fear. It dictates all Anakin’s choices, as he struggles to walk the Jedi path.
Palpatine (a secret Sith Lord) convinces him that if he accepts the darkside and becomes his Padawan, he will teach him the secret of life and death, which the Jedi have kept hidden from him.
The lie associated with the truth is he could not save his mother as a Jedi, but as a Sith Padawan, Palpatine will reveal all the Sith secrets enabling him to save his beloved Padme from death.
This series of associations drives the story arc once Anakin and Padme are a couple until he crosses the line of no return. It’s a tragic domino effect of choices by Anakin, against all advice and warnings from those close to him, including Padme.
Anakin is so steeped in his own fear and misbelief that his internal conflict drives and motivates his choices almost on an instinctual level.
The inner duel between the quintessential truth and essential lie blinded him to his own actions, and brings about what he fears most — the loss of Padme and ultimately her death.
The lie believed, the fear, became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Understanding how the negative character arc works can help you craft antagonists and villains that will challenge your protagonist and strengthen them, making their story more dynamic.
And remember, watch out for that villain he’s on his own hero’s journey even if it is a tad skewed.
The more you can humanize your character, the better your reader can relate to them, which deepens your reader’s connection to the entire story.
When you can take this flaw and tie it into the core TRUTH of your story, it will grab them and keep them reading to find out what happens next.
The best part is that flaw your character has helps generate meaningful conflict for the story, and helps you push past bumps or moments of being stuck.
Flaws can be misbeliefs or lies the character holds about themselves or others. Maybe your character grew up in the foster system and believes themselves unlovable.
This makes them feel unlovable and unwanted.
They might spend their whole lives trying to prove themselves worthy or lovable. Every choice they make, even the simplest, can affect every action and motivation derived from the flaw to drive the story or create active conflict.
Maybe they pick the wrong people to involve themselves with and get in trouble proving that point to themselves over and over, and this leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. When, in fact, it is their unwise choices or negative perspective of life that create these situations.
Or the opposite: they push away when other people get too close, which proves to the character they are unloved and unwanted.
This can create a nice growth ARC for your character throughout the story, and it helps generate conflict connected to the story core.
The flaw can also help you maintain character consistency and give them internal motivation to help you create a deeper reader experience.
A flaw might be that your character is stubborn, strong willed, and determined to do everything alone rather than ask for help.
Maybe they get angry easily and are quick to judge.
Or perhaps a deep need to control everything stemming from a childhood trauma, which puts their relationships, job, or mission in jeopardy.
This character flaw carries the story arc for the character, teaching them the lesson they need to learn, which is to work as a team, and/or to trust others to succeed.
I just saw a good example of a story flaw (which is a disability) on a TV series, The Good Doctor, season six, episode 16: The Good Lawyer.
She has a disorder called OCD. She freezes up sometimes in crucial situations, for example, a sound or something else that doesn’t go in cycles of three. It totally debilitates her, causing her angst or hardship.
They linked this disability to a childhood trauma and fear, even though the character knows it is not totally rational. It affects her behaviors, choices, and shapes the life she is currently living.
How knowing this can help?
Knowing the flaw can create strong motivation and internal conflict for your character. This causes them to act out their choices by taking action, which can create external conflict and situations tied to the flaw or misbelief.
In the example above for the OCD lawyer, why did the character want to overcome her flaw? She wanted to be normal and a trial lawyer. She wanted to be a lawyer, not just a researcher for lawyers.
Another way to find the flaw is through the theme.
A novel can have many themes throughout the tale, but there is only one through-theme that drives the story to the end. That through-theme can be represented in your character’s growth arc.
Finding the character theme is simply the way the theme affects your character at the beginning of the story vs who they become by the end of the story.
What is the story theme?
Abby Emmons says, “The theme is universal, and the theme means truth.” Here is a great video about the theme.
You will want to break these down into components. Figure out why they are meaningful to your character, how they shaped your character and motivate your character. (Check Abby Emmons’ video linked below in the next section to learn more.)
Connect your character’s deep need or desire to a theme, and then flip it on its head to show the polar opposite. You can use it to show drive and motivation through choices and false beliefs about their world or other people.
In the OCD example, the character’s deep need was to help people. She was a trial lawyer because a lawyer helped her as a child, but because she has OCD, she thought she could never do that, so settled for being a researcher for trial lawyers.
In the beginning, the choices she made were around avoiding people and she focused on research. However, this left her frustrated, until she acted despite her flaw, and it became a strength which made her a better trial lawyer with a unique perspective.
A tip for finding the flaw.
Abby Emmons says, “Flip the theme to find your character’s flaw. Look at your story’s truth via the main theme, flip it, and make it a LIE.” More in this video about why. (More study related video ref: Enneagram.)
We can sometimes use tropes and cliches in the same way as themes to find the flaw.
The Chosen One: FLIPPED: The character is the chosen one, but doesn’t believe or know it, or just shows up as an unlikely hero/heroine. We often see this trope in fantasy.
The Girl Next Door: The girl next door does not believe the boy she is crushing on would look at someone like her. Because she sees herself as ugly, overweight, or wears glasses or something, she thinks, makes her not attractive enough. In reality, it is a confidence thing — her character flaw is low self-esteem. All this connects back to the theme and drive within a story often seen in romance or women’s fiction.
Too Good To Be True–The Jaded One. Things are too good to be true, so they do not accept the love that is offered or friendship, or they create conflict via mistrust and being difficult to deal with. We might also consider this a trope or theme.
A Loose Cannon. The character might have anger issues that cause them problems and embarrassing situations. Or maybe they are too impulsive, which causes them to act without thinking, putting them into dangerous situations, or shows a lack of good judgment. These things can also be a character arc connected to the theme.
Conclusion:
Understanding your character’s flaw and how it connects to their fundamental truth or theme can help build stronger characters and stories. Knowing that connection helps you leverage conflict and story arc to drive the story through to the end and keep the reader engaged.
The first time I read Christopher Vogler’s book, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers 3rd Edition, I felt like I had embarked on my own personal hero’s journey. That was in the 1990s. I own three copies of that book, including the 25th anniversary edition.
Not only was it a book about writing craft, it was a study in human psychology personifying the dynamics of the subconscious that manifests in us all.
I could see all the archetypes described in the book, all around me, in everyone, including myself. Life did not feel so mundane anymore.
It helped me understand the people I interacted with in a more objective observing way that help me navigate my world, or at least understand aspects and dynamics better.
An adage and cliché I love is “Life is a journey, not a destination.”
My writing improved a great deal, as did my ability to understand how stories work.
What are archetypes?
Archetypes represent a set of universally recognized behaviors, as suggested by Carl Jung’s study started back in 1947.
Archetypes are universal, inborn models of people, behaviors, and personalities that play a role in influencing human behavior. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theory suggested that these archetypes were archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed down from our ancestors.
In Jungian psychology, these archetypes represent universal patterns and images that are part of the collective unconscious. Jung believed that we inherit these archetypes much in the way we inherit instinctive patterns of behavior. ~Kendra Cherry on the verywellmind.com.
In 1949, Joseph Campbell’s interpretation of myths or monomyths showed that mythic structure of human nature operated on four levels concurrently: the metaphysical (spiritual), cosmological, sociological, and psychological.
Storytelling is the form humans created to show, share, and give voice to the human experience. It all started as pictographs on cave walls and evolved.
Our understanding today of storytelling and life is deeper, and more versatile as time passes.
You can see additional dimensions in how all these work when you read Joseph Campbell’s lifelong study and book, A Hero With A Thousand Faces. The graph below will give an idea at a glance.
Vogler’s book goes in depth about character type and psyche, about the hero, mentor, ally, herald, trickster, shapeshifter, guardian, and shadow that populate all stories. ProWritingAid Article on Archetypes.
These character types manifest in all of us at different times in our lives, and so they should for your character as well. When I read the book, it helped me understand the people around and identify the part they played in my life in that moment in time.
So how do you use this archetype information to create villains?
Well, first, let’s look at the differences in rivals, bad guys, and arch-enemies.
What is the difference between antagonist, nemeses, and villains?
Antagonist
An antagonist can be anybody: friend, family, co-worker, sidekick, mentor, and so forth.
Often in romance, the two romantic characters also act as antagonists to each other throughout. The antagonist does not have to be a bad guy, or be even completely in the wrong.
Sometimes it is just the complication of opposing desires/wants/needs, or misunderstanding or misinterpretation that sets them at opposite purposes.
Examples:
Two boys in school sports and both want to win the medal.
Two coworkers giving different versions of the same project vying to win the boss’s approval and the client contract for the firm.
Nemesis
Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, one of the most infamous and well-known bad guys is referred to as an overarching foe, or arch-villain, Professor Moriarty.
A nemesis is often an opponent on the opposite spectrum of the goal, need, or mission, vying for opposing results or control for their own nefarious purposes.
John Travolta’s character, Major Vic “Deak” Deakins, in the 1996 movie Broken Arrow, steals B83 nuclear bomb and ejects his partner from the stealth fighter they are flying during a practice exercise.
(Spoiler Alert) Here, Deak, the nemesis has sold the nuke for a lot of money. The goal is power and riches gained (greed) by betrayal of overlapping loyalties in an act of treason.
Another great villain, is Thrawn from the Star Wars expanded universe. He is an alien species who joined the Empire, rising in the ranks to become a scarier nemesis than Darth Vader, IMO.
Why? He has no superpower, just a superior intellect and the ability to predict flaws and weaknesses, as well as strengths, by studying the art of a culture. He is a military strategists and tactical genius. One of my all time favorite villains.
The nemesis in the form of Major Vic Deakins is mentor, friend, and trusted authority. Where Thrawn is an Admiral with his own fleet in the Empire vying to fill the power vacuum left by Emperor Palpatine.
Timothy Zahn is the creator of Thrawn. His first appearance in the Star Wars expanded universe book series occurred in the SW trilogy book one, Heir To the Empire.(Now called Star War Legacy Series.)
I am so psyched. My research just revealed that Thrawn will be in the Disney series, Ahsoka — tentative premiere date August 2023.
Dang, I hope they do him justice.
Villain
Holly Lisle says, “Villains act against that which is good, taking definitely evil actions that result in horrifying consequences that envelop the hero and others.” How To Write Villains.
Is your character evil or just misunderstood, or just a human whose views became skewed or twisted along the way?
What is an Arch-villain? From Your Dictionary: A supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain.
I tend to think of the Marvel types as Arch-Villains. Sherlock Holmes’s Moriarty is classified as an arch-villain because of his superior intellect and long standing rivalry.
There is something over the top about these characters, and they are relentless — hard to kill too.
Another example from Marvel is Mr. Glass who was introduce in the movie Unbreakable, and goes on to star in a sequel called, Mr. Glass.
Glass’s childhood is miserable because of his disease, Type I Osteogenesis Imperfecta, his bones are brittle and break easily, but his battle with the disease his entire life shapes the man he becomes and his twisted perspective on the world around him. (See early life)
Batman’s The Joker. There are many versions of the Joker backstory. One of the most recent is the movie called, The Joker.
Seeing The Joker through his own warped perspective is fascinating, while making us understand how the child he was becomes the supervillain.
This character is very human, very flawed, and his perspective on life becomes very dark. We the audience get it because he is sad, misunderstood, and an underdog starting out. (A play on the save the cat moment?)
Why the villain/antagonist is equal to the hero’s role in the story?
A powerful story has a powerful antagonist or villain or at least one equal to the hero. This nemesis challenges and puts roadblocks in the hero’s way often because they want the same thing, but for different reasons or purposes.
Crafting a powerful villain makes a stronger hero because the antagonist becomes that invisible, immovable force the hero smashes and chafes against throughout the story, bringing the hero to a death moment. The dark night of the soul when all is lost, and it looks like the bad guy has won.
Again, I refer to Marvel for memorable villains, Thanos, Magneto, Emma Frost, and my favorite Loki.
We talk about these bigger than life villains but what about low key antagonists?
Dr. Charles Nichols, Kimble’s best friend, in the movie The Fugitive.
The ally or co-worker, Special Agent John Royce in the movie U. S. Marshalls.
What about when the antagonist is not so obvious or a person, like in Charlotte’s Webb?
Wilber’s is happy living his life on the farm, until he finds out that the reason his life is so cushy is because he is being fattened up to be sold at the fair for the butchers block.
The antagonist here is life, the way of the world, and situational. It’s not even a person per say, but what happens to pigs living on a working farm.
So, which type of antagonist, nemesis, villain fits your story best?
The many masks of the archetypes of personality can be applied to the same character for a layered affect. According to Christopher Vogler, the most common character types are: hero, mentor, ally, herald, trickster, shapeshifter, guardian, and shadow.
One character can play many roles, or those roles can be used as masks to hide or disguise the villain.
The answer to the question for best fit is all of them, because people change, grow or regress, as their choices, situations, and circumstance change throughout life.
In early life, your villain may have been a hero or ally, later a mentor, guardian, or herald, who developed into the trickster, and/or shapeshifter to ultimately morph into the shadow character an amalgamation of all the dark sides.
In having a basic understanding of these roles in everyone’s lives and within ourselves, we can use them to shape believable villains that scare the crap out of people, and who the reader can also sympathize with despite abhorring their choices or hating what the antagonist has evolved into.
Story Development & Structure – getting unstruck, building framework to avoid plots holes, and weak story structure.
World Building & Character ARC Development – there is more to world building than just creating elaborate worlds. Learn how to use character development to world build and flesh out conflict.
Short Story – Create shorts stories to use as reader magnets, or promotional tools to promote your bigger work, or submit to contest and magazines.
Plot Consultation (Plot Your Short Stories/Novel) – get the bones of story structure right and start out on the right foot.
World Building for a Series (Create a world you can write in for years) – is your idea big enough to support a series, and how much is too much world building.
Additional Services:
Productive & Accountability – creating proficient writing habits to get the work done and finished.
Scapple-Mind Mapping Finding Your Ideas and developing them – a fun way to brainstorm your ideas and create connections between one idea and another.
Scrivener Word Processing Software-basics to intermediate using this all-in-one project, software for writing—An alternative to Word and Google Docs.
Create Your Story Bible – using Scrivener or Word or Google Docs.
Canva-creating your own social media images and book covers.
Atticus-New formatting software developed by Dave Chesson created of Publisher’s Rocket. He says it is like Vellum and Scrivener got together and had a baby.
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