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Michael Connelly Interview (WM)
This time I really am writing in!
"Villians are the easiest characters to create, Michael finds: 'they don't have to be as believable as your main character. They can be over the top. You want your main character to connect with your reader and have an emphathetic connection. You want the complete opposite with your bad guy. When you're not worrying about the relationship with the reader, it's freeing in some ways. That makes it easier to draw a villain."
I found this comment really deflating, I've spent months writing an antagonist that is just as believable as my protaganist, and I hope he has an 'empathetic connection' with the reader. I really don't like over the top villains anyway.
Thoughts?
Comments
when i started editing my first draft of my book i realised my villain didn't have any reason to be the villain..it really annoyed me and for a few months i left it all and wrote something else... in the end my whole story changed... new villains, old villain became a good guy etc...
so i think villains are really hard to write... they need really believable and realistic reasons for being bad...
I really don't like this black and white idea of hero vs villian. My protagonist isn't as innocent as he appears either . . .
Dorothyd - John Connelly is one of my favourite writers and he actually came to Kendal library last Saturday to do a talk and sign books he was amazing and he inspired me to sort myself out and continue with my writing he was really interesting and a very funny guy.