Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Red Writing Hood

Just one prompt this week, people. But it can be done fiction or non-fiction. We hope you have fun with it.

Your assignment is to write a character sketch of a villain.

Good stories have a villain or a nemesis. Which isn't to say there's an evil witch or bogeyman in every tale (like I tell my kids, a stranger isn't always a scary person, it's just someone you don't know). But you do need a character or characters who create friction, who go against the grain of good.

Sometimes these characters are truly bad, bad people (or machines or aliens. You get the picture.) but sometimes? They can be regular people; anyone or anywhere. Look around you. Maybe it's your kid's crossing guard who snarls at you every morning. Or the overbearing PTA or soccer mom. Maybe it's a teacher you had in school or a boss or a frenemy or a barrista.

Take their unpleasant traits and exaggerate. Make them as nasty as you wanna be. Tell us what she/he/it looks like. What are her/his/its motivations? No one is all good or all bad, which makes a villain complex and interesting. Tell us everything you need to know about this character.