That Girl Who Wrote A Book

      The villain of your story is arguably the most important character-- even more important than the protagonist. A good villain will challenge your other characters. A great villain will drive your story.      When characterizing your bad guy,  not only do you have to define why they are the way they are, but you also have to make them reasonable. You can't just give your villain a tragic backstory and call it a day, because oftentimes that's not what makes a villain a villain. There has to be some deeper reason behind it. You have to design a character with such depth that your readers can understand them. You know you've done your job well when your readers begin to sympathize with them.     Take Draco Malfoy for example. He bullies Harry Potter and all of his friends, and just generally isn't a good person. But for some reason, fans of the Harry Potter series love Draco, and some even prefer him over the other characters. That's becaus...

    Trauma makes a character great. It is an understanding amongst the writing community that if you don't make your characters suffer, your story will be boring. But what nobody seems to realize is that there is a right way to torture your characters and there is a wrong way.      Let's start by discussing the wrong way to challenge your characters. Something that I find very mundane is when a character can go through hell and come out with a smile on their face. Remember that everyone has their breaking point, and so your character should too. If you want to be realistic, your character will not face everything with a big, cheesy smile. Even the most resilient characters (if written well) will reach a point where they can't seem to go on any longer.       T he moment your character breaks is the most important moment in your story. It is the moment that they change, whether it be for the better or for the worse. If you rush through this dev...