Sometimes it’s Fun to Beat Up Your Bad Guy

Sometimes it’s Fun to Beat Up Your Bad Guy

This week I wrote an emotional scene featuring my protagonist’s mentor.  My good guys had just been through a harrowing fight scene with my bad guy, then through a miscommunication, my protagonist almost loses a limb.  Afterwards, in the calm after the storm, my mentor character reflects on what has been happening to her family and her country.

It was an emotional scene that took a lot of thought to get right.  To build tension in a scene that happens mostly in my character’s mind, then to release that tension as she finds comfort.  And also to relate it back to a line my protagonist said in a early scene.  It was one of those scenes that took up half a script page, but about three novel pages.

That was followed by a scene where my antagonist gets beat up by his mentor.  That was fun.  It was a quickly-paced scene that went as fast as the script pages it was based on.  It was also a contrast between my good guys and bad guys.  My protagonist is supported by a caring mentor, while my antagonist is working for someone who just wants my antagonist to do his bidding.

But even bad guys need to be three-dimensional – and smart.  As afraid of his boss as my antagonist is, he realizes his boss is just afraid of his bosses’ boss.  Now he’s got to come up with a way to use that to save his own life.

That’s part of the fun of writing, figuring out these schemes your characters have to figure out.  And the cleverer you can make it, the better.

This is what I want to do with the rest of my life.  I want to get someone to pay me to play make believe with my imaginary friends all day.

 

Dennis Amador Cherry

19th article completed.

First Steampunk novel:  48,480 words.

You ever notice the difference between Discover Family and Cartoon Network?  The cartoons on Discovery Family are about making the bad guys see the error of their ways and finding redemption.  The cartoons on Cartoon Network are about beating the bad guy up even if he’s already given up.  Try comparing “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” and “Littlest Pet Shop” to “The Powerpuff Girls” and “Teen Titans Go.”

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