Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Of Good and Evil...

Yesterday didn't produce the writing results I wanted. Reading yesterday's chapter was a humiliating experience - I don't think I've produced such a totally off-the-wall scramble of the alphabet in a while. Cogitating on my literary mess, I came to the conclusion there was only one sane thing to do. Hit the copy and delete buttons. Gone.

So I started thinking about how it all went awry, and the answer was staring me in the face. I didn't know this bad guy, and this was his chapter. He has a role in the story that's rather important, and I've been blithely using him to further the character arc for everyone else. Now, however, it's critical mass time, and he's going to explode on me if I don't come up with his character arc and add some humanity to his denouement. I've been dancing around his evil because, in a way, I don't want him to be lost. But by toning him down, I've lost what made him delicious in the first place. So it's time to get some . . . .and do what I know has to be done.

Played hooky and spent an hour at the track yesterday afternoon as the Busch drivers tested for the May race. Busch drivers is quite a misnomer - I think they were all Cup drivers out there yesterday. The COT tests next week, so you know where I'll be - checking that ugly puppy out. Hey, even ugly puppies grow on you. So do wicked bad guys, sigh. I so want to like my evil character. Can't let it happen.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Know what you mean. I grew to feel sorry for the bad guy in the book of my trilogy. In fact I cried over his dead while I showered that night. He was rotten to the core, but fell for the heroine. A spark of humanity started to rear it's beautiful head and I had to kill him off before he repented. Poor guy. ;)
Char

Anonymous said...

Good Lord, why didn't I proof read before I sent that? The shame!
I meant:
Know what you mean. I grew to feel sorry for the bad guy in the FIRST book of my trilogy. In fact I cried over his DEATH while I showered that night. <-ACTUALLY THIS SENRENCE SUCKS. He was rotten to the core, but fell for the heroine. A spark of humanity started to rear it's beautiful head and I had to kill him off before he repented. Poor guy.

Tracy D said...

Char, I still haven't figured it out! I think it's that spark of humanity that makes the bad guys work so well. I just haven't figured it out yet, but the morning is young...

Banging head on keyboard now that my Pollyanna moment is over.