How to be human AND evil, with Rumpel and Regina

Here’s the next post in this series where I discuss TV shows and movies and the knowledge that we can gain from watching them. We can apply that knowledge to our writing. As always, I never pretend to be an expert. I just like exploring my own thoughts on the matter as I write these blog posts! I welcome all comments and would love to hear what you think about this topic.

Make sure you check out my previous post, titled, “How to write a strong female character, with Emma Swan.”

The last post in this series was also about the TV show Once Upon a Time. Most of the time I don’t like repeating topics or shows back to back like this, but I felt like it was necessary with this one. As you may or may not know, the series premiere of season 2 of OUAT aired last night. AND I’M SUPER PUMPED! (Sorry.) I knew it would be a great time to explore something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now: villains.

Villains are an important part of any story, and they’re often as complex and interesting as the heroes. Some bad guys are just evil – like Voldemort. I’m a Harry Potter super-nerd, so I have nothing bad to say about any of the characters in that book. BUT it’s important to note that Voldemort is evil, plain and simple. His soul is in pieces and he displays no emotions other than insane glee when things go his way and an all-consuming rage when they don’t. And hey, that’s okay.

But if you’re looking for something a little bit different in your villains, check out Rumpelstiltskin and Regina from Once Upon a Time.

First, Rumpel/Mr. Gold.

Rumpel’s fatal flaw is that he chooses power over everything – over doing what’s right, over love, and even over family. But he does have two weak spots, even if they’re very tiny. The first one is his son, Bae. Through a series of unfortunate events (that have nothing to do with that series), Rumpel chose his power over his own son and his son was sent away to another land. Where exactly he was sent, we’re not totally sure. But Rumpel still feels guilty about it and he wants to see his son again – more than anything.

The other person Rumpel cares about is Belle. (Yeah, that Belle.) He loves her. And she loves him. So what’s the problem? Well, true love’s kiss will take away Rumpel’s power and he can’t have that. He’d rather live as a monster than live without magic. When he gets to the real world, he also feels extremely guilty about this. He loved Belle, and he let her be ripped from his grasp. He’s got a lot to feel ashamed of, but he’s also got a lot of rage running through his veins. The second season sets us up with the question – will Rumpel finally do what’s right? The guilt and the anger are running in opposition of each other and I honestly don’t know which one will conquer and rule his actions.

Cut to the Evil Queen/Regina.

She was living the high life until Snow White ruined everything. I don’t want to give anything away about her back story, but let’s just say that she’s got good reason to blame Snow (although everything Snow did was unintentional). When Snow and Charming kicked Regina out of the castle, she sacrificed everything to come back out on top.

Now that she’s in Storybrooke, she has a pretty good setup for herself. She’s mayor and everyone is afraid of her (as they should be). She’s adopted a son that she genuinely loves. He…doesn’t feel the same way. He knows that she’s the Evil Queen and he does everything he can to help break the curse that she’s placed on this little town in Maine.

Would you ever catch Voldemort caring about his true love or his son? Not a chance. Does this make R&R any less evil? No way. If anything, it juxtaposes just how evil they really are. They’re willing to sacrifice the really amazing things in their life for power and control over everyone else. It truly shows us what they’re capable of. Any bad guy can go around town slaughtering whoever he wants to in order to gain power. But when he does the same thing to his own family or his own friends, it means so much more.

So don’t be afraid to make your bad guys human. Voldemort works in the context of the story that J.K. Rowling was trying to tell, but that doesn’t mean he’ll work in any story. A human villain will allow your readers to connect with the antagonist. They’ll understand his or her motivations and they’ll actually end up connecting with them, on some level, even if they don’t agree with what they’re doing. Anything that gives your audience a reason to connect with a character – good or evil – is something worth thinking about. In my book at least.

Which do you prefer? Do you like your baddies full of evil up to their eyeballs, a la Voldemort? Or do you prefer to be torn between feeling bad for them one week and hating them the next, like I often do with Rumpelstiltskin and Regina?

Writer’s Block is the Common Cold

Moroccan Guards

Writer’s “block” is a good way to describe it. It’s like you’re driving down the highway and you know exactly where you are and where you’re going. You can describe every bush and tree, every creature that scampers out of your way. And you can see beyond that, far beyond. You can make out the mountains in the distance, and you can see exactly how the road twists and turns before you reach your destination.

Then – BAM!

The cops have set up a road block. There are signs and cars and flashing lights, and suddenly you can’t go anywhere. It stops you dead in your tracks and all you can concentrate on is the distraction of the sirens and the officers waving their guns in your face. Your surroundings have disappeared and you can’t quite recall how to get to those mountains in the distance.

This is an accurate metaphor, but I’ve got another one.

Writer’s block is our common cold – everyone gets it, no one really knows how to cure it, and we just have to wait it out until we feel better. But, luckily, there are ways to prevent writer’s block, and there are ways to push through it. (Kind of like showing those cops you do indeed have a driver’s license. Or like pumping yourself full of orange juice and cold medication.)

The first question is: What is writer’s block, really? It’s important to realize that it affects people differently. For me, at least, it’s when my brain just doesn’t want to work. I can’t think properly or I can’t concentrate. Writing one paragraph takes me an hour instead of five minutes, and I don’t like anything that I put down on paper. For others, it is the complete inability to come up with any detail pertaining to their story. It is a frustrating and time-consuming illness.

But, like most bugs, you can do a variety of things to prevent yourself from catching it. I suggest writing every day, whether you have time or not. It’s hard to stop writing once you get in the swing of things, but sitting down for even ten minutes a day helps. Skills are learned through experience and patience, and the more you write, the more skills you’ll pick up. I like to keep my iTouch handy too – there’s an app on there for note taking, and I use it all the time. I even have some full blown stories and character backgrounds on it. I tend to get ideas when I’m away from my computer, and this is a simple thing that I can do to get those ideas on “paper” before I lose them. It’s aggravating to have a great idea that you can’t remember when you go to write it down later that night, and that’s actually one of the ways that my writing block gets set up.

Another thing you can do to keep yourself from getting writer’s block is to make an outline. I know a lot of people don’t like them, and even I’m not particularly fond of them, but they do work. Research shows that writing down your goals helps you to attain them. An outline works the same way – it shows you what you’re working toward, and reminds you of the big plot points that you need to have in your story or series. My first novel is complete, but it’s just one book in my trilogy. I wrote an outline for the next two books so that I would always remember what I am working toward. Knowing what’s coming next also allows you to put clues and important details in earlier installments!

But even the best drivers get pulled over, and even the cleanest and most careful people still get sick.

So, how do you get around that road block? It can be tough, and sometimes all you can do is wait it out. Our brains are powerful machines, and they’ll work through any problems on their own, but there are ways to help them out. As it is with the prevention of writer’s block, the best thing to do is, well, write.

I know what you’re saying. “Um, isn’t that the problem?”

Yes, it is. So, try writing something else. Work on a different story or try out a new writing exercise. Sometimes shifting gears is the best thing to get your mind working again. Like I said above, for me writer’s block is about not being able to think of anything good to write, or not liking whatever I do come up with. The best solution for this is to just plow through whatever you’re having trouble with and come back to it later. Sometimes, you have to write something really, really bad in order for you to get it off your mind. Then, you just move on and edit it when you come back around to it. It’s like how they always say not to edit while you’re writing, because it kills your creative buzz. Same thing.

I actually have a really good example of this. In my novel, there’s a battle scene near the end. I was having a lot of trouble writing it, and I just couldn’t come up with anything that sounded good. I also didn’t really know what exactly I wanted to happen – who should live and who should die? Which characters do I want to focus on? Where and how exactly will the battle take place? I couldn’t answer any of these questions, and all I could think about was what happened after the battle. Well, I couldn’t ignore what happened during the battle, since that was an important scene, so I just wrote whatever came to mind. It was bad. Like, very bad. The writing literally consisted of “This character does this. Then this character does this. Then this happens.” It was very choppy and very poorly written, but I left it and moved on to the next scene. Now, I had my work cut out for me when I got to this chapter in my editing process, but it was much easier having that outline of the scene and then just fleshing out the events once my brain had decided to work properly again.

A lot of writers use music to inspire them. I like to go outside and walk around in the woods, or visit somewhere peaceful where I can be alone. It allows me to notice the magic of nature more easily, and as my stories usually center around nature, this is quite useful. Something else that might help? Set your work aside for a while. That might seem counterintuitive – how can I get work done if I’m not writing? – but it’s not. Writing isn’t a science, and you can’t force yourself to do it if the inspiration isn’t there. Go mess around on the internet for a while or get some other things done that you’ve been putting off. Chances are that when you come back your mind will be a little bit clearer, and you’ll be able to write again.

Remember, the police are there to protect you. Sometimes you can overexert yourself by writing too much. Writer’s block might just be your brain’s way of telling you to slow down. And everyone gets sick – that’s why we have an immune system.  You’ll come up with your own way of overcoming the disease.

If you’ve got any additional suggestions, I’d love to hear them! Even my own tips don’t work for me all the time, so it would be nice to hear some other people’s thoughts.

Happy writing!