Thursday, January 26, 2012

Villains as Heroes


Are you a hero?  How about your cat?  What about your grouchy neighbor—the one who gives your kids the evil eye when they’re playing kickball in the back yard?
 
Of course you are.  And so is Fluff-ems.  And mean old Mr. Wilson.  Each of you is the hero of your own story.  You are the protagonist in your own life’s journey.

As I work on my revision of Sepia, I’ve been thinking about the hero of my story, Cara, but I've also been spending a lot of time examining the antagonists and the minor characters in my work.  Although some of them do not play large roles in this particular book, each of them has his/her own story arc—they have their own lives, with their own goals and hopes and dreams.  They are heroes, too, if we follow them through their lives.  They are the most important characters in their own stories.

My writing becomes much stronger when I remember this:  none of these characters exists solely to inhabit my novel.  They are only included because they have a role to play in Sepia—but when they are offstage, they are pursuing their goals as if the spotlight never left them.  This makes them much more vibrant and three-dimensional when they cross paths with my main characters.

I am having the most fun thinking about the antagonists of my story—my villains.  Surely, they don’t see themselves as villains!  They aren’t running around doing evil for evil’s sake.  As a matter of fact, my main villain is pretty sure she is doing a good thing for the world of Sepia—it’s just that she believes the other characters are too ignorant to understand her.  This makes the scenes between Cara and the Magistrina much more interesting to write (and, I hope, to read!)

So, how does this translate to real life?  To my days growing up with Bobby and Jeannette?  Well, when I think about the “villains” in my life, the ones I really wanted to disintegrate with one well-aimed blast of my laser-beam eyes, I realize that those villains were other kids, just like me.  They just happened to be other kids who were staring at my brother or sister. 

Did they think of themselves as “the bad guys?”  I doubt it.  They were just busy living their own lives, suddenly being confronted with the unknown.  They stared at my sibs to examine something they’d never seen before.  Some of them laughed—they had their own set of issues which I might examine in greater depth in another post—but most just stared.  And I hated them for it. 

Now that I have some perspective, I can see that they weren’t evil.  Maybe ignorant.  Maybe rude.  But not evil.  They were the heroes of their own lives, seeking out new information.  I certainly don’t agree that staring was the way to do it, but most children don’t really know any better. 

So the next time I’m confronted with a “villain” in real life, maybe I’ll try to get into their heads the way I explored my characters’ motivations in my novel.  Maybe I’ll try to figure out what their perspective is, and why they might believe that they are right to act the way they do.  Maybe Mr. Wilson the neighbor has a sick grandchild visiting, and he's worried the kickball game will disturb her.  Maybe the cat who just ripped up a new set of curtains was valiantly hunting a mosquito which snuck into the house. 

I might not agree with their approach . . . but maybe if I look at things from their perspective, I’ll understand them enough to find new ways to improve our interactions. 

Although these days, I might be tempted to pull out my laptop and plot out an interesting scene which escalates the confrontation and results in a dramatic and exciting conclusion, completely vindicating our hero, yours truly!  (Isn’t writing wonderfully therapeutic?)

Carry on, friends.  You are all heroes.

No comments:

Post a Comment