The BSN writers club

Bollox!

You can't be a great writer unless you are 'crazy, a drunkard, have no money, have too much money, your life is blasted with tragedy, you must have a gambling problem, you must have worked in a blacking factory as a child, you must have been imprisoned in a work camp.'

I'm slightly scared, but also intrigued.

Probably starting novel 2 this weekend.

Actually its funny you should menton that because it is one of the reasons I am doing this like this.    Since I am editing book 1 with my fiancee, and since her time is limited, I will start writing book 2 to ultimatley make the production of both books that much faster.  And since I am on Patreon and certainly trying to release weekly chapters that does demand I have content already in the pipeline to start writing, editing, and then posting.  I don't think people normally write books this way, but I'm also itchy to actually write again.

Some of my stuff?

Sure. I'm fishing for views anyway, and my early work was actually better than the stuff I'm not sure I dare post.

www.fanfiction.net/s/10306956/1/Migrant-Fleet-Marine

I have some fanfiction here: Dragon Age stuff

My writing group produced a fantasy/sci-fi short story anthology, which is available in free ebook format here: New Beginnings, produced by DragonScript

Currently working on the second one. Actually currently driving myself batty because I procrastinated too long, and now I'm in a time crunch so my writing is a non-stop bender during almost all of my free time right now.

I don't recommend doing that, by the way. LOL

Im gonna have a completely unnecessary and entirely illogical rant about antagonists because idk reasons


I think that far too many books, movies, games etc have very very bad antagonists, sooooo im gonna say some things that I feel dont make good antagonists and what really bothers me about when people write them badly

So things I think dont make good antagonists


Non-Sentient Antagonists: I mean things like weather, natural disasters, zombies, diseases... it isnt that these are things which cant be done well, but its just that I dont feel as if theyre good antagonistic things. My first problem is that they have absolutely no personal connection to the protagonist(s), and that they are mostly always passive. They cant really react to anything the protagonist does, or be usually solved. They just ARE. And most have become REALLY overdone. Not only that, but the threat of those things is generally poor. What I mean by that is death is usually the worst thing that can really happen, and millions/billions have ALREADY died. It devalues the threat to the characters when death happens so often and thats generally the worst thing that can happen. And it doesnt help things where characters are known to die in these things, and it often means that people wont get emotionally invested.

Destroying The World/Galaxy/Universe/Whatever: In sci-fi on a galactic or universal scale destroying a planet can be alright (well...), but when you have an antagonist/villain who wants to destroy the world that they live on for whatever reason, it creates a false sense of tension and escalation. It just doesnt WORK. Not only is it a cliché thing for an antagonist to do but no matter what you cant really have the world being destroyed. No matter whether the antagonist or the protagonist is victorious in whatever they want to do, reaching a satisfying conclusion either way is kinda the goal, even if it ends on a cliff-hanger. The problem is that theres no satisfying conclusion if an antagonist destroys the world/galaxy/whatever when thats where all the story is set. Not unless whatever is destroyed is part of a larger whole, but still, cliché.

The Creep: Ok, what I mean by this is when authors/writers/developers whatever design an antagonist, and then add something to play on peoples (or SOME peoples) idea of ew like incest or homoerotic stuff, or if theyre a guy they might make the antagonist very feminine, or if its a girl they might make her very masculine. Having disabled antagonists is also an example of this. My problem is that it plays on what people find unusual, and often exploits it in an unfair way. Even a semi-decent antagonist doesnt need any of those things, and its a sign of a bad writer AND a bad antagonist when theyre resorted to. I have no problem with a disabled person, as an example, being a villain. None at all. Its fair in a way that everyone can be shown to be antagonists, because like... everyone is an antagonist in the eyes of someone else in some way. But you kinda have to ask whether its necessary for a character, whether it adds anything to the narrative, or if its just trying to manipulate peoples emotions and dislike for the unusual in a way. Iirc there have been some directors/writers (cant remember exactly) that have admitted to doing this, but I think its just kinda stupid.

The Stupid Plan: Lots of antagonists recently/generally have TERRIBLE goals, and even worse ways of achieving them. *cough* Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman *cough*
My problem is: Long, convoluted plans which rely entirely on luck isnt something ANYONE is gonna do. And when I see antagonists with these stupid plans which really wouldnt/doesnt work, I think 2 things: 1. The whatever entertainment media is happens to be is poorly written and 2. Theyve obviously focused all their attention on the protagonists and forgot about the antagonist which is as equally important narratively.

The Stupid Logic: Kinda linked. There are lots of antagonists who are evil because theyre evil and thats... kinda it. In The Flash, the Reverse-Flash says that he once loved The Flash and wanted to be him, then became a speedster and saw into his future where he was The Flashs greatest enemy, so... decided to become the reverse of him??? Something like that. As much as I LOVE the Reverse Flash and think hes awesome in the tv show, his reasons for doing everything he does is TERRIBLE. As another example: In suicide squad, Enchantress says something like "the humans no longer worship us, they worship machines. So ill build a machine to destroy them all" BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE, YUP. GOOD LOGIC.
My point is that antagonists are often the protagonists of their own stories, no matter what they do to try and justify themselves. But theres a point where the justification makes no sense, and its a writing issue, basically.


I guess my overarching point is that antagonists should be treated like a second protagonist, just opposing the first one. They need a sense of progression and their own subplots to really shine in my opinion. Too many people are lazy in writing their antagonists and/or villains and it ALWAYS bothers me.


Erm, probably to be continued at some point...

You forgot one that drives me crazy:

The Hero:
This antagonist is superior to the protagonist in every way, but falls apart at the final confrontation or something like that. The protagonist wins out due to plot armor or raw luck.

As with everything it seems it does not matter the idea, but the execution that matters.  Because, in general, it seems you have a pretty good list but there are some great examples of, for instance, 'the weather' or zombies being used as effective antagonists and some, are not.

So I will not be able to start novel 2 this weekend afterall. But, now that I have gone over all my notes...at least skimming it...I will be able to do so on Wednesday..I'm nervous.

Well, I had to cut off chapter 2 at 3.5K words. I have too much ground to cover yet, and the Mage barely made his appearance. there was a natural break.

I managed to get the grammar cleaned up to at least readable, but I need to re-edit. I like some of it, but I chanced a couple of pieces of “naked” dialogue because someone critiqued my earlier piece saying that I overuse the descriptions equivalent to “she said it that way” and it slows the exchange down.

Personally, I do not like the bits of non framed dialogues, they look very amateurish to me in anything but a play, but I am not sure. Well, if the critique comes back with multiple “you need to show, not tell” , I will break up those two exchanges and case them in the characters action and expressions, etc.