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I’m all in favored of the tortured, haunted, even monstrous, hero. Let him have a bloody past, terrible urges, even a streak of demon. But I do have a limit how dark I can tolerate my Dark Heroes.

Occasionally, I come across a hero or heroine that simply crosses the line from sexy wickedto ewww-yuck-wicked.

For example, I read a Paranormal Romancewith the premise of a Romeo and Juliet story about a werewolf woman in love with a vampire hottie. Awesome. Right?!

Opening scene: she hunts and kil...

What are monsters? Why do we write about them, instead of about more “realistic�� villains? And how can we write well about these terrible creatures?

This book helps authors grapple with these questions. gives examples from books and films; at archetypes of mythical monsters; at the “real�� monsters of our world; at cryptids; and finally at cursed and dangerous things which, though inanimate, can be so threatening or personified that they play the role of monsters in our storie...

(Note: British English.)

I like characters with weaknesses, because they’re like real people, and their flaws make the story vivid. What would Charles Dicken’s tale ‘A Christmas Carol�� be without the sour stinginess of Scrooge, or Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice�� without Mr Darcy’s boorish arrogance?

Unlike those dull characters who are already perfect at the novel’s start, flawed heroes need to learn lessons, often difficult and painful ones. They have to wrestle their weaknesses, make ha...

When you’re describing emotions, do you ever think about their temperature? According to the Atlantic,“A, suggests that our emotions do indeed tend to influence our bodies in consistent ways.�� The temperatures that people report do no reflect physiological changes (or at least none as dramatic as the maps suggest), but they do seem to reflect psychological experiences that transcend cultur...

Rayne Hall writes excellent Horror and Dark Fantasy�� and her ability to craft deliciously evil villains accounts for many of the shivers she delivers. In , in her usual no-nonsense style, she uses Archetypes to explain the motives of different kinds of archetypal villains. Then sheexplains exactly how to individualize and flesh out your villain, so he or she is more than a stereotype.

She explains whatdescriptive details about villains activatethe mostprimitive, subconsc...

In the old melodramas, you had a simple dynamic: Villain vs. Good Guy. Generally, all the characters were pretty flat. Sometimes, however, the villains came off seeming�� well, just a bit more awesome. They often seemed smarter than the purported Hero, had a better sense of humor, and sometimes even seemed to be fighting for a more appealing cause.

If your villain is more appealing than your hero, that’s a problem. There are three ways to deal with it:

1. Make your hero more rounded and reali...

The Theme for July will be Villains & Anti-Heroes.

I’ll recommend some books on Writing Craft to help you create chilling villains and monsters. I’m also going to recommend two non-fiction books, which admittedly might be more difficult and dense than some writers are willing to delve into, but my point is to remind you that if you really want to write about scary people, the best place to find them is in the actual historical record of the human race.

When I’ve had too much of reality, I open a book. I love the delightfully escapist nature of Fantasy and Romance. This escapist quality was what saved my life.

For me growing up, books weren’t just an enjoyable pastime. They were my vehicle for escape. My childhood bully lived next door to us. I didn’t dare step outside in case he was there to torment me. He was my age, went to the same school, the same church, the same grocery store. It’s like the greasy tentacles of his presence invaded nea...

Staurt Horwitz in his book Book Architecture makes the case for using Reiterations to create structure for a novel without tying yourself to a linear outline. Especially if you’re writing a literary book, a book with multiple viewpoint characters or multiple timelines, this method is gold.

Horwitz is weak on one point where Coyne is strong, however: Genre specific advice.

But how about if one combined Coyne’s and Horwitz’s methods?

I’m going to take my list of Obligatory Scenes for Romance, i...

orients aspiring Romance writers toward Mills & Boon’s guidelines for their numerous “lines�� of subgenera. This might make it a strange book for me to recommend, since I encourage up-and-coming writers–especially for Romance–to consider going Indie.

Nonetheless, studying Publisher Guidelines for Romance Subgenera is a wise move, especially if you’re just starting out. One of the problems Indie writers run into is a failure to refine their focus t...