Today at Erindor Press, I’m happy to bring you a guest post by J.M. Robison. It’s a great take on how to bring more depth to your villain’s personality and how to avoid some of the pitfalls well-known authors have fallen into.
Enjoy!
– Nat
The inspiration for this blog post comes from The Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind. It came about at the part where character X is kidnapped by Mistress A. Mistress A declares she will “train” X by inflicting massive pain upon him. Like any logical person, X asks her,“And what is the purpose of my training, Mistress A?”
To which she replies: “To teach you the meaning of pain. To teach you that your life is no longer yours, that it is mine, and I can do anything I want with it. Anything. I can hurt you in any way I want, for as long as I want, and no one is going to help you but me. I’m going to teach you that every moment you have without pain is a moment only I can grant you. You are going to learn to do as I say without question, without hesitation, no matter what it is. You are going to learn to beg for anything you get.” To which she also says, “I enjoy it when a man makes it hard.”