How To Build A Better Villainess

The female hero can be tough, brainy, powerful, plain, pretty, big, or small. She can be a female Dresden where love never quite works out, or make her man prove himself worthy before she accepts his love. Female heroes have substance and kick all kinds of ass. On the other hand we have the female villains that are so clichéd that most authors won't touch them. So how do we build a better villainess? First, we strip her down to the bare bones. If we remove all the specific details and focus on what motivates the female villain then, there are three traditional types:

1. The Covetous Type

Now, there are covetous male villains, but when it's one of only three types then it is way more noticeable in the female villains. And it is almost always about the superficial: a certain "perfect" guy, another female's physical appearance, or social position. These villains aren't gold diggers, they genuinely think life would be perfect if only they had what they want. Money rarely enters into their thinking. They are usually very shallow and vain individuals. Oh, and stupid but this is a giant problem with all most female characters.

The Fix
Coveting is all about hating your life. Show why the villainess covets, a Cinderella style life but instead of Cinderella being a sweet girl hero, have her be the villain and the hero or heroine be people who never notice how hard her life is. They don't have to be mean to her, but just have a perfect life and be oblivious to her suffering.

2. The Mean Girl/Vengeful Female

The mean girl likes to put people down for fun. While the vengeful villainess wants to get back at people for some petty slight. He loved you more than me; I'm going to make your life hell. You didn't give me the proper respect so, I curse you. My biggest pet peeve about these villains is how unsympathetic they are. Guys get to be vengeful for anything under the sun: illness, criminal behavior, being slighted, being tormented, or simply being replaced. And honestly, vengeance is motivation for both hero and villain in the male arena. Is the need for vengeance unfeminine? Is that the reason the motivation has to be ultra feminized--i.e. being attractive to a man; getting a man. Vengence is great motivation for a villain no matter the sex.

The Fix
There are horrible things that happen to only women, and they are never touched as part of a traditional narrative. What if the Frog Prince isn't cursed over something petty, what if the witch was righteous in her vengeance--how does that change the narrative. Female heroes and villains both need to run with the vengeance is mine. Anger, hate, rage are forces that can pull down empires and fuel heinous acts. Whys should the guys have all the fun?

3. The Crazy Woman

No rhyme or reason for what she does, she can eat children or just steal them as payment. She usually has a break down and no motivation behind her actions at all. She can obsessive, self-destructive, manipulative, cunning, but she is always crazy. Female hysteria has had its day. Mental illness is a good motivation for a villain, but it has to be researched and follow the guidelines of that illness.

The Fix
She can't just be crazy. And this is true for any mentally ill villain, there is no crazy any more. Does she hear voices? What kind and who? Mental illness has a rhythm. Bipolar, PTSD, and Schizophrenia all can have temporary breaks with reality, but they have different triggers and symptoms. Don't be lazy. One of my favorite shows, Law and Order: SVU has actually done a couple of really great female villains, the child psychopath and the Muchausen by proxy mother are particularly memorable.

So that's all the villain choices we have traditionally, but it is a new era and time for the story to change. So I propose a few more categories that are traditionally male but women could really rock.

The Zealot

• The female freedom fighter who does terrible things in the name of freeing her country.
• The eco-terrorist who targets farms in the Amazon and manipulates the media.
• The politician who manipulates the fear of the public to keep them safely under her rule.
• The ring leader of a group who cannot stand non-conformity and tell about the lengths she goes to keep everyone in line and how she punishes those who break the rules.
• The hacker that will expose the tainted underbelly of the government, only to be shown that modern society doesn't want to know, and what she does after she escapes from prison.
• The religious/cult leader who is utterly convincing in theology but ruthless and insane in practice

The Sympathetic villain

• The female who would do anything to keep her family safe.
• The witch who really is justified in her revenge.
• The sellsword who hates everyone and is justified in that hatred.
• The mercenary female that takes a building hostage just to rob state secrets.
• The ugly woman who loves being ugly, and finally snaps on the hero that can't abide her ugliness.
• The gorgeous woman who knows she's gorgeous and takes revenge on a world that tells her she's ugly.
• The female mobster that is both kick ass and smart.

The Ruthless One

• The information broker that knows all and will sell all for a price.
• The anarchist who wants the world to burn.
• The female judge who is a complete and utter hard ass because people think she'll be soft because she's a woman.
• The female doctor that manipulates the criminally insane to plague the hero.
• The female sociopath who manipulates and kills because people are mindless dolls for her to play with.
• The animal torturer who just wants to hear bones break.

Building a better villainess is all about building a character that just happens to be a villain. No one acts without motivation, and the best thing to keep in mind is anyone at any time can be a villain to another person. Imagine the devil/angel scenario, the villain can make the devil choice on most of her decisions, or just on really important one. While the hero is on the sides of the angel most of the time or just once. In Deadpool, Colossus says a person has 3 or 4 chances to be a hero. So, too can a villain or villainess.

I love villains, but I'm always disappointed in villainesses. The narrative is slowly changing with television and movies, but books have got to get with it. Women need to move out from the sidekick and tag-along role especially on the antagonistic side. It's time for the curtain to be pulled back to reveal a fully fleshed out woman in the driver's seat with her own journey and story that is determined to make this trip to OZ Dorothy's last.

Lingerie Wars by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

This book is a five star read. It isn't a classic or groundbreaking, it is just damned good. Henderson knows what she is doing and does it well.

Rating

I bought this when it was offered for free on Kindle, but I would have actually paid the 4 bucks it's asking now if I had known how good it was. That is my highest compliment, I would have paid money. I'm the Queen of Freebies, especially when it comes to books. I'm on two different mailing lists for free e-books, and I manually search myself when they are giving me links to stuff I already own. But back to the book

Synopsis: Logan is a British military man, purr. He has dedicated his life to leaving his hippie upbringing behind him, but when his sister makes a muck of the knicker store he bought for her it's big brother to the rescue, yet again. Kirsty is a model with a tragic past, who comes back to her hometown to heal and lick her wounds. She tries to make her living at the only thing she knows--lingerie. There's only room for one lingerie store in the little town of Inventary. It's England vs Scotland in this Lingerie War.

World: The best part of this book is the world. The little Scottish town of Invertary contains quirky characters, beautiful vistas, and lots of love. There is an underwear gnome, a house breaking group of knitters, and of course Logan and Kirsty.

Pacing:The correct mix of humorous scenes, emotional angst, tension filled climax, and emotional growth. I devoured it because one thing seamlessly blended into the other with no obvious page filler.

Characters: You will fall in love with everyone, except maybe Logan's parents and the bad guy. I want to know more about them I want to read the second book. Rainbow was my biggest annoyance, but I have a feeling in the second book I will grow to love her.

Writing As the old saying goes, "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." Getting a comedic instance to read as funny to someone who has to visualize it takes talent. Henderson has that talent. Her emotional scenes ring true, and her characters are actual people not just character sketches.

Plot Not a unique one by any means, lovers at cross purposes. But even the multi-layered climax doesn't read as a set up, instead it is just a bunch of unique elements that blended together to make a tragedy. Hopefully, I'm not giving too much away, because this books is worth the read.

The Good: Hmm, everything.

The Bad: Rainbow and the villain, but even they serve their respective purposes and don't seem to be unnecessary.

Recommendations

One for The Money by Janet Evanovich

Now, I know Stephanie Plum has gotten a bad rap, and some of it is warranted but not in the first books. The first books are laugh out loud funny with interesting situations. If you've never picked up and read one I highly recommend them. Stephanie is sarcastic, loving, and lovable. Ranger is smoking hot, and Morelli is the bad boy grown to be a good man. And the supporting characters are quirky and cute.

Love, Lies & High Heels by Debby Conrad

Rusty is a rich girl that bounces around the world going from adventure to adventure. Until her dad lets her know he's dying. Luke is foreman of Sam's ranch and his best friend. So when Sam asks him to lie to his estranged daughter Luke goes along with it. Little do they both know that the old man is playing them like a fiddle. Sam's scheme will give them both what they have been looking for without knowing it: a home and someone to come home to. If that is they don't end up killing each other first. Oh, and to sweeten the deal this book is available FREE on Kindle.

All of Me by Leanna Morgan

Rating

Synopsis: What do you do when you want to hide away from life? Apparently, move to Bozeman, Montana--a la Sheldon Cooper. Tess is running from a tragic past, and so is Logan. Will they find peace together or will their inner demons deny them happiness. In helping others, they find hope. Is it enough?

Plot: Tess is a café owner and baker who doesn't like reporters. Logan is a reporter running from post traumatic stress disorder, literally at 4 in the morning every morning. They come together to help out a bride and groom in crisis. They find help with the wedding and much more.

Pacing: It dragged a little at the end, but it was mostly set up for the next several books.

Characters: Everyone was unique and likeable, but the book had a big cast so it was hard keeping track of everyone. It was easiest to identify everybody at the end when the sequels were being set up.

Writing: Average as far as romance novels go, the comedic timing wasn't great, there were no quotable moments from the authors or the characters, but it wasn't full of annoying slang or repetitive words either. Written in third person, so a generic informative author voice is expected.

World: Bozeman, Montana modern day but could have been anywhere.

The Good: Writing, Characters, the food descriptions made my mouth water, it was a cute story, and it was FREE on Amazon, for Kindle right now.

The Bad: Not that much action but it didn't really need that much, and too many subplots tried to make up for the lack of a cohesive main plot.

Recommendations:

Trouble in High Heels by Christina Dodd

She writes a consistently good story. Her characters are very much like Logan and Tess, good vanilla people. I always know I'll enjoy the book when I see her name. She writes mainly historical romance, but this one is modern with great main characters.

Double Trouble by Deborah Cooke

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Not as well known of a name, but if you like the style of comedy in this book, you'll like her. She writes funny, quirky stories with heartwarming overtones. Above all, this book is Free on Amazon, for the Kindle.

My top 10 advice for Writers

I'm very proud to be a beta reader, and I would love to tell you about my fabulous authors who I love dearly if you had a couple of hours. Instead, I'll share some advice I've given them that I think all writers can benefit from.

  

1. Be Brave. In your novel, you're God. Don't hesitate to hurt your hero: make her miserable, make her crawl, make her fail, and make her bleed.

    Writing Prompt
Think of the worst possible scenerio, the hero alienates her allies or gets separated from them, the love of her life is killed, and then she dies. Now write it. Kill her over and over again until you no longer feel bad about hurting her.

 

2. Focus on plot.Write out your plot using the establishment of character, inciting incident, advancing action, climax, declining action and denouement graph format. One scene at each point, then fill in the rest of the scenes. If it doesn't fit in the graph or your graph looks lopsided then something needs to be deleted. This is important even if you are going to do multiple books. Each book must contain all the elements of plot, and the series is tied together by loose ends and subplots. Subplots follow the same pattern but must be stretched over multiple books.

Writing Prompt
Create a story using a single five word sentence. This will teach you brevity.

 

3. Research is your friend. Research doesn't have to be all boring statistics, or reading history books. Try to learn new things just so you can be accurate, like sword fighting or horseback riding. Read books that relate to your subject, not just genre fiction.

 

Writing Prompt
Part One: Write a descriptive scene of something you are already familiar with: cooking, writing, art, playing a sport, etc. Be sure to include all the five senses as well as feelings you have. Part Two: Read a book about the thing you experienced first hand. The book could be a biography of a famous chef, a history of football, or a philosophical discussion on the importance of art. Part Three: Brainstorm all the ways you can possibly use the research.

 

4. Follow your heart not trends. You don't have to write in a certain genre just because it is popular. E.L. James started writing with fan fiction. J.D. Robb was a best selling romance author. Their hearts guided them to new places, and they found success.

  Writing Prompt
Many story ideas can be taken in different directions. Take a classic fairy tale break it down and spin it in a new direction. An example: A cursed girl awakens with the arrival of a boy, but he doesn't know she was cursed with good reason.

 

5. Know your characters and world. Not just their physical characteristics, but what makes them tick. And yes, I'm including the world in the previous statement. It's not just enough to know where everything is at. You have to know what makes Winterfell differ from King's Landing.
No place is generic, what Tokyo and Western North Carolina look like, sound like, and feel like in the dark when no one is around are what make those places live in the readers memory. Even the rural Appalachian areas of West Virginia and Georgia have their own characteristics, their own cultures, and we know if you know them.

Writing Prompt
Your main character has landed in a new world, and a character from that world has taken her place. Write a world you know. I was thinking a swap with Eugene from the Walking Dead, Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, or Regina from Once upon a time could be interesting. Take a character totally opposite of yours. How do they survive in your world, interact with your other characters, and then flip it and make their world and characters react to your lead. If there are no conflicts weaving these other characters into the story or adapting them to the world then you need more definition. Regina is awesome but she'd scare the living daylights out of Peta. The touching berry scene would be her forcing him to eat the berries, so she could go home. Katniss would blend in easily in the Enchanted Forrest, but she would have problems adapting to the rest of Regina's life.

Characters, relationships, and worlds are cogs in a story, replace one cog with a different one and you could bring the machine grinding to a halt.

 

6. Action, action, read all about it. What is pivotal to the story and what is unnecessary? Vonnegut said "A sentence must do one of two things--reveal character or advance the action." An example: He didn't want to be a wizard, tells the reader nothing. Versus: Wizards were charlatans and thieves who preyed on the weak minded. This sentence sets up the world and the main character's viewpoint. Be definitive. Don't say a character is cursed, show me that she can't even form a lasting relationship with a half-dead, blind, three legged mutt without it being stolen in the night by her enemies. Make me cry over that dog.

Writing Prompt
Write a love story that has no dialogue--internal or otherwise. Chance Meeting, First Date, First Kiss, First Moment they fell in love, Being in Love, and Living Happily Ever After. How does one convey emotion without saying a word or having a voice over? Up did it perfectly and Wall-E could only say his name.

7. Why are you repeating yourself? Forget restating anything from emotional landscape to qualifications. Readers get tired of repetition quicker than anything else, whether it's a word, an emotional conflict, or the same sequence of solving the main problems in the series. This happens to seasoned authors as well as novices. Next time, the repeat seems to be on try this exercise.

Writing Prompt
The repeated sentence: John is a dog. Describe John's life without saying he's a dog. Use the thesaurus to describe the brindled lethargic canine. Write John's internal dialogue: how does he view his human? does he have a human? does he have pack mates? Are they dogs too or is it an assortment of animals? Play with John's point of view and narrative voice: have him be dumb and lovable, sarcastic and witty, submissive/dominant, gullible/curious or absolutely apathetic. Explore John and all the ways you can describe and expound on his mongrel ways. Now do this with whatever you are repeating, something will shake loose the repeat button.

8. Be Realistic Your story could be about cat people from the planet Zoobe, and you would still have to be a realist. There are always rules. Gravity, government, religion, physics, or culture we are surrounded by rules. This goes hand and hand with world building, but it also brings in causality. How A affects B is just as important as customs. Which animal are they like: Tiger, Lion, Cheetah, Lynx or house cat. Each cat is different in social structure, hunting technique, mating rituals, and habitat. This also ties in to research, but you must go beyond that to come up with the rules, and you must never break them. If the cat people are like Lynx, they can't magically survive in a harsh dessert environment. That is what creates conflict and conflict are what makes stories great. Hey, gravity is a rule, but the stories of the people who dare to defy it and the consequences to themselves and our world make for great watching--Apollo 11, Gravity, and The Martian.

Writing Prompt
Write the rules. Option 1: Have another person write a story following all of your rules, and showing the consequences of following them or trying to break them.
Option 2: Write a story with multiple characters breaking a cardinal rule, and show the consequences. You could have a pair be punished as severely as possible, have another think they have escaped the consequences only to have their decision come back to haunt them, and have one bend the rules in a way that has lasting effects.

9. Be critical or at least listen to your critics. There are haters, and then there are critics--do not confuse the two. Haters have nothing to say, while critics have taken the time to dissect your writing. Just because you don't want to listen to your critics doesn't mean you wouldn't benefit from allowing them to rip your writing to shreds. Is your female lead a good role model? Was she supposed to be? If so, here's where she failed utterly, and maybe she should seek counseling rather than a boyfriend or husband. And that's not really being a hater. I can think of several authors who are world famous who need this advice. I'm not naming names but, they are publicly known for disliking any sort of criticism on their books. All criticism is "haters" to them and their books suffer because of it.

Writing Exercise
Write down every criticism you can. Post anonymously to a writing forum, ask a reader's opinion, and send off that story you have been keeping close to your vest. Ask for honest feedback. Anything from: it just didn't hold my interest to the main character has no redeeming qualities can make your writing better. Remember the five keys: Pacing, Plot, World, Character, and Writing. Any of these can be fixed if you can see that there is a problem in the first place.

10. Everyone who writes should have a text to speech program.This is priceless advice that my college professor said I would benefit from, and I've shared it with several of my authors. Being able to hear what you have written helps with sentence flow, missing words, and sentence agreement. Spellcheck doesn't fix what it doesn't know is broken. He and the are both words, but they are not anywhere close to the same word.

Writing Exercise
This needs to be done on a document at least 5 pages in length to be really noticeable. First read the document aloud, fix anything you notice. Then feed it into a text to speech program, I've used several free programs over the years. The program must have adjustable setting so you can control the speed of the speech, an area where you can copy and paste to, and must hold its place in the document if you have to pause the recital. Most will be able to handle a chapter, but not a book. You don't want to listen to your whole book, anyway. You'll follow along reading as the program is speaking, that's why the variable speed is important. You want to be able to hear and read the word at the same pace--trust me. As you listen to the machine, you'll notice hesitations some will be the machine, but some will be awkward wording. This is especially good to catch non-agreement. You may correct the word in your head, but the machine reads what is on the paper.

Did my advice help? Did you notice anything that I missed? Drop me a line or comment below.

Biscuits

Now, biscuits mean a different thing to a Southern girl than they would to an English lady. But I say they are still the perfect book snack. You can open them up and fill them like sandwiches, crack them in two and eat the top and bottom separate with jam, or just eat them with a little smear of butter.

I'm not much for the canned kind and see no point in the mixes. My recipe is so cheap and easy anybody can make them. These are called drop biscuits there is no rolling out the dough, flouring it or cutting. You're just plopping dough on a cookie sheet, but the results--Heavenly.

You'll need
A large mixing bowl
A cookie sheet
Cooking spray
Vegetable oil or any oil you want to use
A milk product, I use evaporated milk because it can live in the pantry
Self rising flour
Cold water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and spray the cookie sheet with the cooking spray. 

Then in the mixing bowl, add the flour. The ratio is 3:1 flour to milk product. I like three cups, but you can easily double or triple that as long as you keep the ratio in mind.

Add to that your milk product, I've used a cup of evaporated milk. But any milk product that has fat in it will work. Traditionally, the milk product is buttermilk, but I've found that the taste doesn't justify spending money on a quart that will sour after a week. I've also used almond milk, powdered milk, and whole milk. All of the biscuits turned out the same.

 

After adding the milk product begin stirring the mix. I like using a large table spoon. Some people like mixing by hand after all the ingredients are in the bowl. I like adding the cold water a little at a time as I mix because in North Carolina the humidity makes a big difference in the amount I use.

The batter should be sticky, but not wet. It should want to come away from the walls.

 

The trick to a great tasting biscuit is fat. Now, lard is how my grandma made them. I've chunked up cold margarine, but my favorite quick and easy way to add fat to the biscuits is adding oil to the batter.  I use vegetable oil because that's what I have on hand, but any oil will do. Add a tablespoon or two coat the top of the dough. 

The batter should have a gloss from the oil, but there shouldn't be excess oil in the bowl.

 

The batter is ready to be portioned out. Coat a tablespoon or teaspoon with oil or the cooking spray. And scoop out the batter with the spoon onto the cookie sheet.  Whenever the batter starts to stick to the spoon apply more oil. 

If using a teaspoon scoop three times, if using a tablespoon scoop once, for good sized biscuits. The biscuits should be two to three inches apart. And the dough should render twelve biscuits. But I like mine big so I use two tablespoons per biscuit, but I usually only get six giant biscuits to a batch. Experiment with the size until you get results you are looking for. 

Bake for 35 minutes, then broil for a minute. I like them crunchy and golden brown. Now, Momma Nancy sets her timer to 30 minutes, but she likes hers to be soft enough to crumble. She still browns the tops for a minute. So, try both ways and see which one you like best. And to make them look extra pretty brush a bit of oil or melted butter on top after you pull them from the oven.

Now, a lot of recipes tell you to let your baked goods cool. Not so, my biscuits. You get that plate, filling and knife ready. So you can slice a big beautiful biscuit right down the middle, smear your choice of filling either savory or sweet on both sides, and then pop it right on your plate while it's still hot. It's called the perks of being the chef.

15 ways to save money on books

 

If you are like me paying retail prices for books would soon lead to sitting on a street corner homeless with a massive stack of books. Now, don't get me wrong I do occasionally splurge. But the days of spending all my money at the bookstore stopped when I started being an adult. So, how do I keep myself in reading materials without breaking the bank?  Here are fifteen ways I save money while still keeping me in reading material.

15. Amazon has a lending program where your friends can give you a two week loan of books that are in their library.

14. Flea Markets are often an unexpected source for books. Sometimes people are there for the weekend, yard sale style, or they can have a used bookstore they open every weekend. You can often develop a relationship with the vendor and have them keep you in mind while they are hunting books.

13. Friends and family always offer a chance for a freebie. Never underestimate the power of letting people know about your passion. This is a great tip for networking in general, but it is also a good way to score books. I don't know how many times I've been given books because people know I'm a reader.

12. Internet groups can be an alternative if you live away from people, don't have friends that read or, the horror, friends that don't read your style of books. These are hit or miss as far as scoring books, but you could come out with a friend or two at least.

11. E-readers can save you money on books in the long run. I have the basic Kindle, no bells and whistles, and I paid 75 bucks taxes and all. I have yet to pay money for an eBook.

10.Copyright free ebooks are available at most large online book sellers for free, but there are also sites specifically dedicated to the them like Project Gutenburg.
 

9. EBook clubs like Pixel of Ink and Bookbub offer greatly discounted and FREE ebooks that you can download from Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Smashbooks, and others.
 

8. The Library is still a great place to acquire books to read, some including mine have eBook lending where you can download a loaned copy of the book. You can also request specific books. Libraries often have a system where they can have a requested book sent from another library. And if you hang out there instead of a coffee shop, you can even influence what kind of books get purchased.

7. Bookworm friends can significantly reduce the cost of supporting your reading habit. My friends and I did a book exchange every couple of weeks for a whole summer. We would bring books we didn't want and go through each other's library for books to borrow. Plus an excuse to get together talk books and hang out.

6. Book Mooch and Paperback Swap offers books at the cost of shipping or at a reduced price. Great place to get rid of multiple copies.
 

5. Online book sellers offer free ebooks. Just do a keyword search, "free Nook books" at bandn.com for example.
 

4. Thrift stores are a great place to find reduced books. Think of it more as a treasure hunt than a milk run. You will find gems, but there will be times you have to settle or leave entirely empty handed.
 

3. Being a test reader can get you books, and you can even influence how it comes together before it goes to print. Alpha testers have to deal with copy editing issues like grammar. Beta testers have to read for overall flow. And always a plus you can build a relationship with authors.
 

2. Used book stores are a great place to get reduced books; most used book stores have a resell program that allows you to sell books for store credit. They pick out what they want, so be prepared to comeback with at least one book. I like the clearance shelves, but I always browse to see if any of my authors' latest books have made their way there.
 

1. Yard Sales are my favorite place to get books. They are more of a gamble than thrift stores. But, you can haggle and most sellers just want to get rid of them.

I'm always looking for new ways to get books on the cheap. Do you have a method I don't know about? What's your best find? Did I teach you a new method?  Comment below.