Pet peeves of the pen…predictability...

Oh - the predictable pen, how I dislike thee!

Let me assure you, I am not suggesting that a book must be a mystery wrapped in a bewildering enigma. Starting a novel and knowing that it has a happy ending, for instance, probably creates more predictability. However, every scene, choice, and relationship along the way need not be. If I always know what will happen next, I lose interest in turning another page. Maybe it is because I prefer to be surprised, or at least desire books to need effort in solving the plot steps of the story! If I am led to believe that a plot is going in one direction, but deviates instead to another...I like it all the more. The "Whoa! I did NOT see that one coming," effect is appealing. (Unless it is unbelievable (another pet peeve I will be hitting on sooner than later), then I just feel like I have wasted the previous hours in the pages of nonsense!)

I believe the preference to being surprised is because life is full of them. When is life ever predictable? I highly doubt that you cleared your schedule in preparation for a week of bed rest the last time you got the flu. Or, reflecting on a previous post about writing kid antics, I would never have left my eldest create quietly in her bedroom after that day's nap had I known what would await me upon opening the door! So, when you write - please be creative and avoid the cliche and predictable choices for your characters, scenes, and plot! :)

Don't be like Mr. Blue, who kept putting his head in toilets - be it in a real one or the doll house's commode!

Pet peeves of the pen - the one dimensional villain...

As for today's pet peeve - the one dimensional villain rant, beginning now…

I am talking about the villains who are created to fully and wholly despise.  For clarification, I am not referring to the "bad" characters or even the horrible ones, those who perform the most heinous of deeds. I am talking about the villains who are completely devoid of anything other than evil - they are created to hate. At every bend in the road, they choose to proceed in ways that infuriate the reader/viewer. There is no reasoning behind their negative choices, no past events leading to their decisions or actions, and absolutely nothing that gives viewers/readers any reason to empathize with them. At. All. Perhaps a character isn't redeemable in the story, but all I am asking is to give us something to unveil their humanity, making them difficult to completely hate!

The flip side of this pet peeve is something that I truly admire in a writer - the ability to take a villain and humanize them to the point that I am conflicted about who I want to "win" in the story's scenario. When the hero prevails and I sympathize with the villain's loss, I know the author has created a very three dimensional character!

I have to admit - I don't create many "villains" in my stories. Most of this has to do with the protagonist being their own antagonist (character against self, for all of you who may not have had these terms reviewed via their middle schoolers in the recent years!). All the same, when I do write them, I try my best to sketch humanity behind their darkened eyes.

"Mr. Blue" - one of our mischievous Christmas nutcrackers - is considered to be the "villain" of the bunch, but with antics like getting stuck in the same tape he was using to secure his buddies to the wall…we can't help but feel a bit sorry for him when…

He ends up in Christmas jail!

Happy first of December!