Facts that inspire your story

[yummy]

I'm not from the US, so I don't really know about this. I read some time ago that someone on this forum had to go into a juvenile boot camp.
Sometimes, things that happen in reality inspire your story so that you can get ideas on how to make your heroes suffer.
I've read this article from CNN.

Actually, I find this fact quite fascinating not because of the "bad guy" actions but rather his personnality.

How do you people tend to create evil roles in your novels (if you have one) ?

[sake-bento]

I think all of my characters have some facet of my personality inside of them. Even if it's just a small thing here or there, I find it very difficult to write a character that I can't share at least some similarity with. For the "bad" characters, that just means creating someone who has less self restraint than I do. As I am, in fact, human, there are many terrible and selfish things that I am tempted to do. Usually, I refrain for moral reasons or (on a less holy note) fear of the consequences. The bad guys I write have looser morals, or no fear of the consequences (or they even desire the consequences), so they do all the things I'm tempted to.

[Koveras]

I usually don't have evil (as in "evil evil") characters in my stories, just ones who have different goals, which I don't rate on good vs. evil scale. Not in the text, that is. For my conspiracy theory project, however, I'm gathering ideas from the real world history and politics. ^^;

[LVUER]

Well... there are lots kinds of evil out there (in a story I mean). Ranging from:
- The usual purely evil guy, knows only universe destruction and only want to know how to kill the good guys.
- The still evil but has strong and good reason to do it evil guy.
- The not so evil, only misunderstanding evil guy.
- Evil, only when seen from good guy POV but not when seen from others POV.
- And many, many others.

Depending on the story, the evilness could vary and some will fit better than others. Like when you make children story, you'll want to make the evil guy is destroying the world without a reason evil type and must be destroyed with all cost (there is a clear black/white). Since if not, kids could be confused. But if you make a war/politic story, perhaps there is no pure evil guy, since enemy is a relative term (yesterday enemy is today ally, today ally is tomorrow enemy).

[sake-bento]

I find the "evil evil" types incredibly hard to work with because they're usually not believable. The reader needs to have some sort of belief that the evil person has a very good reason for the things he is doing. It takes a lot of extra effort to make the "evil evil" type seem like a real person. The only example I can think of where I really bought into the character is The Joker from the recent movie The Dark Knight.

[lucy]

Well... there are lots kinds of evil out there (in a story I mean). Ranging from:
- The usual purely evil guy, knows only universe destruction and only want to know how to kill the good guys.
- The still evil but has strong and good reason to do it evil guy.
- The not so evil, only misunderstanding evil guy.
- Evil, only when seen from good guy POV but not when seen from others POV.
- And many, many others.

Hmm... Lets see... where would I fit in...

- The still evil but has strong and good reason to do it evil guy.

There!... Thats where I fit in!...

You see, after I lost my job as Ren'pys image-map girl... I am doomed to be forgotten... my very existance was in jeopardy. So I decided to take on the role of antagonist with the sole purpose of giving Eileen a headache whenever the opportunity rises. Though I feel bad about my actions and feel sorry for Eileen since I know it's not really her fault why I got laid-off and I know someone else is pulling the strings behind the scenes, it's the only way I could maintain my Existance... to be remembered... that a long time ago, a beautiful girl once stood side by side with Eileen.

I really do hope and pray that someday... I get my job back... but for now... I have to rely on my one and only die-hard long haired fan who never gave up on me and give Eileen more headaches... I have no choice but to be the bad guy... or in my case a bad girl.

"POOF" (Yeah I know... I just copied it... Big Deal)

[JQuartz]

I have to rely on my one and only die-hard long haired fan who never gave up on me and give Eileen more headaches... I have no choice but to be the bad guy

Why don't you just rely on the long haired guy to create a VN with you as the main character instead? Maybe a story about a girl who got kicked out from her circle of friends and then while she was crying a long haired guy came along and gave her magical powers (magical girl) and she use that power to defeat evil and save the world from destruction.

[mugenjohncel]

- CONTENT NO LONGER RELEVANT -

[JQuartz]

But woudn't that ruin my image?...

If you think that would ruin your image as a hentai poofter, then just add 'the long haired guy gave Lucy awesome magical powers but she must be his slave. Lucy accepted the condition but was in for a surprise because the long haired guy's definition of a slave isn't just a person who provides free labor...'

[lucy]

long haired guy gave Lucy awesome magical powers but she must be his slave.

Be his WHAT!?...
Do you realize you're talking about that Perverted Loli Killer!?... I'd rather work on Walmart or Radioshitty than be his... ughh!!!

[mugenjohncel]

- CONTENT NO LONGER RELEVANT -

[Jo'ogn]

Be his WHAT!?...
Do you realize you're talking about that Perverted Loli Killer!?... I'd rather work on Walmart or Radioshitty than be his... ughh!!!

Lucy, as a 'bad girl' you know that deep down inside you want to be really nasty and express yourself freely in any way that doesn't give a damn about what is considered good, decent, appropiate behaviour suited for minors... no...

However if you are on the victim side of life. The good looking long haired guy might trick you and 'beat' you into submission by means of drugs and/or having taken kinky nude photographs of you while you were drunk or sth and threatens to publish them if you don't do what he wants you to do...

I mean, see it from the really-good-drama-side of story design. Either you are the bad ass villain girl, or the poor victim girl we will all cry our eyes out over...

[LVUER]

I find the "evil evil" types incredibly hard to work with because they're usually not believable. The reader needs to have some sort of belief that the evil person has a very good reason for the things he is doing. It takes a lot of extra effort to make the "evil evil" type seem like a real person. The only example I can think of where I really bought into the character is The Joker from the recent movie The Dark Knight.

Not really. You are talking from "more reasonable/adult" POV. Really, when you look at "younger" anime/manga, how much reason/rational you could get?

Starting from cliched hero and bad guy (you are the chosen one, save the world and the usual blah blah blah), the boring save the world theme, etc, etc (and yet, they always work). The bad guy (evil) doesn't need any reason to be bad. They just ... bad. They born to be bad, they think only bad things and they do bad things, and they must ... die in bad bad way. Or not, but they still must be destroyed. You think little kids who could just can barely count to 100 would think "Oh, I pity the evil guy, his mother always beat him to "almost" death every night, no wonder he becomes as such a bad ass."

Like I said, it all depends on what kind of story and consumers you want to make.

[IceD]

Not really. You are talking from "more reasonable/adult" POV. Really, when you look at "younger" anime/manga, how much reason/rational you could get?

By "younger" you mean newer anime/manga, or titles for kids? In any way I have to disagree. Japanese animation is quite untypical, both in terms of transmission and story telling. It isn't cliched, nor trite (in most cases), and those terms are more relevant to our biased american and european animation. I don't say that every anime/manga is original to the bones, as well as every our title is bad and shallow, but even looking at the books or films about heroic tales, we can more often see that anime/manga heroes or heroines aren't that good after all and have different psychological problems, and villains are more twisted (that doesn't mean, they have to be bad). It's rather our way to try and idealize everything (hey kids, you never know what you may learn from reading comic books! ) and making everything to seem plain white/black which obviously isn't a standard case in reality. There's also a different story concerning problems with cultural and social differences.

The problem with bad "not being" true is that artists and storywriters aren't that much productive nowadays, yet they still think there's still a way by just creating a villain and giving him the simple reason to do bad things. Most of creators don't look to deep into those problems and don't even bother to try and make their characters more "real" or "human", because people will buy their work anyway... As for example, aren't most of the marvel books just plain boring? It's the same, over and over again... The point is, that I don't want and don't intend to dream being a superhero. I want to be normal. That's why I read manga instead of american comics (and I don't like them either)...

How do you people tend to create evil roles in your novels (if you have one) ?

It's a fact, that the best stories often come straight from reality, with a bit of twist of this and "that". I find also books to be a very good source of interesting ideas. If you're looking for very interesting stories, try to read one of Stephen King's books. He's an master in describing human psychology and moral problems, not to mention his mostly twisted ideas.To be honest, we sometimes don't need a "deep" villain. It's just the story, that can make his case interesting. If you didn't watched "The Cell", do it. It's another perfect example how you can create interesting villains.

[sake-bento]

I find the "evil evil" types incredibly hard to work with because they're usually not believable. The reader needs to have some sort of belief that the evil person has a very good reason for the things he is doing. It takes a lot of extra effort to make the "evil evil" type seem like a real person. The only example I can think of where I really bought into the character is The Joker from the recent movie The Dark Knight.

Not really. You are talking from "more reasonable/adult" POV. Really, when you look at "younger" anime/manga, how much reason/rational you could get?

Starting from cliched hero and bad guy (you are the chosen one, save the world and the usual blah blah blah), the boring save the world theme, etc, etc (and yet, they always work). The bad guy (evil) doesn't need any reason to be bad. They just ... bad. They born to be bad, they think only bad things and they do bad things, and they must ... die in bad bad way. Or not, but they still must be destroyed. You think little kids who could just can barely count to 100 would think "Oh, I pity the evil guy, his mother always beat him to "almost" death every night, no wonder he becomes as such a bad ass."

Like I said, it all depends on what kind of story and consumers you want to make.

It's not that I don't enjoy such ridiculous tales (I still watch Yu-gi-oh on occasion, and even the villains there have some sort of tragic back story), I just find them hard to write. And the audience doesn't necessarily need to know his mother beat him every night as long as I know. I just find it very difficult to write how a character would be if I can't understand them very well. Thinking "what would an evil person do in this situation?" is a lot harder than thinking, "What would someone who needs to be in control do?"