The middle-aged lady says, "Oh yeah? Well, God blessed
me with good hair."
What is evil and how do you find the simplest
form of it?
Because evil hides within the confines of the intelligent,
all-knowing recesses of your mind, it is literally undiscoverable to the
innocents of the world. That's why it is so powerful when exposed. Evil lurks
just under the surface of our thoughts. Some unsuspecting evil doers allow the penetration
of this surface, others dare not.
Here's an example:
A dear friend shows off her ring and says, "Look, Diane! Frank proposed to me last month."
It looks a bit tight on her finger, she must have gained a few pounds in her month long complacency. Wonder how much she'll gain once she's been married a full year? (evil lurks)
"How lovely!" I say. (penetration does not occur)
Since we are in first person POV, the evil goes undetected
by the other character. How can we change this and make the other character
aware of the evil without exposing its source and outing our antagonist?
A dear friend shows off her ring and says, "Look, Diane! Frank proposed to me last month."
It looks a bit tight on her finger, she must have gained a few pounds in her month long complacency. Wonder how much she'll gain once she's been married a full year? (evil lurks)
"How lovely! Take it off and let me have a look," I say. (Subtle penetration, undetected)
The friend attempts to take off the ring and is embarrassed. The ring will not budge. (Effect of evil)
"I'm on my period and my fingers are pretty bloated right now." (Combatting evil)
Now let's do full on evil and not be so coy about it.
A dear friend shows off her ring and says, "Look, Diane! Frank proposed to me last month."
"How the hell did you get that thing on your fat finger? It looks like a knot in a sausage link."
My favorite is the subtle penetration. There's nothing more
evil than someone who has control over the situation and goes literally
undetected. That is pretty evil to me.
So tell us how you serve up your evil! Are your characters forth-coming or do they play coy and hide from the rest of the world?
Oh deception and manipulation are fun evils to write or me. I'm working on a short story (third person) where I am attempting to confuse the reader on who the real evil is. I don't know how successful I am at it, but it's fun!
ReplyDeleteWriting evil is the most fun we get to have as fiction writers, Nicole! Well, that's an opinion of mine. :)
DeleteGood luck with your short story!
I have some characters who are the tell-it-like-it-is type. I kind of love them. Yes, they can be evil, but they make for good reading. Evil characters are fun. :) Evil in real life... not so much fun.
ReplyDeleteI kind of draw my evil from the real world. It's all around me! lol
DeleteSo, like maybe it's the penetration that will make her ring not fit in a year. You know, if they have to penetrate a few times for it to take...
ReplyDeleteTo me, evil is different than that. It's purposely doing something to harm someone for no other reason than to harm them.
LOL, leave it to the guy to make a pun on the penetration. :D
DeleteThe sociopath and psychopath to me are the ultimate in evil.
I prefer my characters to have a knack for blatantly saying things to someone's face rather than keeping their evil thoughts to themselves. I find I wish I could say things to people faces, but since I don't, I figure I'll let my characters say it for me. :P
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way. I like to make my characters bitchy and mean when the opportunity arises, because I'm such a nice person in reality, I never get the chance to be mean.
DeleteCool ideas Diane and I like the subtle form that sneaks out into our unsuspecting world. I want to smash it though and I have trouble with evil characters so I make them obvious dorks and losers.
ReplyDeleteEvil is my favorite thing to write about, Eve. Evil isn't quite as much fun unless there is another character to witness it. :)
DeleteMy villains (at least this time out) are very subtle in their plans and operations. They're only really themselves among each other. I found writing these characters that it was best that the antagonists started out as good people, who reacted to tragedy in their lives in the worst way by giving into vengeance, and their path led them into acts of evil.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be awesome to try something opposite to that, something like a protagonist who is evil, but who transcends the evil when something touches him deeply.
DeleteWe have so much to pull from, it's hard for me to decide which direction I want to go sometimes. I like the idea of your kind of antagonist.
I liked the way you displayed the subtle form of evil. It's a great idea. There's nothing subtle about the evil in my characters. Doesn't matter what role they play- all my characters are morally questionable. They know they aren't good people and, most of the time, they don't try to hid it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great way to keep conflict going to have characters who don't hide. It's one of my goals to get my characters to come out more and declare themselves who they are. I'm still working on it! :)
DeleteThanks for stopping by with your thoughts!
Very interesting post! You brought up many points to ponder. and then there are the writers who give villains human sides that seem to deflate some of the evilness. The question is when to be strictly black and white and when to bring out an villain's humanity. Sometimes a writer does this by showing his past; he was abused, and then we understand him more and might even pity him. A person's past (even a character's past) motivates their behavior. Take care!
ReplyDeleteThank you Lena! I've read some very evil characters by Dean Koontz and it's amazing how he can make this evil killer a sympathetic one. I never could understand how that happens. Today, I see it more and more. You're right too, the character's history also comes into play. Humanity is a strange creature, isn't it?
DeleteThe most dangerous people of all are the ones that hide their evil and prey upon unsuspecting people. The people who insult other people are more cruel than evil and since you know what they're like you can try to avoid them.
ReplyDeleteI've avoided so many people so that I can concentrate on my happiness. I have 1 close person to every 10 I avoid. This means almost 90% of the world is cruel/evil. My husband says I'm just a hermit. :)
DeleteThanks for stopping by, Deb!
While I don't claim to be subtle, I think my blog is my expression of my inner evil...
ReplyDeleteYour blog is very blunt. *LIKE* :)
ReplyDeleteI love me some evil characters! I don't know what it is about them...maybe the utter lack of restraint and freedom? All I know is that I end up with pages upon pages of "why they are the way they are" in-depth notes for my bad guys, vs. a one page character outline for my good ones. I wonder if that says something about me...
ReplyDeleteMy opinion of "evil" people in real life? Your freedom stops at my nose. Be as sassy or miserable as you like. When someone tries to put that on me is when I have the problem.
I think one of the reasons I like evil characters more is because I feel less restrained myself when I write them and their actions.
DeleteI'm surely glad that they are pretty well disguised and nobody in reality would ever suspect that the evil characters are tailored after them. mwahahahhaha.
Interesting post. Whether we want to admit it or not, evil lurks in all humans. But we do not always see the varying degrees.
ReplyDeleteUsing your example, here's the full on evil I came up with: 'Oh thank goodness Frank proposed, now you don't have to get an abortion!'
The subtle, if the one character doesn't believe in abortion and the other does, THAT conflict is probably the most horrendous I can imagine.
DeleteWhat an interesting post, Diane! Loved your knot in a sausage link description. LOL
ReplyDeleteI often have the antagonist fairly forthcoming with her evil, pointedly making nasty comments designed to sting. I usually keep the protagonist more coy and, hopefully, likeable. She'll certainly have snarky thoughts but she's too nice to purposely hurt someone's feelings.
One of the secret joys about writing fiction is delving into our psyches and discovering out just easy it is to get into the head of an evil character. :-o
We hate the antagonist, so it's easy for the writer to see them as asses.
DeleteWhat's hard to deal with for me is making the reader really enjoy the antagonist, not so they would want to emulate, but so they understand in a way that is profound. Yeah, that evil character said what 90% of people thought. I'm just pretending to be the 10% calling them out.
Doh! Should be "discovering just how easy"
ReplyDelete*eye roll*