Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer – aim for a dozen new people each time – and return comments. This group is all about connecting!
Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
The awesome co-hosts for the March 6 posting of the IWSG are Fundy Blue, Beverly Stowe McClure, Erika Beebe, and Lisa Buie-Collard!
Click here to view everyone in the Blog Hop.
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March 6 question – Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or the villain (antagonist)? And why?
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Hero or Villain?
And we’re back! It’s March! Bring on Spring!
I say that as we have a weather advisory in my area for wind chills near 0 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. Brrrrrrr. Ten years in South Carolina spoiled me on short winters. This Tennessee mountain winter is relentless.
This is going to be a bit of a short blog. I almost forget. Keyword: almost. But, I’m tired and it’s bedtime, and I’m not sure this will be coherent.
On to this month’s blog question: Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero or the villain? And why?
What a good question!
I mostly write from the protagonist’s perspective. But both of my completed manuscripts definitely have a few sections that hop to the antagonist (that may or may not stay in the next draft). I love the idea of writing from the antagonist’s perspective, and I’ve toyed with the idea and tried to flesh out a few plot lines from various villain ideas, but they’ve just not come to fruition, yet.
It seems like it might be so fun to write from the villain. I think about some of my favorite villains in books and movies, and seeing inside their minds and getting a glimpse at their thought processes and motivations, instead of speculating about them from the protagonist’s POV, would be awesome. I feel like sometimes we get an incomplete picture of the villain because we often don’t see inside their mind unless they articulate their thoughts to the protagonist. But perhaps part of the fun of the villain is the mystery.
I’ve had this idea for a Ouija board related demon story told from the antagonist’s POV, but it scares me. Can I do the villain justice? In theory, it shouldn’t be any different from writing a protagonist really, but it feels like it’s a much bigger job. Like there’s more pressure to get the antagonist “right.”
Now, why I write from the protagonist the majority of the time is a good question. Generally, the protagonist POV seems to flow more easily. It’s the “natural” POV, for me at least. And for lots of people it seems! There’s a draw to being the hero in the story. And often the villain ends up with something not so great happening to them. They die. They get beat up. They get banished. They get jailed. Whatever. As a reader, that seems like a kind of ho-hum outcome. I think we read stories to lift us up, which reading a villain based story might not have that effect. If the hero is victorious, then we get that! I look at the reader’s perspective for why I feel like I naturally swing to writing from the protagonist POV.
What do you all think?
For now,
Rosie J.
Twitch for gaming: www.twitch.tv/RoseEvenstar21