You ever seen one of those villains in a movie that cackles with glee, rubbing their hands together at the downfall of the heroes? Just being a bit of a dick?
The
thing is, people are dicks all the time, but only super rarely do they
wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “You know, it’s Tuesday:
I’m going to be a dick today.”
If
we start from there, it gives us our first hint on how to make our
characters more real. Start with them being human, and having human
drivers. People are “evil” or “good” because they want to achieve a set
of outcomes that we perceive — through our own lens of morality — to be
good or evil. Hitler? Giant dick, right, I know. But he didn’t wake
up wanting to be a dick: he wanted to change the world and put Germany
at the top.
When
I write my stories, I start with the people. I need a motley cast of
people, good and evil and the run in between, to tell the story with.
They’re the stars of the show, and they need to have motivations for
getting up in the morning. Those motivations need to be real.
I try and start with my characters wanting to do the right thing, whatever that might mean for them. In Night’s Favour,
Val’s idea of the right thing is no more or less advanced than putting
one foot in front of the other, going through the motions. He drinks
himself to sleep, lives on cheap take-out, and has just one friend.
Elsie’s view of the right thing is to save her daughter’s life, and in
the process change the world with a revolutionary new medicine. Which
one of them is good, and which one is evil?
The consequences of their actions and how we interpret them makes them believable.
Val’s just an ordinary guy who gets the chance to be less ordinary, to
change it all. If you were him, what would you do? Elsie’s needs for
her daughter trump all others. If you had a daughter who was dying, is
there anything you wouldn’t do for her?
Good
and evil is subjective, but it’s the motivations that make people in
stories real. They become our heroes and villains, our saints and
sinners, because of how we see them. We relate to them because, on some
level… Well, we understand where they’re coming from.
Valentine’s
an ordinary guy with ordinary problems. His boss is an asshole. He’s an
alcoholic. And he’s getting that middle age spread just a bit too
early. One night — the one night he can’t remember — changes everything.
What happened at the popular downtown bar, The Elephant Blues? Why is
Biomne, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, so interested
in him — and the virus he carries? How is he getting stronger, faster,
and more fit? And what’s the connection between Valentine and the
criminally insane Russian, Volk?
Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Action, Thriller, Urban Fantasy
Rating – R16
More details about the author
Website http://www.rage.net.nz
