Of Big Bads

Chapter Nine if finally done. I had to rewrite about half of it, because I did that thing where I was rushing the plot. It is something I do often and I really have to catch myself and stomp all over my writing when I find I'm doing it. It's sort of like when I have the tendency to go way too dark on things and then have to remind myself that I am writing a romance adventure story not a horror story. Although it is okay to throw in little bits of horrifying behavior here and there, I can't twist characters so far that they are complete monsters. There has to be at least one redeeming quality, you know, so they are just mostly monsters.

So even though my big bad is pretty evil, she absolutely loves and adores her husband. It's not like I want to humanize her much, I certainly don't want anyone to feel sympathetic towards her, but having someone without one redeeming quality is like having someone who is perfectly beautiful without a single flaw. There's nothing less relatable in a story than that. Do we really want to read about someone who is absolutely perfect both physically and personality-wise? Or 100% evil? I don't. My big bad's motivation was always power, but it was power she wanted to share with the man she loved. I do think I will have to find one more thing that softens her a little bit, but not so much that you don't get that she will do whatever it takes to reach her ultimate goals.

As I head into chapter ten I am going back and forth on a plot point on whether or not I want to be cruel to two of my characters. I think it would make the book better if I do it, but I just hate to put both of them through it. They are star-crossed and I don't know if they will ever be uncrossed.

My theme song for my big bad is Control by Halsey. It is perfect.