Villains We Love to Hate: Crafting Complex Characters

Matt: Welcome back to Write Out Loud the podcast where stories shine. Craft gets real, and creativity takes center stage.

I'm your host, Matt Word nerd, plot enthusiast and professional over analyzer of fictional villains.

Christina: Yes.

Matt: And of course I'm here with the magnificent, magnetic and marvelously mind blowing. Christina, our resident beam of light with a dangerously deep bookshelf. Hello, my dear?

Christina: Deep bookshelf. I like that one

Matt: Yes, yes. You want it on a t-shirt? Do you?

Christina: I do, I

Matt: That's perfect.

Christina: Do you wanna see my deep bookshelf? Yes.

Matt: Yes. Yes. Well, that's right. So today we're actually talking about villains we love to hate and how we craft that complex antagonist, right? Not just that sort of black and white cookie cutter monster, but really bring out, bring them to life.

And what we're really hoping to get out of this is to just have a solid discussion around what makes our villains that we love to hate. So. So terrible and yet so lovable in the same way.

Christina: Yes. I think at the end of the day, for me, what it comes down to is when you create a

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: full and vibrant villain

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: that we like, oh God, they're so. and I shouldn't like them, but they're so charming , lovable or whatever. For the aspect of villain villains, we love to hate, when they create kind of character. I mean, the writing then is just, superb.

Matt: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you and I have talked about, I think, and I don't think we've talked about it on the podcast, but I think you and I have had conversations around, it ends with us and. Just the fact that the, the antagonist or the, the villain, if you will, in that story right, is somebody that you like or you start to kind of

Christina: yeah, yeah.

Matt: for, right?

Christina: is so, yeah. It's, it's hard to say that. Obviously he is the villain of the story because, he's, he's an abuser. I hope nobody's listening to this that hasn't heard the story or anything, but story's been out long enough I don't feel like we need to, pull any punches

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: When I first read it. I was already a fan of Colleen Hoover,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: I would just auto buy her books and not really look to see what they're about. When I love an author, I auto buy,

Matt: Hmm.

Christina: And I worry about the story later 'cause they're just gonna take me on whatever journey they're gonna take me on. so initially when you're reading the book, you are falling in love with the character that ends up being the villain. Although, I will say there was nothing I loved to hate about him. I just didn't like him.

Matt: Yep.

Christina: yeah, that was the point. That was the

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: And in fact, I think is quite the point of what we're gonna talk about here today, is the fact that you should create characters that you know King, when we started talking about. Doing this subject tonight. What popped into my head was what Stephen King was quoted as saying and I'm gonna read you the direct quote.

Matt: Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christina: of gray are also a part of life.

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: I think, your reference to the Colleen Hoover character that turns into, this abuser, is that Exactly. It's a

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: character. It is someone who on the surface you liked him. But then when his true personality self, came out,

Matt: Sure.

Christina: was clearly the villain of that story.

Matt: Yeah. And I think, I think it goes back to, audiences, like characters that have depth, they like characters that have these layers to them, right? So it's not just, oh, he's clearly evil, he's gonna do all of, he's just gonna kill everybody. And he doesn't think, he doesn't care, he doesn't have any sort of emotion about it, he just does his thing.

Christina: Well, I,

Matt: and I think it's, I think it's, it, it helps them. If they're able to see parts of themselves in that character. Right. It's much, it just plays with your mind a bit. 'cause you're like, oh, that kind of feels like me in some ways, but I would never do that. And, I just, I don't know.

 There's that internal conflict that you have as the reader or.

Christina: Yeah. And I think that from the writer's perspective, as King was saying, is if you come at your villain of the story as someone who sees themselves as the hero,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: think you can write more depth to that character. You can write it in a way, like when we say villains you love to hate, it's the bad guy that. Underneath it, you can understand

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: is the person that you can say, oh, okay. Maybe they're, they just had a bad experience or they just,

Matt: Sure.

Christina: Want this revenge or, whatever the case may be, if they have depth, you can understand them. You still may not like them, that's why you love to hate them,

Matt: Yeah,

Christina: but you understand them a little bit better and it makes for a more well thought out character plot story

Matt: yeah,

Christina: villain.

Matt: yeah. I mean, think about, and I'm gonna use this.

There's two characters within the Harry Potter realm, right?

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: Voldemort, who I think in that vein, really does see himself as the hero of his story because he's trying to unite the, the wizards and witches, right? As

Christina: Yep.

Matt: bring them together and make sure that they take their rightful place, right?

So even if we don't agree with him, we understand why he wants to do it. I think there's another character in there that we love to hate, probably even more, has more, causes more of a visceral reaction than anybody else. And that's umbridge. And I think Umbridge is one though, where you have a harder time seeing why she does what she does.

Like I think she, she, I think to a degree, she does also see herself as the hero. Like she's keeping order, she's trying to help make this as keep everybody in line and kind of tow the, to tow the company line, so to speak. But there's also just it, it's a quiet malice there where she's just mean just to be mean.

Christina: And I, I actually think that, she has a more evil edge to her Voldemort because Voldemort has all these reasons for, what he did and he did what he did.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: You understand he's, he's the bad guy. This is gonna come down to, him and Harry, umbridge kind sneaks in there because she's in the disguise of a teacher. And in the beginning, when she comes onto the scene. in all her pink and she's just, and it's like it takes you by surprise

Matt: Yep. Because you're thinking that this is somebody I'm supposed to be safe with.

Christina: right, and then she gets worse and

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: worse and worse and worse. so it's not Voldemort was bad from the very beginning,

Matt: Right.

Christina: know, bad as a child. Bad as a teenager, bad as a wizard, so you know it. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt: And I think just in that piece, I think the point I wanna make is when you're writing these types of characters, like there's a difference between. The motivation of the character, which drives what they do, versus just pure malice

Christina: Right.

Matt: and motivation and this motivation that's tangible that people can, even if they don't agree with it, can understand it,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: I think tends to draw audiences in more often or feel that way, right?

Like it's when you can, because again, you're seeing a little bit of yourself in it. You're seeing, you can identify at least, and again, you don't have to agree with it. You don't have to like them anymore. But you can be like, okay, well I get, I mean, I get it.

Christina: you, are you trying to tell me you see yourself as umbridge,

Matt: No.

Christina: bit of yourself in Umbridge?

Matt: No. 'cause she's pure malice.

Christina: She is. She is.

Matt: No.

Christina: I

Matt: No. Mm-hmm.

Christina: like sympathize with Bort, but I understand.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: like, oh yeah, okay, this is why he's this is what .

Matt: Yep.

Christina: But with umbridge, like I said, it just, she seems to be evil just for the pure

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: evil

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: like, oh, you

Matt: I guess she gets joy out of it.

Christina: Yes, exactly.

Matt: Yep.

Christina: Just wants to win,

Matt: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christina: to be mean.

Matt: Yeah, and I think in part of this conversation too, I do, I do think, and we want to draw a careful distinction that there is a difference right between evil. And what we'd call an antagonist or a villain in what we'd call an antagonist like you, they aren't necessarily the, the same thing.

Well, let's put it this way. All villains are antagonists, but not all antagonists are villains.

Christina: Correct, correct. And, and in fact, I use the lines of antagonist is an adversary, a villain is an evil.

Matt: Yep.

Christina: And like you said, you can have someone who is an adversary and they can be evil,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: you know, and you know, vice

Matt: But they don't have to be.

Christina: Yeah, it's definitely gonna be your adversary, no matter what.

But I think I do wanna make a distinction because you can have antagonist are two very good people, but they just do not see eye to eye and will see each other the villains of the story. But

Matt: Sure.

Christina: readers or we as writers, see them as good versus evil.

Matt: Yeah. Think, think about Ted Lasso, right? There's a couple of examples there. So you've got Rebecca who starts off as very much an antagonist because she's, she's brought Ted in and is hoping to. Have a poor outcome, we'll say, we'll leave it at that in case you haven't seen it. And if you haven't seen it, what is wrong with you?

The second piece is Roy, Kent and Jamie.

Christina: yes,

Matt: much an antagonistic relationship, right? And

Christina: They

Matt: adversaries. Absolutely. I.

Christina: is a villain.

Matt: Nope.

Christina: in fact, part of, and this is actually a really great example of a story arc of a character, is Jamie's character from where he goes in the beginning to where he ends up. Talk about redeeming the villain, you know,

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: I, I do think in the beginning was an adversary and a villain. He was, doing things on purpose to harm the other people, either on the team or the coaches

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: What have you. But writers of that show clearly saw something in the very beginning that they wanted to do and give him, a very good, uh, story arc.

Matt: absolutely.

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: think the only one that leaves a question mark in my mind from from the Ted lasso universe is Rupert,

Christina: Oh yeah, he's,

Matt: like he's absolutely an antagonist, but is he a villain?

Christina: Uh, yeah.

Matt: I, you know, I don't know. I think it's arguable 

Christina: I say villain because he is purposely

Matt: Hmm.

Christina: to be mean.

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: is

Matt: Spiteful.

Christina: to hurt people

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: and he is purposefully trying to win

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: and he will accept nothing more than winning.

Matt: yeah. No, that's true. That's true.

Christina: Yeah. So

Matt: Well.

Christina: villain category.

Matt: So I think as we go through this, we, our whole point is to really lay out and give you the examples that help make it really clear like that as you're crafting these characters, you want to make sure that they have enough life in them that are gonna draw the readers in and make them want to sometimes even cheer for them.

Maybe

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: there'll be times when they you know, your reader goes, okay, I hope they, I hope they make it through this one, uh, while still not liking them, while still maybe not agreeing with. What they're trying to do. Like you still want them after, your hero or you're a protagonist.

But but think about too, so there are some different archetypes when you think about archetypes, when you think about, uh, the antagonists and the villains, right? So for example, think about the, what we call, I guess the mastermind or the brain. Someone like little finger in Game of Thrones would fit this category.

Someone like. Oh hell, Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: right? Really fits that really well. And it's just somebody who's really incredibly intelligent, crafty,

Christina: Yep.

Matt: but does have a little bit of that evil, evil vein running through them at least. So even if they're not pure evil any other ones you can think of from Mastermind or that the brain category.

Christina: I am, when you gave me this as an idea, I kept thinking to myself, what are villains I love to hate? What are

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: You know, the thing is, I think I do see characters. Having more depth and things like that. And so when I truly think of villains, I in Masterminds, I think of people like Hitler,

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: To me that's like stand out like Mastermind.

He had this entire plan

Matt: Yep.

Christina: of, destruction.

Matt: Yeah

think about Thanos,

Christina: Yeah, Thanos,

Matt: kind of thing.

Christina: the very beginning has this plan.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: Now I don't find anything redeemable about Thanos

Matt: Hmm.

Christina: nor do I for Hitler. So I think that's where I, I have trouble coming up with these, because I, a lot of the books that I read have very. Morally ambiguous characters. And to me, sometimes those are the most juicy ones.

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: and a lot of times I have seen this happen time and time again where the villains speaking to the writers

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: and it's like they're demanding their own stories of like,

Matt: Yeah. Yeah.

Christina: You

Matt: Yep.

Christina: to make me a hero of a book someday. And, and that's happened, more times than I can think. But back to the archetypes. There's also the fallen hero.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: the one that, we talked a little bit uh, taping of the Star Wars

Matt: Sure.

Christina: of, specifically Star Wars, A New Hope, which is. movie to come out, but technically number three, if

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: you know,

Matt: If you're keeping score at home

Christina: Yeah. If you're keeping score at home, and this is a situation where in that particular movie, Darth Vader is the

Matt: mm-hmm.

Christina: There's, he's a great character, a great villain, in that specific movie. So we're not talking about, return of the Jedi, 

Matt: mm-hmm.

Christina: I am your father, and all that kind of stuff.

Matt: But he was a hero before that.

Christina: Yeah. But he was

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: before as Anakin.

Matt: Yep.

Christina: So, this is what we're talking about with,

Matt: Yep.

Christina: Heroes.

Matt: The devil.

Christina: I Lucifer

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: the TV show, Lucifer.

Matt: just, but even, even from just literally the Bible, right? The story, like the devil is a fallen angel.

Christina: Yes,

Matt: So somebody who was, who was a hero at one point and was now, was now, now. So, but yeah. Lucifer.

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: Good. Good show.

Christina: is the perfect, this is the only one I could think of when you were talking about villains. We love to hate. I was like, Lucifer,

Matt: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christina: ends up being, I don't, again, the good guy who, occasionally does things that are, morally gray,

Matt: Yeah,

Christina: but.

Matt: the anti-hero kind of,

Christina: too, you know, he always told the truth.

Matt: yep.

Christina: He never lied. And sometimes it's, and I think this is what Stephen King, his point of that quote was, that when you have characters that are so like gray, are they good? Are they bad? What are they?

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: Yes, they're the heroes of their own stories, and in this story, maybe they're the villain, and then sometimes we get reasons as to why they are the way that they are, know?

So,

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: I,

Matt: Yep.

Christina: The fallen hero for me, probably my favorite sort of villain because I feel like they can be redeemed,

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: they can find their way back.

Matt: Yep.

Christina: Yeah. You may have to do some extra work to redeem them. 

Matt: Yeah,

Christina: that's, that makes for such juicy story.

Matt: yeah. There's conflict baked right in, which is great. The charming manipulator is the next archetype, and that one, the one I think of the most is. A little bit, like Jamie Tart from Ted Lasso. Right. He'd be the charming manipulator. I also actually think h Hannibal Lecter

Christina: Uh, yeah, if you

Matt: kind of, he's also a mastermind though too, which is probably a little more,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: I'm trying, I was trying to think.

There was another one that was on the tip of my tongue just now and I can't, I can't think of it. Oh, American Psycho.

Christina: Oh, geez.

Matt: Like just very,

Christina: yeah.

Matt: manipulator,

Christina: uh, Uh, I'm sorry. That one in particular right there is straight to evil for me.

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: to psychopath.

Matt: yeah. Definitely a villain. Definitely a villain. But the charming, I mean, charming manipulator in that case. Right.

Christina: yeah.

Matt: I think even, uh, Draco malfoy kind of fits into this a little bit.

Christina: Oh, yeah. That's, I would, I would agree. Yeah.

Matt: Like he's, he's a little bit of that charming manipulator. Like he's, he's a bully. He's got some, 

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: up meanness to him.

But he's also

Christina: flick 'em.

Matt: Uhhuh, he's also a mani, a manipulator.

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: And then I guess the last one. At least in this little list is just what we decided. The system is a villain. So,

Christina: Yeah,

Matt: is where that whole, like the, the villain or the antagonist is really just a whole like institution or like an idea of something.

Christina: Yep.

Matt: The, a thing that comes to mind here is like, I guess the Blair Witch. Like even though there is supposedly this villain that is the witch, the entire story is. The concept of this witch that there, you don't ever actually ever see the witch or get to know them or know their motivations. It's just there's this thing out there, right?

Christina: Right?

Matt: the empire from Star Wars.

Christina: Yes.

Matt: Right. I think those are some of the ones. So there's just different ways that you can use. These to your advantage as you build your villains, as you build your antagonist to think about how do I create this layer to them or this depth, and how do I wanna bring them to life?

And the, these aren't all, there's more, right? There's, there's a bunch of different categories, but this is just a quick little rundown of some of the most popular, I think.

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: But when you think about villains, one of the things that you have to really also come to terms with is they're gonna do things.

In your story, that may be absolutely horrific, but you still want your audience in some cases, not in every case, but in some cases you want your audience to maybe have a little bit of sympathy for them,

Christina: Right.

Matt: right? So how do you craft that, where you can bring that balance where you can say, listen, I don't agree at all with what he did, but I sympathize with why he's doing it or she's doing it.

Christina: You give them a good reasoning. Why are they the way that they are?

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: give maybe some insight into hurt,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: vulnerability, one that I can think of is a, a character that, and I'm speaking only of the TV show and not of the comics,

Matt: Okay.

Christina: but Negan from Walking Dead. And it is solely because of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the actor who played him

Matt: The charming manipulator.

Christina: Yeah. Exactly the charming and manipulator, but

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: that couldn't have, like, if you had had a different actor playing that role, I don't know that the audience would have fallen in love with him because I, I just, and in fact I have trouble thinking about him being, a redemption arc because of, he killed one of my favorite characters and it was so

Matt: Uh huh.

Christina: was awful. And it was, but. That's the perfect example because then when you start revealing what happened to him,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: And why his bat is named Lucille,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: Start to, as you said, sympathize

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: a little bit.

Matt: Yeah,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: absolutely. Yeah. I mean, just again, you want to have some thought put into your villain. You wanna think about what drives them, because again, that motivation rather than just pure malice.

Christina: right.

Matt: Is always gonna be a better option. And just thinking about like, even the inner conflict, right?

You can think about stories where maybe, so for example this last latest season of reacher on Amazon Prime it's based on the book, the Persuader by Lee Child. There is a villain that is very much a, a very much a villain, but he is doing what he's doing to save his own skin.

Christina: Right.

Matt: So without giving too much away and so you're creating that conflict in them because it's like, well, look, I have to do this thing that I maybe even don't want to do.

I mean, I'll do it 'cause I don't really care, but I don't want to do it, but I have to do it, otherwise I'm gonna be dead and that's not gonna happen.

Christina: Yeah. So I'm doing this to save, in

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: myself and that sort of thinking. We, as readers can say. Would I do the same in

Matt: Right.

Christina: Same situation.

Matt: Yep.

Christina: you can think of those circumstances where have to do this in order to save, X, Y, z,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: family, children, 

Matt: They might be trying to defend a whole system of being that's been in place for a long time, that the, protagonist is trying to change because it's unjust or it's not the way it should be. And the villain is like, but no, this is the way we need to keep it. We don't, we shouldn't change it.

And they're going to these horrific lengths to keep it as it is. Again, it's, it's just creating that inner conflict and thinking about like, how do we make them more human? So we put them in situations where even if they're bad people, they would make bad decisions. You would not make, they're doing it for a specific reason.

Right. And, and I think ask yourself too, as you're, as you're really crafting your villain or your antagonist, is how do you make them believe that they're the hero of their story? And how do you, how do you bring that. Element into the, the story that you're telling. So it's very clear to the reader or the viewer, right.

Depending on if it's movie or TV show. Yep. The consumer of your art, how do you, how do you get that point across to 'em so they understand that this person truly thinks they're the right, they're in the right, they're the ones that

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: are the hero.

Christina: same thing is that you give them circumstances that actually do make them the hero of their story. So

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: Negan again, he was protecting his people.

Matt: Yep.

Christina: He was, doing things out of. The loss of his, wife, his true love,

Matt: Sure.

Christina: was doing things that he thought were the right things to do,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: And that's just it too, using Negan as that example again, is that, sometimes villains are pushed so far to the edge that they have. No way out

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: other than to be, know,

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: way that they are.

Matt: Yep. Yeah, I think too one, one thing that comes to mind in this one is. President Snow from the Hunger Games,

Christina: Oh, yeah.

Matt: that whole trilogy. And just thinking about how like President Snow truly believes he's acting in the best interest of everybody. If you maintain the order as it is, everybody's happier because they have everything they need or they want, even if he, is lying to himself or, or others.

But like he believes that, and everything he does is to try to maintain that same status quo.

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: Right where Catniss and the rest of the team are trying to upend it because it's, it's just an unjust type of living situation type of world.

Christina: Type of world. Yeah,

Matt: Yep. It's crazy. So a lot of food for thought, I think, and if you, if you think about how villains and protagonists really have to interact, it is sort of like a mirror image in a lot of ways.

I.

Christina: Yeah. Yeah,

Matt: Like they have to mirror those values that they might have. One's gonna think this, one's gonna think right? The other one's gonna think left. And I don't mean politically, but just as a, as the idea of that mirror image. We're gonna, we're gonna do this differently, right?

But we're both in the end, coming to the same kind of point of contact or the same, uh, I don't know. Same line of scrimmage. To borrow a sports analogy,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: They're, they just have to do it their own way and they're trying to get their ends achieved and sometimes those things are at odds, and that makes it the most interesting a lot of times, especially when there's a lot on the line for both of them and they both have to get what they want.

Just make it think about some of your favorite villains. Think about. How they were written and how they come to life. Find your own examples as well of of ones that fit some of those archetypes that we've talked about, right? And drop us a line. Who's your favorite villain and why do you love to hate them?

Like tell us, send us a voice note. So drop us a note on, Mastodon or Blue Sky or Threads or wherever you find us. Let us know because we would love to hear your thoughts on this one. This is such a ripe area for so much discussion. I think we could probably go on for forever, but alas, we must always have at some point we must wrap it up, right?

So. Would, any closing thoughts that you wanna share as we wind, this one down?

Christina: I'm, I'm gonna harken it right back to Stephen King the master of monsters

Matt: Uh

Christina: if you will.

Matt: mm-hmm.

Christina: that, creating these morally gray spaces for the villains, making them. The heroes of their own stories, I think really does, create perfect space for the villain. and again, when you make them, have that appeal to

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: You can suddenly take it from villain to antagonist and

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: them their own, redemption arc and. Yeah, I think it just gives more depth to the writing, to the story.

Matt: Yep. Yeah, there's, uh, I will just say, I'm not gonna name the book that I'm reading, but this villain is just awful. And I don't mean that in the villain sense. It's a two dimensional villain. Yeah,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: there's just no dimension to it. It doesn't make me care about them. It doesn't make me want to read why they became the way that they became.

I, I don't care. I literally don't care. So, unfortunately, not the best one. Uh, but you're gonna find those. And I think you can also learn a lot from the ones that you've read that don't work.

Christina: Right.

Matt: Because you can, you can literally look at that and go, Hey, like, this is how I don't wanna write my villain because I, they need more depth or they need more.

I need to understand their motivation better.

Christina: exactly. I, I think at that point, if you come across a villain that you're like, oh, this is totally black and white and boring and everything.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: down why it didn't work for you,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: and then you know, you can use that the next time you're writing a villain to

Matt: Exactly. Exactly. Well, that's a wrap on our deep dive into villainy. And if there's one thing we hope you take away from today, it's that great villains are not just evil for evil's sake. They're driven, they're wounded, they're human. And when they're done right, they're gonna elevate your entire story. So if you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you shared it with the fellow writers and, uh, you know what, again?

Don't forget, tell us who your favorite villain is, why you love to hate him. We'd love to see that. Throw it out there on social media as well. Hashtag Write out loud. Well, thanks so much for joining me, my dear, as always. And thank you for listening. And don't forget, keep your characters messy, your plots twisty, and your antagonists unforgettable.

So until next time, write out loud.

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