Are You Afeared?

So this is fun—as ruler of the “1” dates, I get to blab to you today AND tomorrow!
If you’re moaning, guess what? I can’t hear you!
*Sinister laugh*

I sent Harry Potter and a Hawaiian Mermaid Princess off to school this morning. Ty Lee (Avatar) is hangin’ at home with me today. DESTRUCTOR is here too, but that isn’t news. He’s here every day of the year. Blows through my house on a consistent 15 minute schedule.

Ty Lee keeps calculating different ways to bribe me into an early trick-or-treat run:
     me: “Eat your cereal.”
     T.L.: “I will if you take me trick-or-treating right now.”
     me: “Put your coat on.”
     T.L.: “I will if you’re taking me trick-or-treating right now.”

Long day ahead.

So what do we talk about today? Writing fears? Developing nail-biting suspense? Villain profiles?

I like the villain idea. Put the holiday to your advantage and ponder your villain a bit today. Pull out the character sheets and go over them again. Is your villain cuttin’ the mustard? (or…the throats?)
*geeky snort-at-my-own-joke laugh*

My favorite villain so far this year has been August in Water for Elephants. That was one creepy guy.
Google him.
The evil seeps through that smile. See it? See it?

Villainy isn’t always about muscle is it? I think the value of a villain comes from the tension he/she brings to the novel. How much power a villain has over the aspirations of the hero and how much they get in the way of those dreams.

You KNOW a novel is only as good as its villains are bad. Halloween is a great time to do some villainous self-evaluation. ("Self" refers to your story here, please don’t spend time contemplating how to bring out your bad self. Please.)

In fact, let's do this together. Share your favorite villain and explain why they were so effective to you. Let's get the *blood* flowing on how to conjour up some truly mean people.
(This post originally published at Smashing Stories)