Charlie Stross
Writing Wonders Day 8/31. Has your MC or antagonist ever approved of something the other’s done?
(Ghost engine)
MCs: are horrified to discover the antagonist exists, for good reason
Antagonist: if he was aware of the existence of the MCs' species he'd launch a genocidal crusade to exterminate them (and it wouldn't be his first genocide)
Charlie Stross
On consideration, I generally go with vast impersonal forces, bureaucracies, or alien gods as antagonists, rather than individuals.
novatorine 🏴🏳️⚧️
@Remittancegirl @cstross hell yes. And the more theatrical and bombastic and unapologetically Nietzschean, the better. It's why Apollonius from Red Rising is one of my favorites
Madeleine Morris
@cstross While I enjoy a good, faceless evil as antagonist, I admit to really loving a well-constructed singular evil villain.
Charlie Stross
@anarchopunk_girl @Remittancegirl Alas, I have 15K words of offcuts from the recent space opera looking for a new home because my villain wanted to monologue at a captive audience AT LENGTH and he basically stole the entire novel
(which wasn't about him). (Previous villains managed not to monologue for more than 2.5K words but this one went Full John Galt In Spaaace.)
novatorine 🏴🏳️⚧️
@cstross @Remittancegirl that sounds amazing lmao I love a good monologue
Passenger
@cstross @Remittancegirl @anarchopunk_girl
I would buy a novel-length book which is nothing but a Nietzschean villain monologuing to themselves, possibly in the shower, about the events of each passing day.
Wait, that's just Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog.
Charlie Stross
@Remittancegirl @anarchopunk_girl Alas, the book's better without his monologue. (But it's almost long enough to run as a novella in its own right!)
Madeleine Morris
@cstross @anarchopunk_girl I miss, with an ache I cannot properly express, when characters do that. Even as you know it’s burning time and word count, it’s still a specifically writerly enjoyment
novatorine 🏴🏳️⚧️
@passenger @cstross @Remittancegirl now I NEED to find that blog
novatorine 🏴🏳️⚧️
@cstross @Remittancegirl you could go full Frank Herbert Stolen Journals with it and have a side novella entirely narrated in first person in that villain's head so that the entire thing is just a gigantic monologue about everything that's going on :D
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