Watched my villain turn into a whiny kid at the 3rd rewrite in a diner in Omaha | Creative Writing Prompts - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Watched my villain turn into a whiny kid at the 3rd rewrite in a diner in Omaha
Sat in a booth at a diner in Omaha last Tuesday with my outline for a short story, and hit a wall around page 6 because my villain started crying about his childhood and totally lost the scary vibe. Wrote the whole middle on one napkin, crossed out two backstory scenes, and gave him a dumb little habit of tapping his fork on the table instead, which somehow fixed him. The story is 1,400 words now and the guy feels way more scary just from that one small move. It was a good reminder that a prompt about a bad guy can go soft real fast if you let him explain himself. What small habit do you give a character when their backstory starts taking over?