Category Archives: villain

Top Five Amazing Pirate Facts I Discovered During my Research

15 Tuesday Dec 2020

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My debut novel Traitor’s Revenge, a pirate steampunk adventure, came out the other week and I’m very proud of all the hard work I put into it. One of the best parts of writing the book was all the weird facts I discovered about pirates during my research, many of which I’ve managed to work into the series. These are some of my favourites:

  1. Pirates practised gay marriage

Well, not exactly marriage in the way we understand it today. Pirates did have a practise called ‘matelotage’ between two male pirates, which worked as a sort of life insurance policy. Piracy was incredibly dangerous so in the very likely chance that you would be blown to pieces during a fight, your friend could inherit all of your money and possessions, and would have a financial safety net when you were gone. Sexual relationships between pirates in matelotage has been recorded, so it’s likely that some of these relationships were romantic in nature, too. Homosexuality was so common amongst pirates that prostitutes were sent to the island of Tortuga to try and put a stop to it. All it did was turn them into polyamorous, bisexual pirates.

  1. Pirates played mock trial

With long, tedious stretches of time between fights and nothing much for entertainment (most pirates were illiterate), one of the most common forms of entertainment for pirates was to put on mock piracy trials and pretend to condemn one another to death. No doubt this was at least partially to mock the authorities who were out to get them, too.

  1. There were government sanctioned pirates

It may seem hypocritical, and it was, but the same governments which worked so hard to put a stop to piracy encouraged the practise themselves. Privateers were essentially legal pirates with pieces of paper known as ‘letters of marque’ which said that they could attack and loot other ships as much as they wanted, even taking slaves. Because of course, anything is fine if the government says you can do it.

  1. The ‘pirate accent’ is just a regional dialect

When we think of ‘pirate talk’, we imagine a lot of ‘argh mateys’. Truthfully, this is just the West Country accent common around the British port city of Bristol. Pirates came from all over and had a range of different accents, languages, and dialects. We only associated the West Country accent because of actor Robert Newton, who played Long John Silver in the 1950 version adaptation of Treasure Island and appeared in many other pirate films. He exaggerated his south-west accent and the association stuck. However, being a major port city at the time, some famous pirates such as Blackbeard did come from Bristol, so it’s likely that at least some of them did speak in the ‘pirate accent’.

  1. Pirates mostly stole essentials

Another common association with pirates is stealing hefty chests full of gold and treasure. They probably wouldn’t have said no to it, but such valuables would have been difficult to sell, and wouldn’t have sustained them during long sea voyages. If your ship was held up by pirates, they would be much more likely to steal food, fresh water, building material, spices, and most valuable of all; medicine. Not only could they use these, they were much easier to sell in the next port.

If you like pirate stories, my novel Traitor’s Revenge is out now.

Or sign up to the Undersea newsletter to get release dates for further books in the series, special offers, and exclusive free short stories.

This is unrelated to anything else, but I just have to draw attention to this amazing stock image I found when looking for images for this post:

Clearly I’m writing in the wrong genre…

Tales From Undersea – Traitor’s Revenge (excerpt)

04 Monday May 2020

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“Move aside. I’ll take her,” a new Viking joined the fight, the others parting to let him pass. Judging by his age, the quality of the axe in his hand, and the commanding tone of his voice, Alethea guessed that this was the Viking Chieftain.

A roar from Iku-turso interrupted their fight. Each of them instinctively covered their ears, forgetting that they were all wearing diving helmets.

“Chief,” one of the Vikings said over the sound. He was a tall Polynesian man with ink black skin and long hair which flowed in the water. His Viking attire was decorated with patterns and symbols of the Polynesian islands and a shark toothed club hung from his holster. The man looked as if he could punch through walls and kill an elephant with a single fist.

“Not now, Inoki,” the Chieftain said, not looking at him as he swam closer to Alethea, who gripped her own sword tighter. She considered how quickly she could draw her gun from her holster and fire, or how quickly she could draw Robert’s gun from its hidden pouch if she needed to.

“Chief, it’s about to rip the Fenrir apart. We need to leave now,” Inoki said, placing a large hand on the Chief’s shoulder.

Alethea risked a glance to see that the creature, blood pouring from its cut tentacle, close to tearing off the Fenrir’s hull. Glances between the Vikings told them that they would have to leave, without the stone.

“Damn you pirate arseholes. Think you rule the entire ocean,” one of the more particularly violent Vikings said, throwing his axe to the ground in frustration. It took him a moment to remember that he was underwater and desperately grabbed it again before it floated to the surface.

The Chieftain said nothing. He kicked himself off his crewmate to cross the distance to Alethea. She barely raised her sword in time to clash against his axe.

“I hope you don’t think Redscalp’s treasure is yours to take, Barracuda,” he growled.

There was something in his voice which shook Alethea. Something which bothered her even more than the axe in his hand or the monster roaring close by.

“Who are you?” she asked without knowing why.

With a motion so swift it made her gasp, he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer. She could see his face clearly through his helmet. She could see his greying red hair streaked across his forehead and his dark brown eyes, looking straight into hers as if he were inspecting her. Even in the cold Nordic sea, her blood seemed to boil.

“I already told you, I’m Petturi Konna. And I am the rightful heir to Redscalp’s treasure. It’s what I’m owed.”

 

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Why I love fairy tales (but I hate fairy stories)

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by in anime, Blog, criticism, fairy tale, fantasy, musings, villain, writing

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I love fairy tales and love writing stories adapting or subverting their tropes. But one thing you will never find me writing is stories about fairies, or even featuring fairies, because personally I can’t stand them and have no interest in writing about them.

If this may seem odd, consider the difference between a fairy tale and a fairy story. In his essay On Fairy Tales, J.R.R Tolkien defined a fairy tale as a story dealing with the land of faery and mankind’s relationship with it. They often work as cautionary tales about wandering into the realm of the fae and not being able to return to the ‘real’ world.

‘Faery’ is a fairly broad term but it generally refers to what ancient cultures believed was a world parallel to but connected to our own filled with other-worldly creatures. Fairies were one such creature, but not the only ones which were said to inhabit it.


By contrast, Tolkien defined fantasy as something set in an entirely invented world, like his own Middle Earth. More authors are making subversions by returning to the fae variety, but what we now call fairies tend to be creatures of fantasy rather than mythology. They tend to be small, humanoid beings, usually with wings and some form of magical powers.


The reason these fairies never resonated with me is because each interpretation tends to fall into one of these categories:

1. Too generic. It’s difficult for me to love any fantasy creature if the author doesn’t do at least something new with it.
2. Too girly. Not that I’m against girly (I’m a big fan of My Little Pony) but so many writers try to make their fairies too saccharine and sweet, which makes me feel like they just vomited glitter all over the page.
3. Too bitchy. I guess this is supposed to be a subversion of the girly variety, but it tends to come across to me as making them overly mean for no real reason.

This doesn’t mean that I hate all stories with fairies, however. I like the weather fairies in A Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar and the sweets spirits in Yumeiro Pâtissière since despite being overly cutsy, they were still different than the standard fare and their story arcs were just as strong and significant as those of their human friends.


By far my favourite fairies in any form of fiction were the three good fairies – Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather – in Disney’s version of Sleeping Beauty. This is because they were well-rounded, funny, and interesting characters, in fact they were far more heroic than the incredibly bland and useless titular character.


While their magical powers were fairly generic and the film does rely upon incredibly black and white ideas of good and evil, the three of them avoided being either too girly or too bitchy by becoming developed characters rather than fairy archetypes. They had positive and negative qualities, they created some of the best comedy that’s ever been seen in a Disney film, they were loving to Aurora despite her complete lack of a personality, and when the time came to it they were completely badass. Really, the King and Queen should have given control of the kingdom to them at the end, since they were the only ones who had any sense (destroying all the spinning wheels in the kingdom both destroyed the economy and left everyone naked, your majesty).

The villainess Maleficent is also technically a fairy (which is why the re-make made her more like the fae variety) but also greatly different than most ‘bad’ fairies in fiction. True her motivation is for incredibly petty reasons, only because she wasn’t invited to a party, but she is still one of the most memorable villains that Disney has ever made. Even sixty years later, she is still the benchmark against which all other animated villains are measured. The strong characterisation of both the good and evil fairies is what makes Sleeping Beauty into both a fairy tale and a good story about fairies.


What are your thoughts on fairy tales and fairy stories? What are your favourite and least favourite fictional fairies? Tell me in the comments below!

My Top Six Childhood Traumas

05 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Blog, fantasy, film, story, villain

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I’ve seen a lot of videos on Youtube lately about childhood traumas – the movies or tv shows which gave people nightmares when they were children. It’s a real eye opener into what people found scary when they are children, compared to when they’re adults. There are a lot of things you’d expect children to fear which they don’t find frightening at all. I was never scared by Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark. But there are a lot of things which end up frightening children when they’re not supposed to, even when they’re intended to be cute and harmless. These are my top childhood traumas which freaked me out when I was younger, and still do a little bit today:

Muppet Christmas Carol

Muppet Christmas Carol is now amongst my favourite Christmas films, and the season doesn’t feel complete without watching it at least once. But the reason why it is one of the best adaptations of A Christmas Carol is because the filmmakers knew that it was primarily a ghost story, and the addition of Muppets somehow only makes it scarier. The parts which always freaked me out when I was young where when the doorknocker turns into the face of Jacob Marley, the entire scene right before the ghosts first appear, and of course the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who literally has the face of death.

Jumanji

I’ve only seen this film once when it first came out, but it terrified me so much that I can’t bring myself to watch it again, or even the reboot. I genuinely don’t know why they thought this would be an ideal film for children, just because they cast Robin Williams in it. It was made in the early days of CGI when it was still incredibly uncanny, and having all of them coming straight at the camera only makes it worse.

The burglars from Home Alone

How could the most popular family comedy of the 90’s possibly traumatise me? Because it prays on the primal childhood fear of burglars breaking into your house and trying to hurt you. The burglars were genuinely terrifying until Kevin set all of his death traps, and even a little bit afterwards. The video game was even worse. I always felt a lot of anxiety for the burglars capturing my character and hanging him on a hook. I think that’s part of the reason why I can’t stand playing video games today.

The junk yard from The Brave Little Toaster

Have you ever noticed what an incredible work of art The Brave Little Toaster is? On first glance, it seems like just another animated children’s film about talking objects. Instead, it’s a painfully poignant tale about what becomes of your life when you can no longer meet your purpose.

The junk yard scene is one of the most frightening scenes in any children’s film, when you think about it. As the cars sing upbeat tune which sounds like it could have come from Rocky Horror, they reminisce about their lives as one by one they are picked up by the omnipotent magnet and dropped onto a conveyer belt to be crushed to death. The magnet is a sort-of metaphor for the Grim Reaper – It picks up the cars and other pieces of junk seemingly at random with no mercy to meet their demise. The cars know that their deaths are inevitable, they just don’t know when it is coming.

I think I need to go and watch My Little Pony for a while…

Return to Oz

Because I’m one of those ‘edgy’ kids, I much prefer Return to Oz to the original The Wizard of Oz, but again, it took me several years of therapy to come to fully appreciate it. First, Dorothy’s aunt and uncle send her to an asylum for electric shock therapy treatment. Next, when she’s back in Oz, she’s stalked by these terrifying wheeler things. Then she’s imprisoned by a woman who has a whole collection of interchangeable heads. When Dorothy tries to steal from her, they all start screaming while the headless body comes after her. Even the uncanny stop motion on the mountain thing was nothing after that horror.

Now that I think of it, couldn’t you escape the wheelers just by climbing some stairs?

Chernobog from Fantasia

Say, here’s a good idea; Let’s raise children as innocent little Christians, instil a fear of hell and demons inside of them to keep them away from bad things like gay thoughts, and then let’s put FUCKING THIS into a Disney film:

Seriously, Walt Disney did know that he had to include a little darkness in his films (Have you ever actually watched Pinocchio? It’s fucked up.), but why did he think it would be a good idea to put the literal, actual devil into the same film as prancing hippos, dancing flowers, and pretty centaurs?

Remember kids, the devil is coming for you!

Nowadays, I can appreciate the sequence for its artistry, and actually admire that they managed to get away with something so intense in the 1940s (this was the same decade when you couldn’t even say the word ‘virgin’ on screen).

But as a sheltered Christian child, I was so scared whenever the Night on Bald Mountain segment started that I fled to the other room. It hadn’t occurred to me yet that I could just turn off the VHS. And I didn’t know that if I had kept watching, I would’ve found out that Chernobog is a complete pussy who is scared off by just a bit of light and choral music. But six-year-old me just didn’t know any better.

 

What were your childhood traumas from film and television which scared you when you were younger? Were my fears justified, or was I a complete baby? Tell me in the comments below!

Top Four Book Subplots Which Were Better Than the Main Plot

20 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in author, Blog, Common Criticism, criticism, fantasy, romance, story, villain, writing, writing advice

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Subplots and side characters serve an important narrative role in fiction. They fill out the world and break up the story so that the main cast aren’t overwhelmed with solving every problem. This is why authors should give just as much love and attention to them as they do the main plot and characters. But there are some books in which the subplots and the characters within them are actually better than the main plot. Sometimes you find yourself dragging through the main plot and waiting with anticipation for the subplot to start up again. These are some subplots which I liked far better than the novel’s main plot (again, this is all opinion based, so don’t get your panties in a bunch if I include something you like):

Eragon – Roran’s story

The main plot: A Gary-Stu stumbles upon an adorable baby dragon and a bunch of other abilities and makes a lot of powerful friends. They travel the world of inexplicable geography to rip of Star Wars and every other fantasy story ever to take down the evil emperor, who is only evil because the author says he is. At one point the protagonist spends an entire chapter hanging around some woods and thinking about how ants are neat.

The sub plot: A normal farm boy with no special powers or privileges goes out into a world he barely knows to avenge his fallen father, save the survivors of his village, and rescue his true love, all so that he can return to living a normal life with the ones he loves.

So awesome that they were of course cut from the movie

The Hunger Games – Basically any of the other subplots

The main plot: A girl appears on a reality tv death show, takes down the government, and still has time for the most overblown love triangle ever. All for a poorly thought out social commentary that rich people are bad (who knew?).

The sub plot: Two kindred spirits both suffering from post-traumatic stress have a forbidden romance with one of them being used by the President as a sex slave, yet still help the other deal with their mental issues. When they finally wind up happy together, one of them is unceremoniously killed off-page.

The other sub plot: At age 12, Rue is already caring for her younger siblings until she is chosen for The Hunger Games, or super happy death camp. She survives for a long time thanks to her hiding abilities until her death sparks the first riot amongst the regular population which leads to the takedown of the government.

How the entire series went in my head

His Dark Materials – Mary Malone and the mulefa

The main plot: Two super special awesome kids with overpowered plot devices go on a quest to kill God, despite having no real qualms against him, go to the world of the dead just because they can, and have a tragic ending for no real reason. The message is that religion is a lie, even though God and the afterlife literally exist in this multiverse.

The sub plot: A nun-turned-scientist discovers gateways between worlds and comes to live with a bizarre alternate reality race who help her uncover the nature of the entire universe and how to save it.

The Princess Bride – Inigo Montoya’s revenge

The main plot: In the book version at least, two overblown romance novel stereotypes with no real personalities or likeable attributes go through a bunch of overblown romance novel clichés and almost die for each other BECAUSE TRUE LOVE!!

The sub plot: A man who witnessed his father’s murder as a child dedicates his entire life to avenging him, but instead becomes a washed up drunk assisting the main idiots with their stupid problems. He finally gets his revenge in the most awesome fight scene ever and becomes a legendary pirate, showing us how far a person will really go for the sake of true love.

The real reason we all read the book

Top Five Anime Cliches That Novelists Should Avoid

13 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in anime, Common Criticism, criticism, fantasy, romance, shojo, story, villain, writing, writing advice

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When I began my first novel, I spent a lot of my free time watching anime. This bled into my writing and caused me to fill my book with characters and plot elements similar to those I had seen in anime.

It was only when I looked back at my first drafts that I saw just how out of place this influence was. These tropes are perfectly acceptable in anime, even if most of them are considered clichés, but don’t belong in a novel. If you’re having the same problem that I had, these are some of the anime stereotypes to look out for and leave out of your novel:

Complex love charts

Practically every anime has a complex chart of who has a crush on who, setting the ground for how the chart will be sorted out and who is going to end up with who in the end. A novel doesn’t have the same amount of time for relationship development as a 52-episode anime, so it won’t have the space to solve such a complex love chart. Novel readers also aren’t as into love triangles as anime fans are, despite what publishers will have you believe. Keep your love charts as simple as possible and resolve them fully by the end of your book.

But the chart says…

Anime hair

I’m majorly jealous of the girls in anime. They all have wacky hair colours in styles that are impossible in real life. It’s tempting to give your novel characters a similar appearance in order to make them a little more different or quirky. But while we expect girls in anime to have weird hair colours and styles, it won’t make as much sense in a novel, unless you can somehow explain where a medieval-esque fantasy society are getting so much hair dye.

Oh sure, it’s easy when you wear a wig…

Casual physical abuse

The trademark of the ‘yandere’ character is to punch their love interest into the sunset for the smallest of mistakes. Not only is this considered horribly abusive behaviour, it makes the characters despicable, not lovable. In real life, this person would either be in jail or undergoing severe psychiatric treatment. If your novel characters abuse their partners, or anyone else, it should only be if you are writing them as purposefully villainous.

Typical anime love interest

Harems

A classic anime story – A completely normal, average guy, serving as the surrogate for the romantically frustrated male audience, winds up with at least half a dozen beautiful young girls, who all magically love him despite his complete lack of a personality. It’s a male fantasy that may work in anime and visual novel games, but has no place in actual novels.

Not pictured: Personality

Lovable pervert

I think it’s fairly obvious what this character is all about. It’s difficult to make an outwardly perverted character likeable, as they will come across as creepy and rapey instead. If you try to make this character into the love interest, it will be even more unbelievable, as nobody will believe that this person can magically become monogamous through the power of love. Your novel characters may experience attraction or a sexual awakening like everyone does, but try to keep their perversions to a minimum.

The Villain Redemption Story. Part 3 – How to Write a Villain Redemption Story

04 Friday Nov 2016

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In this series, I’ve previously looked at why you should consider a villain redemption arc, when is the right time in a story to redeem a villain, and the things to avoid. Now it’s time to finally look at how to write the villain redemption arc.

Just like with any good writing trope, a villain redemption story relies on one important ingredient – A story arc. In cartoons, you may see villains changing their tune completely with the minimum amount of convincing, but that is mostly due to time constraints. In a novel, particularly in a fantasy story, you have more space to write an ongoing story arc to show the villain’s gradual change. In real life, people don’t change their entire attitude in a single day or after hearing a single heartfelt speech. It takes years for that sort of change to happen. Here are a few other ways that you can write this story arc:

  1. Leave Hints Throughout the Story

Similar to dropping foreshadowing throughout your story, leaving some hints that your villain has the potential for good will help when it does come time for them to change. It goes beyond ‘they’re evil but still love their pet dog’. Even the worst people in history had loved ones and pets they cared for. It could instead be an indication of the outside forces that turned them bad or having them show a hint of sympathy at a time when they didn’t need to.

  1. Research Real Life Cases

All good writers do their research, and the same is true here. It is useful to look up some real life examples of former extremists who changed their attitudes to see how it can happen realistically. Check out this story of a former member of a South African militia. You can see that there was a key moment when he realised that he was on the wrong side, but it only came about after a long period of doubt, and even that wasn’t enough for him to leave the militia immediately.

  1. Show the Consequences

So the villain has left their evil ways behind, now they can join the good guy’s team and fight evil themselves, right? It isn’t quite as clean as that. Actions have consequences and even if the person has been forgiven and is trying to redeem themselves, they will have to deal with these consequences and travel a difficult road to redemption.

First there is the emotional weight they have to deal with. How do they feel when they realise the thing they’ve believed in their whole lives was a lie? Do they respond with denial, depression, or by turning their anger against a new target? It isn’t always easy for people to abandon their old lives, especially if they still have family ties towards it.

They don’t have to be completely perfect straight away, but can instead transition into being good, or at least better than they were. It is more realistic, and holds more emotional weight, to show them accidentally letting out an offensive slur, acting aggressively, or holding onto old habits rather than immediately opening a puppy farm. And of course, there will still be a lot of guilt for them to deal with.

  1. Make the Punishment Fit the Crime
Sure he killed dozens of people, but at least he didn't eat their flesh.

Sure he killed dozens of people, but at least he didn’t eat their flesh.

Even if you want your character to be forgiven, they should ideally have to undergo some form of punishment for their crimes first. A reader will feel cheated if a former villain immediately gets away with everything they did just because they said ‘I’ll be good from now on’. Similarly, if a villain has taken steps for redemption but still receives an unfair punishment, the reader will feel equally cheated.

  1. Subvert the Tropes

As much as I’ve said that there are certain tropes that should be avoided, you can still put interesting twists on them to create a unique story. Take the mind wipe, for instance. Instead of brainwashing the villain into their own ideology, suppose the hero has to do it because they have no choice (I seriously thought this was how Gravity Falls was going to end). This opens up the possibility for the hero to question their own morality, having a sort of redemption arc of their own. Perhaps they could use it as an opportunity to teach the villain how to use their powers for good. And what could happen if the villain does get their memories back? The story possibilities that come from subverted tropes are endless.

 

There are a lot of villain redemption stories which weren’t handled well. But those that are become some of the most emotional, interesting, and though provoking stories of all. Be sure to focus on the story arc and avoid the pitfalls and you can have a unique redemption plot in your own novel.

The Villain Redemption Story. Part 2: When to Redeem Villains

05 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by in Common Criticism, culture, fantasy, film, musings, story, tv, villain, writing, writing advice

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I previously wrote about the villain redemption story and why it is such a great story to write about. But just like with every type of story, it can only work if it is done correctly. There are villain redemption stories which work and ones which don’t work. When is it right for a villain to be redeemed and when should they be left as they are? I’ve listed some examples of both to help identify when the right time to redeem a villain is:

  1. The Comic Villain

Discord_sitting_ashamed_S03E10

Cartoonishly comic villains such as Discord, Gideon Gleeful, or Dr. Doofenshmirtz were all funny villain characters but they could also be genuine threats, and sometimes even outright terrifying. This type of villain can be redeemed since they are rarely the standard big bads so it is easier for readers to relate to and even sympathise with them. Funny villains are often much more incompetent compared to their darker counterparts so we can buy that they can be converted to the good side.

  1. Story Potential

As I mentioned, there are countless numbers of stories you can have with a redeemed villain. It is often an ongoing process that can stretch over several books and provide your readers with many moral questions to mull over.

  1. The Morality Pet

Ideally someone needs to show the villain the error of their ways and inspire them on the path to goodness. The morality pet trope is ideal for this, by providing the villain with a change in perspective, giving them something they can care for, and showing the readers their good side in how they protect and care for that person.

When not to redeem villains:

  1. For the Sake of Drama

While the villain redemption story can increase drama, using it purely for the sake of increased drama rarely works well. There needs to be a reason for the drama to exist otherwise it will seem forced and unconvincing. Don’t shove in a redemption arc into your story just for the sake of it either. If you look at your story and find that a redemption arc doesn’t fit into it anywhere, then don’t feel as if you need to include one.

  1. The Moral Guardian Ending

I call it this because a villain redeemed at the very end of the story with no build up feels like an ending suggested by a focus group or a concerned parent’s union and not by the author. If you have your villain change at the very end just for the sake of everyone feeling happy and getting along, the concerned parents may be happy but your readers won’t be. It is much better to redeem a villain with an ongoing story arc, and even with good characters struggling with viewing them as good, instead of at the last minute.

  1. Mind Wipe

A common way that writers try to force in the Moral Guardian Ending is not by having the villain decide to change but for the heroes to turn them good by use of magic. This is problematic for two reasons. First of all, it is assuming that good and evil are easily identifiable, when as I discussed earlier they are in fact subjective and sometimes even ambiguous. Secondly, it doesn’t look too good when the hero essentially mind rapes the villain into thinking exactly as they do. If the villain did something like that then everybody would be saying how terrible it is.

The Care Bears were the real villains all along...

The Care Bears were the real villains all along…

  1. Irredeemable Villains

200px-ClaudeFrollo

While many villains can be redeemed, there are others who can’t be redeemed and shouldn’t. These are characters who you want to see punished. In Disney’s adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Frollo spends the story as a murderous bigot so it is intensely satisfying when he is flung down to hell at the end. If a villain has no reason to be forgiven for something truly evil then they shouldn’t be, by either the characters or the author. Otherwise readers will be wondering why other characters are showing sympathy for a villain who doesn’t deserve it or why they should feel any sympathy themselves.

Next time I’ll be taking these last two posts together and detail fully how to write the villain redemption story.

Book Review – A Company of Swans

18 Friday Mar 2016

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A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson. Published by Macmillan Children’s Books.

a company of swans

A Company of Swans is a coming of age story following the journey of 18 year old Harriet Morton in 1912. Under the strict supervision of her father, who is literally the most boring professor in the world, her spinster aunt, and the local Ladies’ Tea Circle, Harriet lives a joyless life. Despite her academic upbringing, her father won’t let her go to university as he expects her to marry her suitor, a young zoology professor named Dr. Edward Finch-Dutton. Harriet’s only outlet is her weekly ballet classes, which she excels at. When she is offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to join a famous Russian ballet company and perform in the most luxurious opera house in the world, Harriet is ecstatic but of course her father refuses.

Harriet defies her father and runs away to join the troupe regardless. In the far away exotic city of Manaus in Brazil, she performs for the rich rubber barons and wins the heart of the charming owner of the opera house. But her father, aunt, and would-be-fiancé are eager to bring her back and are on her tail.

Instantly, this book ticks all of my boxes. A strong and likeable female protagonist? Yes. A girl in a historical setting defying the patriarchy? Yes. Ballet? Hell yes! Any other readers who are into such things will enjoy this novel as well. Even those who aren’t into ballet can enjoy it for its other elements. Although the book is classed as young adult, there is plenty for older readers to get into as well (although not so much younger readers due to a few risque plot points).

While the father and aunt are fairly stereotypical characters, I appreciated that Harriet’s suitor Edward isn’t the standard evil fiancé who is only there to make the main love interest look better by comparison. There are surprisingly several things to like about him. He allows female students in his class, which Harriet’s father wouldn’t dream of, and he is an accomplished and passionate zoologist at a time when the science was still new and under-appreciated. In fact, his love of discovering new insect species could be compared to Harriet’s love of ballet. His desire to ‘save’ Harriet isn’t out of a sense of evil or a need to possess her but out of a misplaced sense of Edwardian manliness.

The major let down for me, however, was the ending. I won’t spoil it but it did turn out differently from what I was hoping for. Perhaps it is unfair of me to judge historical fiction from a modern day feminist perspective but considering how the rest of the book was such a great ‘screw you’ to social norms at the time, it was a disappointment. It is still a happy ending and much more than what a young girl of Harriet’s social class could expect at the time but some readers may also be put off by this ending.

The book is generally well written but the flowery language and sudden point of view shifts can be distracting.  The author also has a tendency to delve into the backstory of everyone and everything as soon as they’re introduced, but this tones down considerably in the latter half of the book.

I would still recommend checking out this book so that you can judge the ending for yourself. Perhaps your perspective on it will be different than mine and you will see it in a more positive light. It is still an enthralling tale of romance, accomplishing your dreams, and the magic of ballet.

My verdict – 4 out of 5

The Villain Redemption Story. Part 1: Why Redeem Villains?

22 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by in Common Criticism, culture, fairy tale, fantasy, film, story, villain, writing, writing advice

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In classic storytelling there are two types of characters, good guys and bad guys. They both serve important purposes. The hero is intended as the person we should all strive to be and who’s story we want to follow and watch as they succeed. The villain is needed to provide a foil to them, give the hero somebody to fight, create conflict by keeping them from what they want, and show us what we shouldn’t try to be.

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In recent years, writers are starting to deconstruct classic villain tropes and present different types of villain. There’s the anti-hero who fits in a morally grey area (Game of Throne’s Tyrion Lannister), the protagonist villain (Lolita’s Humbert Humbert), and the redeemed villain (Ebeneezer Scrooge, perhaps the most famous example). Not that there’s anything wrong with the classic baddie, there are many big bads who we all love to hate. But it’s reached the point where that character has become clichéd and boring and we like to see different types of villain and villain story arcs. These often form some of the most interesting and memorable stories of all. Changes to society mean that some people who were previously seen as villains are now the heroes, and vice-versa. Here are some reasons why I really love the villain redemption story and why you should consider it in your own stories:

  1. It opens up the possibility for more types of story other than the standard good vs. evil. This post on Tumblr gives a whole list of villain redemption stories which have hardly ever been seen so far.
  2. It asks some important questions, like can people ever be truly forgiven for an act of evil. A good example is a book I recently reviewed and haven’t stopped gushing about since, Before the Court of Heaven. It tells the story of the real life German assassin Ernst Techow. In the first half of the book I hated him because of his racism and lack of empathy for his Jewish victims. In the second half he goes through a surprisingly touching change of heart but no matter how much good he tries to do, he can never change the terrible things he did in his youth and never truly forgive himself.
  3. There is some of the best potential for character development. Like the example above, the hero isn’t the only one who has to go through the hero’s journey. Character development is the key stone of all good stories and what could be better than the development from bad to good?
  4. More potential for drama. I don’t think that story tropes should be thrown in purely for the sake of increased drama, but if a story is lagging then a villain redemption plot could be what it is lacking. It is unique, emotional, memorable, and opens up the doorway to many more future stories.
  5. It can teach the protagonist an important lesson about themselves and have a great impact in their own story arc. Villains are supposed to be the opposite of the hero and keep them from what they want. One way for the hero to get what they want isn’t just to defeat the villain but change them for the better. It says a lot about a hero if they are willing to take a chance on the villain instead of taking the easy option of running their sword through them. Or perhaps the change in the villain inspires the hero to change in a way too or shows them what is truly important.

In my next post, I’ll talk about when to redeem a villain and when not to, and provide more examples of villain redemption stories done right.