I’m Nina Milton, and this blog is all about getting out the laptop or the pen and pad to get writing. My blogposts are focused on advice and suggestions and news for writers, but also on a love reading with plenty of reviews, and a look at my pagan life, plus arts and culture. Get all my posts as they appear by becoming a subscriber. Click below right...

Thursday 23 July 2020

STARTING TO WRITE: Villains; what would do without them?



In my latest blogpost for the Open College of the Arts, I ask the question, "What would we do without villains?"

I examine the idea that fiction needs villains, and ask; can stories survive without active opposition or  hostility from any quarter, human, or not? Can a writer completely do without an antagonist? Even the most worthy literature falls very flat without dramatic tension, and that does have to spring from some kind of conflict, which is usually described as the antagonist, whether this is a supernatural entity, an internal struggle, a jealous lover, or tsunami. 

I look at different types of antagonists, contagonists and protagonists through some interesting books, from Misery to Gone Girl. From Les Miserable to One Flew over the Cuckoo's
Nest. From the Catcher in the Rye to Big Fish.

And what conclusions do I reach? Do we really need the evil villain in our stories? Just remember the first principle of writing is – no conflict, no story.