Wednesday, March 06, 2019

IWSG: Heroes and Villians

It's time for the monthly post for the Inscecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about them on their website, Facebook, or Twitter feed.

Our hosts for March are Fundy Blue, Beverly Stowe McClure, Erika Beebe, and Lisa Buie-Collard.

Our question for the month is Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or villain (antagonist)? And why?

 All of my stories are written from the protagonist's perspective, though occasionally I'll include the antagonist's perspective. As a reader, I assume the first perspective I'm exposed to in a story is the protagonist's, so that's part of the reason why I use it more. Stories are typically meant to be a hero or heroine's journey, so it's helpful to follow their perspective to understand how the events in the story change them and help them develop. Antagonists generally don't develop at the same rate or fail to change; however, there are stories where the line between hero and villain can be quite thin. (Some stories make an antagonist from another story the hero, so you see actions from his/her perspective.) Another reason for not writing so much from the villain's perspective is to keep some of his/her actions secret so as not to spoil a twist. Sometimes I do want to show some of a villain's plans, but their scenes are far fewer and less extensive than the hero/ine's.

Whose perspective do you like to write from? Is there a perspective you prefer to read? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

7 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Stories that follow the villain from another story end up pretty interesting. But like you, I'm more of a hero writer.
Heroes and Villains - that's a cool song by a band called T-Ride. (Old school, early nineties.)

Erika Beebe said...

I like your thought on keeping the actions of the villain secret. I do like a good suspense. Happy IWSG Day :)

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

Alex, is that song a cover of the Beach Boys' song?

Thanks, Erika!

emaginette said...

If the pov of the first person that appears in the story is the protagonist, then my last story was @$$-backwards. Oh well, it's all part of my personal ARC. hehehe

Anna from elements of emaginette

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Most of my stories are "a slice of life" (as my husband calls it) and in real life, it's just mostly people trying to do the right thing but coming in with baggage. So I prefer the hero viewpoint.

Lauren Macrie said...

Great point about not wanting to give away any plot twists by exposing the antagonist's thought process. It certainly takes a special technique to write from the villain's perspective. I'd like to develop it someday!

Rämmengården said...

Your book look interesting. Is them translate to swedish? Have a Nice Day. Hugs from Nina

Site Meter