Good morning, fellow imaginers! Welcome to your weekend edition of the YJBLiterary blog! I hope things are well on your end, and I’m happy to have you all back for Part 2 of last week’s article. When we last left off, we were dissecting one of the main characters of Fallout, the antagonist, General Derek Stone, and discussing the importance of creating a compelling villain. I’ve been reading “The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction” by Philip Athans, and he has some excellent exercises on how to continue to develop develop the characters within your novels. While we broke down General Stone’s general outline last week, today we will be using the exercises from the book to explore the villain further, specifically how he comes to inhabit our main character’s world and how he directly opposes the protagonist’s goals. Here is my example based around General Stone:
Who are they: General Derek Stone
Where did they come from: Monroeville, Alabama is his birthplace, however, he has lived all over being in the military. He had settled down in Nevada, where he was helping to oversee the Carcerem for the majority of his career, and his experiences there helped define him and his goals/motivations within the novel
What are they doing: General Stone is attempting to use his influence within the government and the current state of affairs following the Escabana Bombings to his advantage. He wishes to use public fear and misinformation through the media in order to push his own agenda: the eradication of the metamorph threat.
Why are they doing it: General Stone experienced a personal tragedy at the hands of an unstable metamorph earlier in his life. Between that event and his personal dealings with dangerous metamorphs within the Carcerem, he has grown to fear the potential that metamorphs have for endangering innocent human lives, a fear which is not entirely unfounded.
How will they do it: General Stone hopes to establish his plan through four phases- enact the Metamorph Registration Act, initiate the creation of the S.W.A.R.M., discredit Tristan and his friends, and oversee mandatory incarcerations of potentially dangerous metamorphs into his detainment centers.
What’s at stake: In the General’s eyes, he sees himself as an American hero, protecting innocent humans from the pain and suffering he himself had to go through. He honestly believes that what he is doing is in the best interest of not only humans, but metamorphs everywhere. He wants to save the world from potential destruction and maintain order, and he is convinced that the only way is through his design.
With this detailed overview, we get a little deeper into the psyche of General Stone, and combined with the questions from Part 1, have a fully fleshed out character! I hope you all enjoyed this article and that it gave you further insight on how to enhance your character’s depth. Make sure you subscribe to the blog and newsletter, and until next time, keep imagining!
Photo by CMDR Shane on Unsplash