Jackson Dean Chase - Writing Heroes and Villains: A Masterclass in Genre Fiction

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by USA TODAY bestselling author

JACKSON DEAN CHASE

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Welcome to The Ultimate Authors Guide to Writing Heroes & Villains. This edition collects the first three volumes of my bestselling How to Write Realistic Fiction series, including quick start guides on How to Write Realistic Characters, How to Write Realistic Men, and How to Write Realistic Women. For this ultimate edition, I have revised and expanded them all.

This book is jam-packed with the essentials of how to write compelling heroes, villains, love interests, sidekicks, and teams, all the way down to the entire supporting cast and even those wacky minor characters that add so much spice to scenes.

It includes how to write anti-heroes, reluctant heroes, and catalyst heroes, plus templates for the heroic everyman, tricksters, warriors, and characters with special powers (whether psychic, superhero, or supernatural).

Not only do I cover all that hero business, but I cover villains too: tempters, traitors, false mentors, and the rest of the rogues gallery we love to hate.

I also go into incredible, eye-opening detail about how to write realistic male and female characters. If youve ever struggled to write the opposite sex, then this book is for you. Not just hair, fashion, and makeup tips, either (although theyre in here too), but real in-depth gender psychology. Youll learn the secret rules by which men and women operate: how they think and why they act the way they do.

Ive broken the subjects up into three easy to read parts to help you find the information you need fast:

• Part 1: How to Write Realistic Characters
• Part 2: How to Write Realistic Men
• Part 3: How to Write Realistic Women

This is a book for anyone serious about the craft of writing fiction, comics, or screenplays. Ive condensed all my years of study and practice into one fun, easy book, loaded with examples from your favorite TV, films, comics, and novels.

Come on in and take the ride!

Jackson Dean Chase

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www.JacksonDeanChase.com

Things were easier for the old novelists their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.

W. Somerset Maugham

Todays readers want complex, realistic characters that struggle as much as they succeed. Im not just talking about external struggles, but internal ones. Characters cant be too good or too evil, but must possess some shades of gray. In short, they should seem realand real people are flawed.

What about carefully constructed plots and world-building? Are having these enough to make up for a lack of realistic characters? No. All your plots and setting details wont mean a thing if readers dont care about your characters.

Thats where this book comes in. By implementing the strategies you learn in this quick start guide, you will have an unbeatable system for creating the compelling characters your story deserves.

Jackson Dean Chase

Get a free book at

www.JacksonDeanChase.com

Perfect heroines, like perfect heroes, arent relatable, and if you cant put yourself in the protagonists shoes, not only will they not inspire you, but the book will be pretty boring.

Cassandra Clare

Every hero should be likable in some way, or at least interesting. To do that, your hero needs to display some measure of wit and charm, as well as enough willpower to stand up to the villain. But heroes cant be perfect. They must be flawed, or risk becoming boring. Thats the difference between Batman and Superman.

Batmans got all kinds of flaws, Supermans perfect. Which one sells more copies and puts more butts in seats? Batman. You cant fix perfect. It will always ring false to give Superman issues after hes already been established as perfect (and perfectly boring) for decades. Now if Batman overcomes a flaw, fans will be proud of him, but they wont get bored because they know hell never be perfect, no matter how hard he tries.

Blowing up the Death Star or teaching an uptight town how to dance are all well and good. This outer journey is the main plot, the story arc that changes the world (or some small part of it). Its also the initial reason people buy into your story, but its not what truly satisfies them. What they really want to see are heroes who struggle to change themselves in relation to their outer journey.

To do this, every hero needs an inner journey. They get one by facing down their flawsthis constitutes the character arc which makes up the emotional subplot. The success or failure of the character arc sets the tone for the story arc. Let me say that again:

The success or failure of the character arc sets the tone for the story arc.

Its the difference between the bittersweet tragedy of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the joyful triumph of Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. Butch and Sundance struggle to change and fail, so they must die (albeit in a blaze of glory). Luke Skywalker and Han Solo struggle to change and succeed, so they live and triumph and go on to have other adventures in a galaxy far, far away.

Note that live or die can simply mean win or lose. Some losers get a second chance in the sequel. For example, Rocky Balboa loses the big boxing match to Apollo Creed at the end of Rocky, but beats him in Rocky II, and guess what? Its twice as satisfying for Rocky and the audience. If Rocky had failed to beat Creed a second time, the audience would have been justifiably angry at both Rocky and the screenwriter. The whole sequel would have been pointless!

Thats not to say that you cant have a chronic loser continue his adventures (see The Catalyst Hero, below), but he must be a true underdog people can root for. And because he rarely changes (or needs to), that means he must change the lives of those he comes into contact with for the better. He helps others succeed at their story and character arcs, but ends up alone and riding off into the sunset at the end (as in