Vanilla can indeed be bland. Depends on how it is written though. How kinky you can get depends on the audience- books aimed predominately at women in this genre do tend to get somewhat kinky- werewolves and vampires are big right now. A friend of mine who was at the Romance Writers of America national convention in Atlanta last week said that the paranormal market is still hot right now, but editors want to see something that goes beyond the standard vampire novel
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Instead of actually increasing the power levels as you go, you could always make them challenging in a different way. I know as a storyteller it's sometimes a tactic I've used. In otherwords, make them be creative differently, cause them to have to think differently to achieve the goal... as opposed to making one thing bigger than the rest.
Listen to OJ. This is one of the better solutions to the power level buildup, especially in an ongoing series. LKH could try this- Anita could use being challenged in some fashion in which the solution is neither violence or sex.
examples are hard to come by, it's something that is very difficult to do.
In game terms, it'd be somethign like: test of strength, test of wits, test of intelligence, ect... test of strength and wits, test of strength and intelligence, ect...
I guess the best example i can give (that's in my head at the moment) is the Crow. The difference between the thugs that actually killed him and his fiance, and the evil organization that was runnign the whole thing. It went from "Wow, i can walk into a room and take a bunch of bullets and not have to worry about a thing" to "crap, they know how to stop that, now what do i do?"
Making enemies more intelligent as you go is a theory too, though eventually you're dealing with omnicient enemies and that's nearly as bad as omnipotent.
Okay, I am going to say something vaguely embarrassing... but if you want to learn how to write good antagonists, you should want the Anime series Full Metal Alchemist. No, don't laugh. That series has some of the most disturbing and yet realistic villains I have ever seen. From the homunculus who just wants to become human to the serial killer who is trying to avenge the destruction of his homeland, every single antagonist is a gripping and real character that you can't help but sympathize with to some degree
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I agree with all of the above. I use the term "Big Bad" because it's a Buffy thing and jumps to mind. But yes, the best antagonists are a dark mirror of a protagonist.
Here's a thought - if you humanize the antagonist, you can introduce them as just another character at the beginning of the book. After all, if they're just meeting the protagonist for the first time, neither of them will have any idea that they'll become enemies. They might even get along well, which would make it even more emotionally jarring when they both realize that their goals oppose each other
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As for thefemale antagonist, try the last several Anita Blake books. Went from Belle being the big bad to Mommy Night, and the two of them have been building for 2-5 books now...
Or, I could justsay that the worst antagonists inMY life have ALWAYS been female...
You know, somehow I blanked on that despite being in the midst of re-reading the damn books...
but yeah, mine too. I'm really avoiding just rehashing one of those as a novel antagonist. For one, I think they're too unbelievable, not ... hrmm... what wolfdreams said abut being human? My worst antagonists dont' come off as human.
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Instead of actually increasing the power levels as you go, you could always make them challenging in a different way. I know as a storyteller it's sometimes a tactic I've used. In otherwords, make them be creative differently, cause them to have to think differently to achieve the goal... as opposed to making one thing bigger than the rest.
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In game terms, it'd be somethign like: test of strength, test of wits, test of intelligence, ect... test of strength and wits, test of strength and intelligence, ect...
I guess the best example i can give (that's in my head at the moment) is the Crow. The difference between the thugs that actually killed him and his fiance, and the evil organization that was runnign the whole thing. It went from "Wow, i can walk into a room and take a bunch of bullets and not have to worry about a thing" to "crap, they know how to stop that, now what do i do?"
Making enemies more intelligent as you go is a theory too, though eventually you're dealing with omnicient enemies and that's nearly as bad as omnipotent.
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That's a very good point.
I'm not sure I could handle enough Full Metal to get the feel you're discussing... I've never really enjoyed it.
Sadly, I've got some very good advice in this thread, and I still can't come up with a decent antagnoist. I'll have to mull over it.
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Or, I could justsay that the worst antagonists inMY life have ALWAYS been female...
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but yeah, mine too. I'm really avoiding just rehashing one of those as a novel antagonist. For one, I think they're too unbelievable, not ... hrmm... what wolfdreams said abut being human? My worst antagonists dont' come off as human.
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