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Four Elements of a Successful Villain – guest post by Josiah Dyck

Tracey Dyck 38 Comments

Today is a special day, my friends! First, I am at my friend’s wedding right now (so this post is scheduled to go up on its own).

Second, I’m featured on Stori Tori’s Blog, in a post called So Your Character is From Canada, in which the other contributors and I discuss our country. Do check it out! I know the previous instalment, So Your Character is From Australia, was super informative and entertaining.

And third, my brother Josiah has kindly produced a guest post of his own for me to share with you! As a fellow writer, he and I are often the first ones to hear each other’s story ideas, talk out the plot knots, and flail excitedly over the latest fictional development in our WIPs. And today, Josiah invites you into a discussion about villains. I’ll bow out now and let him take the stage . . .

~*~



Let’s talk about villains.

Authors tend to focus more of their
creativity on the hero. That’s all well and good, but villains are vital too.
We shouldn’t simply brush them aside, or create them with a half-hearted
effort. Without opposition, your protagonist will never grow; without creative
opposition, your readers will become bored whenever the villain shows up.
Let me offer you an analogy showing the
importance of successful antagonists. Seeing as my sister’s blog readership consists
largely of females (if the commenters are any indication), I have tailored this
analogy to that gender.
Suppose you are looking to date a guy, and
you have only two options. One guy is the very epitome of a stereotypical young
male: he lounges around at home playing video games while eating Doritos, he
acts like an animal around his friends, and he tries to be suave around girls.
The other guy is the polar opposite: he’s got personality, interesting hobbies,
and maybe even a measure of class. He can be a gentleman around peers both male
and female. He doesn’t put on an act because he can just be himself. Which guy
are you going to like enough to date? (If you answered “The first one,” we need
to talk later.)
It’s the same way with villains. You must
successfully craft your villains so that your readers like them in some form or
another. Their opinion of a story may not be as high if you offer an antagonist
who lacks creativity.
“But what makes a villain successful?”
you may ask. That is a very astute question, one which I will try my best to
answer. In order to do so, we must discuss elements that enhance a villain.
This is not a comprehensive list, but rather a few things I’ve noticed that
strengthen a villain. I shall offer examples from various forms of media.
1. They’re human.


Close your eyes for a moment and reflect
on some of your favorite antagonists. Why is it that you like them? Think about
it long enough, and you just might discover that one reason why they’re your
favorite is because they are human.
I’m not talking about being a Homo
sapiens. I’m talking about a villain who is capable of being a real person, who
can show emotion, who is not above flawed human nature. It’s a powerful thing.
Your readers will connect with him that much more if he is deeper than those
villains who think they can rise above the rest of humanity. That kind of
antagonist can work, and I’ve certainly written villains like that. But we can
relate to the guy who feels the sting of betrayal as much as any one of us, or
that girl who has a soft spot for someone and will do anything for that person.
An example of a human villain is Loki
(cue the fangirling). He may like to think of himself as higher than mere
humans, but this is not so. He obviously craves some fatherly approval, which
Odin doesn’t give, especially after the incidents in The Avengers.
Learning that he was born of the Frost Giant race distresses him and causes him
to feel betrayed for not being told this before.

However, what could very well be his
greatest human attribute is his love for his mother. I’ll never forget that one
scene in Thor: The Dark World that makes me almost cry every time I
watch it. [SPOILER ALERT] Frigga is murdered by Malekith, and the sorrow of it
all gets to me. The saddest part, though, is at the very end of the sequence,
where we can’t hear anything but music. Loki is reading when a guard comes and
says, “Your mother is dead.” Loki simply nods, and the guard leaves. Loki
stands up, and nothing happens for a moment. Then Loki uses a blast of his
telekinesis powers to knock over the furniture in his cell.

This brief scene—which lasts no more than
ten to fifteen seconds—sharply conveys Loki’s grief and rage over Frigga’s
death. [SPOILERS OVER] It’s a powerful moment that brings me close to tears and
shows that Loki is indeed human. And we feel for him because we have also
experienced sorrow over the death of someone in our lives. It goes to show that
human villains are some of the best kind.

2. They have
conflicting values.


I’ve noticed some successful villains
have values that go against one another. This technique—which works for protagonists
just as well—is effective. It adds an element of unpredictability to your
antagonist. I first learned about this in the book Writing Fiction for Dummies. If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly encourage you to amend the
situation. It’s quite helpful, with tips on everything from worldbuilding to
writing queries.
But I’m getting off-topic. Every
character has a value, or, at least, they should. A value is something that is
most important to the character. Say you have a villainess with a value that says,
“Revenge is most important to me.” This makes her more interesting than if she
didn’t have any values, but she’s still a flat character.
That’s why it’s important to have two or
more values. If they oppose each other, your readers will become drawn to your
villain, because she’s now become a round character. Suppose she has a husband
who’s dying of cancer. Now she has a second value: “Curing my husband is most
important to me.” What’s the result? Hooked readers and flying sparks as the
values collide.

You may have heard of the classic
villain Darth Vader. Black-armored and caped Sith Lord? Has a bit of an asthma
problem and fights using a glowing red light on a stick? Well, anyway, this dude
has some conflicting values, which the abovementioned book briefly touches on.
They are “Power is most important to me” and “My son is most important to me.”
These are obviously going to collide, and when they do, it’s going to be big.
As it happens, they create some conflict
on more than one occasion. And each time they do, we wonder which one will win
out in the end. Vader, at the climax of episode 6, chooses his son over
power—and it costs him his life. But it certainly creates a villain of
intrigue.
3. They are unique.
Suppose we have an antagonist who’s
really cliché. This villain plots and plans and schemes, but he can’t for the
life of him come up with a splendidly evil idea. But not to despair! He has the
ol’ fallback for all good villains: take over the world . . . just because!
Right. That makes him so interesting.
Look, nothing’s bad, per se, with the
“taking over the world” plot. It’s just that it’s so overused. Your antagonist
needs to be unique. (And if he is going to rule the world, he needs to have a
strong motivation for doing so. But that’s a whole other topic.)
Too often, we as writers don’t infuse our
villains with uniqueness. But it’s such an important thing to do. If you’re
wondering what you could do to help make your bad guy stand out, it’s actually
easier than it sounds. Think about some of your friends. What makes them
unique? You may just get ideas for your own villains. He may dress a certain
way. She might have a peculiar mannerism. Maybe he’s superstitious and tries to
be careful about where he walks. She could be extremely paranoid about anything
and everything. The options are virtually limitless.



“I HAVE CHORTLES!”
There’s a villain whom I’m sure you’ve
never heard of, and I don’t mean that sarcastically this time. He is a Beanish
named Fawful, from the Mario & Luigi video game series. What makes this
little guy one of my favorite video game villains of all time is his use of
Engrish and his amusing food metaphors. For those of you who aren’t sure what
Engrish is, it’s “a slang term for the misuse or corruption of the English
language by native speakers of some East Asian languages,” according to Wikipedia.
An example of Fawful’s speech is, “In the
last moments of the finale of the finale, when relief leads to negligence that
begets rashness . . . That is when the comeback that faltered comes back and
beats your pathetic comeback that I scoff at!” And here’s a food metaphor of
his: “Now a Midbus battle will unfold like an angry dip of many layers on the
chips of wildest hopes!” It’s crazy, but it makes Fawful unique, not to mention
humorous.
4. There are many
types of villains.
This probably comes as no surprise to
you, and it goes hand-in-hand with the above element. Trying out various types
of villains can help keep your antagonists unique. For example, there’s the
sympathetic villain, who often has a tragic backstory that can shape him in
various ways. The misunderstood villain is one who may have noble intentions,
but others see his actions as evil. Some villains are loved by us because of a
redeeming characteristic of theirs, but we hate them at the same time because
they’re devious and wicked.

What about the villain who is purely evil
and enjoys inflicting pain on others? One might compare them to the Joker as he
was described in The Dark Knight. Alfred tells Bruce Wayne, “Some men just want
to watch the world burn.” Then there’s the antagonist who is controlled by a
higher being; whether or not she’s actually evil is up to you. Someone could
even use an anti-hero as the main opposition: they’re not really bad, but they
still don’t have heroic qualities, and could end up hindering the hero. The
list goes on and on.
Another one of my favorite video game
villains is one from Super Paper Mario, who goes by the name Count Bleck (“Bleh
heh heh! Bleck!”). At first, he just seems like an antagonist who wants to
destroy all known worlds. However, he is actually a sympathetic villain, named
Lord Blumiere, who has lost the girl he loved. Distraught and convinced she is
gone forever, he becomes embittered at the world. Without his love, his life
has no meaning. He pilfers a magical book, known as the Dark Prognosticus, to
destroy his dimension and sets his gaze on terminating all others. But little
does he know that the book’s power has magically influenced him. I won’t spoil
the ending of the game, in case you decide to play it, but it has a bittersweet
finale that you wouldn’t expect from a Mario game.
[source]

For the Rooglewood contests, I’ve
determined that not only do I want to use a different genre for each entry, but
I also want to use different types of villains to keep them unique. For Five
Enchanted Roses, I had a villain who went by the alias “the Master,” and
whose real name I won’t disclose. Karnu was the name of the antagonist for Five
Magic Spindles.

My friend Christine contrasted the two
quite well: “[The Master] was fascinating in the fact that he was off his
rocker. Like we’ve said before, those kinds of villains are super interesting
and fun. He was manipulative and coy, which kept me guessing. But I like how
Karnu is so confident and powerful. While [the Master] did things in secret and
more delicately, Karnu just bursts in the room all, ‘BOW TO ME.’ He just oozes
with power and it makes me nervous for our heroes. I like when books make me
nervous. It keeps me on the edge of my seat. So, all that to say, I like them
each differently. I liked [the Master’s] quiet manipulation, and Karnu’s
powerful cunning.”
Is one villain better than the other? No,
because they’re both different and unique in their own ways. That’s why it’s so
important to try out different types of villains. They might be human, they
should have conflicting values, and they also should be unique. There are other
elements that make a villain successful, and, like I said, this isn’t a
comprehensive list. But if you apply these to your antagonist, readers will
definitely be more interested in your character and will consider the villain
to be a successful one.
If you have any questions, feel free to
ask them in the comments below. I’d be happy to answer them as best I can. May
the writing force be with you!
Josiah is an avid writer and enjoys
crafting stories for the enjoyment of others. He placed second in a Christmas
story held by a local newspaper. He was also one of ten nominees (writing as Feral_Mutant) in the “Write Like a Ninja” flash fiction contest for LEGO/Scholastic. He thoroughly enjoys
soundtrack music and owns twenty-odd albums. For most of his recent works, he
has created playlists to go with them, and is working on one for Christine
Smith’s Burning Thorns novel. He believes pizza should be its own food
group.
 
~*~
 
Tracey here again! Wow, this makes me want to go brush up own villains . . . polish them until they gleam with a malevolent glow. Point #4 gives me ideas for all sorts of new baddies, too! And–I may be somewhat biased here–but I have to say that the Master and Karnu are both superb examples of well-crafted villains. Thanks so much for a wonderful post, Josiah!
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Philosophical Ramblings on the Subject of Time Travel

Tracey Dyck 33 Comments

Time travel. It messes with my brain, but I love it.

What happens when you go back in time and change an event? Do the memories of the people in the present suddenly change to reflect the new past? Or were their memories always of that ‘new past’ because in effect, the old version of the past never happened? Except it did, because you obviously went back to it and changed it.



[source]
And when you change the past–in a big or small way–that change has a ripple effect. So when you return to the present, it could very well be vastly different than it was when you left it. But would you even remember how it used to be? It never was that way, after all. And yet it was, because present-you travelled back in time, did something, and that something rippled forward to the present and made it something else.

If that wasn’t enough to contort the brain, try this:

One slight change in the past could mean the deaths of thousands–if not millions–of people. Because maybe you got in the way of Mr. A and Miss B meeting each other, and so they never got married, never had children, and a whole string of people were never even born. So you could come back to the present and find out that your best friend just never existed, because she was a descendant of A and B who never met. (Or, you know, what if you ended up killing your own ancestors before their children were conceived? Have you erased your own self?! And if you don’t exist, you couldn’t have gone back in time to kill anyone. This is apparently called the “grandfather paradox.”)

Then again, since Mr. A never met Miss B, maybe he meets Miss X instead, and they marry and have children . . . and so you come back to the present and discover a whole whackload of brand new people who were never there before.

Or what about all those time travel stories where characters want to prevent the disasters of the past? Stop the Holocaust or keep the Titanic from sinking? That’s all well and good, very commendable, I say. Except what if, by diverting one disaster, you give rise to a new disaster that’s just as bad? Or worse? What if one of the Titanic’s passengers you rescued turns out to be a murderous psychopath who goes on to decimate a whole city?

(And then of course you have multiple cases of generations not existing anymore. And all of the Titanic’s descendants living.)

Forget people living and dying, though. What if you go tell Thomas Edison how to make a lightbulb before he’s even tried it five times? Then maybe he turns his attention to other inventions, and winds up giving the world something that wasn’t supposed to exist for another couple of decades. What then? With one lightbulb, you just accelerated the world’s technology. Of course, if you want to be malicious, you could also go do something like keep Galileo from discovering that the earth revolves around the sun. And then where would we be? Or maybe you decide to impart some other knowledge to the people of history, like the importance of hygiene? (I think the world would be a much fuller place now. A lot less people would have died.)

Okay, so what if you decide it’s too messy to deal with the past, and instead you travel to the future? (ACK, MY POOR BRAIN.) Let’s say you jump twenty years ahead to see where you’ll be. You see yourself living in Metropolis (hello, Superman), working a Nice Job, married to a Great Person, etc. You also happen to notice that you’re suffering the after-effects of an Old Hamburger the future-you ate a week ago.

So you return to the present and go on with life as usual. But when you meet Great Person, you already know you’re going to marry them. What if that blinds you to that other Even Better Person in your life? And when it comes time to move, you pack up and head right to Metropolis, because that’s where you’re supposed to be. But is it really? And then you’re offered a Nice Job, but what you don’t know is that if you wait another week, someone’s going to offer you a Stellar Job.

And thus what you saw in the future becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It could’ve been different. It could’ve been better. It could’ve been worse. (Or could it? Is that future you saw inevitable? Or just one of millions of possible outcomes?)

Of course, because you know your future, you’re smart enough to avoid that Old Hamburger twenty years from now, so you don’t get sick. But you also don’t take that sick-day and read that life-changing blog post whilst sprawled on the couch.

And how about the bigger picture? When you go to the future, you see their technology, their government, the future of the world. You see how they solved world hunger, or how sexism warped the opposite way and now men are discriminated against instead of women, or how football evolved into a Roman coliseum type of thing!

Knowing all this, you could fix world hunger right now.

Knowing all this, you could try to eradicate sexism entirely and help the world respect and value both genders.

Knowing all this, you could ban football.

But then that future changes. Good things happens sooner, but new problems also arise.

All this to say: aren’t you glad we can’t actually mess with time? And, more importantly, this mind-bending topic makes me realize that we all make a difference. The smallest things go on to change the world.

What say you? Do you like time travel in fiction/movies? Does it hurt your brain? If you could witness–but not actually be in–a certain historical event, what would it be? (Because obviously inserting yourself into that situation could be very bad, so we’ll just stick to watching it from a nebulous room outside of time. That’s totally a thing.)

Wikipedia has an article on time travel that talks about things I didn’t even think of, like tourism in time.

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Subplots and Storylines – February 2016

Tracey Dyck 29 Comments

This month was a whirlwind from start to finish! I hardly know where to begin.

Life happenings

Well, for starters, I have an absolutely wonderful family . . . a family that takes every opportunity to celebrate each other and enjoy holidays together. So Valentine’s Day is actually a thing in our house.

We all make or buy cards for each other, my mom does her magic in the kitchen, and we enjoy said magic by candle-light. This year, dessert was candle-lit rather than supper, simply because the supper table was so full of food that attempting to eat in semi-darkness would’ve been unwise. We had one of my grandmas over for the special dinner, and afterwards we exchanged cards.

Okay, I don’t normally do this, but I feel inclined to give you a peek into the Valentine’s evening at the Dyck household:

[from Mom to me] . . . God rejoices over you with singing! He carries you close to His heart! He has a picture of you tattooed on the palm of His hand. You are not forgotten!

[from Dad to me] . . . Look back to see how far you have come. Now look forward to see how far you will go. Now look at the present and see who walks with you. He has always been with you, He will always be with you, and He is with you.

[my brother Josiah is not into crafts–nevertheless, he made one card to give to all of us. sweet guy.] 

[from Miss C to me] . . . You have a great writing voice; you are caring and helpful; you still know how to have fun even if you’re an adult . . .

[from Miss K to me] . . . Thanks for hanging out with me. I love how goofy and sweet you are.

And then a few words between other family members:

[from Miss C to Dad] . . . Some of the things I love about you are . . . your warm chuckles . . . your wisdom; your courage; and your wonderfully safe hugs . . .

[from Miss K to Dad] . . . Thanks for being there for me and being my hero. You are awesome!

[from Miss C to Mom] . . . Here’s a few things I love about you . . . your wonderful little quirks; your gentle touch; your caring personality; your encouraging words; and your prayers . . .

[from Miss K to Mom] . . . You always have a hug for me, right words for me, and you always are ready to help me . . . You are the GREATEST mom ever!! 

[from me to Mom and Dad] . . . Thank you for living out the meaning of love, for treating it as a verb and not just a noun . . . Home is still–and will always be–a safe harbor. Thank you for teaching me both how to trim the sails and venture forth, and how to sail home again . . .

[from Dad to Josiah] . . . You remind me of a superhero, an all-around nice guy who comes to the defense of those who can’t defend themselves, who does good to others even when he isn’t noticed . . .

[from Miss K to Josiah] . . . I love hanging out with you and laughing with you. Thanks for playing Wii with me, which is very fun! 

[from Mom to Miss C] . . . You are such a beautiful young lady–inside and out! You have eyes that shine with the love of Jesus! God has great plans for you and your future . . . Thanks for adding such sweetness to my life!

[from me to Miss C] . . . Keep discovering the immeasurable height, depth, and width of God’s love for you! It will blow your mind.

[from Miss C to Miss K] . . . I love the way you smile and laugh; your beautiful big brown eyes . . . the way you encourage me with kind words and hugs when I’m sad . . .

 [from Dad to Miss K] . . . When God made the world, He knew that one thing was missing–joy and laughter. It took Him many years to perfect it, and when He did, He made you!

See what I mean? Families like this are rare, and I absolutely don’t say that in any haughty way. But I am proud of these special people and the bonds we’ve forged. We’re not perfect. Far from it. I hope I don’t present us in a cleaned-up light, because the truth of the matter is, we’re messy humans who sometimes snap at each other or say unkind things. But we love each other fiercely.

My sisters went all out this Valentine’s–they spent hours holed up in their room, making art for all of us. On a whim, I decided to present my siblings with sketches too.

Miss K’s drawings–aren’t they completely adorable? The otter on the left was for me.
Miss C’s drawings, which are so very lovely. Especially *cough* the Captain America she drew for me.
I drew pop star Ross Lynch for Miss K.
And Once Upon a Time’s Peter Pan for Miss C.
(Though the more I look at it, the less convinced I am that
he turned out right.)
And lastly, I drew Ultron for my brother.

A bridal shower!

A very dear friend of mine is getting married next month, and I’m one of her bridesmaids, which is incredibly exciting! So for about two weeks this month, my brain has been in bridal shower mode, with little room for anything else. From invitations to food, activities, decor, and supplies, the four of us bridesmaids brainstormed and made it all happen on a short deadline. It turned out beautifully, and I couldn’t be happier for my friend.

Miscellaneous life stuff:

  • The long weekend (February 15) was a welcome breather in the middle of the month. We went sledding with friends and had a lovely day.
  • My mom slipped on the ice while running errands, but thankfully she’s fine now!
  • Inventory happened at the store. Lots of work involved. And counting. So much counting . . .
  • There have been some health issues with a relative, but she seems to be doing better. We continue to pray for her.

On a lighter note, I fell into the behavior of the stereotypical, clueless-about-cars kind of girl. I’ve had my license for over two years now, okay, and I’ve been a working woman for about a year. And yet until recently, I’d never filled up with gas by myself. So I pull up to the pump and ask the guy to fill it with mid-grade. “Can you open your gas cap, please?” he asks.

I freeze. Because oh my goodness, where is the switch for that?! I shoot my sister a panicky look. She smirks. (Thank you, C.) I flutter my hands over the dashboard and steering wheel area. I pop the trunk. Then the hood. Finally I call out, “Um, this is embarrassing, but I’m having a blonde moment and forget where the switch for that is.” The guy didn’t know, either. Or wouldn’t tell me. I asked him to hold on, then called my dad.

“Tracey, we’ve been over this,” he says.

“I know!” I wail. “But I forgot!”

So he tells me where it is–it’s a silly little switch down on the floor, on the left side; and I’ll probably never forget that again. When I climbed out to go pay, I apologized again to the guy, who said, “No problem. Happens all the time . . .” Except his voice trailed off uncertainly, telling me that no, it doesn’t actually happen all the time, I’m just trying to make you feel better.

Screen happenings

  • Finished Once Upon a Time Season 2 and started Season 3. My sisters and I adore Peter Pan, in case you didn’t catch that with my portrait. All this Neverland stuff is quite fun, and I am ever so conflicted over certain things!
  • I SAW THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. Oh stars, it was amazing. I can’t believe I went this long without watching it! Being the extended edition, my brother and I watched it in three sittings over the long weekend (in between family activities, you understand). We were blown away. It was perfect. Soon after the final credits, I was ready to watch the movie all over again. I went from feeling cozy and comfortable to laughing uproariously at the four hobbits, to feeling chilled (Black Riders!!), to being gripped with the excitement of the quest, to– Oh, I don’t even know. It’s glorious. That’s all I can say. (Also, Aragorn.) And the Shire musical theme makes me stop and smile wistfully into the distance every single time I hear it.

Book happenings

The Invaders by John Flanagan

I love the Ranger’s Apprentice series, so of course I’m reading his newer series, Brotherband Chronicles. In this second Brotherband book, I found myself enjoying all the usual Flanagan trademarks: smart protagonist, clever battle/weaponry tactics, and wry humor. Plus lots of sailing stuff. A good read, for sure.

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

If you’ve been reading Adventure Awaits for a while now, you might remember way back in summer when my siblings and I picked out library books for each other to read. It gets us out of our usual ruts and gives us something new to try. We just did it again this month, and A Snicker of Magic was Miss K’s pick for me. And this book is now one of my all-time favorite middle-grade novels! Seriously, Natalie Lloyd’s voice is just crackling with magic. The story has a Southern, small town, whimsical, hilarious, heartwarming, spindiddly flavor to it. Felicity, the protagonist, catches the words she sees hovering over people and places. Along with her mom and little sister, she arrives in the little mysterious town of Midnight Gulch. What ensues are new friendships, old legends about the Brothers Threadbare, an upcoming talent show that scares Felicity right out of her word-covered sneakers, and buckets of ice cream. The supporting cast is delightfully quirky, and my heart ached for poor Felicity as her mom longs to uproot and move the family for the hundred-millionth time.

The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone

Miss C picked this middle-grade book for me. It took me a little while to get into it, but I soon realized how great the author is at setting the mood. The book starts off feeling kind of hollow and gloomy as the main character (another Felicity) leaves England at the beginning of WWII to stay with her relatives in Maine. Without her parents, so far from home, the poor girl is without an anchor. Her uncle receives strange letters written in code from her parents, and refuses to let Felicity read them. But things begin to look up when she meets Derek, a boy with a paralyzed arm. Together they strive to crack the code, and in the process, begin infusing the gloomy old house with a little bit of life.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Josiah’s pick. It’s a very unusual sort of book, I must say. Artemis himself is a veritable villain, so you’re left to cheer for a handful of exceedingly strange fairy creatures. There’s Holly Short, a rebellious LEP-Recon officer (haha, get it?) . . . Captain Root, her boss, a guy with anger issues . . . Foaly, a technologically brilliant centaur who’s paranoid that the humans (disdainfully referred to as Mud People) can read his mind, and thus wears a tinfoil hat at all times . . . and Mulch, a dwarf who, ah . . . Well. Let’s just say that these dwarves can unhinge their jaws and chew through dirt at a rapid pace. And their metabolism is extremely fast. Hence, their digging pants are equipped with a back flap. Yeah. You see where this is going. This book is written with young guys in mind, but nevertheless, I found much to snicker at, and I give Mr. Colfer points for the unusual fairy elements. I’ll likely keep going with this series.

You Have a Brain: A Teen’s Guide to T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G. by Ben Carson, MD

The first half of the book tells how Dr. Carson was born into poverty, and through his mother’s guidance, God’s help, and his desire to learn, became a neurosurgeon. There are some amazing anecdotes from his career, such as the time he removed half of a little girl’s brain in order to stop the hundreds of seizures she was having every day. And she survived. And went on to graduate from college and live a fulfilling life.

The second half goes over some principles for thinking big, specifically in regards to the future. He covers Talent, Honesty, Insight, Niceness, Knowledge, Books, In-Depth Learning, and God (T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G.).

Blog Happenings

On a whim, I started a month-long linkup called Lovely Books, in which we discussed:

I have had such a great time celebrating books and characters with all of you! Many thanks to all who have participated–you’ve made my first linkup a success. And it’s been so fun to hear about your favorite bookish things! There’s still time to join, if you so desire. You have until March 5th.

Oh, and you may have noticed my embarrassing mistake . . . Whilst drafting the quotes post in the middle of last week, I accidentally hit publish. I noticed it less than half an hour later, and hurried to revert the post to draft form before anybody could read my half-formed jumble of words. To my dismay, however, the post remained on my dashboard–and the dashboards of everyone else who follow me. Clicking the link led to nowhere, of course, but still! It looked as if I had posted it half a week early. Of all the times to do such a thing, it had to be for something I’d hoped to keep secret until Saturday! And then when I did publish the post, it didn’t appear at the top of the dashboard like normal new posts–it remained waaaaay down with the other ‘four days ago’ posts on my feed.

Ah, well. Lesson learned. Keep the cursor far, far away from the publish button until ready.

Anyway, thanks again, all you lovely bookworms! We’ll have to do something like this again someday.

Written Happenings

I made a game plan for my 2016 writing goals, if you’ll remember from January’s Beautiful People post. I planned for February to be my research month, so it’s harder to gauge whether I reached those goals.

I started out by taking a deep breath and diving into the murky waters of . . . gasp . . . querying agents. No, I haven’t actually sent out any queries yet. But I did begin researching, looking online for agents who represent my kind of work, reading some articles on how to query and what agents look for, etc. The amount of information, ambiguity, and general unknown-ness of it all is daunting, but I’m excited to rise to the challenge.

After reading Jenelle Schmidt’s comment on Christine’s BP post, I spontaneously chose to purchase a book Jenelle recommended: Guide to Literary Agents 2016! The things I’ve learned from even just the beginning articles are so, so helpful. I haven’t yet delved into the listings of a thousand agents, but I know it will be an invaluable tool in the coming months. Thanks, Jenelle!

I did a little bit of research on different locations featured in my fantasy book 2, which I plan to start redrafting next month. This is where I didn’t get far at all, so I foresee much more Googling and librarying in the future. I want to look into British Columbia, Ireland, Greenland or Iceland, Russia, and Australia. Yes indeed, this book includes a fair bit of globe trotting on our world, followed by daring escapades in the other world!

And I felt rather officially author-ish this month, questers, because I actually interviewed someone for book research. A certain character in book 2 gets diagnosed with a mental illness–which is a complete error, because the wild tales he tells are 100% true–so I needed to know how this process would work. What would he be labelled as? What would treatment look like? How would others respond? How would the family be advised to act around him? Would he be medicated, counselled, taken out of school?

All these questions and more were answered by a fellow my dad knows through work. As a Christian working in the field of mental health, and as someone with a big enough imagination to accommodate my fictional situation, he was the perfect person to talk to. So we chatted over coffee one Saturday, and I scribbled three pages of notes and wound up borrowing four books from his office. Armed with all this information to make my character’s life miserable (and believable), I am most excited to start writing next month.

And that, my friends, was February.

Like I said, it was a whirlwind! There was so much happening, at least in my brain, that I found myself identifying with this amazing song:

March looks like it will be full speed ahead as well, but I hope to catch up on your Lovely Books posts–and blogging in general.

So many things to look forward to in the next thirty-one days! My friend’s wedding, delving into book 2, more agent research, and who knows what else? Actually, there is one thing pressing rather insistently at my mind tonight, and that is . . .

THE FIVE MAGIC SPINDLES WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW MORNING. Ack! The suspense!

For all of you who entered along with me, I hope your hearts are prepared for whatever the results may be. Know that you accomplished something crazy awesome with your novella(s). You crafted a story, a living, breathing tale of wonder. You finished it; you got all the way to the end and most probably edited it many times over. And no words written are ever a waste. You learned something with this novella. Maybe how to retell a fairytale, or how to write a better plot twist, or how to be concise (looking at myself over here!). Maybe you refined your dialogue skills, or fell in love with a genre you’ve never written before. Maybe you discovered the camaraderie of fellow writers through this contest. Maybe you conquered the fear of letting others see your work. Well done, I say! Well done!

How were your February quests? Was your month a hurricane too, or more like a quiet breeze? What do you think of the Lord of the Rings movies? Have you ever sought people out for research purposes? And do you think you’ll survive till tomorrow morning?!

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Lovely Books // quotes

Tracey Dyck 18 Comments

Welcome back, my bookish adventurers, to the fourth and final round of Lovely Books! We started with our first impressions of novels–covers and titles, which we can all agree are very important. But once readers get past the front of a book, they find out very quickly what the story is made of. So we chatted about favorite couples and villains, because characters are often a deal breaker. Well-crafted ones latch onto our hearts and never let go, but shallow or inconsistent characters fall flat and leave us with a stale taste in our mouths.
So. Great covers, check. Great characters, check. But what about the writing? The actual words on a page? The cover can be gorgeous, the characters can be engaging, but if the sentences clunk along, we start losing interest.
I’ve been looking forward to this edition the most, to be honest. Because nothing makes my heart swell with happiness as much as beautiful passages, profound scenes, laugh-till-your-sides-ache dialogue, clever narrative, or scrumptious description. This is the real meat of a story.

Prepare for a deluge!

“I had forgotten that,” said Eomer. “It is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. The world is all grown strange. Elf and Dwarf in company walk in our daily fields; and folk speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?”

“As he ever has judged,” said Aragorn. “Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”

–The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
“Wait a minute!” cried Gimli. “There is another thing that I should like to know first. Was it you, Gandalf, or Saruman that we saw last night?”
“You certainly did not see me,” answered Gandalf, “therefore I must guess that you saw Saruman. Evidently we look so much alike that your desire to make an incurable dent in my hat must be excused.”
–The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
It seemed to Frodo then that he heard, quite plainly but far off, voices out of the past:
What a pity Bilbo did not stab the vile creature, when he had the chance!
Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need.
I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.
Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.
–The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
“You know,” he said as he dabbed her eyes. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Fenworth, bog wizard of Amara. This is my esteemed librarian, Trevithick Librettowit. He’s been known to be in a better mood from time to time, but we must make allowances. He prefers a good book, a comfy chair, a plate of daggarts, tea, and a fire in the fireplace. Unfortunately, we are often called to adventure. Slaying damsels, rescuing dragons in distress, collapsing kingdoms, thwarting evil, purging plagues, that sort of thing.”
–Dragons of the Valley, Donita K. Paul
[Fenworth] “Logic. Logic is a funny thing. Works when things are progressing logically and is totally undependable when variances poke their long noses into the regular way of things.”
Librettowit spoke around a mouthful of gooey pie. “Don’t think you can say that variances possess noses with which they poke.”
“Ah!” Fenworth looked fondly at his librarian, then winked at Bealomondore. “I’ve missed him, you know. Did you note how he did not end the sentence with a preposition? It’s a good trait in a learned man, the ability to speak a sentence properly arranged. But the variance with a nose is a figure of speech, not meant to be taken literally.”
–Dragons of the Valley, Donita K. Paul
[Gandalf] “…And so a great evil of this world will be removed. Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”
–The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien
Warney made after his friend, gnawing on questions that Krawg’s campfire tale about Tammos Raak and the starcrown trees had inspired. “Why’d they call them starcrowns?”
“The way they caught stars in their branches.”
“And Mawrnash, where they grew . . . How’d it get a name like that?”

“Why, for the Mawrn, of course.” Krawg climbed over a fallen tree and staggered down a steep riverbank, his feet punching up gobs of mud with each step. “You hear me comin’, fish? Comin’ to getcha!”
“Mawrn, Mawrn. That does me no good if’n I don’t know what a Mawrn is, Krawg.”
–Raven’s Ladder, Jeffrey Overstreet
“Tell the Keeper,” [Cal-raven] whispered, “that I don’t know where to go from here . . . When I was a child, I’d have called out myself. It was easier then to believe.”
–Raven’s Ladder, Jeffrey Overstreet
[source]
Mr. Gilmer asked him one more question. “About your writing with your left hand, are you ambidextrous, Mr. Ewell?”
“I most positively am not, I can use one hand good as the other. One hand good as the other,” he added, glaring at the defense table.
–To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
“They almost sold us once, Mummy and Pa.” Wynn confessed this quietly, perhaps to Cortie, perhaps to the ale boy. Perhaps to himself. “They were gonna trade us to Bel Amican Seers. But then they didn’t. They packed up their things, real fastlike. We rode away. We were hungry. But we were together.” He embraced Cortie tight.
The ale boy felt his resistance failing. Emotion swelled in his throat, even though he could not fathom what the boy was feeling.
“Can I cry now?” Wynn whispered.
The ale boy patted him on the shoulder. “Of course,” he said, choking. “I’ll cry with you.”
–Cyndere’s Midnight, Jeffrey Overstreet
An elderly lady stood in the doorway–she was plump the way grannies sometimes are, pillowy and huggable-looking. She kept her white hair tied back behind her head in a poufy bun. She grinned at us and clapped her hands and ran down the ramp, squealing.
“Should I be afraid?” I asked.
“Charlie Sue Hancock is Oliver’s assistant. She gets excited over company.”
Charlie Sue ran at us full speed, both arms straight out like she might take off and fly.
“Should I duck?”
But I didn’t have time to duck. Instead I OOFED! as Charlie Sue swooped in and flung her arms around me and Jonah both. She smelled like coffee and expensive perfume.
“Welcome to Midnight Gulch, Felicity Pickle!” she hollered, pushing me back to take a good look at me.
–A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd
“Felicity darlin’,” she drawled, “you know what helped me figure out how to put my words together? Music. Music gets my words where they need to go. So you keep catching them words, you hear? Pluck them out of the wind. String them together like the finest set of pearls. Line them up on paper. And if it hurts too much to say them, then you sing them, or whisper them, or write them into a story. But don’t waste them. Your words matter more than you know. You hear?”
–A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd
“I don’t like how stories always end with folks riding into a sunset,” Mama said. “I’ve never cared for that. I’d rather ride all the way to the end and see that there’s a sunrise still waiting for me. Morning in my eyes, stars at my back.”
–A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd
[source]
It would be nice, and fairly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.” To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.
–The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
“You are too old, children,” said Aslan, “and you must begin to come close to your own world now.”
“It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”
“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.
“Are–are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund.
“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
–The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
Do right. Fear nothing.
–Crazy Dangerous, Andrew Klavan
“Tu-whoo! Ahem! Lord Regent,” said the Owl, stooping down a little and holding its beak near the Dwarf’s ear.
“Heh? What’s that?” said the Dwarf.
“Two strangers, my lord,” said the Owl.
“Rangers! What d’ye mean?” said the Dwarf. “I see two uncommonly grubby man-cubs. What do they want?”
“My name’s Jill,” said Jill, pressing forward. She was very eager to explain the important business on which they had come.
“The girl’s called Jill,” said the Owl, as loud as it could.
“What’s that?” said the Dwarf. “The girls are all killed! I don’t believe a word of it. What girls? Who killed ’em?”
–The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis
“Don’t you lose heart, Pole,” said Puddleglum. “I’m coming, sure and certain. I’m not going to lose an opportunity like this. It will do me good. They all say–I mean, the other wiggles all say–that I’m too flighty; don’t take life seriously enough. If they’ve said it once, they’ve said it a thousand times. ‘Puddleglum,’ they’ve said, ‘you’re altogether too full of bobance and bounce and high spirits. You’ve got to learn that life isn’t all fricasseed frogs and eel pie. You want something to sober you down a bit. We’re only saying it for your own good, Puddleglum.’ That’s what they say. Now a job like this–a journey up north just as winter’s beginning, looking for a prince who probably isn’t there, by way of a ruined city that no one has ever seen–will be just the thing. If that doesn’t steady a chap, I don’t know what will.”
–The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis
Dive deep. Drown willingly.
–White, Ted Dekker
“What love can you possible need from the world if you are full of His? None.”
–Outlaw, Ted Dekker
“There are no longer any problems to solve. If there are no longer any problems to solve, there’s no longer any need for correction. If there’s no need for correction, then there’s no need for law. Live in the grace of that which is now perfect, as it is. Be perfect, don’t try to become perfect. You already are, you just don’t know it yet. Be still and know.”
–Eyes Wide Open, Ted Dekker
“The heart is a peculiar thing. It sees and interprets details long before the brain has started to think there might be something worth noticing. The brain resents this skill, however, and will often spitefully do all it can to repress what the heart might be whispering.”
–Shadow Hand, Anne Elisabeth Stengl
“Do you understand, mortal?” Eanrin said. “We Faerie know it’s the spirit that counts, and all else is malleable. Beauty or ugliness; brawn or frailty; height or lack thereof–these appearances can be exchanged with scarcely a thought! But the truth . . . now, that’s another issue. The truth of the thing, the person behind what you perceive with any of your paltry five senses . . . Creature of dust, it’s the truth that counts! And you’ll rarely find more truth than in Faerie tales.”
With those words, the golden man dwindled into the golden cat, and try as he might, the Chronicler could perceive him as nothing else. But he was still Eanrin, and he smiled, pleased with himself. “That wasn’t a half-bad monologue. Do you find yourself inspired to new heights of ambition?”
–Dragonwitch, Anne Elisabeth Stengl
[source]
“What can I say?” Cosimo bowed in deference to his friend’s wishes. “We accept your hospitality.”
“Splendid! I do hope you are hungry, good sirs.”
“Ravenous!” roared Cosimo–so loudly that Kit gave a start. But no one else seemed to pay the least attention. “But, might we first pass by Pudding Lane? I have that errand we discussed.”
–The Skin Map, Stephen R. Lawhead
Taggle was absorbed in the meat pie. “It’s covered in bread,” he huffed. “What fool has covered meat with bread?”
–Plain Kate, Erin Bow
Perhaps it was time to stop choosing small spaces.
–Plain Kate, Erin Bow
“Hope never stands alone,” he said in a dry, husky voice. “It is born of valor and perseverance. It rides the back of courage.”
–The Book of Names, D. Barkley Briggs
A mouse slid out from under his hat and scrambled down his sleeve, across his lap, and down to the floor. “Nothing,” said Fenworth, “should distract from a wizard’s dignity.”
–DragonQuest, Donita K. Paul
“Not all tongues that wag cohabit with a brain.”
–DragonFire, Donita K. Paul
“I’m sorry, Mother. It’s just that five days of flying with these characters has made me crawl right over the edge of sanity.”
“I fell over the edge,” Karen said.
“I jumped,” Walter added. “And I can’t seem to climb back up.”
–Enoch’s Ghost, Bryan Davis
(At least I think it was that one . . . Goodreads didn’t say, and at this point I haven’t the time to look it up. Correct me if I’m wrong.)
Halt waited a minute or two but there was no sound except for the jingling of harness and the creaking of leather from their saddles. Finally, the former Ranger could bear it no longer.
“What?”
The question seemed to explode out of him, with a greater degree of violence than he had intended. Taken by surprise, Horace’s bay shied in fright and danced several paces away.
Horace turned an aggrieved look on his mentor as he calmed the horse and brought it back under control.
“What?” he asked Halt, and the smaller man made a gesture of exasperation.
“That’s what I want to know,” he said irritably. “What?“
Horace peered at him. The look was too obviously the sort of look that you give someone who seems to have taken leave of his senses. It did little to improve Halt’s rapidly growing temper.
“What?” said Horace, now totally puzzled.
“Don’t keep parroting at me!” Halt fumed. “Stop repeating what I say! I asked you ‘what,’ so don’t ask me ‘what’ back, understand?”
Horace considered the question for a second or two, then, in his deliberate way, he replied: “No.”
Halt took a deep breath, his eyebrows contracted into a deep V, and beneath them his eyes sparked with anger. But before he could speak, Horace forestalled him.

“What ‘what’ are you asking me?” he said. Then, thinking how to make the question clearer, he added, “Or to put it another way, why are you asking ‘what?'”

Controlling himself with enormous restraint, and making no secret of the fact, Halt said, very precisely: “You were about to ask me a question.”

Horace frowned. “I was?”

Halt nodded. “You were. I saw you take a breath to ask it.”

“I see,” Horace said. “And what was it about?”

For just a second or two, Halt was speechless. He opened his mouth, closed it again, then finally found the strength to speak.

“That is what I was asking you,” he said. “When I said ‘what,’ I was asking you what you were about to ask me.”

“I wasn’t about to ask you ‘what,'” Horace replied, and Halt glared at him suspiciously. It occurred to him that Horace could be indulging himself in a gigantic leg pull, that he was secretly laughing at Halt. This, Halt could have told him, was not a good career move. Rangers were not people who took kindly to being laughed at. He studied the boy’s open face and guileless blue eyes and decided that his suspicion was ill-founded.

“Then what, if I may use that word once more, were you about to ask me?”

Horace drew a breath once more, then hesitated. “I forget,” he said. “What were we talking about?”

–The Battle for Skandia, John Flanagan
[source]
“To listen to a poet arguing with himself–for she could scarcely have been said to have borne any part in the discussion–on the merits of blank verse as a dramatic medium was naturally a privilege of which any young lady must be proud, but there could be no denying that to talk for half an hour to a man who listened with interest to anything she said was, if not precisely a relief, certainly a welcome variation in her life.”
–The Grand Sophy, Georgette Heyer
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! –When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
–Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater.
But sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life.
That is the sort of bravery I must have now.
–Allegiant, Veronica Roth
Una closed her eyes and wished that the ground would open and swallow her up. The nature of the universe seemed to be against her, however, and no sudden chasm rifted the turf beneath her feet. Instead she had to listen to her father ask in a stern voice, “And who might you be, sir?”
The stranger bowed. “Forgive me. I am Prince Aethelbald of Farthestshore.”
Prince Felix muttered, “Aethelbald? I don’t think we can forgive that.”
–Heartless, Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Be not deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe in which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
–The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
[source]

Warm sun and robin’s-egg skies were inappropriate conditions for sending one’s uncle to a lunatic asylum.
–The Dark Unwinding, Sharon Cameron

“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
–The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.
–The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
–Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth ahs read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

–The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis

And now we come to the end . . .

That was a frightfully long post, and yet it was only but a small sample of the glorious wordsmithing I love. I did have full intentions of including more narrative bits and descriptions and whatnot–and of delving into a greater variety of books as well–but it seems I leaned more toward humor and dialogue and wise sayings. Maybe they’re easier to find . . .
Anyway, before I wrap this up, I must say I’m quite sorry for not having read/commented on some of the more recent linked up posts. I greatly appreciate your participation, truly! This week has just rip-roared right by me. Once the craziness blows over (read: after this weekend), I plan to crash all your parties (I mean, read your blogs) and leave fangirly comments.

Enormous thanks, questers!

Thank you for joining me so enthusiastically! It’s hard to believe this month is almost over, and that the first Lovely Books post went up four whole weeks ago. I’ve really enjoyed all the bookish discussions happening here and elsewhere, and I hope you have too.
It’s not too late to join up on any of the themes yet–you have until March 5th. So if you’re about to burst with book quotes of your own collection (or any of the other things mentioned: covers/titles, couples, villains), have at it!
Once more, here’s the link-up form and the brief instructions. Thanks again, y’all!

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