Some time ago I hired someone to take a look at my novel. I’ve worked diligently on it, but it still doesn’t work, and I needed another pair of eyes to help dissect the problems. Yesterday I read through her comments, and frankly, there weren’t too many surprises. The ending is too gentle, in part because it hasn’t been rewritten enough yet. A few of the relationships need a little extra from me to make sense to the reader.
Then there’s the villain.
“What does he want? What made him this way?” she asks. She’s right. I’ve known this. He’s a monster, he craves power, and he terrorizes people…but why? What made him such an ugly, miserable creature?
Sadly, I don’t know. After all this time and all this work, I do not know.
Whenever I write, new information becomes revealed to me over time, and I expect that my villain has hidden out for a reason. I also hope he shows up to tell me what’s going on really soon! The other night I had a dream about him…a good sign. He was younger looking than in my story, although in my dream he had redeemed himself. That’s not going to happen in the novel, but maybe it’s the beginning of some insights.
I write this today in hopes that this action will jog loose some details and open his lips so he is more willing to tell me what hurt him so much. Or maybe he’s a psychopath who never had a conscience…but that tends to be boring in literature, so I vote for the former. Adrian, come out, come out, and talk to me. I promise I will do better at listening this time.