Day Twenty-four and a bit--and finished.

That's right! Woo woo! At 80, 407 words, it's finished. Scorched is done--other than a massive rewrite, because I decided my new villain needed a more central role--and redemption. Sweet! A redeemed villain.

Plus, I changed about three people's names today alone. Holy cow! Everyone got a new name today. I even swapped a shadowhound's name with a demon. So there. Neeners.

Still, it's done. This calls for Frosting and maybe some sugary liquid of some kind. I could go for some ginger ale.

Day Twenty-three--when your villain becomes shades of gray

So, I figured out what was up with Scorched. It came to me last night while I was typing. I had the wrong guy cast as the villain. A new character had appeared, and he is going to be a "gray" villain. He's not entirely bad, but he's not good. His motives are based on an unhealthy desire for someone. He was like a secondary villain, but I've decided he is much more of a main character villain.

That's not to say that my previous villain wasn't a villain. He is--and he'll, hopefully, still be a surprise. He just lacked passion, so exterminating him was going to feel a little like squashing a cockroach in the last scene--sure he is evil, but he was just going through the motions. (Don't you hate it when evil just becomes rote?)

Anyway, that also means that I might need to back-up and rewrite earlier. He comes in a little late, but we'll see how that works. I'm struggling with villain issues in Honor six too. Those villains.

Luckily, this new guy I've been casting as villain will do nicely.

BAWAHAHA!

Oh... ouch. I'm digging my way out of a migraine. The husband stayed home to make sure the kids made it off to school. So, no more loud evil laughter. Everyone keeps their evil laughter to themselves. I might go sit in front of the fire for a while again too.

Day Eighteen-- My Beautiful Wickedness

Imaginary rep points awarded to the first person to post where the phrase above comes from. (Aside from Diana if she is reading blogs--we talked about this last week as a possible book title--before I realized it sounded too close to Wicked Lovely--in my opinion. Le sigh.)

Villains. Whether they're metaphorical or real, every story has an antagonist or an antagonistic element. Otherwise it's like Seinfeld--a story about nothing. Well, okay, there are those stories, but they usually bore me. I like conflict. I like angst. I like villains a lot.

I know I bring up the subject of YA topics a lot, but I think this spreads beyond that while still being pertinent.

How evil can you/will you go with your "villain"? Does it seem like sometimes that you have to "off" someone to prove your villain is truly evil? Is it to justify killing your villain in the end? Okay, let's play murder by numbers here:

Dream a Little Dream: Serial Killer (12+ body count) Comeuppance- Hero smacks him in the head with a rock-booyah-arrested.

A Little Crazy Talk: Mad Deranged Killer (body count of one) Comeuppance- Hit in the head with a maglight-booyah-arrested.

Someone to Watch over Me: Stalker (proof of abuse) Comeuppance- Suicide

Face of the Phantom: Psycho (attempted murder and assault) Comeuppance-broken face by chick-booyah-arrested.

For in that Sleep: Serial Killer (body count of two) Comeuppance- Nailed in the head with a baseball bat-so satisfying-arrested.

Quality of Justice: Hitman (high body count) Comeuppance- Killed in defense of another.

Parallel Lives: Multiple villains (criminal mischief and body count of one)- Comeuppance-beat to unconsciousness with a garbage can and/or arrested.

Stories and Magic: Multiple villains (attempted murder in the case of two, execution by another, a barrel of hitmen with an unknown body count) Comeuppance-life ruined/sent to rot in a small village jail manned by people who hate you (my favorite comeuppance EVER) and arrested.

Share with me a Lullaby: Multiple villains ( 12+ body count for some ) Comeuppance- killed by other villains or suicide.

My Little Runaway: Multiple villains (body count of one and attempted murder) Comeuppance- tasered and arrested.

Re: Straint: Multiple villains (hitmen with unknown body count) Comeuppance- poisoned or killed by other hitmen or dying slowly from disease

Sheri's Tales: Multiple villains (attempted murder) Comeuppance- killed by crushing them.

I won't go through the Honors (serial killers, skinwalkers, etc) because it would actually be spoilers, but you get the point.

So, Scorched: I've got multiple pyro demons including one sire (criminal mischief and considering the possibility of murder) Comeuppance-banishment to hell. (As you can see--this is a new and exciting comeuppance for me. I even like to say it in a deep voice.)

Still, I find it interesting that all my villains receive their comeuppance in a very satisfying way. Is this a psychological thing--that I need them to be caught and punished in some way? I need it to be "fair?"

Actually--I do. So little of our lives outside of fiction are fair--and I like to see the bad punished and the good win. When I was reading "The Ruins" it left me dissatisfied, because that didn't happen. So, I guess that makes my writing unrealistic, but I don't care. There is something cathartic about everything working out--even if it's not perfectly. I like to see resolution. I love a good comeuppance.

How about you? Spill on your villains... or your favorite villains for the non-writers. What's their body count or infraction? What's their comeuppance? Do you need resolution like I do?

Can evil triumph?

Does a YA book get a different level of villain than an adult book?