Nohens Writing Tips #1 · 1:33pm Jun 6th, 2017
Hi,
As I already mentioned before, this will be the first in a line of blogs in which I write about various techniques, tricks or quirks of the process of writing. Most of them will be based on my own personal experience, so don´t expect any professional references or any technical terms. I try to keep it simple and understandable and I hope that some of these blogs help you in writing your own stories. I also want to stress the fact, that these are not rules, only guidelines. If you do not agree with my method or see a better way of spinning a story, go ahead. I just want to give some insight in my own writing process. And help some of you long the way. 
Now, enough disclaimers. On to the first chapter!
The Villain Protagonist
A protagonist is, quite obviously, the centerpiece of the story. He is the one, with which the reader identifies and keeps him engaged. The readers sees through the eyes of the protagonist and therefore a well written protagonist is probably one of the most important aspects of the story. Fails the protagonist, fails the story. As such writing a sympathetic, easy identifiable character is crucial.
But how do you do that, when your hero of the story is evil? The so called villain-protagonist is a form of hero, that poses great problems for any new writer. Especially, because one of the most important aspects of a hero, suddenly gets much more difficult to perform: The readers identification with the protagonist.
How can you expect your readers, to sympathise with a vile rapist or murderer? And most importantly for clopfics that want to explore the darker reaches of erotic fiction, how do create a protagonist that is not vile? Usually many writers just switch perspective to the victim of the story. The instigator of the dark content becomes the antagonist and we see events unfold in the perspective of the victim. But that poses the problem, that you have a very passive protagonist, who will react constantly and rarely go on the offensive, since his role is that of a victim. But what, if you want your protagonist to take a more proactive role? One of the few choices you have as writer there, is the villain-protagonist.
Which brings us back to our first question: How do you engage readers in morally questionable character? Now, in my case, I cheated. Since MLC is an interactive story, many readers already identify with Zexis as the protagonist, since they are directly invested in the stories progression. Having your hero be, at least partially, your own creation creates an investment from the start. But that cannot be applied for our standard case, so let´s drop that.
Instead we focus on our average dark clopfic. How do we create investment in our reader for the “hero”? Well, first and foremost you have make him able. Humans are hardwired to admire skill. Morality usually takes backseat in our minds, when we engage in fantasies. Thats why we are able to play shooters or any kind of violent game. We know it is not real and can instead focus on application of power and skill, that displayed in front of us.
The same goes for clopfics. Make your protagonist intelligent, strong or handsome. Give him some skills, he can apply in the story, and you will earn at least begrudging respect from your viewers.
That however is a pitfall in itself. Some of you probably already know it under the name “Mary-Sue” (Gary-Sue, for the male equivalent). It describes a character that is so powerful or capable, that any challenge or tension in a story is removed. He wins by default of being the protagonist. That creates a lack of tension and seems more like a powerplay on the side of the writer. Most clopfics fall under that category, mostly because they focus on the “empowerment”-facet, while neglecting everything else. That is fine, for a quick stroke story or smut, where plot is not important. But any story, that wants to take itself seriously, will face major issues if it does have a “mary-Sue” on board. These are your Dainns and Thunderlanes.
In order to avoid that, you will also have to give your protagonist something to balance out his skill: Vices. These are traits that you will have to exploit during the story. That will make your “hero” trip up or make a crucial mistake, that will cost him either immediately or later on. Maybe he is impatient or arrogant and sabotages his efforts himself that way. Or he is a horndog and falls into a “honey-trap”. It doesn´t matter, as long as these weaknesses create hurdles for the protagonist to overcome, be it physical or mentally. That way you create tension and make sure, that his victories are actually earned, when he achieves them despite his flaws. And I need to stress here, that these must be real weaknesses. Not something like “he is afraid of spiders”. Unless you want to constantly bring spiders into the story, to provide a challenge, this will not cut it. Personality flaws are usually the best. Something that can be applied in multiple situations or be actively exploited by the antagonist.
And don´t be afraid to let your protagonist screw up. He is just “human” (you get what I mean). No one wants to read how “Rape-God 123” broke Equestria in under three days by waving his magic dick. Let him earn this through cunning and hard work and you will earn the support of your readers.
Now you made your protagonist able and you gave him some vices, but how do you make him likeable? The previous two are mostly standard procedure for any hero. But a good villain-protagonist is especially memorable, when he also manages to be sympathetic. After all, this the one thing he will not get from the beginning, unlike other heroes. He is not an upstanding citizen or a heroic individual. He is evil, corrupt and vile. Making him actually sympathetic is the difference between your protagonist being just a tool for your story and being an actual character.
Motivation and Quirks are the keywords here.
Motivation is the reason, why he engages in his actions. This doesn´t have to be particulary noble or even good. It is enough, if it´s provides an explanation for his current status. Maybe he was abused, or he always desired affection, but never got it. It doesn´t matter, as long as you give a clear backstory, from which you can draw a motive. It will help you make this one-dimensional rapist into a three-dimensional character. Keep in mind that the motivation serves only as an explanation, not as an excuse. Many writers fail here, because they try to justify the characters actions. This can work, but usually falls short. After all, at this point people read your story because your character is evil. Making him just misunderstood cheapens the impact of the choices he made so far. And it gets even more dangerous, when you accidently condone your characters actions. Don´t. Especially in a clopfic, that focuses on dark themes, this is one of the most deadliest writing-traps you can fall in. It makes you seem like you support the crimes that are commited and may lead your readers to believe, you couldn´t seperate fantasy from reality. That is a swamp you don´t want get into, because escape is practically impossible. Especially here on the internet.
Now Quirks are the second part on your journey, to create a good villain-protagonist. Unlike motivations, who serve to present a backstory and motive, quirks main-purpose is to “humanize” your character. These are small things, like an addiction to coffee or fascination with butterflies. They give your “monster” are more human aspect and change him from a “beast” into an actual “person”. Let him interact with other people through these quirks. This doesn´t have to be healthy interaction, but you have to keep in mind that most criminals or villains are part of society and occupy a certain place there. With at least a few “breather” between your scenes of destruction and debauchery, you create a sense of “normality” that will give your readers time to relax and it will give you time to explore other aspect of your protagonist, that hadn´t been part of the story until now.
This is your key on making your readers identify themselves with your protagonist, our main goal from the beginning. They still see his evil, but they able to dive into the story now and see things unfold from your heros perspective, insted of being just spectators. That way they will get invested.
Now, if you followed all these steps, you should have now a protagonist who is able, but with a few vices to balance it out. Who possesses a motivation, that provides him with some dimension, and some quirks, which humanizes him to the reader. If you did all that, and still retained the original amorality and corruption of your hero, you will have a Villain-Protagonist.
Now, there are more steps to it than that, but for a start this should be enough. I will get at a later point to the more advanced stuff, like character-development and the special elements you will need for a story that has a villain-protagonist. But these are just needed for more long-term stories. Anyone who wants to write short-to-medium long story should do just fine, with these steps.
I will probably write these kind of things in my free time, so the schedule will irregular. But I hope you found this educational and it helps you with your stories. Give me feedback what you think of this blog or ask me questions in the comments down below and I will answer them to the best of my abilities.
I hope to see you all next time.
Zexis’s vices/quirks haven't been very noticeable, or at least I haven't picked up on them much. He mostly goes about his corruption business. It might just be hard to spot them when the whole premise is sex and fetish domination. You have managed a nice balance of his competence and failures, though.
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Thank you, I try.
Of course, there is always a certain imbalance between these traits. You can´t manage everything equally and as you said, Zexis had been very proactive in the story so far. There is not much time to explore his deeper personality. Which of course is kinda the point, because he is the avatar. He does what the readers want him to do and his personality matches that.
If you go through the earlier chapters (and survive my horrible grammar) you will see that Zexis acts quite different there, than in the later ones. This will more or less continue during the story. He will experience changes, the more detailed his personality and his traits become.
I will of course spend more time in future chapter on his quirks and such, but they will probably never be huge focus. I would like to also point out, that I mentioned that MLC is not a very good example for your typical “Villain-Protagonist”-approach. Again, no rules just guidelines.
But you have a point and I will try to find some breathing space. Just forgive me, if it doesn´t happen immediately. The pace is probably going to stay on it´s current high speed for quite some time.
While I generally agree with your points, it should also be said that Dainn has never been the protagonist of any FoE story.
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True, but he is a prime example of a “Gary Sue” or the Caribous in generell.
Thank you, for the advice.
Gentle breeze guide your path, a warm smile welcome you home. ( Insert Twilight smile here )
And for you. “A caring breeze carry your scent, a true mate fill your appetite.” (Insert Insane Pinkie here.)
But... why?
You provided more than enough explanation of how to do this questionable thing. But you never explined why it would be a good idea to make a villain protagonist that people might see as laudible.
lookpic.com/O/i2/362/TAjV8Nak.jpeg
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I did actually. In the first half.
To repeat: A villain-protagonist can be useful for authors, if they want to view the story from a different side. A different morality. In terms of clopfics in enable the reader to immerse himself in the role of the perpetrator (if we are talking about dark content), instead of the victim.
And it can be used in other fanfiction as well. There re numerous ways you could make a story unique by writing from the perspective of the villain, instead of the hero.
In the end, it is just a tool. How people use it is up to them.
Can I ask you a question? What do you mean by questionable? If you mean the laudible thing, I already made it clear in the blog that one should not condone or excuse the actions of a villain. Or is it something different?
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If you don't condone it, excuse it or apologize for it (in the sense of apologia, a formal defense) then I see no real reason to undertake the endeavor with care. If the quality is high enough and the character crafted well enough it becomes both apologia and lionization. This may or may not be independent of intent. That might even be worse.
Think of the Gnostic view of Yahweh as the cruel and insane Demiurge, which wasn't necessarily the intent, but that's how he comes off to an external viewer. A tribal god without pity. It requires apologia to whitewash him. "He's just misunderstood" for the true believers and "He's understood in context" for the overly relativistic. Even if he isn't real, his hypothetical actions are excused and condoned by those who found his character to be laudible. His mass murders and overt genocide are excused with prodigious victim-blaming and DARVO. For more proper fictional characters presented very much as villain protagonists in context because of similar reasons to Yahweh, there's Ysgramore from The Elder Scrolls, who is almost literally Hitler as a Viking and is practically a cult figure to The Companions, Sheeogorath the God of madness (not only a homicidally insane cruel god but also a disgusting caricature of what mentally ill people are like, which is a general trope I disagree with) whose cruelty is played for entertainment, Darth Vader who is a fan favorite, even Emperor Palpatine has devoted fans. And don't even get me started on The Joker who sometimes doesn't even need an apologia via back story, he's just a murderer, Sheeogorath without divine powers.
I'm a prole, son of proles, in a family of workers and persons of modest means. When your villain protagonist needs victims, my class is culled. That's instantly unacceptable through the working of empathy. I believe in Rawls' Veil of Ignorance and thus find the concept of "its good to root for the bad guy" illogical because even by simple probability, you're the third corpse on the left when your sainted and holy villain protagonist Yahwehs his way on a rampage. I didn't even get into entire settings based on this principle, like Fallout where mass murder is the start and all the survivors are further pushed to artificially constructed and scripted moral quandries with few good solutions.
The oddest quote came to mind just now. "Do you think God stays in heaven because he, too, fears what he has created?" From Spy Kids 2 of all places. Intent is almost meaningless if you create something with quality and deftness that's an abominable monstrosity which has been self-justified through its own quality, making it laudible because of its internal consistency and flawless logical justification using a metric that resonates with some (such as "might makes right" or "my group has inherent superiority"). You condone and excuse it by crafting with care. In some sense your advice undermines your caveats because by increasing quality you create those excuses and condoning. Remember, theodicy. People justify the certainly fictional mass killings of a poorly written character then proclaim the character good. Write a better one and the justifications get simpler.
4570003
Okay, here is the thing.
Fantasy and Reality are seperate.
They should be for us, so that we function in society. Now, there are millions of people out there who go into movie theaters to watch superheroes beat each other up or play video games, where they gun down hundreds of enemy combatants. Does that mean that all these people want these things to happen in real life? Does that mean that they support violence and war? Does that mean they are evil?
No, of course not. Because there is a wall between fantasy and reality. Games, movies and stories let you safely experience a part of life, that otherwise you wouldn´t. Without consequences for those around you and without the physical and mental complexities of reality. It is a safe enviroment. Just because someone is playing Fallout, does that not mean that he wants the Apocalypse to happen or tht he wants to kill people by shooting nukes at them. Nor does he, in what indirect way ever, support these actions, if they would be done in front of him. Because we can seperate fantasy and reality.
The villain protagonist serves as just that. Another tool to experience a viewpoint, you normally wouldn´t get. And that is fine, because you don´t need to support these actions the protagonist undertakes. A well crafted character only heightens the immersion and quality of the story. He does not condone or support the actions of the villain. You seem to confuse laudebility with apology.
Secondly, in no way did I say, that the villain needs to win. Just because he is the protagonist doesn´t mean he is righteous. He is merely the viewpoint. Nothing justifies him, unless the author specifically writes it so (which I mentioned, was wrong). If you seek your moral righteous ending, you can punish him. You can let him fail and let the karma of his actions find him. That is your freedom as an author.
You use a lot of fancy words, technical terms and religious metaphor, but behind all that you are are essentially saying this: Fantasy and Reality are not seperate. That you believe that imagening something to happen, means supporting it, condoning it. And since you like quotes, here is mine: "Die Gedanken sind frei." It is german and means "Thoughts are free". It references intellectual freedom and is the basis for the human right of free speech.
In the end, I have this to say. I am not a religious person per say. I believe that god exist, but I believe he is not a good person or better siad, his morality is beyond human comprehension. If you feel like you have a obligation due to your heritage, your social status or your faith, to write morally unambigious stories and good endings, that is fine. After all it is your choice, your story.
However, do not push your ideology on others. Especially if they don´t want to. If they agree with you, okay. But if they, like me, don´t share your view on how to write a story, please let them be. The world is a free place and I personally have no quarrel with you. I am open to critique and question, but I will not let myself be lectured on any moral obligation. That is your stick, not mine.
I hope you understand and that the issue, if not resolved, can at least be laid to rest. Okay?
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Absolutely. Your thoughts are your thoughts and your advice is highly valid. It actually is very solid advice that everyone needs to take to heart when crafting a character. Good on you for articulating the proper steps for character creation. I actually hope this guide series gets a lot of traffic because it's the sort of thing we need. Make villains happily and may your fan base be eternally devoted and loyal, in all times.
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4570022
Wow, someone had the exact opposite reaction to this than I did. I absolutely LOVE villain protagonists. It is extremely rare and refreshing to actually find a story with an evil protagonist. In mainstream writing, this line is almost completely ignored.
Gabriel I find your comments anathema to me. Apologize for it? One should revel in it, as nohen does in his glorious, wonderful story. As for why he should do it, I could ask you the same thing. Why would you write a heroic protagonist, when almost every other protagonist is also heroic and noble and good. Is your main reason for writing a story to promote your moral values? It's fine if it is, but that really shouldn't be the main reason you write, in my opinion. Writing should be to entertain the reader, and those of us that enjoy evil protagonists are starving for lack of content. Nohens story is my favorite so far precisely because he has made an evil protagonist, and I find this guide invaluable!
I mean no disrespect to you though, I guess nohen already said everything much more eloquently than a simple pony like me can manage.