Writing Saturday: B is for Bad Guys

Adventures and Adversities is the first book I have written that didn't have a bad guy for the good guy to defeat. My normal style of writing has been centered around a war between good and evil. The biggest thing I learned when writing Adventures and Adversities is that you do not need a central bad guy to make a story work. In fact, I learned that it can actually help.

The story, instead of being centered around good verses evil, is centered around my main character, Alditha, who struggles to get back to those she loves. If you had to pick a bad guy in the story, it would be the things that keep her from loved ones. Writing a story this way, though, helped me to get deeper into the character of Alditha. Instead of relying heavily on my action scenes heavy like I normally do, I had to learn to write deep emotions, and my character development.

Another thing I had to do was keep the story moving. If I spent too much time in one place, my readers could get bored. Adventures and Advertises has taught tight writing without reliance on action or bad guys.

Do you have any great tips for writing stories without a main bad guy?