Your hero is not the most important character in your book. Your villain is. Are you fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains? Frustrated with creating clichés? And failing to get your reader to root for your villain? In 13 Steps to Evil, you’ll discover: How to develop a villain’s mindset A step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up Why getting to the core of a villain’s personality is essential to make them credible What pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs Finally, there is a comprehensive writing guide to help you create superbad villains. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge.
These lessons will help you master and control your villainous minions, navigate and gain the perfect balance of good and evil, as well as strengthening your villain to give your story the tension and punch it needs. If you like dark humour, learning through examples and want to create the best villains you can, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting superbad villains. Read 13 steps to evil today and start creating kick ass villains.
My review:
Confession time. No, it’s nothing to do with my prison record, or my descent into villainy. It’s simply this – I’m pretty lazy about reading books about writing – but Sacha Black’s 13 Steps To Evil has completely changed my mind! What a fantastic kick ass little book! I wish I’d read a copy years ago.
It’s a detailed resource, which informs and entertains in an illuminating, and humorous way. There are so many excellent examples that I am giddy with the potential for villains. The mental health section is handled with great sensitivity (one of my characters self-harms, so I read this with considerable interest,) and I was also fascinated by the detail on narcissistic personality disorder too.
Sacha’s extensive knowledge of villains prompts me to ask….. Is Sacha a secret villain? Or has she been hanging out with dodgy characters? The mind boggles. No, none of these apply… at least I don’t think so! Sacha Black has done her research, and it shows. She studied Psychology to 1st Class Degree level and thereafter completed Masters in Research Methods in Cognitive Neuropsychology. She has also spent an exorbitant amount of time watching villainous films, (from a tender age,) and has read tonnes of books, and absorbed popular culture like a sponge. Where does this woman get her energy? I am in awe, totally star-stuck… or should I say villain struck!
My recommendation: 5 stars. Get a copy now and write a review. Share the love!
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My opinions are my own and any reviews on this site have not been swayed or altered in any way by monetary compensation, or by the offer of a free book in exchange for a review.
I thought it would be useful to have a list of resources which would come in helpful especially for people like me who are new to writing, and blogging. So with that in mind here are some bits and pieces I would like to share with you, along with details of blogs who host weekly memes.
Starting of with Mxlexia: the magazine for women who write http://www.mslexia.co.uk. I subscribe to this and find it an invaluable resource for advice, information and interesting articles.
Pauline Harris: I just came across Pauline recently via Netgalley, I will be reviewing her novel Puppet soon. Anyway her website is http://paulinecharris.wordpress.com – where you can find advice on developing a platform, twitter, what its really like to be an author particularly from the perspective of a younger person. Pauline is 18.
#aryaclub I found this via http://theprettybooks.wordpress.com. The #aryaclub “is a young adult book club whose members include Daphne, Stacey, Caitlin, Jim, Asti, Debbie, Caroline, Faye, Charlotte and Julianne. We meet once a month to talk about YA books (and occasionally children’s and adult fiction!), eat copious amounts of food and try not to freak out the only boy…! ” https://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/aryaclub
#SOTuesday Shout out Tuesday. ” Tuesday so often gets left out of things on Twitter and in real life. Music Monday Hump Day. Follow Friday. Hungover Saturday. Hungover Sunday. And never forget about Throwback Thursday. Never forget.” http://www.20somethingawesome.com/tag/hashtags-that-should-be-trending
Weekly Memes:
Teaser Tuesdays meme I discovered via http://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com. It is hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Who has the following weekly memes: Musing Mondays, Teaser Tuesdays, WWW Wednesdays, (three questions – what reading what finishing what reading next) Friday Finds, and My favourite find Saturdays. http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/
Top Ten Tuesday “Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We’d love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!” Broke and the Bookish. http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html
SOCS Streams of consciousness Saturday posts SOCS. This one I found via irenedesign2011.com. Host is http://lindagill.wordpress.com
The Sunday post: ” It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.” http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2014/09/sunday-post-124.html
Inspiring places blog hop http://cateartios.wordpress.com #inspiringspaces bloghop.
Stacking the shelves via confessions of a book geek – tynga’a reviews. “We are all book lovers and the need to share our enthusiasm is sometimes overwhelming. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!” http://www.tyngasreviews.com/2012/05/staking-shelves-official-launch.html
No doubt I haven’t mentioned everyone! Too numerous to include but I will be adding to this list in future posts. Hope it proves a helpful resource to fellow writers and bloggers.
