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Step 14: Introducing the Next Great Enemy
Now you may think that dull everyday matters like love affairs, underhanded scheming, backstabbing, murder attempts, international smuggling rings, mysterious foreign languages, and amnesia are enough to make your fic memorable. If you like romance novels and soap operas that much, then so be it. However, I recommend that you think bigger. The muses are guiding your hands as you type, and they have inspired you to write not just an epic, but an Epic. This Epic cannot be a true Epic unless it has things that cannot be found in the real world, so it's time for you to insert some more supernatural elements. Your masterpiece is Big, Melodramatic, Sweeping, and Larger Than Life, light-years beyond the sphere of normal fanfics. Size is the clearest indicator of how good your ARF is; after all, if you have so much to write, that naturally means that you know more (not to mention you'll get more reviews). Think about it, have you ever heard of an epic without a villain? Now you might ask, "I thought that Tifa was our villain! Isn't that enough?" I mean a real villain, one with superpowers, preferably a villain to whom you are allowed to attribute intelligence because he is so ugly that Cloud would never want to date him. There is just one problem: you still have no idea who this great and unstoppable enemy is yet. Not that this matters, of course; you've been doing so well by making this up as you go along, so why stop now? But now is probably the most appropriate time to design your villain. Welcome to: Generic Enemy Builder 1000 (Fill in the appropriate blanks)
Ridiculous Name: [preferably some hybrid of the words Super, Ultimate, Mega, Deluxe, and Uber] However, no matter how many tentacles you choose to give your enemy, he/she/it must be: a) Omnipotent: I cannot stress enough how important this is. You must create the Next Sephiroth, a great enemy who is so powerful that he can obliterate the First Sephiroth with the snap of his fingers. Remember, just like for heroes and OCs, the best villains are the ones whose powers can be described with the most superlatives. People will be more impressed by an author who has created a bad guy who can blow up the world in ten seconds than one whose bad guy can only do it in fifteen; it's simple logic, right? b) Bland: Remember, your villain should have no redeeming character traits, or even mildly interesting ones that your readers might sympathize with. Your story should be black and white, good guys vs. bad guys; that is how to create real drama and conflict. In my opinion, non-humanoid villains are better, because they are much more difficult to relate to. I mean, who did you feel worse about fighting in the game, Dyne or the Materia Keeper? (This does not apply if you're going the angsty, gothic Sephiroth knock-off route, but I recommend that you stick to a one-dimensional Scooby-Doo baddie, because you have more than enough characters to develop as it is.) c) Ugly as Hell: One Jealous Evil Villainess Tifa is more than enough for any fanfic. d) Luke's Father: No matter how boring and one-dimensional your antagonist is, he or she should have some mysterious background that cannot be explained until fifteen chapters later, when you will have finally decided what this mysterious background is. A sudden plot twist is a great way of flaunting your creative ability. In fact, the more sudden it is, the better. You will really surprise your readers if you introduce a plot twist that is so out of nowhere that it contradicts all the evidence in the story. Example: in the last chapter, we discover that the vile Supermegultimacerylax is really Nanaki's long-lost twin brother in disguise! Of course, if you can't think of a sufficiently surprising plot twist, there are other routes for you to go...But we'll worry about that part when the time comes. Now, when you introduce your villain, you must be subtle. Yes, subtlety is not always that bad; in this case, it gives you an excuse to ignore the villain's arrival for the next few chapters. Before you unleash his/her/its reign of terror, you should build up suspense.
The town of Mideel lay peacefully and serenely in a nocturnal slumber, its weary residents fast asleep in their humble abodes. It is time for you to build tension and give your readers a sense of fear and foreboding. This is can be accomplished by referring to sudden noises, flashes of light, or other ominous signs, such as Mysterious Bubbling Water and Multi-Coloured Flashes of Light. Yet all of a sudden, a huge blue and purple beacon of light glared. The hot springs grew frothy and agitated. Geysers shot up from the air. A huge echoing crash of water shattered the silence of the night. The Lifestream was bubbling with mysterious bubbling that bubbled and bubbled. Multi-coloured light beams flashed on and off, illumining the night sky. A tempest brewed...and then, all was silent again. A single tentacle popped out of the hot spring. It flailed around to get a hold of something. After finally latching on to a rock, it hoisted its monstrous body up... "The War of the Roses shall start anew," a harsh voice croaked. "And I shall be reborn..." But first, it was time to feed. Your first real cliff-hanger, not to mention your first bit of historical plagiarism! Good job, you're getting better at this. Next Part: The romantic subplot that is definitely not an excuse to give "Jycei-chan" a boyfriend, selecting a suitable love interest, and wish fulfillment. ~Evil Mina |