: Re: How to prevent seeming like a Marty Stu-ish villain is cheating? In a story I'm writing, there's a villain who is a genius strategist that can get anything he wants, whatever it is, by developing

There is nothing wrong with a hypercompetent antagonist.

The Mary Sue / Marty Stu is usually only perceived as bad writing when it is the protagonist. A story centered around a hypercompetent viewpoint character favored by faith is boring because the story offers no real challenge for such a character. But if you make the antagonist hypercompetent, you are doing the opposite. You provide the viewpoint character with an extraordinary challenge to overcome. You can create a lot of suspension based on how the viewpoint character will beat that overpowered villain. And if you can find a way to pull it off without using a deus ex machina or suddenly making the protagonist even more competent, you will likely end up with a pretty good climax to your story.

The only thing you need to watch out for is that the contrived plans of the villain are plausible. When you want to pull off a "Ha! Losing was part of my plan all along because [thing you wasn't aware of]", think about the following:

Was it actually possible for the villain to plan this? Or does the plan hinge on some information or resource the villain couldn't possibly have access to? (Using some foreshadowing can help to bridge such plotholes)
Is it believable that the antagonist could keep that plan B a secret?
Does it actually make sense resource-wise to prepare both plan A and plan B? Wouldn't it have been more economical to invest slightly more resources into one of these plans to make sure it succeeds?
Is plan B actually a plausible contingency for plan A? Or does the opportunity to switch to plan B only present itself because the villain was extremely lucky? For example, does plan B rely on precise timing of events the villain can not control or predict with sufficient accuracy? Or on certain people making certain decisions when they could just as well decide differently?
If the villain planned for plan A to fail and plan B to succeed, was plan A actually required in the first place?

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: Re: How to prevent seeming like a Marty Stu-ish villain is cheating? In a story I'm writing, there's a villain who is a genius strategist that can get anything he wants, whatever it is, by developing

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: How to write long extracts in a foreign language? In my writing there are eight groups of people, each with their own language that they speak. Do I put large amounts of writing into their

: Another answer links to a different question, which has an answer that says you can "give each of your main characters a conflicting theory of 'who done it'." The short story "In a Grove",

: Is it OK if I just mention in one line that she looks like some real world actress? Don't do that. First of all, don't overestimate the relevance of how people look when you aren't

: Never let them give serious consideration to their own moral failings. It's a common feature of the wickedest of people in real-life: It never occurs to them that they are the ones in the

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