: 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

It's simply not enough to be "Marty Stu" to always have a plan leading to success. Marty Stu/Mary Sue are very resourceful and (when the story requires it) lucky, but they are not uber-Machiavellian schemers, as you seem to propose.

Having said that, you indeed have a difficult task of painting a realistic picture. Your villain has to have some sort of explicitly stated super-ability (omniscience, telepathy, future-telling), or else, having "plans always lead to success" will be taken with an increased amount of doubt by the readers. Real world geniuses just can't know everything, so ultimate "plan B" for them is "cut the losses and retreat". I am thinking your villain is close to [TV TROPES WARNING] The Chessmaster character type.

Thus, as others have already said, you should provide some weakness to your villain. This weakness, or the way to exploit it, would be the key to your plot.

Load Full (0)

: There have been some observations of business writing/interaction that suggest that women apologize more in business settings and interrupt less. But I wouldn't consider that to be especially

@Hamaas631

Load Full 0 Comments

: I concur with @Cloudchaser advice, and suggest a simple enough experiment. Come up with a short story with a well-defined plot, and write it down; For a month, read nothing but the books

@Hamaas631

Load Full 0 Comments

: I've worked in web marketing and direct marketing for a few years now. Be wary of internet marketing courses. The results are rarely as promising as they claim and tend to require a lot

@Hamaas631

Load Full 0 Comments

: How to write about characters and places you aren't personally familiar with? What do I need to do, as an Indian writer, if I want to make British or Americans the main characters in my book,

: 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

More posts by @Hamaas631

: There have been some observations of business writing/interaction that suggest that women apologize more in business settings and interrupt less. But I wouldn't consider that to be especially

: I concur with @Cloudchaser advice, and suggest a simple enough experiment. Come up with a short story with a well-defined plot, and write it down; For a month, read nothing but the books

: I've worked in web marketing and direct marketing for a few years now. Be wary of internet marketing courses. The results are rarely as promising as they claim and tend to require a lot

: How to write about characters and places you aren't personally familiar with? What do I need to do, as an Indian writer, if I want to make British or Americans the main characters in my book,

Login to post a comment!

0 Comments

Back to top