: Re: Should my readers be able to identify with the bad guy? I'm in the process of defining the characters for a novel. It is a crime fiction, with a really strong focus on the characters. I

Pro: The bad guy will be convincing!

A character that readers can't connect to in any way will look fake, and the readers will have a hard time believing them. Just like a perfect good-guy (see: Mary Sue) isn't believable, so is the absolute villain.

In real life, villains truly believe that they are good people. I doubt Hitler would wake up in the morning and say to himself, "What evil things can I do today?"

Warning: Don't overdo it.

Yes, the readers need to understand the villain, and see his point of view, but don't sympathize. This is a bad guy, after all! The keyword is empathy.

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: Re: Should my readers be able to identify with the bad guy? I'm in the process of defining the characters for a novel. It is a crime fiction, with a really strong focus on the characters. I

More posts by @Bethany377

: Confusing writing in order to show how character is falling asleep - is it OK? Generally, writing something confusing is not good. On the other hand, a writer should show rather than tell.

: How to summarize prolonged plot I'm trying to write a summary of my book's plot for a query letter to literary agents, but my plot is extremely hard to summarize. The reason is that the plot

: How can you write less to say more? Sometimes you can write a lot without saying anything, sometimes you can say a lot but get little through the reader. In technical writing the later is

: How to make out that my work doesn't require any more editing? Considering that I'm writing a novel or a short story story (fiction) and I penned down the first draft. And then I began editing

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