How To Write A Great Character

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Henry Bosley. And welcome to how to write a great character in this. My hopefully, first of many courses will be delving neck deep into everything to do with writing characters for fiction, from creating great characters. How to tailor make your story, to lower your characters, to really shy character arcs, debunking common writing myths on, Of course, everyone's favor. How to make a great villain. So with all that said, what gives me the authority to talk to you guys about this? Well, mine. As I said, my name's Henry Bosley, but where most of you probably know me is my YouTube channel. The closer look on this channel, I break down movies and ask what makes a great character? What makes a great story on. Then I use my observations and then given the number as writing advice, too many aspiring writers out there, and also on top of that, I do a lot of writing behind the scenes for many years, and also my debut SciFi novel archive is gonna crowd in early 2019. So I hope you find this course valuable, and I'm sure that you will come away with at least a few tips that you can use to help improve your writing craft. But anyway, all that being said, I look forward to seeing you guys on the course. 2. Creating A Character: so where better to start than how to create a great character? There's a formula I learned many years ago, which I have found invaluable, and I've used it many times on. It consistently creates interesting characters, and it's called the three pronged approach, although I like to call it the three point method. So with the three point method, how does it work? Well, the theory goes that there are three qualities that make up every character in fiction that has ever existed. So the 1st 1 is likability, which is pretty obvious. How likable is your character? The 2nd 1 is competency. How good is your character at what they do if you capture is a soldier How good, other yet soldier, How good other yet kicking us if they're a drug dealer than how good are they negotiating and dealing drugs? A few examples of characters with really high competency are Sherlock Holmes and Batman. Both those characters are very competent at what they do and then, of course, finally activity. Do they persevere and affect the plot, or are they passive? And there's a plot effect there now, by manipulating these three variables we can with a surprising after these create an interesting character. However, when you use the free point method you have to use to rules, and you have to adhere to these two rules. Otherwise it simply doesn't work. Rule one. Your character has to be good in at least one off these fields on real, to your character cannot be good at all. Three. So, for example, if you have a character who is incredibly likeable, he is just the warmest, funniest, most nice guy that he has toe either be both inactive or incompetent, inactive, but really good at what he does or really bad or what he does but really active. I look to visualize this all as Priebus, which will be on the screen right now. So if your character is really low on the likability than he has to be really high on something else like that's that's the way I individualize it. Andi. I'd recommend that to be a great way for you to visualize that, too. So what's worth noting is that if your character is not 100% in one of those bars, then that is room for a character arc that is room for character development. So if your character is desperately incompetent at the start, your story, you can raise that. So as the story goes along, he it's progressively mawr and more competent, and the lower the bars are more room. There is for a compelling character arc, so also this very much comes into the three point method it is. One of my personal theory is about conflict in story. There are two types of conflict in every story. The 1st 1 is external in form of a natural disaster or a villain or any external threat on , and the next one is internal. That's the characters struggling with their own internal demons. You'll find that pretty much every great story, in some degree, has both external and internal conflict. What is really quite interesting to note is as your character gets better at these three variables as he gets closer to being a paragon, where he's perfect two or three, it's harder and harder to write internal conflict for the character. So a character who is incredibly competent but not very active and not very likeable, there is, ah, huge wealth off internal conflict. You can right for that character. But if they're perfect, all three, it's really hard to write compelling internal conflict for them. S. O. S a little example proven. Let's think of a character in fiction who is perfect. All three, who is famous in pop culture who is a parent like their C, is incredibly likeable, incredibly competent and incredibly active. Well, one example for me comes straight to mind. Super Superman is perfect at all. Three off these variables on, and I have seen a lot of Superman fiction on. One thing that seems almost universal is that when they're writing the traditional Superman , the writers clearly find incredibly difficult to come up with compelling internal conflict . Most of men stories about some great evil villain who's threatening civilians or the world as it is, because Superman is the kind of character with that kind of internal story is heart tell don't me wrong, it's it's possible. It's very possible to tell a compelling internal conflict for Superman or any other perfect paragon like this. Maybe in the form of morality. Maybe that morals are confused and they have a moral code that they stick to on that itself creates internal conflict. There is a way you could do it but has a pretty concrete general rule. The best your captain gets at these three variables, the harder it gets direct, compelling internal conflict for the character and also the harder it is to write a compelling character. Arc for him also has a little side note, and a bigger cheat code is it's possible to do internal conflict with characters you have, like a who are perfect. All three points on the way that comes isn't for the site character, so you'll have the perfect protagonist. Then you have the site character who is in the traditional three pronged method floor in some way on the side. Character is the one who goes on the Ark while the main character that is static. That's one way of writing. Step the characters. That's one that kind of cheat code you can use. But that is a very secret peace advice. So that just states between me and you, right? You know, you can tell you about that. That's that's tippy top secret or something. I realized the other day that I found really quite interesting is what do we get when we take the character down on all three. So we get someone who is incredibly unlikeable incredibly incompetent, an incredibly inactive. Who do we get in pop culture? Who is that? Jar Jar Binks? Jar Jar Binks is a almost universally hated character because he is totally irredeemable because he's not irredeemable. But he has no positive qualities because in all three of these points, he's at the bottom, which means there's nothing compelling about his character at all. I just found that quite interesting thing, but that is the core reason why Jar Jar Binks is, well, a very bad character. So I hope you guys found that technique useful. And in the next video, we're going to be talking about this technique even further, and we're gonna be asking how we can create stories specifically with making really compelling characters in mind. 3. Using The 3 Point Method: So now we've learned the three point method. I'm going to apply it to an example which you can learn from on. Then make Ive taking further on creative story, specifically using the method to make the character really interesting. So let's create character, who is about 50% on the likability scale. He is 100% on the competency scale, and he is, uh, 10% on the activity scale. He's a very inactive, passive man. So just by looking at about there, I can tell that his passivity is going to be the focus off the story. Somehow we need to make the story around his passivity and create an arc specific before him, where he starts inactive and then, as the story goes along, learns to become active. So how can we do that? Well, okay, so how about he is an ex Special Forces soldier who is drinking his life away in the bar. So his competency, He's a soldier. He is incredibly good at kicking us. He's very good in a fight, but his likability he's a bit of an R sole. He rubs people up the wrong way. He's a bit vulgar and swears a lot, but he does have nice qualities to him, and he can empathize these a relatively nice guy. But he was also he's got his dick ish qualities on activity. He's crippled by the horrible things he's done as his career as a soldier, so he's no longer a soldier on. He spent the past three years of his life drinking it away in some cheap bar somewhere. All right, so there's a character. There's our stairs are basic premise. So how about in the first scene we see him in the bar. Then a new bartender comes in who is very naive and she's very young. Andi. She starts talking to him on the first couple scenes. Are we see this little luck happen with Protagonist, where he grows to really like this girl who works the bar and they get on really well here offering You will have a lot of conversations and it ends up being the point where he doesn't. The main reason he comes back to the bar isn't because he wants to drink. It's because of her because he wants to see her, and we see how his likability goes up in the initial like first act first few chapters off the story, so let's call our character bore. But Bob is a good day. Let's call him Bob. So a bunch of bike is committed by in, like, Chapter three or so. That's a Bob being Bob rubs me up the wrong way, and a horrible fight starts. And Bob is about to be killed by one of the bikers because he's very drunk on. Then the bartender who let's call a Sarah Sarah pulls out a gun and shoots one of the bikers to save Bob's life. However, she just shot a person who's part of a gang, and this devolved horribly. And then she gets kidnapped and taken away by the bikers for God knows what. So then this is Bob's inciting incident. This is his story. He is drunk, He's an alcoholic. He is tortured by his past. He's very passive man, and he has to learn to overcome all these obstacles to go off the bikers to save Sarah. So you got the external conflict in form of the bikers and the fact yes, to save Sarah on the internal conflict because he is so very rusty He's such a passive guy , and also maybe he's struggling with alcoholism. So for those three things, he has a cap drug for where he progressively gets better at dealing with the master story goes along. So we got internal and external conflict we got the two on. That should help us to create really compelling, interesting and dynamic conflict. So it, let's say, at the end of story, here's a big climactic fight with the big bad boss. Hey, saves Sarah. And so they both agreed to never, ever go into a bar ever again. And then they ride off into the sunset happily ever after. Or you could just, you know, kill them both at the end and George R. R. Martin's cell and turned the whole thing into a total tragedy. Eats your book. But that right there is an example of that. That's right. That's right. There is how you use the three point method. We used it to create a really compelling, interesting character on. Then, using his greatest weakness, we create a story around that where the weakest link in his chain was the thing that was being strained was the thing that was being tested. The number one rule to creating story for a counter using the three point method is your can your characters. Weakest link. Their weakest quality is the thing that needs to be tested the most. They need to be strained in the way that they are least prepared to be strained. That is a great way to solve milk alot of the juicy conflict out of the characters potential. So, yeah, using the three point method, there is a potentially infinite number of characters and stories you can create. So why don't you do that now for the class project, create a character using the method and then create a story for that character tailor made for the characters? Weaknesses. So when you've done that, create a brief by off this new character you've created on the brief summary off the story you're gonna create for him. You can do that, then post in the product section for this video or, alternatively, you can create and write a short story, maybe 10 to 15 pages long. Using this method, and I will be short, you have a look and reply to each and every one of your projects and give you some constructive feedback. But, yeah, don't do that yet. Do it after the course because we still have a lot to talk about. 4. Outlining For Character: So now we're moving on to a part of characterization which I believe is criminally under talked about in the writing. Seen on that is the effect that outlining has on character. So there are two types of outlining. The first is planning everything down. So you know exactly how each and every scene will progress before you even start writing the first page of the book and the other is improvising where you have no clue how the story's gonna go. You have no idea how it's going to end. You just kind of improvised as you go along and discover your story and characters as you right. Those are the two extremes at the end of the spectrum, and you'll find that every writer will place somewhere along that spectrum in some way. So very often, the more you improvise the plot, the more compelling your characters become. On the more you outline your plots, the less compelling they pickup, which I know sounds a bit strange. So let me explain. It also let me stress that there are exceptions to this rule. You can outline and still have a really compelling character. This is a general rule But how can I explain this? Okay, so let's see your outline on. You have four t points that you write your in 100,000 word novel on. You have 40 points, 40 story beats, which you are going to adhere to. That is a very dangerous thing to do for one specific reason. Because before I even start writing, I know every single decision my protagonist will make on their story, which is very dangerous. Why? Because characters have a tendency to evolve. But it's this very spot sensation where when you are writing a really good character, they have a tendency to tell, you know where you tell them to hate drug. Um, to make this decision they state like this is a voice in your head that says, No, that's not what I would do. I would instead do this. Maybe that's just regular schizophrenia. But my outline is constantly changing as I write, because my characters are evolving beyond it in the outline, I may say that pay. Okay, so this current has an argument with this character at this point in the story. But when I actually come to writing this scene, I realize that. Actually, this this outline doesn't make any sense because this current, instead of having argument, would just knock the other guys lights out before the argument has even started. This is a clever general rule, but a great way to know if you're writing a good character is because that character is constantly surprising you. They constantly have opinions and make decisions that almost Chucky, when you're writing it, you gets feeling that you are writing the story. You're simply you're simply following the character and curious to see what they're holding . Next. However, this has a flip site because we knew outline. And when you make every decision for your character in advance, this has the potential to turn your three D compelling character into one that's a two dimensional slab with very little that's compelling about them. But what is a great case study to prove this point? What is what is good example in pop culture to prove that this is true? Well, in my opinion, the perfect case study fall. Realizing why this is true is looking at the film Batman versus Superman. So if you've never seen Batman versus Superman, I envy you. But the story or Batman V. Superman is crippled, utterly crippled by this electrical outlining disease, where the characters, because they've outlined to extensively and so rigidly and ignorantly that the characters become incredibly not passive but incredibly weak and uncompelling. But here's the thing, right? So Batman versus Superman, it's in the title. It's about Batman Fighting Superman. So before they even started writing the script, they knew what they were gonna do. They knew how the film was going to end. It was going to end with Batman fighting Superman, and they mold it, the two characters around like Clay to make that happen. Instead of doing what many other writers do, where they will give their characters room to breathe, they will allow their characters to sort of that was, plant them like seeds and just let them grow and allow them to have their own motivations and grow like that. And I think the perfect example. Like like the I don't think infection. There is a better example anywhere to prove my point. Then the infamous Martha See. So he is how the scene plays out. Batman and Superman are at each other's throats, and it's better than Batman is quite literally about to murder Superman with a spear. Then Superman reveals that his mother has the same name as Batman's mother. So then Batman throws away the spear, and they quite genuinely become best friends immediately. So they go from arch enemies, one of who wants to mandate the other because of a deeply held philosophical belief. And they go to best of friends at the flick of a switch that switch being, they realize that mother has the same name. Now that truly is a very silly example, because it's very awfully written example. But it is the perfect example off how outlining for character can go horribly wrong, because when you force your characters to want to do things, you force your characters make decisions that they would never do otherwise. That makes your characters two dimensional uncompelling because they lack any kind of agency. They are simply two dimensional slabs who are pretending to be their own force. In reality, they're just a puppet. You're there. They're just your puppet that allows you to tell the story. So to summarize this point into a piece of advice you can use so whatever you're writing a story, and your character makes a choice. Any choice usually think about this every time your character makes a choice. You got to think, if this character were a really person, way riel person in the real world, what would they choose to do? And what they would choose to do is what you should make them do 100% of the time. In my experience, whenever there's an outline and I have planned for the character to say something, and then I realize Hang on, this character would never say that There's a voice in my head that says that he wouldn't say that. And in my experience, you should always listen to that voice because that voice is always right. 5. How To Plot For Strong Characters: So after going over the basics of how to outline the character in this video to be delving even further into that, we're going to be looking at specific techniques. Writers news when outlining. So first off, it's worth clarifying that the two writing methods outlining an improvising, neither of which is necessarily correct, neither ISMM or correct than the other. It's really down to personal preference. Whenever you outline, your plot is going to be more world. Wetmore Well woven together, you will have less pacing issues. You can build up towards the plot twists and a climax quite effectively, and you are less likely to have plot holes. However, as a result, your characters will probably less compelling on with improvising. Your plot will meander. You will most likely have pacing issues, but your characters will be a lot more compelling for it. It's really just down to personal preference as to which one you want your story tohave. It is, of course, possible to have a well structured story which your improvised and it is, of course, possible to have an interesting character in a story that you've outlined. But when it comes to outlining and uncompelling characters. I think in movies you see this a lot because off the nature off movies, because thesis Ylva screen demands very efficient on tight stories, most screenwriters outline because they sort of have to on. As a result, many characters and movies are all that compelling because they don't have much agency. A lot of characters in especially one that comes to mind, is, um, most action movies, right? Most action movies. The characters are really weak and watery and uncompelling because they are simply devices to allow the plot to progress further. A lot, of course, are exceptions to this Germany movies with money compelling characters but express but specifically in the screenwriting world. You will see this because they outline so extensively. So a lot of writers compromise halfway between improvising Andi outlining Now in this video , I want to tell you the specific technique I use which have developed, which allows you to outline but still gives room for interesting characters on. It goes a little like this, so let's say you're writing 100,000 word novel just as an example. What you'd want to have is 15 bullet points or 15 issue could have 10 or 20. But about 15 bullet points on these bullet points are the very loose story beats your story will adhere to before you start writing, you know roughly what the ending is gonna be like. You can visualize how it's gonna end up, and you have this very loose understanding off how the put is going to go along. And you know quite well how the story's going to start. What you do is you write your story on all the while you try to adhere to this plot points . But for the most part you have your characters and you let them make their own decisions. You let them go their own directions all the well, softly nudging them towards the towards the plot point. So let's say, for example, at the second plot point you have is your character needs to go to the park. For some reason, he needs go to the park the first point he is in his brand mothers house. The way this works is you just have those two points. The only thing you know before you start writing is that your characters in the in his grandmother's house and he needs to be somehow in a chapters time somewhere around the park . What you do is you let your character go their own direction, and you you let them have their agents in. You follow that, Molly, do it, but all the while you have it in the back of your mind that they need to go towards the park and you softly nuns them in that direction. That's technical use, which allows me to have a kind of loose story structure. No, it helps and prevent crippling pacing issues that you could have otherwise, all the while it allows. The characters have their own agency. However, at the end of the day, this is not perfect. It's the nature of a compromise. You're not getting the best of both worlds because the prop isn't incredibly tightly woven together on the characters. At the end of the day, you're still nudging them in directions. They may not choose to go. That is the method I use, and personally, I find it really useful. It's a good way of outlining, so we prevent any pacing issues allow you to build up to any plot twists or climaxes. You might have it allows you to have allows me to have a somewhat woven together pace of this story, yet also at the same time gives my characters breathing room to tell me no to tell me. You know what, Henry, I don't want to do this. You're wrong. I want to this way and it gives some breathing room to let them to do that all the while softly nudge them, give them little little nudges in the right direction towards the outline. Bear in mind, it is also with that with that method, it's also quite important that you can change your outline. You know, if your character is going in a certain direction on, you, couldn't visualize the path they might go on, which will eventually reach the climax. Please don't be afraid to just straight up. Remove or completely fundamentally change certain plot points because you will need to do that at certain points. Really, outlining is very difficult. It's a very difficult part of story, and there is no one correct way. There are simply ways that are less or more correct than others in certain ways, really, If that method doesn't work for you, that's totally fine there. Every writer has their own preference, has their own outlining process. They like to do Onda. All you're going to do is just try a bunch, just dozens and dozens. And after trying a bunch of outrunning methods, you will find the one that works best for you. 6. How To Make A Great Villain - Part 1: now I've saved the best for last. We're gonna be talking about everyone's favorite, how to write a great villain. So I've made a list of room was which hopefully you'll find very useful, which are, which are a list of rules and factors and ways that all villains share in common. Their a list of factors that all great villain share in common. Andi, don't be. Don't be afraid to twist and bend or possibly break some of these rules, but you need to be aware of them at the VA release. So rule one. This one is a very common piece of writing advice. You've most certainly heard this before, but nonetheless it is still a very important piece of advice. Your villain is the protagonist of his own story. You're for the needs to be asked. Convinced that he is the good guy as your hero is, your villain needs to think what I'm doing is for the greater good. In some way, shape or fall, your villain can't think, and God forbid, you can't see it that hey, look at me on the bad guy right now. But he can't say that, because when that happens, It's very untrue to real life. Let's look a real let's look a real life example. Who is the most infamous man will ever lift? Quite arguably hit, right? Um, Hitler was a very evil man. There's no doubt about that. But he believed that what he was doing for the greater good of his people, and they were a great many people around him who believed that to know I'm not endorsing his actions. But I am saying that good and evil are entirely 100% like unequivocably matters of opinion and nothing more. There is no scientific or concrete definition off good or evil. Because everyone's interpretation on the two is different. Your villain might confess that he is insane. Also, it's worth noticing that there are. There are a great many people in the world who do suffer from great from insanity from various psychological issues on those people are very aware of that. Some of the marks of them are very ignorant towards it. But there are many people out there who are insane, clinically insane and are aware of the fact there are insane and talk about it when you press them for it. However, if you press an evil man to say, confess your evil, they'll never do it because nobody nobody ever has ever fought themselves is evil. Also a fun fact. I just thought through this in here a while ago in America, they did this census. They they asked a question to several 1000 people. And the question was, Who is the most likely person to go to heaven? But also a lot of people, said a Gandhi Onda Jesus And what Not Jesus with number two, but do you know who number one was the overrule? The number one answer was themselves. But people are convinced that they are the good guys. Everyone is, so that is absolutely something that's worth bearing in mind. However, let me say that there is one exception to this rule on that is in over the top comedies. For example, Dr Evil from Austin Powers is a perfect example of this right, because it's a ludicrous over the top comedy with no dramatic tension, no real focus on reality. You can't have a villain who is comically insane and evil. It literally is in his name, Dr Evil and says sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads and all sorts of dastardly plans. Right? Dr Evil is a fantastic character because he is a comic character on. He is totally allowed to confess that he's evil. So that is one exception you don't Your character can be acutely aware that he's an evil guy if you're writing a flat out comedy. So to summarize, a villain will never confess to being a villain. Roll to the bread and butter off any good villain motivation. What motivates your villain to do what he does? This really is, in my opinion, the most integral factor to making a good villain. Because if you want your villain to be really compelling, he or she needs to have a really empathize herbal human motivation. They need to have one that their motivation cannot just be I I want to rule the world because I want to rule the world. That's why, like snoring, good motivation is it if it's OK if your character, if your villain, craves me more powerful, but he can't just want to be more powerful because he's the villain and he's supposed to write that doesn't work. If if you want to say your villain wants to be more powerful because he is afraid of some horrible extraterrestrial threats which is looming, and he wants to defend himself. That's that's a decent motivation. May be your character has deep, crippling security issues. He's very insecure about who he is, and so it compensates for that by getting power through external means. That's also a somewhat compelling motivation, but you can't just want power because he's evil and he wants to rule the world like that's That's not good enough. But I think a great example of a well done villain is Loki in the 1st 4 movie. So he does a bunch of horrible stuff. He murders a bunch of people, but he doesn't do it because he wants more power or because he wants to kill his pesky brother, Thor. He does it because he's trying to earn the love and approval off his father every action he does. Despite its immense immorality. He doesn't all because he wants toe earn the love and respect of his father, and it was to prove that he is worthy off being his son, which is a really compelling human motivation, which you can really empathize with. And then, of course, is that powerful ending where he talks was father. And he realizes that his father had actually lost respect for him, that his Lucky's actions to murder and lie and backstab has actually made his father lose respect for him. And then he decides to jump off the edge on Kill Himself because there's nothing else that's worth living for. Sure, he comes back in the sequel. But remember, less innocently, really compelling and well done. Motivation on that is what your character needs. Your villain needs to have a really human motivation. One exception to this rule is if you're writing a monster story, right, so if you're a villain, if your monster is just that, he's just a monster. Doesn't really have any dialogue, doesn't really say anything. He's just a mindless beast that eats people. You don't really need a human motivation for that. It couldn't hurt to have one. But if, for example, that the aliens in the Alien Siri's right, very a very well made film, very good Siris of films on the aliens, they really have compelling motivations. They just want to reproduce on kill everyone but that's their motivation. Then it's test that they good villains because there were very well done monsters. Other example of monster stories are the big alien monster in Cloverfield, and also the thing in the thing when your villain isn't a character, they have no dialogue that it really have a personality. They just are monster. It's okay if you just say, Oh, they're hungry. They haven't eaten in a long time. That's why they're hunting will the hero. So it's okay to say that because if you do that, the nature of that is, if you're in that kind of story, you are going to create zero empathy for your village. If you're really is just a monster, no one is gonna feel pity or any kind of relationship with your villain. If they just hunt because their monster, they like to eat things. If you want your villain toe, be empathize. Herbal. You want your audience to pity them in some way, shape or form. You'll probably find that if you're going to do that, you know, really writing a monster story. It'll 7. How To Make A Great Villain - Part 2: some people when they're making a villain. They like to say that the only difference between Ah hero and a villain is one bad day, is they? They say one bad thing where everything goes wrong is the thing that makes someone a villain. This is total bollocks. Total complete bullocks completely untrue to real life. You look at riel life. You look awful. The people who end up in prison, people who become murderers, people who get executed and spend their 40 years plus in jail. They don't just go out and kill people on a whim. It is like people who are psychopaths and sociopaths and truly depraved, horrible people who are the villains in all sense of reality. Those people are created through years and years off a really horrible childhood, like like they are raised incorrectly, talk all the wrong lessons is Children in some cases, for example, psychopaths. They are actually born that way. Some people, such a psych class from it's in their genes to they have defects in the brain that start feeling empathy and what not? And with Cyprus quite literally, traditionally it is genetic. That's the reason why they're villains. But you will find that if you take an average guy, just average does. With Good Morrow was their family, and you put me through hell for a day where his wife dies and I lose his job. And how much for real stuff if I find that I will fall into a fit of horrible depression and sadness. But he won't end up becoming a mass murderer, Andi, killing everyone on becoming some kind of evil deity that wants to rule the world, if that makes any sense. Simply the whole notion that one bad day could create a villain isn't really true. And if it is true, that villain was already on the edge anyway, they're already very depraved, morally question individual. It was just that straw that broke the camel's back, if that makes any sense that it wasn't really a rule. But it's just something it's worth noting. It's a cliche which is overdone, inm or modern literature on. In my opinion, it's totally untrue to real life, and also that we was on Teoh Rule three. This this this rolling roll three. This is again going back to the free point method. So when you create a character using the three point method. It is a fantastic idea, like a really good idea to have your villain be exceptionally competent at targeting on effectively attacking your heroes. Greatest weaknesses. Things doesn't even have to be like ability or competence. Your activity. It's just that general character weaknesses. So if you're a protagonist is somewhat ignorant, they leap before you look the North. Your villain is really good at manipulating. That is really good. Exploiting that heroes great weakness. So happens over with a three point method. If your character is really competent really, really good at what he does, then your villain needs to be either, either even better, even better, while your hero is so. If you're here is a great fighter, your villain is an even better fighter or your villain is a worse fighter. But they are really good at attacking the vulnerabilities off your hero in ways they are simply not prepared for. So as an example in pop culture going back to Superman be sweet little to talk about a while back so soon, incredibly good in a fight, but like he is very good in a fistfight, right, and you will find that all off. Super Man's greatest villains are better than him. In some aspect they can. There is some way they can trump Superman that he's just not ready for a Doomsday, for example, is better in the fight than Superman is. He's Mawr. He He consistently beats Superman in fights. What so steep? That is very good. He's a very good fighters. They're gonna punching up people. But what happens if you have a villain who, instead of going in for a fistfight, wins any kind of fight before it even happens? Not much. Now he beats Superman without even firing a single shot. You get Lex Luther someone who's is incredibly resourceful, incredibly devious and constantly outwit Superman on abuses, his moralities on codes to force him to make him look like a fool and make and embarrass him in front of the public. I haven't other stuff. Lex Luther is a fantastic foil to Superman because he is so effective at tackling soup Man's biggest weaknesses. For example, Moriarty Sherlock Holmes villain Moriarty is the only person in the world who can outwit Shelagh Copes. Shell comes a very clever, witty man, but Norrie Ottey is better. Moriarty can trump him in that respect. It's This goes back to the old adage that your villain needs to have more power than your hero, which is true, however, simply just saying that like that, it's lead to the wrong interpretations because your villain needs toe have power. But just in the form of Oh, hey, look, The villain has a great big army of horrible henchman who were ovary scary on. That's their power. Their power comes from just the fact. Oh, look, I own a bunch of henchman on. There's more of us than you that's really uncompelling on. That's going back to the contact. We just talked about that. That kind of villain is entirely external. That villain just challenges your hero in an external way, not providing any juicy internal conflict, which will make your story less interesting for it. So ask if you made your hero or you really made a character what, No ask, but maybe write. Write it down. What are your heroes? Greatest weaknesses. Then make a list of those and create a villain who is very good at attacking those particular things. So when your villain attacks your heroes, greatest weaknesses that provides fantastic external conflict and also internal conflict and room for carriage Iraq. Let's say, for example, of the sort of story your character is very ignorant. You know, he leapt without looking, and he doesn't really gaijin situation properly before storming in. The villain exploits that to start the story on beats the hero with it. However, as the story progresses, your hero have enough where he overcomes that on, learns to be more cautious and look for leaping. And so then, at end the story, your villain shrines to do the same trick twice. He's trays Teoh exploit your Here is weaknesses which he's already overcome, and your villains reliance on your here is weaknesses is the reason for his downfall. That is a really satisfying way to have a villain. It's not the only way, but it's a really satisfying way or having a character arc and a villain on a compelling hero all at the same time. So that brings us to the end of the course. If you'd like to use the three point method to create character and increase story for that character and also used that method has talked about to create good villas. Well, feel free to create a summary of that and then put it in the product section upon which I'll have a look at it and give you a little critique, if you would. You want to go ahead and write that story also instead. If you want to write a short story, which is 15 pages or so long, and you want to put that in the product section off this course to, I would have to look at that one, too. So anyway, thank you so much for making it to the end of this course. Good luck with your writing and I'll see you guys in the next one.