abrennanwrites.bsky.social
šÆļø Writer of dark, romantic fantasy ā¢ rep: Isabel Kaufman, Fox Literary
š½ New Yorker in Germany
She/her
79 posts
89 followers
64 following
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Will check out their booksāthank you!
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Thank you!
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Itās been a while since Iāve read it, but I LOVE Lamb!! Now I really want to reread it and check out Christopher Mooreās other books tooāthank you for suggesting this!
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I havenāt read either! Thanks for the recs, Iāll check them out!
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Ooh, Iāve always wanted to read Catās Cradle. Adding it to my TBRāthank you for the recommendation!
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I loved Slaughterhouse Five but itās been years since I read it! Revisiting Kurt Vonnegut is a great idea!
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Congratulations!!! š
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Hope you and your family are feeling better soon! Those early classroom years are so difficult for illnesses. š
Iām actually not sure what that link is! Iām guessing I accidentally copied it from a random post when scrolling my feed? Sorry about that!
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I really should! š
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Thank you!
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Oooh, this looks incredible! Congratulations!!
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This sounds amazing!! I love the mood board!
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Thank youāthis looks perfect!
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This is a great tip! Iām plotting the sequel now, so Iāll have to brainstorm some bad things that could happen. (I did this in the first book, but thereās still plenty of unpleasantness left for these poor characters!)
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Iām still at the planning phase for now, but it sounds like that might be one of the most difficult parts of writing a second book.
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Iām doing this now, and itās so hard switching between the two!
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Love this!!
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Thank you! Itās taken me a while to get here, but Iām excited to be about halfway through!
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Thatās a really important point. Iāll probably end up posting on BlueSky, but itās sad that there seems to be no way to completely avoid AI anymore. š
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Thank youāthat makes sense! I always forget about Meta for some reason.
Glad to hear itās safe on BlueSky. It would be nice to post a couple of snippets on here once Iām finished with line edits.
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This is such an amazing concept!! Congratulations!!!
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Same!! Itās going to be completely dark and unhinged, and I cannot wait.
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can be difficult to put into practice until you see it executed.
This isnāt an exhaustive list, but rather a distillation of the advice my mentor gave me when I was revising my villain POV book. š¤
If you have other villain-writing tips and book recs, I would love to hear them!
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them to make their own judgments.)
5. My perennial reading recommendation for anyone interested in writing complex villains and morally gray characters is V.E. Schwabās Vicious. It brilliantly illustrates all of thisāespecially the lack of authorial judgment I mentioned in point 4, which
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authorās sense of ārightā and āwrongā bleeds through the text, villains tend to become one-dimensional mustache-twirling caricatures. Pre-packaging the narrative with moral judgments robs the story of complexity and the characters of emotional depth. (It also cheats the reader by not trusting
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have a great sense of humor; or maybe they have a strong (but skewed!) sense of justice. Or perhaps thereās someone or something they love deeply. Giving them positive qualities goes a long way toward making them more complex.
4. Donāt think of the villain as āthe bad guy.ā When the
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think the MC is the true villain.
2. Your villain has memories, painful life experiences, and emotions. Flesh these out. Give your villain realistic wants and fears so they donāt exist solely to make the MCās life difficult.
3. Give your villain āgoodā qualities. Maybe theyāre clever and
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In the Romantasy Iām revising, I introduce the love interest in Chapter 4. This was the book my agent signed me for, and Iām about to go on sub with the manuscript soon. Hope this helps! š
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This, 100%! I do love villains, but thereās nothing like a kind love interest, and thereās so few of them in romantasy.
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I just started this!! Iām only a few chapters in, but I love it so far!
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Same!! Itās really hard to keep writing and just allow it to be messy without fixing it.
Iām also attempting a zero draft! I still end up revising some things as I goā¦but it does help take the pressure off. š