Customer Reviews

Bullies, Bastards And Bitches: How To Write The Bad Guys Of Fiction

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I hoped this book would be so much more than a book that tells me what I already know: no character is all good or all bad, and that even the most devilish of characters should have some redeeming virtue to make him/her interesting. And, nasty characters come in degrees of nastiness.

I'd hoped for a little more insight into how/why classic characters "work," but while they are mentioned, quoted passages are too short, and the author assumes the reader is familiar with the works mentioned (but who can be familiar with ALL the mentioned works), rather than providing enough background. I'd also hoped for a little more discussion of the types of bad guys. Rather than a list, more of an analysis of character types, and how their brains work--similar to how enneagrams work, or some of the other psychological profiles and those types of variations. She, however, merely lists them by title, without going into what the titles mean.

Even though I've written several novels of my own with villains, I enjoyed Morrell's book, Bullies, Bastards, and Bitches. It was a well-written, thought-provoking book that I highlighted on many pages. As I attempt to write my most challenging bastard yet, I found this book to get my clogged wheels turning again.

I found Bullies, Bastards And Bitches: How To Write The Bad Guys Of Fiction to be lightweight and insubstantial. While this book might be of potential use to someone who has never actually seen a movie or read a book, I think most people who aspire to write already know that sympathetic traits make villains more interesting, and that there is a range of characters from White Knights to Blackest Villain, with many shades of gray between.

Unfortunately, Morell doesn't get much deeper than that. Many of the types she lists are indistinguishable from one another due to the vague definers she gives. One serious problem with this book is that Morell seems to come from a touchy-feely moral relativist position that doesn't allow her to really get into a serious discussion of what evil is and what is evil. Ultimately it's too safe.

Those who have played role-playing games may remember the alignment system from Palladium that sorted characters into temperments such as "Scrupulous," "Unprincipled" and "Miscreant." That's about how deep this book gets.

I found the book to be over reliant on examples from film, TV and books to try and explain the points the author wants to make. Sometimes these example characters are briefly explained but in my opinion this doesn't work for the following reason:

If you know what character is being described you learn nothing new and if you don't already know them then the information provided is too skimpy to really "clue you in".

I feel that if the author wanted to use examples in this manner it would have been more effective to make an entire chapter a "case study" about a particular character. This would have given enough text to bring the unaware reader up to speed then provide analysis about why this character should be viewed as an archetype. The book is presented to you by assaulting the reader with a new character reference to a book or movie upwards of 5 or 6 times on some pages. At the end of many chapters the reader is provided with even more example characters in a list format.

In the downside: Uses far too many references with far too little supporting character detail to coherently explain the points.

On the plus side: Readers who like to read near a computer and don't mind interrupting their reading with Google searches are presented with hundreds of fictional characters to read up on.

Bullies, Bastards & Bitches has been a big help in trying to define my bad characters from my truly bad; that there is a difference between anti-hero and tragic hero; that bad boys are sometimes not all that bad; and that there's a difference between the antagonist and the villain. Brilliant stuff.

What throws this book off is the slopping editing -- misspellings, poor use of grammar ... the author thanks her editor. WHY? Did the editor bother looking at the final proof before giving the green light to print this? This makes the book less professional than the author's intent, I'm sure.

With her incisive eye and analytic mind, Jessica Page Morrell cuts to the bone of bad characters, showing the writer how to put flesh on them and how to use them to get under the reader's skin. Her encyclopedic knowledge of both classic and contemporary fiction allows her to fill the pages with examples of her many categories of bad guys--unlikeable protagonists, antiheroes, dark heroes, and bad boys. Morrell's approach is anything but formulaic. She deftly parses the nuanced aspects of protagonists and antagonists, refusing to stoop to a simple good/bad characterization of these fiction types.

Jessica Morrell is fast becoming, in my opinion, one of the preeminent authors of writing guides. Being somewhat of a writer's guide addict, I can say that this book is one of the grittiest and most helpful guides I've read in a long time. I did not agree with the author's choice of the male pronoun as the generic or her decision to focus more on male characters than females (though she does have a chapter devoted to dangerous women), but this is a pretty minor quibble when you consider how much valuable content there is in this book. Any writer who wants to portray the dark side of human nature should delve into this book. Mining Morrell's impressive breadth and depth of understanding is sure to enhance the writer's ability to develop more complicated, engaging, and deeply layered characters.

To those of you looking to write literature, look somewhere else. To those of you looking to write mainstream fiction, this book is gold. It is invaluable to your collection and is, from what I've seen, among the most necessary books on the topic out there. Two thumbs up guys.

Morrell's discussion of deeply flawed protagonists adds greatly to our knowledge of what it means to create a three-dimensional character. Most compelling is the section devoted to bitches. With her perfectly-chosen exemplars, Morrell's takes us through a fascinating analysis of why, even today, an "unsympathetic" heroine remains so much more of a taboo than her male counterpart.
Highly recommended for those of you who want to write and read unforgettable characters.

I picked up this book just because of the title. But I wasn't disappointed.
Like the title, it provided detailed explanation of the different types of villains and showed the pitfalls of creating a bad one. As a reader, I would not be able truly enjoy a good villian without thinking of this book. I would recommend to those who are curious about what they are reading and to the writers that wish to create one. Also, it provided a list of books that you may have forgotten with truly great villians.

Jessica Morrell is able to write to you in a way that makes you feel like you are sitting across the table from her. This book focuses on the creation of not just your villain, but gives you suggestions and tools that you can use to create well rounded characters.

I have also found that because of the way that she writes, it has helped me creatively. It is always important to surround yourself with people who can feed that creativity, even if she is not there in person, you know that she has put her heart into the book.

Thank you Jessica.

To your writing success,

Dianna Sandora
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