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

by Jessica Morrell (Author)
Key Phrases: unlikeable protagonist, heroes and bad boys, dark heroes, Stephen King, Saint Dane, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Through detailed instruction and examples from contemporary bestsellers and classic page-turners, this book delineates the moral continuum of protagonists and antagonists; explores the connections between opposition, adversity, and evil; and illuminates a bad guy's many purposes in a successful story. Morrell also explores the rise in popularity of anti-heroes, how anti-heroes possess some of the same qualities of villains but with the soul of a hero, and how these complicated characters reflect contemporary society.

About the Author
Jessica Morrell is the author of Between the Lines: Mastering the Subtle Elements of Fiction. She has been teaching writers since 1991 through a variety of venues, including online at iVillage.com. She works as a developmental editor and writing coach working with a variety of fiction writers, and currently writes a monthly column for the Willamette Writers newsletter as well as her own monthly newsletter, The Writing Life. www.writing-life.com/ thewritinglifetoo.blogspot.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books (July 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582974845
• ISBN-13: 978-1582974842
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,695 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 19, 2008

By	music lover "gmw" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars User friendly Bullies, Bastard's & Bitches, September 10, 2008

By	M. S. HALLECK "M.S. Halleck" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jessica Morrell's book, Bullies, Bastards & Bitches is a user friendly resource for those of us who aspire to create more compelling, frightening or comprehensible bad guys.
Whether you're trying to create sympathetic villains or terrorizing sociopaths, this book offers great examples from classic to modern day scoundrels, and breaks down their modus operandi.
In fiction, great characters need to be frightening, charming, seductive or repulsive in some way. In BBB the reader is skillfully guided through the when, where, why and how of creating such outrageous and often deviant characteristics. Loved it! Mindy Sitton Seattle WA

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good and gritty guide!, November 3, 2008

By	Maryka Biaggio (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.