No Likey, No Lighty - AKA The reason your project is no good.

There's a television show in the UK called 'Take Me Out.' If you've never seen it, think 'Blind Date' but on steroids. The premise is that one man is brought before thirty women with the aim of impressing them and winning a date with one. At the start all the women have a light on in front of them, but as the rounds progress they can turn off the light 'if they do not believe a meeting with this man would be constructive to their well-being' (Thank you Wikipedia). No likey, no lighty. It's the ultimate in guilty pleasure TV and the kind of show that no self-respecting person would ever admit to watching, especially in a blog post that could be read by anyone.

So, one of the things I've.... I mean my friend Bob..... noticed, is that no matter what man comes out, never have all the girls left their light on. It doesn't matter how good looking, physically fit, intelligent or humorous the man is, there's at least one lady, and usually many more that just don't like him. You can't please everyone. 

While you think about that, let's play a game. I'm going to quote three genuine Amazon reviews, and you have to guess which book they're for. Ready?

Book 1 - As is so often the case, it starts off with some promise. We are painted a picture of early 20th-century America with all the hopes that go with it. Sadly, mine fizzled in the way that the narrator's dreams did. The book comes over as a poorly-written schoolboy essay. The characters are wafer-thin and the situations absurd....The writing style is best described as bland, over-blown, not always accurate, and by no means is this literary excellence. It is very difficult to understand what the fuss is all about. 

Book 2 - This book has a great start (first few pages)... Unfortunately it went downhill very quickly and soon became dull, boring, pretentious, and gimmicky. The sentence structure and grammar are such that if you had written an essay in this style in your English class at school then you would have been "caned"!... The description is totally over the top and does nothing to help the narrative. 

Book 3 - Due to the supposed enchanting nature of this book I was very excited at the start of my read. Waiting for these magically parts of the book, I continued to trawl through it...deeper and deeper I searched for anything that remotely seemed interesting but alas it was not to be found. I do not wish to slate the book as due to its continued success it is clear it is popular, but I promote my view of an over exaggerated fairytale with little enchantment

Any guesses?

Book 1 is one of my favourite books of all time, The Great Gatsby.
Book 2 is the current number one bestseller on Amazon, The Book Thief.
Book 3 is the widely considered classic, Lord of The Rings.

No likey, no lighty. My point is that no matter what it is you're doing, someone out there just won't get it. In fact quite a lot of people will probably think it's no good, that it's rubbish. We look for the approval of our peers, and when this isn't forthcoming this can be a real deterrent. That's why it's vitally important to remember that you can't please all the people all the time.
So don't try. Trying to please everyone is a surefire way to please no one  Rather, be passionate. Write the book you want to read, code the program you want to make, draw the picture you want to see. It's the only way you can create something you can be proud of. Sure, you will get negative reviews, and that's okay. You're in good company, with Fitzgerald, Zusak and Tolkien. And somewhere along the line, just maybe, possibly, someone else will like what you made too.

The Ones You Love To Hate - Villains

It has been said that without conflict, there is no story.

Cinderella met the Prince and lived happily ever after.

Romeo and Juliet fell in love and lived happily ever after.

Luke Skywalker lived with his Uncle and Aunty and lived happily ever after. 

Clark Kent met Lois Lane and lived happily ever after.

I love the fact that as much as we apparently long for the happy endings, these stories fall flat without the conflict that delays it, or even prevents it completely: Romeo and Juliet never got their happy ending, and Clark Kent seems destined to battle Lex Luthor or some other super villain until the end of time.

The fact is that every protagonist needs an antagonist, something that stands in the way of their happy ending. Sometimes this can be something internal; maybe a battle with addiction as in a Scanner Darkly, or with self-doubt and lack of self-confidence, as in Bridget Jones Diary. Sometimes this can be against nature, against the elements, as in The Day After Tomorrow and Twister. But often, the antagonist takes physical form as a villain, a person who thwarts our heroes efforts.

One of the prime roles of the antagonist, more specifically than providing obstacles, is to provide a measuring stick for our protagonist. Until our hero faces and struggles against a foe, we have no idea what his strengths are, and to reveal a great hero we need a great villain. If Tony Stark aka Iron Man battles with a someone who's been dropping litter in the park, so what? No, to see what he's really made of, we need a villain who can push him to his limits. We need someone who makes our hero struggle. We need a villain who for all intents and purposes is superior to our hero, allowing our protagonist to grow as he overcomes insurmountable odds.

Now that we've identified the importance of a great villain, there are two important things to remember when creating worthy opponents for our heroes.

Motivation - Just as our heroes must have a motivation, have an objective, so must our villains. We've come a long way from the nefarious gentlemen tying young ladies to train tracks and twirling their mustaches for no apparent reason. We expect something more. Most of them don't even think of themselves as a villain. In their minds, they are the hero of their tale, and are simply doing what they have to do. Even if we don't agree with their motivations, it is essential that we understand why the villain acts the way he does. Sometimes we may even be able to sympathise with them.
In Othello, Iago is driven by jealousy of the man who has it all, the prestige and adoration of everyone. We may not condone his actions, but we understand his motivation.
In Batman Begins, Ra's al Ghul shares a similar motivation to Batman, although his methods differ critically. He see's the corruption in Gotham and wants to bring it to an end, by whatever means necessary.
In The Matrix, Agent Smith, an AI construct, isn't just simply following orders when he tries to destroy the resistance. Having sent the other agents out, he confesses to Morpheus that he can't wait to leave this place, that he can't stand it, and he fears that he has been infected by the humans.
In the story I'm currently redrafting, the antagonist is seeking revenge for something that he holds the protagonist responsible for (to find out what you'll just have to read it when it's released ;))

Along with believable motivation, it is also important to imbue our villains with qualities, attributes that make them worthy opponents.
In the stories of Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, an intellectual giant who seems to stand alone as an equal to Holmes, with none of the moral restrictions that are imposed on Holmes.
In Dark Knight Rises we have a completely different villain in Bane. He possess great strength, succeeding in physically breaking the Batman. On top of this, he is also revealed to be fiercely loyal, having watched over Talia al Ghul for most of her life.

Villains are important, at least as important as our heroes. If writers can remember to create fully fleshed out antagonists, with believable motivation and strong characteristics, then they will have memorable villains, and memorable stories as a result.