Evil in Control
by Ed SkinnerBad guys orchestrate. Good guys improvise.
Most stories are driven by the bad guys. They've figured out the who, what, where, and when. The poor, unsuspecting hero walks through the door, and—Wham!—is smacked in the face.
As a writer, you need to know evil's plan so you can put the hero in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Evil's Machinations
In the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, the empire is taking over the galaxy, and they've planned how to do it:
Build an invincible Death Star.
Obliterate the planet Alderaan.
Recover the stolen blueprints for the Death Star—R2D2 has them, remember?—and torch anyone involved including poor old Uncle Owen and Aunt Bero.
Send out spies to discover the rebel alliance's secret base; and
Dispatch the Death Star to destroy it.
In that movie as in most novels and short stories, that plan is already in motion when the story begins.
The plan—evil's plan—comes first.
What Color is Your Hat?
Early in the crafting of a story, put on your black hat. Open a new file that no one will ever see and map out the baddie's plan.
Who will they need to blackmail to get the plans for the bank's vault?
What sewers do they have to crawl to get tools and explosives to the basement of the building next to the bank?
How will they divert the Police to the other side of town when ready to blast into the main vault?
Good job.
Once you know evil's plan, take off the black hat and put on that thousand-dollar, white Stetson from the haberdashery in Old Town Scottsdale. Start your story in another file and put the hero in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Bam!
He or she is embroiled in the nefarious plot that's already under way.
Every time the bad guys do something, the good gal is affected. She reacts. Sometimes, the bad guys may have to then change their plan. When that happens, put back on your black hat and figure out the new plan.
White hat: Maneuver the good gal into harm's way again.
Bam!
Round and round: white hat, black hat, Bam! White hat, black hat, Bam!
Three-Fourths, One-Fourth
Acts I and II—three-fourths of most stories—are in the hands of the bad guys. They have a plan; they are in charge.
Only in Act III, the final fourth of the story, does your protagonist find the resolve to become a heroine. Only in the climax does she stop their plan once and for all.
To write that story, you need to know the plan, the evil plan.
Evil acts first.
Then, you can waltz your protagonist into the crosshairs, and…
Oh my!
About Ed
Ed Skinner is a retired software guy, teacher, and traveler who now writes fiction. Scrivener is his writing tool of choice, and you'll occasionally see his comments and posts in the "Scrivener users" group on Facebook. His blog, http://www.flat5.net/, has musings about writing and other passions, some current, some not so.