I hate being treated like an idiot, especially when I'm reading a book for pleasure. Today's bitch is against a particularly heinous affront perpetrated all too often by today's authors.

Introduction of villain

The villain is introduced by description. He is anonymous and mysterious. One unusual aspect of the villain is mentioned, generally more than once since the retarded readers can't be expected to notice it the first time. He plans something diabolical that shows he is actively working against the hero.

Hero meets "Bob"

The hero encounters "Bob". Bob is either a friend, ally, antagonist or other person who's on the same side as the hero. They might be friendly or they might hate each other. The key points are that they should be working together and that Bob has the villain's unusual aspect.

The writer thinks we're duped

Of course the writer now knows that he has tricked us into figuring out that Bob is the villain. He plays this up throughout the book but Bob is always known as Bob and the villain is always described by his unusual aspect.

The hero comes to suspect Bob

And the writer thinks we're all "shouting at the screen". No, hero! Don't trust Bob! He's the villain!

"Bob" has the hero in his clutches

Eventually the villain captures the hero and prepares to do something villainous to him. The hero is helpless and has no chance of rescue.

Bob saves the day

The real Bob arrives and saves the hero. Generally he also dies, leaving the hero (and supposedly the reader) anguished over his callousness in ever suspecting that Bob was the villain.

There are many variations on this little hammer blow of inept writing. Maybe the hero never suspects Bob at all, maybe it isn't Bob that saves the hero during the 'reveal', perhaps Bob really is a bad guy (just not the villain). What they all have in common is a pulling-the-reader-by-the-nose-ring condescension from the writer.

A good writer uses details to tell his story, not trite little tricks.

Rick Cook is dead to me.

Posted by: Jim at 01:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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