I am planning on writing a story soon that emulates the Connery era of Bond with a bit of Pierce Brosnan. The main antagonists of the story is Adrian Eastwood, the young CEO of Pegasus Software, a Silicon Valley-based corporation, and Baaqir el-Sahli, an Arabic mercenary and Adrian's henchman. Adrian in the story is the secret sponsor of a cyber-terrorism group called Hades 2000, which is lead by a hacker by the name of Grossman. Eastwood's plan in the story is to use Hades 2000 to unleash a devastating computer virus onto the World Wide Web called Tartarus, then release a Anti-Virus which he had been developing in secret for years that specifically targets and eliminates this virus. His plan is to use this as a way to bring back his company from the brink of bankruptcy and to make a hefty profit as well. I already have the personalities of the two planed out but I am seeking out ways to fully flesh them out and make them fell like well-developed characters, Anyone got any advice?
It usually takes me about twenty drafts to flesh out my characters. But, really, it's the writing and the rewriting that makes them feel real and developed. Planning can only take you so far. And there's no way to really know how all that planning is going to turn out on the page until you actually start writing.
I find that it helps to ask questions. When developing antagonists, I think it's especially important. From what you wrote, it seems to me Adrian Eastwood's plan is foolproof and might go according to plan. However, let me ask some questions and see if that helps you give an idea on how to develop your characters. Or rather, in this case, your antagonists. So, we have a henchman who appears to be loyal (to a degree, at least) to Adrian Eastwood. I would start asking why is Baaqir a henchman to Adrian? Is he in it for money? Or something else? Does Baaqir follow Adrian's orders to the T, or does he have his own agenda and is loyal to himself? Is it possible Baaqir is playing Adrian and working for someone else? You mention that Adrian is a young CEO - is it possible Baaqir can manipulate Adrian for his own benefit? Can Baaqir be bought? All right. If Adrian is the secret sponsor, doesn't that make him the leader? Or is it Grossman, who does the heavy lifting? Does Grossman enjoy taking orders from a young, hot-shot CEO or are they the type to do their own thing? Besides, they are the one doing the work, why should Adrian be calling the shots? (I'm assuming). Or is it a relationship where Grossman doesn't know who the secret sponsor is? In that case, would Grossman be the type to use blackmail? After all, a CEO secretly sponsoring a cyber-terrorist group isn't a good look and maybe Grossman can use the potential PR disaster to their own advantage. Anyway, I'm sure I'm getting my point across. Developing antagonists, and protagonists, do require that you put a lot of effort into their personalities. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it's easy to do so. Thus, I find asking questions - specifically "Why?" - to be extremely helpful. You can get a lot of potential answers to work with and it can help the creative juices flow when you're in a stump. Hope that helps!
Define draft. I have heard of people struggling on a 2nd and even 3rd draft but not 20. Just need to know your definition of draft? It is probably just semantics.
I spend a lot of time revising. I'm just willing to give my work whatever it needs, and sometimes it needs a lot.
Yeah, me too. Scrivener makes it easy. To the subject of the thread: one way to make an antagonist feel "fleshed out" is to view him as the protagonist of his story, and wrote that story, complete with all the things your "actual story" protagonist has. My antagonists have extremely complex stories, much of which the reader will never see. And they think what they are doing is right.
It sounds like you're in the planning stage looking at arcs. That's good. I would write a one/two page summary of the story, but each time I would change the MC to a different character. Force yourself to build an arc for each important character. You already know who the main MC is (your Bond character), so keep that as a basis. Move to the antagonist first since he's the second most important, and then with those two fellows in mind, try to shape the third character around them. I know that 's pretty much what you're trying to do, but it's the mindset that's important. Really switch the MC sincerely and it will pull out surprising details.
There's a lot of questions I'd like to ask you. Mainly, what do you want your audience to feel about the these villains? By that I mean, do you want one to be sympathetic? Do you want one to make your audience feel disgusted? What do you want? Because that's going to guide you in how you're going to shape them.
Just out of interest there is quite a large software company called Pegasus... they do financial stuff
I like the ‘software saves the day’ angle on this. I’d look at building some of the character development around this. The story works better (IMO) if the villains are totally unmoved by the implications of the virus. Will this take down life support machines in hospitals for example? Why doesn’t the villain care about this if that is the case? Is there something in their back story that is routed in why innocent users of computer systems are targeted?
Well, it's difficult for us to suggest anything since we don't know what you've planned in their arc so far. Goal and motivation are very important. You could include a lie, something they believe about themselves or the world that influences their actions
