Five Prompts for Writing Vengeance in Fiction
We don’t have to agree with our heroes, but we do have to like them.
Vengeance is not necessarily about good versus evil. Nor should it be. It’s just not that straightforward, which is what makes it such a great topic to write about!
(Literary Agents Don’t Guarantee Any Such Publishing Deal)
Take my heroine, Loretta Darling. She despises the exploitation and sexism she witnesses in 1950s Hollywood, and rightly so. Who would argue with her? But she has a pretty dodgy moral compass of her own and resorts to some questionable tactics. Ultimately, I couldn’t condone what she does—but I did enjoy her terrifically as a character on the page. We don’t have to approve of what our vengeful heroes do, but we do need to like them. I used Loretta’s voice, confidence, fun, and backstory to allow us to like her, even when she was doing terrible things.
Writing prompt: Draw two columns. In one, create a list of flaws for your main character. In the other, draw a list of why we’re going to like them anyway. Maybe you could even explore how a positive trait—for example, empathy —allows them to be vengeful; for example, it allows them to see inside their victim’s head.
Making Motive
What is the motivation for revenge? You may not choose to go as far as—ahem—murder, but if you’re going to pursue the theme of vengeance, you need a really strong motivation that will carry the weight of the novel. What is it that really got under the skin of your protagonist? What is it in their backstory that propelled them on this journey? And why could it only be true for this character? Vengeance runs the danger of being a well-trod path, so how do you make yours different?
Writing prompt: What does vengeance look like? See if you can explore unique prompts for your main character. What really boils their blood and why?
Check out Katherine Blake’s The Unforgettable Loretta Darling here:
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The Secret Power of Symbols
Vengeance is about atmosphere as much as it is about plot. Threading in some juicy symbolism is a fantastic way of maintaining suspense with the lightest of touches. I was lucky with The Unforgettable Loretta Darling. All those lipstick bullets, for starters, and red being a sign of danger. The wigs, the costumes and – of course – the face paint. Almost everyone in Hollywood was wearing a mask, so a woman set on revenge could hide in plain view. Who did the reader trust? And the constant, unrelenting heat of California, beneath the pressure of which someone might just crack …
Writing prompt: Go to town with your crayons! Allow your imagination to run free and sketch some symbols to use in your story. Then pin the sketches by your desk to remind yourself to use them at regular intervals.
Power Balance
David against Goliath. Erin Brockovich. Heathcliff. What do these three characters all have in common? They’re underdogs and set out to change things, for good or for bad. Theirs aren’t necessarily stories of vengeance, but they throw a pertinent light on our aim to create a satisfyingly vengeful character. The odds need to be stacked against them. In The Unforgettable Loretta Darling, my main character is an outsider from a different country, working invisible jobs—first as a waitress, then as a makeup artist. She’s a woman in a man’s world, she lives on the wrong side of a town filled with ruthless ambition. By contrast, she pits herself against an up-and-coming handsome and powerful actor ensconced in the Hollywood system. Surely, she’s bound to fail in her path to revenge. So, what is it that makes her succeed? There are a few details! Knowledge of plants, her own wiles, opportunity, fire in her belly, quick thinking. The list could go on, a combination of external and internal factors. And what makes her enemy vulnerable? Exactly the same details that make him powerful. His ego makes him lazy.
Writing prompt: Draw your own scales of justice. Above one dish, write a list of the details that make your revenge-seeker weak. Above the next dish, write a list of the elements that make them strong. Use the same number of points in each dish to make your scales balance!
Planner or Chance-Taker?
Which is your character? Someone who plans their revenge for days, weeks, months, years? Or someone spontaneous who suddenly snaps and takes advantage of an opportunity? You’ll need to decide early on because this will influence your plot. Loretta is a chancer—the backstory of her entire arrival in America proves that in the first 20 pages when she blackmails her way to California. Once ensconced in her new job as makeup artist, she uses her knowledge of plants to have a bit of fun, tormenting male actors for their bad behaviour by poisoning their makeup. Nothing much. Just the odd skin rash or upset stomach. But then she finds herself on location in the middle of nowhere doing the makeup for her nemesis. And he’s behaving badly again. And she’s surrounded by desert plants with poisonous qualities. And no one would ever know. And, quite frankly, she’s had enough. Hers is a drip feed of events leading up to one spontaneous moment that she may live to regret. If your character is a planner, they can—and should—still have a drip feed of events, they’ll just need to be different events. Which leads us back to plot! And which are you as a writer? A planner or a chancer?
Writing prompt: How do YOU write? By the seat of your pants, or by carefully planning your story before setting pen to paper? Maybe your main character can be a bit like you. Think about what how your chosen approach satisfies you (or undermines you) and how that might inform a vengeful main character.
I hope these five writing prompts help and, most of all, that you have fun taking fictional revenge!
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