*raises eyebrow*

Happy Wednesday, everyone! So happy you could join me again today. Don’t forget to hit up RAD-Writing.com this weekend and preorder my latest novel, Dwr: People in the Water! (I told you I was going to remind you all week long – you should’ve seen this coming)

It’s a really great book, and one of my absolute favorites that I’ve had the pleasure to write. I’m SO excited to get it into your hands!!

Okay, okay, onto the topic at hand.

Last week, we talked about the Guy Who has it All, and how overdone he is in popular media these days. He seems to be in every other book and movie, and he’s getting to the point that he’s really old and ready to be retired.

That’s where this guy comes in. He’s a character I really like to use, and one I got to experiment with recently in my Earth-Space series (coming in the 2020’s).

The Guy Who Knows Himself (and that’s it)

Ever seen him before? He’s not all that common, actually, and that’s one of the reasons I like to use him. But let’s look a little deeper, eh?

Who is he?

Well, he’s pretty much who his name says he is. He’s the type of guy who knows exactly what he’s about. He’s a pretty strong character, in that he knows what he wants or needs, makes a plan, and gets it. The fun part is, he really knows nothing about anyone else. Other people baffle him, and the more time he spends with them, the less he understands them.

In that way, he’s a little bit like the nerd. But because he knows himself so well, because he’s so mentally strong, he’s in a category of his own.

So let’s look into some more detail about him, to see if he’s who we want to write:

Why should we read him?

What’s his purpose in life?

What is his draw, for the reader?

People like this guy because he’s real. He’s like the guy who doesn’t understand women, because he doesn’t realize that if he listened, he would understand women pretty well. The Guy Who Knows Himself is just so focused on getting his own ducks in a row that it never occurred to him to think about anyone else.

That also just so happens to make him an awesome villain, which is something we haven’t talked about yet in this series, and one of the reasons why I wanted to talk about him today.

Because The Guy Who Knows Himself only really knows himself, he might just assume that everyone thinks exactly like he does, and that if they don’t, he should make them think like him. And the fact that he only really knows one person (himself) makes him far more interesting and volatile when it comes to villainy.

Friday, we’re talking about the last character in our series, the last guy I think you should be using in your novels. At least, for this series. There are a ton of characters out there, just waiting to be created, you know. 

It's okay to stay away from cliche. 

[love]

{RD}