Need help with some brainstorming

[Stormpirate]

I guess this could parallel the 'Nature of Evil' thread. I am having a hard time brainstorming a reason why the antagonist of the novel I'm working on wants the source of unlimited power. I would like to have him a concrete, believeable reason, not just because he wants it. I will be working on fleshing out a character profile for him, and perhaps that will help me work that out, but it might be nicer to already have a reason and build his profile from that.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

What are motivations for Aiden?

• His mother didn’t love him enough
• His father abandoned him
• He was picked on in school
• He’s looking for the easy way to get rich because he grew up poor
• He doesn’t believe in Heaven or Hell and wants to take down those beliefs
• He does believe in Heaven and Hell and wants to take down those beliefs

Any suggestions / directions I might take?

[Ursa major]

It depends, I guess, on a number of things, such as:

• how sympathetic or otherwise you want him to be (I assume that you're not writing pure evil versus mind-numbingly good): you might have someong who believes that the end justifies the means, and there is nothing so terrifying as someone who knows that they are "Right" (your last two bullet points may fit here);
• how complex a character he is: a combination of factors, and his evolving reaction to them, would allow the reader to get into your antagonists head a step at a time, allowing the reader to understand him, if not necessarily sympathise;
• how irritating you'd let him be: wanting world domination because he may have been picked on at school a few times seems a bit lame; I'd be tempted, in this case, to keep his motivation secret, unless you're aiming for humour.

None of the above disallows one of your reasons being a seed for his journey to megalomania, but neither are any of them convincing as the sole reason. And it also depends on how well you write: the better the writing, the more the reader may be willing to suspend their disbelief.

(Oh, and you left out being turned to the dark side by an evil chicken.... )

[Mad Tam McC]

A few suggestions.

Revenge (could mix this up with being very picked on in school)
Power (power corrupts etc.)
Or if you want him to be the good guy, if he doesn't get the unlimited power then someone really evil will. So he has to get it first.

[scalem X]

Mmm I'm sorry, but isn't 'the source of ultimate power' on itself going to make the reader roll his eyes? I'm sure the bringing back of family members that died is the thing that has been done most before.

But indeed I think if you want to stick to the plan, that you have to go with "Power corrupts". After all you don't say like: ah now I'm a farmer's boy, tomorrow I'm going to steal the ultimate source of power. If all evil farmer boys could do that... No the evil mastermind is one who has established an empire or something, but wants to defend it and expand it and so on. That's why he needs the ultimate source of power.

[Commonmind]

Villains are so cliche these days. Why not just abandon all the previous ideas and make his motivation simple but completely off-the-wall - he's seeking the source of ultimate power simply because he wants to know if it's possible to obtain. He doesn't know what will happen when he gets there, he's not even sure if he'll do anything nefarious with it; he just wants to see if it's obtainable, and he'll do anything in his power to achieve his goal - including such things considered "evil" in the eyes of the bystander.

[chrispenycate]

Oh, dear ultimate motivations; I don't believe in them excessively.
In my observation people who go after things with great conviction (though I haven't known any after unlimited power) tend to do so for fairly simple reasons.
To stop somebody else getting it (or because somebody else already has it, or the equivalent)
To perform an actio that he or she considers important, and can't think of another way of doing (frequently childish, as in "it's raining so we can't have out picnic. If I had a source of unlimited power I could change this")
To impress someone else
and, infrequently, to gloat over the possession of.
rather than "if I had the source of unlimited power you'd all have to be my friends", which is more what your school/mother trauma is likely to give.

[Stormpirate]

Heh. Sounds like there's some opposition to "the source of unlimited power"

The source has been stolen, and my protagonist has to retrieve it. It's in first person, written from the protagonist's POV, so I won't be delving into my antagonist's head too much, but I wanted him to have a compellable reason for getting it. Although perhaps I should just go with "absolute power corrupts absolutely." Also, it's more of an urban fantasy, so no evil farm boys here

[pyan]

Slightly off the point, but did you know that the word brainstorming itself is deemed "not PC" in some areas of our Government?

Now brainstorms are off the agenda | Politics | The Observer

'Brainstorming', the buzzword used by executives to generate ideas among their staff, has been deemed politically incorrect by civil servants because it is thought to be offensive to people with brain disorders.

Instead staff at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) in Belfast will use the term 'thought-showers' when they get together to think creatively

The thought-police are coming!.....

[Mad Tam McC]

'Thought-showers'!

Here's one train of thought from that
*Switch to dirty old man mode* Who do you think about in showers. Fnarr fnarr.

[Stormpirate]

Originally Posted by pyan

Slightly off the point, but did you know that the word brainstorming itself is deemed "not PC" in some areas of our Government?

Now brainstorms are off the agenda | Politics | The Observer



The thought-police are coming!.....

That is abso-frikkin-lutely ridiculous. What is going to become of our language if suddenly we're not allowed to say everything? Are we just going to communicate via text speak?

[Troo]

Well for a start does your antagonist actually have to be evil?

What if he needs the source of ultimate power to save his wife's life, protect his village / city / planet from invaders / plague? Perhaps he's dying and it's the only thing that can save him (or at least he mistakenly believes that it is)?

All it takes is for him to be more morally ambiguous than the good guy - willing to lead him astray to get him out of the way, willing to give his guide food poisoning, willing to lie and cheat and steal if it saves life/lives...

[Stormpirate]

No, I'm not considering him to be evil. I'm leaning towards the "cool, what a thing to have, what would happen if I get it" kind of plotline instead of someone intrinsicly evil. I don't know how well I could write someone who's just flat out evil. But a motivation of "what if" might be easier to understand than just "I am the most evil and must have this source of power to take over the world."

[SterlingRitu]

1.Ummmm, he was a late developer, was tiny in school and got picked on. Therefore he's hung up on ultimate power.

2.The scholar type - thirst for ultimate knowledge - and ultimate power

[Mad Tam McC]

It could develop into an obsession. He hears about it and then wants to find out more and more and more.

Could introduce him as having an obsessive personality.

[Peter Graham]

Originally Posted by Stormpirate

No, I'm not considering him to be evil. I'm leaning towards the "cool, what a thing to have, what would happen if I get it" kind of plotline instead of someone intrinsicly evil. I don't know how well I could write someone who's just flat out evil. But a motivation of "what if" might be easier to understand than just "I am the most evil and must have this source of power to take over the world."

If you play it this way, you would be doing something different from the usual "Evil Dark Lord of Utter Badness" route, which would most definitely be a good idea.

I'd avoid the "bullied at school and mummy doesn't like me" stuff as well. Not only has it been done to death, but it's also a highly unconvincing motive. Most people who were picked on at school are perfectly capable of getting over it and manage to emerge into adult life as all round good eggs.

Having said that, it might be interesting if he had been the bully at school. Good at sport and popular. Top dog and all that. But after he left that rather rarified school atmosphere, he no longer had that power. He craves to have it back.

But all in all, I think I like your idea of him doing it out of interest. The whole Victor Frankenstein motivation - he goes too far and loses control, or, by a gradual process, gets more and more involved until he can no longer see that what he is doing is unacceptable.

Regards,

Peter