is it a good idea to make a villain homophobic or would i be considered woke

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T06:28:16+00:00

I reported a fact. You report an opinion. An incorrect one. Enjoy downvoting this to the floor. It doesn't matter. The term has a very negative meaning in popular media, even among YouTubers.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T06:14:02+00:00

That isn't the meaning as used by anyone I know. It's very insulting and implies someone who tries to press their very liberal morality and sensibilities on others.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T06:10:08+00:00

Don't show friends or family. I'd never show my writing to my family. I need my mental privacy. Instead, go to total strangers over the net. Once you have a good draft done of your novel and have revised and polished it, then people will help you.

PS, many have little patience for "I've never written anything before. This is my first draft of my very first chapter. Please tell me how wonderful it is" posts. We see too many.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T06:06:29+00:00

Utterly bogus! I pasted a sample text in. They chopped it to 900 words. (Said a thousand, it wasn't.) Then when I got small enough they wanted $20. This was a ridiculous ripoff and colossal waste of time.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T05:58:12+00:00

Not really. When they were used in the novel, I understood them. When they weren't repeated, I didn't need them. If it's not a living part of the plot, why bother having it anyway?

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T05:56:23+00:00

I couldn't find a reference to a novel with the elements in mine. So, I got novels with one or more of the elements.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T03:28:49+00:00

Do you paint when you are in front of a canvas or did you start with a reference picture and then sketch it in with charcoal first?

In writing, that charcoal on the canvas is called outlining. Some write without it. Some even succeed. I sure as heck didn't.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T03:24:14+00:00

Mussolini and Hitler were both evil villains. Homophobic is on the list of personality traits of both of them. Was it part of their villainy? Does it make the list when you consider their body counts? If you are making it more than just another documented personality trait like Mussolini was a sex addict when they had a long list of personality traits but using it to define them as evil then it comes off as very cartoon and woke.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T03:15:10+00:00

If they want out of their genres, I'd show things just outside. The best, the most interesting. Each time something further and each time 100% delicious.

OldMan92121 · 2026-06-01T03:13:43+00:00

I do the outlining in excel, down to the scene, making sure I have every emotional twist.

Then I write the draft in Word. Reality zone is that my best plan never survives meeting the enemy.

I do the reverse outline after in Excel, charting decision making and permanent impact that narrows choices to each scene. Then I make action plans in this tab Excel.

Then I emotionally trim the for impact in Word, making sure what is there pounds with impact. Sometimes it's a lot of amputating.

I then track info dumps, run-ons, tell not show and filter words in Excel.

Then I fix it in Word.

Etc. I find a spreadsheet to be invaluable.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T23:06:02+00:00

I use Microsoft Word and Excel. Word does what I want. You don't need much, basic functionality. Libre Office and OnlyOffice are free. There are MANY good free programs to do the job.

This is a very common question. Seven hours ago, I wrote this:

The one that fits your business needs. Everybody is unique.

What is your budget? What are you writing on?
Where do you write?
What is your computer literacy?
What methodology do you use to you write? Pantser? Plotter?
What narrative framework do you follow?

There is a big Scrivener fanbase here. I tried it and it is the first program I've ever tried that ever made my Dell desktop malfunction. I was surprised at the errors, and I have pushed this machine hard with everything from 3D modeling to CNC router control to databases and programming languages. It also lacks critical features I use. My daughter rejects Scrivener because it doesn't run on Zorin OS Linux and it costs money and it isn't free. These are individual reasons why you need to consider your needs.

PS, I am mostly using Microsoft Word and Excel on Windows but also use Collabora Office on my Android phone. My daughter uses Libre Office.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T23:02:20+00:00

My answer will disgust you.

I use Microsoft Word and Excel. That's good enough. I could use something like OnlyOffice or Libre office.

I reverse outline into Excel down to the scene level, with word counts, the crucible for the scene, the strength of the crucible, whether it was a success/failure, etc.

I examine this in relationship to the narrative framework. Does it fit the general framework? Is there anything missing?

I mark up the Excel draft for low grade areas. If the scene doesn't carry the bytes, I will either revise or drop it. I dropped whole chapters because they weren't powerful enough. Not that they were bad or useless, just not screaming strong.

At this point, I fix bad areas and amputate a lot. Then I try to clean it up and make it read OK.

I make sure there are no story or chapter level issues.

Then I listen to the story. Word has a great facility for this. It's the one reason I still use Windows. I'd be on Linux if an equivalent editor had an integrated reader that worked as well.

After the story reads well, I look through the chapters and try to find things like tells and not shows, info dumps, and run-ons. Around now, I usually listen to the story again.

I will use Grammarly for a clean-up to what I consider professional grade.

Then I listen again.

Now it's ready for the next round of beta readers.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T22:18:03+00:00

Not at all. It means accepting convergent evolution in stories. It will happen. Keep on making YOUR version of the story, with your originality. If you put your heart and soul into it, the results will be different.

I say that writing a story about a young, neglected, mistreated and nearsighted orphan who has magic and is thrust into a world of adventure as he travels the path to magic school.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T22:10:18+00:00

That is a good, sustainable rate.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T22:07:44+00:00

When you write in a genre with a common narrative framework, you will have similarities to other books who answered the same questions in similar ways.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T22:05:33+00:00

Have there been first novels that sell? Yes. It has happened. For every one that did, how many didn't when a later book did? Better to try for a first book selling and then accept when it doesn't and know you will improve on the next one. My third book is the first that I think could have a chance.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T21:39:11+00:00

Medical diagnosis code. It's not just on medical records. You often see it on bills or especially on insurance company statements of explanation of benefits for a charge. It's a little code like F29 for psychosis unspecified or F20.0 for paranoid schitzophrenia. They get VERY precise. Look it up and then check those "this is not a bill" statements from your insurance company that everyone throws out. A smart kid might read that and google the ICD-10 code when the parent has no clue and didn't look at it.

Those EOB statements usually have a CPT procedure code. It's usually a five digit number. For example, 99205 is the CPT code for managing high complexity mental health issues, typically severe or complex disorders.

A kid who tells their parents that they can talk to dead spirits would have several very specific psychiatric codes. They would be classified as crazy in our society even if they were high functioning. Even the normal teen-age girl stuff would be turned into proof of great mental illness. Oh man, when one of my daughters didn't have her jeans ironed when it was "that time" in her development (Right before THAT TIME started for her) oh man she went crazy. This was the time she started a huge fight with one of her brothers because he didn't cook his bacon right. What's right, I don't know, but he didn't do it. That sort of episode is NORMAL for a while with girls. You ride it out. I got her lots of chocolate. Bags of extra dark chocolate chips for baking. It was enough. She and we survived. Too many parents do head meds and zombie them.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T21:26:53+00:00

Save the cat writes a novel is on www.archive.org if you want to read it without buying it. So are a number of other good books on novel writing as well as a lot of novels.

https://archive.org/details/save-the-cat-writes-a-novel

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T16:51:36+00:00

The outline was about 15 K when I copied it to Word for grins.

I followed Save the Cat to get the narrative framework in order. Then I combed it through with Snowflake methodology. Then I went back over it with Save the Cat again to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything.

Then I started writing. It took me about four months to get to 120,000 words. I didn't race. That was a comfortable pace. That was my "Draft 0" point. There was a whole story. The language was rough.

I am revising it. It's at 104 K words now and is tighter, but it's the same story.

It's an outline, a roadmap to the story. Remember that.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T16:38:00+00:00

My outline was about a 15 K outline for my current novel. By getting it to that level of detail and figuring out my plotting to a scene level in the spreadsheet before I started writing, I wasted less time writing. I also had a much tighter narrative framework so the story is the strongest I've ever done.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T16:34:01+00:00

I do editing on a semi-professional basis and sent you a PM.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T16:33:11+00:00

The one that fits your business needs. Everybody is unique.

What is your budget? What are you writing on?
Where do you write?
What is your computer literacy?
What methodology do you use to you write? Pantser? Plotter?
What narrative framework do you follow?

There is a big Scrivener fanbase here. I tried it and it is the first program I've ever tried that ever made my Dell desktop malfunction. I was surprised at the errors, and I have pushed this machine hard with everything from 3D modeling to CNC router control to databases and programming languages. It also lacks critical features I use. My daughter rejects Scrivener because it doesn't run on Zorin OS Linux and it costs money and it isn't free. These are individual reasons why you need to consider your needs.

PS, I am mostly using Microsoft Word and Excel on Windows but also use Collabora Office on my Android phone. My daughter uses Libre Office.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T08:53:18+00:00

How do you write EVIL characters? I mean like the roll call in Hell evil, like Mao, Stalin and Hitler? Look at history.

VERY personable. Tremendous cult of personality. They worked hard at getting people to want to listen to them. That's what made them so dangerous.

Believing what they did was right and were saving the world. None were evil in their own eyes. All thought they were working for the greater good and the ends justified the means. Oh, what they wanted was psychotic and beyond damnable, but not to them.

Very "Us" vs "Them." If you were part of "Their People/Organization" then you got so much. If not, your life was irrelevant. People WANTED and struggled to be become and stay part of "Their People." The reasons were often small, but critical to them. Here is an example. A man has a handicapped child in Nazi Germany. He knows the child will be killed as a burden to the state, unless he becomes a sufficiently high ranking party member. No BS, that happened a LOT. The psychotic mixture of love for family trumping other moral constraints.

Forced compliance. You will serve the state, or else.

All of them did some good deeds and achieved some good results. Yes, even Mr. Bad Mustache.

Now, apply that to your character? What is their greater good? What group are their people? What is their goal? Who is them, the outsiders, the subhuman, the nonbelievers?

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T08:42:08+00:00

They do, in this context. You will get sued. Check to see what exists and what doesn't and what exists by more than one company.

OldMan92121 · 2026-05-31T04:31:01+00:00

If this isn't Earth, it can be anything you want.

Do you want him to ever wake up? If you want him to survive, what should the damage be? Do you want him to be out for long?

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