Lyndis is here for some games tutoring!

Hey hi, Lyndis! Getting out of your comfort zone is a big task, but you have a solid foundation to do that with in Oberon, as well as a hell of a knack for not only worldbuilding and lore in and of themselves, but for using them to drive characterization. Not that I'd call any of them villains, but that entire May writing challenge entry was a beautiful study in complicated relationships between characters whose actions, even when they're genuinely unpleasant to each other, make perfect sense in the context of where and when and how they live. You've definitely got this!

A lot about writing villains isn't too different from writing any other character; their arc comes out of their desires, their beliefs, and their personal history. But we put so much of ourselves into our writing that it's difficult to deliberately step into the viewpoint of someone whose beliefs contrast with ours in important ways. It feels counterintuitive, but in my experience one of the most helpful things you can do with villains is to find an anchor—something about them you can relate to, even if you can't relate to them.

Foils are a different sort of tough because a good one often slides under the radar; they should be their own characters, without their identity being too tied up in the character they're contrasting. It's easiest to pick a few traits you want to emphasize, and work from there.

Rather than give you a specific writing exercise, because I'm sure you've got enough to :frantic_typing: on with the TC open and bloodbath approaching, I'm going to take those topics one at a time and give you some points to consider!

I'm me, so we're going to get long-winded here, and these are all only suggestions—definitely don't feel like you need to actually answer ever specific question here. <3



a) What does Oberon want—in the Games, but also before them?

Does he want to carry on the family business someday? Is there something less material that he wants, like influence or attention? Does he feel like safety and prosperity are limited resources, such that other people pushing for equality is a threat to him and his? Who in his life does he care about enough to help them, and who in his life does he say he cares about without being willing to stick up for them when the going gets tough? Being passively fine with the Games while feeling insulated from them is different from being shoved into them; knowing this sort of thing—even if he might not have been forced to confront all those thoughts yet—will help you figure out why he wants to get home and his motivation for fighting beyond just not wanting to die.

b) What does Oberon believe about himself and his circumstances?

You absolutely nailed this with Lusamine, whose bio remains a favorite of mine because, rather than in spite of, how much I want to fight her. Even without it being from her point of view—even, in fact, with it being from the pov of someone who's actively unnerved by their interaction—it gives the reader thorough understanding of how her beliefs about the children in her custody drive Aether and why she thinks her methods are not only acceptable but better for the children than anyone else's. She thinks she's a good person doing good work!

Oberon also has his specific moral understanding of the world. Being Reaped may not reform him, but it should rattle him. He thinks the Games should have been rigged; does he think they still are, or does he think he was truly chosen randomly? If the former, does he blame his being there on someone else the way he blames the lockdown on other districts? If the latter, does the fact that he's there anyway make him wonder which other tributes "should" or "shouldn't" be there, or does he double down on thinking he deserves to get out more than the others?

c) What specific attributes does Oberon have that you like or relate to?

I struggled figuring out a Gamemaker I could write posts with until I landed on the geneticist angle. Verena is horrible and I hate her and the way she regards others' lives as mattering only insofar as they're useful to her goes against everything I believe in, and on a lesser note wow writing extroverts is really hard, but her love of biology and her genuine care for her students give me enough of a tunnel into her headspace to work with.

Again, I hate her. You don't have to like Oberon as a person! But you'll probably have an easier time figuring him out if you find something worthwhile about him. Maybe that has to do with his relationships with family or friends, or his interests, or what parts of daily life he finds value in—anything, really. Maybe it's not even always relevant to a given post. But it will help keep him a character, rather than a caricature.

d) What specific attributes would you like to contrast between him and Kahinta?

It may help to step outside of Oberon for a minute specifically think about (and perhaps hit Windy up for thoughts on) Kahinta. What traits of hers do you think are interesting to highlight? (Make a list, if that helps you organize your thoughts.) Then look back at Oberon, consider which of those traits he either shares or directly contrasts with, and emphasize those in your plotting and writing. For example, I'd say Kahinta definitely works hard, just in different ways from and for very different causes from Oberon's; would he agree? Why or why not, and in either case, how does he reconcile that with the fact that they were Reaped together?



That was, as promised, lots of words. Like I said, don't feel like you have to answer everything, and definitely not all at once! Hopefully some of those questions are helpful launching points. (I'm a list person, so my suggestion would be to go topic by topic and jot down a list of initial thoughts to work with, but whether that's a helpful approach is totally up to you.) If you do think a specific writing exercise would be helpful, by all means let me know and I'll get you one; otherwise, if you want to talk through thoughts on any particular part of this please feel free to post or message!