Lesson 5

[Lorraine Passchier]

Rain’s Villain has a Great Plan!
What I’ve learned about crafting a thriller is that it’s all about zooming in on the bad guy, working backward, and nailing down the ending first. Another important lesson is to avoid using backstory to explain things, which is a trap I’ve fallen into more times than I’d like to admit. The example in the lesson using Beth in Basic Instinct really sunk in, so it’s also a matter of learning what to leave out.

Villain
What is the end goal?
To become the world’s richest person through resource control and to punish his rival through blackmail since he takes great delight in the pain of others {schadenfreude}.

How can the villain accomplish that in a devious way?
By using AI to create environmental events, allowing him to control resources. Setting up members of the secret society to indulge in their proclivities while recording everything.

How can they cover it up?
By manipulating data and planning environmental events to appear random or natural. By using a proxy to conceal who the source of blackmail is and making the victims believe it’s someone else.

Sequence to make it as intriguing as possible.

Began collecting blackmail material on the secret society a decade earlier
Cultivated a squeaky-clean persona by aligning himself with the right people and causes
Establishes himself as a fixer for the global elite even though he’s their worst enemy
Wants to annihilate his rival after he marries his daughter, believing their dynasties would join
Pays someone to take the hit for him when blackmail is exposed and then has them murdered
Covertly using AI to advance his dark agenda while targeting key resources
Seeds chaos at a geopolitical level by creating ‘natural’ disasters while gaining wealth
Tries to destroy the AI when it becomes sentient and starts working against him

[Donna Donna Hoke Hoke]

What I learned: There are more ways to take the heat off the villain if he’s more devious.

<b style=”background-color: var(–bb-content-background-color); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>What is the end goal?

To find out who his bio dad is, even after he kills Maria—because it brings Maria’s ex and stepdaughter to town and he can use them to find things out, if he can keep his involvement in Maria’s murder a secret.

How can the Villain accomplish that in a devious way?
He romances Sasha, while also appearing to defend her dad, while at the same time trying to keep the heat on Peter for the murder

How can they cover it up?
He had positioned himself as Maria’s gardener, so he had reason to be there.

Sequence
Get hired as Maria’s gardener, try to get close to her.
Finally confront her, but she refuses to give info. He accidentally kills her.
Try to pin the murder on Peter, while romancing Sasha to get information.
Offer to help the police with their investigation
Make Sasha feel loved once he hears her history
Pretend to have been attacked while with Sasha to get her sympathy and help
Kill Cynthia and make it look Peter is after the art, which is revealed to be worth a lot of money

[Mary Sawyer]

Mary’s Villain Has a Great Plan!

What I learned is that I think this clarity will to help a lot and save a lot of time trying to figure stuff out in rewrites!

1. What is the end goal? The end goal is to destroy the world and his sister’s legacy.

1. How can the Villain accomplish that in a devious way? Take away her home. Turn her daughter against her turn her grand daughter against her. Turn her agency against her. Kidnap his granddaughter kidnap the grandson cause climate disasters get her locked up at the acme home

1. How can they cover it up? Make his sister look guilty as tho she is causing some of the disasters.make her look crazy and out of control. Use a mini me as the fall guy. Control the daughter to work his plan for him in some ways
2. Note daughter needs to com around and Join at the end.

Sequence it to make it as intriguing as possible

1. Granddaughter’s award. SG meets brick man
2. Train the granddaughter
3. Natural disasters look like climate change
4. Have minions show up at the oddest of times. Or whenever she is close to finding things
5. Have the minions build in power and scare factor what are these things?? An ongoing question
6. Kidnapping looks innocent