Gillian Bronte Adams’ “Villainy 101: How to Trap a Hero” Is Creative Genius!

I have to give major props to two creative people:

·         Mia Zachary, who found the awesome picture below and sent it to me on Pinterest

·         Gillian Bronte Adams, who posted the awesome picture in the first place

I’m friends with Mia and know her creative tenacity, so it doesn’t surprise me she was able to find such a creativity-inducing image. But after following that image back to its original source at GillianBronteAdams.com, I also have to give props to Ms. Adams.

Anyone who’s struggling to trap their hero for climatic effect – or just because it’s fun to be a jerk – should check this blog post out. In fact, you should read it regardless. It’s that good!

The memo stands out in all the right ways. “From the Academy of Ultimate Villainy: Today’s Lesson: How To Trap A Hero.” Never mind that the colons are a little repetitive and the “to” should be lowercased considering the previous preposition. Who cares about grammar when there’s apparently a school for scoundrels.

Mind blown!

This revelation begs to be explored further. Do these educational institutes of evil learning have university-sized classrooms where trolls take notes and bullies search for victims to snatch them from? Does the insufferable blond girl lick her glossy lips in anticipation of how to ensnare her own nemesis, while the brunette vampire beside her tries to pay attention to the lecture instead of turning her teeth on her classmate?

Those thirteen words beg a story, if not an entire series. And Adams rises to that challenge with a breakdown of “Dr. Sinestra’s lecture” as recorded by some spy at the dastardly school.

Thanks to that correspondence, we learn that there are three main kinds of heroes:

·         The Romantic

·         The Idealistic

·         The Clever

And trapping them is as easy as one-two-three once it’s established which group they fall into.

As Dr. Sinestra says, “The number one rule of hero trapping is to offer the hero something he cannot resist. Every hero has a weak spot” to exploit. “Offer the thing he most desires, and then snatch it from his grasp at the last moment” to “leave him in utter despair.”

This Dr. Sinestra is one wise villain. No wonder he got the position at the Academy!

At the risk of encouraging such literary nastiness, I’m going to point out that writers could learn a thing or two from him.