2.3 Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown is a crime thriller author, and tends to set his novels in Scotland, Spain and the USA. He is also a board director of the crime writing festival Bloody Scotland.
Activity 3 Villainous creatures
Having watched three different authors talking about how they create villains, note down your observations about the different approaches to creating villains. Perhaps try and concentrate on the noticeable differences, as well as the similarities in what the authors have outlined.
Discussion
The authors revealed a variety of approaches to creating villainous characters. Some take a dispositional approach, i.e. they appear to start with the personality or disposition of the individual (e.g. Ian Rankin, who mentions charisma). Others take a more situational approach, i.e. they focus more on the character emerging out of the circumstances (e.g. Lin Anderson who talks about the needs of the story/plot). Gordon’s answer seems to draw on both of these elements (the situation and the disposition).