Crafting compelling antagonists and characters smarter than you | Open Bar author panel

Today, we discuss the differences between antagonists and villains, and have a spirited discussion about the nature of evil and how it affects storytelling. We also delve into how to write characters smarter than you. Join us for our “Blooper Show!”

Today’s drinking game: drink whenever we do!

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“Some people run from their demons; others sit down and have cocktails with theirs.” William R. Hincy is a man who does and writes about the latter. Having become a writer after deciding it was the only sensible thing for a problem drinker to do, Hincy has won three American Fiction Awards, an International Book Award, and his anthology of short Fiction, Without Expiration, was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews. He now lives outside Los Angeles with his wife and kids, having found solace in the notion that the only things sacred are self and whiskey-winged interludes.
WDW Intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lev5KHRpc5s
Website: https://williamrhincy.com/

A native New Yorker, Diane Hammond spent the majority of her school years in Upper Nyack, NY. After graduating from Nyack High School, she attended and earned a BA from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. Hammond first began writing in Washington, DC, cutting her teeth on short stories and attending classes at the Glen Echo Writers Center in Glen Echo, Maryland, and joining a number of ad hoc writing groups. Her first short story was published in Woman's World, followed by others in Mademoiselle, Yankee Magazine, the Washington Review, and other periodicals.
Episode of WDW: https://youtu.be/rzjyiWHUpyE

SJ Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of eighteen novels and six dozen short stories. Her work has won the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards for Best Novel and the Edgar for Best Short Story. She’s also the recipient of the Japanese Maltese Falcon Award and recently received the Life Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America. BRONX NOIR, a short story anthology SJ edited, was chosen NAIBA “Notable Book of the Year.” She also co-edited, with Jonathan Santlofer, the anthology DARK END OF THE STREET. Spring 2022 will see CRIME HITS HOME, the Mystery Writers of America anthology, edited by SJ.
Episode of WDW: https://youtu.be/yYzIxr720wI
Website: http://sjrozan.net/

Dario: Dario Ciriello is a professional author and editor as well as the founder of Panverse Publishing. His fiction includes Sutherland's Rules, a crime caper/thriller with a shimmer of the fantastic; Black Easter, a supernatural suspense novel which pits love against black magic and demonic possession on a remote, idyllic Greek island; and Free Verse and Other Stories, a collection of Dario's short science fiction work.
Episode of WDW: https://youtu.be/fpDdxz5ChLM
Dario’s site: https://www.exactlyediting.com/
Dario's books: https://www.amazon.com/Dario-Ciriello/e/B002UF67GY

Chapters:
0:00:00 Start
0:00:39 Introductions
0:16:03 How to write an antagonist or villain
1:12:19 How to write characters smarter than you
1:29:13 Extra shots

Brought to you by Whiskey-Winged Lit
Fiction for the modern reader. Life is the accumulation of scars—tell the stories!

Here we go!