Review: 13 Steps to Evil by Sacha Black (Non-fiction)

The blurb:

Your hero is not the most important character in your book. Your villain is.
 
Are you fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains? Frustrated with creating clichés? And failing to get your reader to root for your villain?
  
In 13 Steps to Evil, you’ll discover: 
 
+ How to develop a villain’s mindset
+ A step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up
+ Why getting to the core of a villain’s personality is essential to make them credible
+ What pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs
  
Finally, there is a comprehensive writing guide to help you create superbad villains. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge.

These lessons will help you master and control your villainous minions, navigate and gain the perfect balance of good and evil, as well as strengthening your villain to give your story the tension and punch it needs.
 
If you like dark humour, learning through examples and want to create the best villains you can, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting superbad villains. Read 13 Steps to Evil today and start creating kick-ass villains.

My thoughts:

Okay, hands up, I usually find writing craft books pretty dull and boring. Yes, I read them anyway because I need to learn, but do I enjoy them? Not really.

But this book was different. 13 Steps to Evil homes in on one particular skill: how to write a really good (bad) villain, and it's written in a friendly, conversational style that makes it entertaining as well as educational. 

13 Steps to Evil takes writers through everything from selecting traits for their villains and why this is important, dastardly motivations and how experience moulds people, and the different types of villain you may encounter. All this is done with plenty of examples, plus questions at the end of each chapter to make you think.

Even thought I've written a whole bunch of books and read a load more, I still learned from this one. I'd recommend it to any writer who wants to make their bad guys just a little bit nastier, and it's definitely something I'll keep on my go-to list of reference books to be consulted when I start plotting and scheming my next series. Mwahaha…