9 Comments
User's avatar
Norman T. Leonard's avatar

Love this. Completely agree. The Korean film Oldboy is a masterclass in raising the stakes on the revenge story.

Expand full comment
Brian Crenshaw's avatar

Thanks for writing these. I love revenge plots, and you reinforce your points with excellent references. If Inigo, Beatrix, and Maximus need more than revenge to drive a good story, who are we to argue?

Expand full comment
Richard Donnelly's avatar

This caught my eye Renee because revenge is at the center of my novel. There's no making nice. It transforms her. She grows up, she sees better, feels better, loves better. A good novel is all character

Expand full comment
Tim Wright's avatar

Very good advice for character development. Stakes are the things a character risks losing. Revenge can't be part of that. Revenge is a powerful motivator, and this article does well with how to write that motivation into the character's actions. Good points on character development and making characters deep enough that there's still something left over if revenge drops out of the picture.

Expand full comment
Renee Fountain's avatar

Thanks, Tim. Glad you liked it.

Expand full comment
Marc Teatum's avatar

Many thanks Renee for yet another great piece on how to better craft stories to success. Revenge is just one of the paths a character, protagonist or a 2nd level individual can use to propel the storyline. Unfortunately revenge feeds into humans most basic nature of survival; being the winner. Revenge requires the opposing party to loose. It feeds into hate. As our world, our society devolves into violent division, I hope writers think about a different way to settle differences as a way of educating and enlightening readers to make Life better. Maybe I'm being too optimistic.

Expand full comment
Renee Fountain's avatar

Optimism is a good thing to have these days.

Expand full comment
Devayani's avatar

👌. 🙏 Thank you 😊

Expand full comment
Good Humor by CK Steefel's avatar

Great advice. As a reader or watching a movie revenge isn’t enough. It’s the prickly leaves of the artichoke that need to be snipped. Every character needs a heart. (And a good dipping sauce.) Hehe. Ok. Done with goofy analogy. Now I’m hungry.

Expand full comment