Why do we love VILLAINS? @CodiGary has the answer! And you can win her Rock Canyon series!



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Anti-Heroes and Villains
Why do we love them or love to hate them?



As a writer, any kind of emotion we can rip out of our readers is AWESOME! Do we feel a little bad that we made you cry? Sure, underneath all the GLEE! Because when we make you shout, scream, wail, or laugh out loud, we are doing something right. And although we love it when you fall for our hero or heroine, when you hate our villains (or better yet, lust after our anti-heroes), it’s like we’re dancing around on marshmallows and chocolate to the song, “I’m Walking on Sunshine!”

The same goes for the writers of TV shows. Take Empire for instance. Empire is centered around a music label started by Lucious and Cookie Lyon. Right off the bat, you should hate both these characters. Lucious is a murderer who cheats and lies as easily as he breathes. He treats his family like chess pieces for his own agenda, and yet, I still can’t hate his guts (except for when he picks on my Jamal, and then I get PISSED!) And Cookie, who took the fall years ago for dealing drugs, and missed out on her kids’ childhood. Right there, I want to feel bad for her, until she starts all that sneaking and back stabbing. Then I want to slap her.

And the rest of the family (except Jamal) all have a selfish agenda, and yet, they all have their moments of likability. They can all send you through a mess of emotions and THAT is what makes the show so addictive. Sure, you can watch the shows where people are always good, and only make little mistakes, but there is something about the “Whaaaaaat” and the “oh, no they didn’ts” that keep you coming back for more.

Emotions. That is the goal for every writer. May we all do our best to make our readers Tweet “WTF?!”


An obsessive bookworm, Codi Gary likes to write sexy small-town contemporary romances with humor, grand gestures, and blush-worthy moments. When she's not writing, she can be found reading her favorite authors, squealing over her must-watch shows, and playing with her children. She lives in Idaho with her family.

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