(3/5) Thirteen Steps to Evil is an ideal guide for new writers for taking two dimensional characters to three dimensional. Each step covers various aspects for building the perfect villain. The lessons that are covered, range from learning how to develop a villain’s mindset, to pitfalls and cliches to avoid. Throughout this, examples are used to assist in developing the ideas.
I gave this book three stars because I wasn’t crazy about it. While there were many good insights, I felt like a lot of what I read was intuitive tricks I had already developed from writing for a few years. Therefore, I didn’t feel like I was gaining as much as I usually do from writing help books. That’s not to say the book isn’t useful—it is useful. There are several things I would like to try for future villains. I suppose if I would have read this early on when I started writing, I would have found it more helpful and ranked it higher. For a beginning writer, it’s definitely a four start read.
Overall, I recommend it if you have the time. I’m glad I read it, and I got at least one thing from it, which is always my goal.
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