On Writing Revenge

I recently watched The Count of Monte Cristo for the second time, and I noticed the movie deals with a revenge arc quite well. I have not read the book yet, but it is next on my list. If anyone has read it, let me know in the comments below and your opinion of it!

An interesting thing that popped up in my thoughts was the difference between how The Count of Monte Cristo deals with a revenge arc and how my own novel deals with writing revenge. Edmund Dantes from the movie (without spoiling too much for those of you who haven’t read/seen it) uses the people around him, as well as his friends, to complete his goal of killing the people who hurt him in some way. However, in my novel, Alavi, Leif Hallgrimsson keeps most everything to himself and bears the weight of revenge alone. He is so fixated on his own vengeance that he ends up hurting the people around him in ways he never meant to. In this way, while Dantes voluntarily uses the people around him to enact his vengeance, Hallgrimsson involuntarily hurts the people around him.

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite examples of a wonderfully done revenge arc. However, I don’t believe Edmund Dantes’ story is the only successful way to achieve a thought-provoking and compelling revenge story. It can be done in many different ways, and ultimately, each person/character will have their own way of going about that urge for vengeance.

When I write, I often put myself in Leif Hallgrimsson’s shoes without thinking about it. To be frank, most of Leif’s thoughts you will see when you read Alavi are my thoughts. His thoughts echo my own thoughts as if I were the one on the path he is on. It can be very useful, but I believe being so close to your own character like that—as if the character is a replication of yourself—can also have some kind of danger, especially when you are dealing with a revenge arc. I have put my heart and soul into this story, and this story is my “letter to the world,” as I say, a reminder of what true anger and rage can do to even the most innocent of people, and that only through showing grace to one another and trusting in God can we really have the strength to show grace to one another.

But since I am so close to Leif Hallgrimsson, I sometimes fear that wearing his shoes for so long will lead me to think like he does—in anger and revenge. As Job 4:8 says, “Those who plow iniquity and sow trouble will reap the same.” This is what makes me so excited to finish this story, because (without spoiling the ending of Alavi) I will be able to see how the main character chooses to overcome his own internal struggles and truly become the man that his father would have wanted him to be. Instead of being disappointed and overwhelmed by walking with him on his path to revenge, I look forward to the ending, because I know the good things that wait at the end of the path for Leif.

This blog post was a little bit shorter than my future ones will be, but I wanted to share this with you all, as it was something on my mind. Have any of you ever written or read a character in a story that was similar to yourself and that you felt especially connected with?

UPDATES:

I finished Part 1 of the novel a few days ago, and I am writing at a very good pace (about 2,000 words a day). I have reached about 120,000 words in the novel, and hopefully, I will be finished writing it in a little over a month!

God bless!