Sometimes, all you need for a villain is ... yourself.

I've seen two movies recently with incredible stories, marvelous tension, yet distinctly lacking a visible villain: "The Greatest Showman" and "Everest." In the first, the tension comes from dreams and possible failure, while the second is a battle against savage natural forces. I suggest that the villains in these stories are actually the people themselves. We constantly fight ourselves, rage against our failures, and struggle to master our passions. These two movies are totally different genres, one being a musical and the other an  adventure/drama, yet share the quality of the human need to become better than who we initially are.

Tension is necessary for any good story, but there are no limits to the places these tensions arise. I feel that tension the greatest in stories where the main character is at war with themselves, because I face the same thing myself (and I suspect everyone else does too). When I experience stories where the heroes claim victory in this fight, it raises my own hopes and expectations. Isn't it incredible how watching, listening, reading, or otherwise following a story, provides such inspiration? This is the power of stories!

When the fight is against themselves, there's tons of introspection throughout the story. How often do we do this in our own lives? Likely not very often. Stories provide a safe place to carry on brutal reflection, and can shake us up enough to make us change for the better. That's a fantastic power for so simple an art form. This one aspect is what drew me to writing in the first place, even beyond the imagination of fantasy and science fiction, because it can foster real change. Everyone wants to make their mark on the world, and so do I. Stories provide the opportunity and platform. But, as Spiderman reminds us, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

- M