The 10 KEY Building Blocks to Writing Revenge Stories

Revenge stories are a popular sub-genre almost guaranteed to satisfy an audience. They’re typically a visceral and cathartic response to injustice and consequently something that elicits easy emotion. We love to follow a journey of change and retribution and revenge stories provide us with these essential elements.

Writing revenge – defined as the action of hurting or harming someone in return for an injury or wrongdoing suffered at their hands – can be particularly fun, dark, and, as with writing anything, challenging.

There are multiple puzzle pieces that need to slot together and aspects that need to interweave and complement one another to be a success. So, we’ve broken down ten key elements of revenge stories that can help form the basis of a compelling plot and do your writing justice.

1. Genre

Genre and target audience will impact how you approach any plot.

Revenge stories have a well-established formula, but that doesn’t mean you have to rigidly follow typical conventions. One of the great advantages of writing revenge is that you can adapt it in many different ways and use it in a majority of genres.

First, decide the direction you’re intending to take your revenge story.

Usually, revenge is a sub-section of the thriller genre. This is because revenge stories often include a crime being committed. John Wick, for instance, is a straight-up neo-noir crime thriller.

• The structure is as you would expect; it’s a largely linear narrative with a strong cause-and-effect relationship between each scene.
• For example, John’s refusal to sell his car subsequently leads to the retaliation of a theft and the killing of his puppy. These events trigger John to seek vengeance.

However, this doesn’t mean you can only write a thriller to successfully employ the theme of revenge. There doesn’t necessarily have to be a horrible crime taking place to incite vengeance. And there doesn’t always have to be a long and bloodied road leading towards a big bad villain.

Revenge in Different Genres

Netflix’s dark comedy film, Do Revenge, is a biting social satire.

• It focuses on two female protagonists insistent on getting revenge against high-school peers who have wronged them.
• Whilst the wrong-doings to Drea and Eleanor aren’t the darkest of crimes, there is still enough substance to understand and recognize their anger.
• The comedic aspects also benefit the film. They allow the audience to enjoy being swept up in the dishonesty and deceit.

In Scream, Billy Loomis’s motive stems from him wanting revenge.

• Sidney’s mother had an affair with his father, which caused Billy’s mother to abandon him.
• Of course, there is way more to unpack from that. But the revenge-killing of Maureen incites the bloodbath.
• Furthermore, Scream 2 also uses themes of vengeance. Mrs Loomis’ reveal as one of the killers explains her motive of avenging the death of her son.

Notice how revenge is used differently in the films.

• It is overtly the main driving force for the plot and protagonists in John Wick and Do Revenge.
• Whereas, in the Scream films, it takes more of a back seat; used as a twist, connecting subplots and characters within the overall franchise, and explaining motives.
• Additionally, Do Revenge and Scream are very self-aware about their genre, allowing for a little more risk and teasing of tropes.

So if you have a general idea sketched out but you’re not entirely sure where you want it to go, or what genre you should place it in, this is the perfect opportunity to get creative.

You could, for instance, try writing a brief breakdown of your plot in the style of different genres. Explore your story’s potential by experimenting with the ideas that genre-bending can squeeze out.