SCH-NEIGH-ZEL
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I don't overdo it THAT much
highly secure
If you cannot possibly think of a way that your villain's plan could be out-thought, circumvented, or otherwise ruined, think harder.
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Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
Spanner in the Works doesn't have to be a Deus ex Machina. As long as your villain has limits to their knowledge or power (or certainty, or influence) they have a flaw that can be exploited.
I could provide more specific thoughts if I knew more specifically who your villain was and what their plans were.
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
The thing with the red gold crown.
I agree in that your villain could have their plans foiled by a third party that has plans that cross the villains, but the plans don't even need to be the opposite or the same as the villain.
Or you could add a variable that ruins the villains plans and lets the heroes get a small but crucial victory that is the actual turn around in the war.
It comes. The corrupter comes. Don't let it touch the tower lest all reality crumble.
slice of lice
Pretty much this, seriously, without any more specifics of the villain's plans that other people could possibly poke holes in, this is as far as the help's gonna go.
edited 11th Oct '11 7:08:46 PM by OuthouseInferno
Forget the tropes until after you're done.
Use the antagonist's fatal flaw. Use it to show why the protagonist deserves to win over the antagonist by having the protagonist exploiting it.
Bigonkers! is Magic
Here's a thought: Go over your villain's plan and see if there is a spot in that plan where something could go wrong. Also, sometimes it takes an unexpected action from the good guys to exploit that. One of my stories had such an issue and I found that the best way to foil the Big Bad's plan was to literally stop what they were doing because the villain's plans required the characters to do something. Another plan in a different story was foiled because the heroine had made so many allies that the sheer numbers overwhelmed the villain's forces. Just because a villain has a plan doesn't mean he'll have the resources.
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Crazy-Prepared is another trope that works best if not overused. Having your character have lots of back-up plans is fine, but having them be prepared for something that they had no way of possibly suspecting easily pushes it over the line.