How to Create a Vile Villain

They are some of the most hated characters in stories...and some of the most loved.

They are evil.

They are flawed.

They are plotters.

They are the villains.

As you can see, he has all the makings of a villain.

But what makes a good villain? Who is he? Why is he in the world? What point does he serve?

This post is all about the forces that drive stories forward. As I like to say, "If the antagonist isn't important, then the protagonist isn't, either."


Tip #1. CHOOSE THE FORM OF THE BAD GUY THAT WOULD HURT YOUR HERO THE MOST

Antagonists come in all different forms. Some are a single villain, some are a group of people, and some are abstract ideas that originate in the mind, or circumstances and obstacles the hero must endure.

Villains aren't always people. They don't have to be. An antagonist opposes the hero, so maybe the hero must fight fantastical beasts, or survive a set of physical challenges. Maybe the hero is emotionally suffering with guilt, unrequitted love, or a moral dilemma that tears him or her apart from the inside.

Presentation of the conflict is crucial.

It doesn't have to be another person.

Tip #2. MAKE THE READER CARE THAT THE VILLAIN HURTS THEIR FAVORITE CHARACTER

Readers should connect to somebody in the story. Maybe the hero, maybe the hero's best friend, or teacher, or even the villain. Whoever the reader connects to the most, make them suffer.

Take a look at the last book you read. Notice how the villain might hurt the hero, but it has an effect on everyone else, too. The hero isn't the only one who suffers. Make people care that the villain hurt someone. Maybe readers love the villain and are awed by his power and opposition.

Make that count. Drive it home using emotion. Play the heartstrings of the reader, and they'll love your characters forever.

Tip #3. MAKE THE VILLAIN MEMORABLE

He has to stick in our minds. We have to know WHY he hurts the hero, HOW he hurts him, and WHAT he expects to gain from doing so. Maybe the hero is trying to foil a master plan, so the villain needs to get rid of him in order to rule the world. Maybe the hero is trying to be elected into office, so the villain tries to prevent that from happening so a law doesn't get passed.

Anything. Make it interesting, make it exciting, and make it resonate with the overall story. When it comes to books, we remember characters who gave us butterflies, made us feel sick, or made us angry. Or we felt like they were a close friend and could relate.

If a character can achieve a physical response in our bodies, we will never forget them.

Tip #4. GIVE THE VILLAIN A BACKSTORY

Unless you are making a movie for Marvel Comics, you should know that most villains don't just pop up out of the blue. They have existed elsewhere. You can see how they have shaped the world. There are lasting effects that every character stuffs up in the back of his mind.

Voldemort didn't just come out and attack the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts - he was a major influence in the whole wizarding community for his entire life. From the orphanage, to his years at Hogwarts, to the construction of the Horcruxes and the First War against Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Voldemort had a presence the entire time, even when he wasn't physically there.

You want most villains to be like that. If nothing else, they should have some relevance to the hero's life and how the hero has shaped himself.

Tip #5. READERS LIKE LOGIC....AND SO SHOULD YOU

I have read one too many stories where a character suddenly becomes the bad guy because his friend accidentally killed another friend, or the girl he loves doesn't like him, so he turns into a supervillain with a vengeance against her boyfriend...who just so happens to be a superhero.

Come on people. Really? No, seriously, really? Was it so devastating that he just had to go off on a murderous streak?

No, and readers know this. They don't want to read some cheesy inciting incident - they want to see the villain develop, or at least understand how he developed. This builds a mutual trust between reader and author, makes characters more believable, and thus makes readers LIKE the story.

If villains like the Green Goblin, Doc Oc, Whiplash (Iron Man 2), and Sandman popped up all the time, NYC would be screwed. At least Loki had a plan. Unfortunately, it included the fatal flaw of many villains these days....

Tip #6. IF YOUR VILLAIN WAGES WAR, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T LET THEM HAVE A "REMOTE CONTROL" ARMY

What does this mean? Let me tell you. In "The Avengers," the fatal flaw was that the whole army turned out to be robotic and by destroying the mothership, the army shut down and the six people fighting aliens miraculously won. Or like in "Battle: Los Angeles," (a movie I personally loved), the drones were powered by the control beacons and LA was saved when Harvey Dent shot a missile at the retreating mothership.

I'm just saying, while these make for cool action sequences, please try not to include that unless robots are literally taking over the world. We as readers don't like seeing something end so easily (if you've read "Inheritance," by Christopher Paolini, you'll agree that King Galbatorix TOTALLY would have won that fight instead of acting like a little girl. Shruikan didn't even try to help).

What am I trying to say? MAKE YOUR VILLAIN STRONG!!! But not invincible.

Tip #7. GIVE YOUR VILLAIN A FATAL FLAW THAT THE HERO MUST DISCOVER

Why are Voldemort's horcruxes so awesome? Because nobody knew they existed. Not even the readers, until the sixth book. Then we found out that three had already been destroyed, one of which we watched get destroyed and had no idea the significance until later.

GENIUS!!! Do that. Surprise the reader. Surprise the characters. Force them to discover the villain's weakness, or a way to fight him.

Everybody is different. Be creative! And if your antagonist is inside the hero's head, have him fight himself. Show us his torture and how he affects everything around him until he is able to reconcile with himself. Self-discovery and inner-conflicts make excellent storylines. Just be sure to wrap it up inside something else, and you're well on your way.

The villain of the story should fascinate us. Make readers fear, admire, or be shocked by him. Give readers a reason to care that the villain is hurting the hero. Give the readers a story why the villain is hurting the hero. People don't want the cheesy stuff. Show them that this guy could hurt them. Create that feeling and people will ask for the sequel.

Check out the follow-up post: How to Create a Magnificent Main Character

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5 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Reading Other Books

Have you ever seen this quote?  "The six golden rules of writing:  Read, read, read, and write, write, write." - Ernest Gaines

There is a lot of truth behind that.  Stephen King had another one:  "If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write."

So what can you do to improve your writing through reading? Let’s take a look.

#1.  EXAMINE SENTENCES.

Okay, read the book.  Enjoy it and take your time!  When you're done, go back and look at what you read.  Which parts did you like or hate?  Which parts went fast, and which parts went slow?  Did you cry, or feel angry, or smile uncontrollably at any point?

Look at those parts and examine the sentences.  Look at WORDS and PHRASES and how long the sentences are.  Long sentences (15+ words) are generally exposition, while short sentences (usually 3-6 words) are used to emphasize action.

Books ARE emotional puzzles, after all.

You should notice that generic words (it, that, like, the) missing, because they interfere with imagery.  Sometimes they are unavoidable, but you won't see them as often as distinct objects and actions.

#2.  STUDY THE BOOK'S PLOT STRUCTURE.

We all know the 5-point structure:  Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Denouement.  But why should we follow this and why does it work?

BECAUSE THIS SEQUENCE MAKES THE READER CARE.

There are no funny pictures for plot structure.

The reader meets the characters, befriends them, and gets to "know the normal."  Then BOOM!  Something happens that throws the characters off-track, something they may not have seen coming.  Now the reader wants to know what will happen and wants the problem to be solved.

If you can make the reader care, they WILL finish the story.  So study where the authorputs certain events, who they affect, and the choices they force upon the characters.  Adapt this to your own story.  You'll see how smooth the events work together and that it creates a believable setting for the reader to live in.

#3.  LISTEN TO THE CHARACTERS' VOICES.

Seriously, listen to them.  Watch what words they use.  What they emphasize.  How do they make you feel?  Do you tense up, smile, laugh, or become embarrassed?  Dialogue is crucial.  Dialogue is the BASIS of characterization.  You can describe in straight-up prose exactly who your character is through his interests, fears, emotions, friends, family, pets, school grades, and more, but I GUARANTEE you readers will get bored and skip ahead.

I bet some of you skimmed that last sentence because you just wanted to get on to the next because DESCRIPTION IS BORING. It really is. Readers want to experience a character, not be handed a paper with a checklist of his likes and dislikes.  We want to see a character react.  We want to see them cry and laugh or yell in anger.  That's why good characterization matters.

And a conversation between two characters (or more) is interesting to read!

This picture is weird, but somehow illustrates my point.

Fun fact:  In his novel Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway only describes ONE character:  "She had taken off her hat and put it on the table."  That is the only physical reference to ANY character in the entire book.

#4.  WATCH HOW THE VILLAIN AND HERO AFFECT THE WORLD AROUND THEM.

This is similar to what I said in my post "How to Create a Vile Villain." If readers care about the characters, and the villain kills someone or wreaks havoc that destroys a character's life forever, your reader will see how determined the bad guy is.

Create conflict and use it to no end.  Keep it reasonable, but put it in whenever possible because it drives up the story's tension and the reader won't be able to put the book down.

Think about Tony Stark's involvement in the world.

In Les Miserables, Javert keeps coincidentally encountering Jean Valjean.  If you know the story, you'll know Javert is seeking Valjean because of a previous crime and his obsessive drive for "justice" creates a tension between them.

Do that. Figure out how the villain and hero (or other characters) interact with each other, and how every choice forces a reaction.

#5.  KEEP TRACK OF HOW CONFLICT OCCURS AND IS RESOLVED.

Watch when the first "turning point" of the story occurs. You know, when the main character's life is changed forever and he must embark on a journey of self-discovery and bravery in order to right the wrong, or meet his goal. That part.

 Focus on how the author crafts that scene. What emotions are there? What words create the scene? Who is affected? Why is this important to the story overall?

Answer these questions and then move on to the next conflict.  Do the same thing.  Find a pattern.  Then figure out how these conflicts are resolved.  I've seen many books work in this "scheme" of conflict-to-resolution:

ABCDDCBA

This visual shows you is that the largest conflicts tend to show up first and disappear last. Conflicts of other degrees and importance rise and fall in this sort of "palindromic" fashion. The least important conflicts tend to happen near the middle, like an argument between a couple, a minor character friends/family with the main character is injured or sick, that sort of thing.

Tension that comes and goes.  See what I'm saying?

What are some other ways we can improve our writing by reading?

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