When it comes to writing fiction, we each have our own unique challenges. For some of us, it’s a struggle to come up with names for characters. For others, it’s hard to write realistic dialogue.
Maybe you find it difficult to write a really good villain — or should I say — a really bad villain.
The funny thing about our writing weaknesses is that sometimes all we have to do is identify them and suddenly we start coming up with tons of solutions.
Villains are everywhere. The ‘bad guy’ or villain of your novel – is as important as learning how to create a memorable protagonist.
Start by taking a look around, at people you know or strangers in your neighbourhood. Analyze their flaws, mistakes, and bad moods. Think about what people would be like if those flaws were embellished and magnified to outweigh the person’s good qualities and positive traits. Suddenly, villains are born, like a little herd of evil trolls.
Creating complex villains for your stories does not have to be daunting.
5 key steps to creating the perfect villain:
- Choose a model for your villain: choose an ordinary person, a celebrity, or a notorious criminal. Examine that person’s flaws and weaknesses. How have they wronged others? Diminish their positive traits, magnify their negative traits, and write a brief character sketch. What’s the character’s name? What do they look like? What is going on in the character’s head that allows them to treat others with disregard?
- Give your villain a shady past. What terrible things has your villain done throughout their life? What terrible things were done to them? Some villains are just troublemakers; others are deranged psychopaths. Some are acting out the wrongdoings that were done to them in the past. How extreme is your villain?
- Identify the source: what happened to your villain to turn them so evil? Was your villain born that way?
- The most interesting villains are not completely evil. They have a soft spot for puppies or they write cheesy love poems. Contrary personality traits add depth and realism to all characters. Describe your villain’s positive traits.
- Put your villain in a scene: make sure you include dialogue so you can work out how the character speaks. Give your villain a distinct voice. Is your villain disguised as a benevolent character? Does the villain spend every waking minute committing evil deeds?
Put these five tips into action and your perfect villain will be born. Have fun with your characters.
Unleash the novel inside you
with compelling characters,
intricate worlds,
and fine-tuned prose.
“Linda has published twenty books. She blogs about the publishing world, posts useful tips on the challenges a writer faces, including marketing and promoting your work, how to build your online platform, how to get reviews and how to self-publish. She has mentored many authors and edited their work.”
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