Writing Villains

Writing a story with a physical villain? Whether our hero’s adversary is an eighth-grade bully, a civilization–busting alien super villain, or a historical bad guy from our culture’s point of view, they all have one thing in common. They think they are justified in their actions. To get into our villains’ heads, we have to empathize with them.

All Villains Want to be Understood

Our stories benefit from outlining our hero’s backstory, whether that backstory is revealed or not. It gives us a more complete understanding of our hero’s motivations for a more engaging work. Outline your villain’s the same way. Use the same list of questions you ask your hero or write a bio for your villain in the same style as your hero’s. Psychopaths make up only one percent of the population, which means most real-life villains started out as average everyday people who suffered a set-back. Craft an inciting incident for your villain. You don’t have to use it in the actual story, but it’ll guide you as you delve deeper into your story. At each major plot point, ask yourself, “what action would my villain take next and why?” Knowing the slippery slope your villain took to get to where she is now, will give your story a firmer foundation and increase your story-telling options.

Villains Are Heroes

It’s becoming a cliché, but clichés are clichés for a reason. Embrace the fact that your villain thinks that he’s saving the world or protecting his interests, or helping someone naive learn the way the world works. Every villain not only has a reason she acts the way she does, she has a purpose in mind. Maybe your villain needs something that he thinks your hero doesn’t or he takes action to save something or someone from your hero or maybe she just gets off on it and hey, that’s saving the planet from another mouth to feed or she only kills bad people anyway, so what’s the big deal? Write down your villain’s purpose so you can keep it in mind whenever you jump into his head-space.

Villains Aren’t 100% Evil

Just like heroes have their bad side, villains have their good. The fact that your villain loves his dog, or takes his mom to lunch every week or is the students’ favorite teacher at Stanley High will go a long way to making him relatable. Villains need to be a little bit relatable. Just like it’s hard to write unrelenting darkness, it’s hard to read. And why would anyone read what can, in some instances, disgust? Because you’ve put that reader in the villain’s shoes. You’ve made the reader go, “but she loves her dog” or “he’s obsessed with Halo” or “mocha coffee really is the best.” Now the reader has something in common with the villain, or at least something that pegs them as human (even if she is from outer space). Even psychopaths with no emotional soundboard are human. Finding that little bit of human in your villain will make it easier for the reader to envision the character as multi-faceted, just like the hero. And help you discover different story lines than you might have otherwise.

Without Villains, There Are No Heroes

Without a villain, there is no hero. Without a hero, there is no story. Story is conflict and villains create conflict which heroes attempt to resolve to the reader’s satisfaction or edification. As writers, we must love our villains. We must sink into their skin and flesh and bones and discover their motivations. Why? To call our heroes to life and jumpstart them into action. When you believe in your villain’s story as strongly as your hero’s, it comes across on the page to fully engage your reader.

Please share your thoughts on, or your experience with, writing villains. Join me on the first Friday of each month for exploration, discovery, and discussion of the writing life.