Sacha Black
4 Tips For Creating Villains
4 Tips For Creating Villains
Everyone knows that a hero is the most
important character in a novel… Or are they? It’s actually a common
misconception because at the heart of all stories is change, aka the emotional
arc the hero moves through. From ‘flawed person unable to defeat their
obstacles’ to ‘heroic champion at the end of the book’, having overcome their
issues. And driving that change is conflict, and who creates conflict…?
The villain.
That’s why the villain is JUST as important as
the hero. It’s also why I spend as much time crafting my villain as I do
crafting my hero. So here are four tips to creating sinister villains.
1.
Why is Everything
Humans do things for a reason, often because of past experiences
and the emotional wounds we’ve gathered. For example, losing a limb or a loved
one dying. These events actually shape our brain chemistry and change the way we
see the world. They
cement the way we make decisions meaning rational thought can plausibly leave a
villain and they can do something immoral because that’s what experience has
taught them.
The Lion King is a great example of this. The King, Mufasa, has
a brother called Scar who grew up in his shadow, always second best. As a
result, Scar becomes bitter and jealous. In his mind, he deserves the crown.
Therefore, anything he does to get it is reasonable. His jealousy is the reason
why there’s conflict, and that conflict over the crown drives the story.
2.
Positivity is King
It might sound odd to ask you to give your
villain a positive trait, but positivity for villains leads to believability.
Just like having a perfect hero is off putting (because no one is perfect in
real life) having a purely evil villain is also unbelievable. In a villain’s
mind, they’re the hero of their story, they don’t think they’re evil, so
chances are, there’s something redeemable about them.
You could show them caring for a sibling or
family member, or show them loving a pet. You could even turn their negative
trait into a positive one temporarily. Showing some positivity will breed a
much more complex villain who’s an awful lot more believable than one who’s
100% nasty.
3.
Make Your Villain Unbeatable
A story with a hero who gets it easy is boring.
Nothing is a challenge, the obstacles fall away. That’s not going to grip your
readers. What grips them is relating to your hero’s emotional journey and the
trials and tribulations he faces. That means he needs to work hard for his win.
He needs to defeat a huge villain shaped barrier that seems, for 85% of your
novel, like it’s totally insurmountable.
How do you make the villain seem
undefeatable?
Make your villain an expert at something — if
your villain is an expert in amassing huge armies, your hero is going to
struggle to gather a rabble of misfits big enough to defeat him. A good tip
here is to link to your hero’s character arc to your main villain-barrier. For
example, Thor from the Marvel universe movies is (at the start) arrogant and
selfish. So his father curses Thor’s magical hammer—the only hammer that’s able
to defeat the villain. Until Thor can change and prove himself worthy of the
power the hammer wields, he’s royally screwed. Once he changes, he gets the
hammer back and can defeat the villain.
4.
Consider a Twist
Once you’ve finished the first
book in a series you could play a wild card and consider a villain redemption
arc for the next book in your series.
A character arc defines the change
a character goes through during your story. Typically, a villain will spend the entire plot descending into villainy,
where eventually they’re defeated. But a villain on the path to redemption goes
the other way, they climb their way out of villainy to redeem themselves.
A word of caution though:
It takes time. Just as a hero takes an
entire novel to overcome her flaw, it will take some time for a villain to make
this monumental change. Don’t let them yo-yo between good and evil — the change
needs to build slowly throughout your story.
Foreshadowing is vital. Readers don’t like to be
cheated. You need to drop breadcrumbs throughout your story to let your reader
know subconsciously that the villain is going to change, otherwise, they’ll feel
cheated. Foreshadowing is subtle and often doesn’t take a lot — the occasional
soft glance from the villain, a nicely spoken sentence, an action that is
‘good’ rather than evil. Tiny clues are key here.
Like hero like villain. Don’t make it easy for
your villain to change. Just like it’s hard for the hero to overcome her flaw,
it should be hard for a villain to overcome his. A quick way to make it harder
for the villain to redeem himself is to catch him between two of his values.
For example, while this character isn’t a villain, it still illustrates the
point: Ned Stark in Game of Thrones values
loyalty and wisdom – his wisdom tells him if he helps his King it will
inevitably lead to his death, and yet, his loyalty forces him to help the King
anyway.
Don’t let your villain become a
wuss. Villains
are villains for a reason. Keep them authentic by retaining some of their
sharper personality edges. Just because their actions are good doesn’t mean the
whole of them will be.
