Writing Wickedly Good Villains
“When writing villains, authors need to know the whys. Real human beings, villains included, have reasons for what they do. Villains can’t be evil for evil’s sake. They need reasons. They need a motive. Doing so makes your villain more believable.”
— Nancy Kress
1. Take Your Antagonist to the Past
A compelling character will have external influences and a past that informs their present and the crux of their internal journey.
Magneto, X-Men series — He’s a villain who believes that mutants are superior to humankind and should dominate the world. But if you look into Magneto’s past, you’ll find he was born into a German-Jewish family during the Holocaust and that their treatment by the Nazis led Magneto to believe that humankind and conflict are inseparable. His goal eventually becomes to protect the mutant race from experiencing similar atrocities at all costs.
What would your villain do at all costs?
Keeping the past in mind, you need to get into the antagonist’s head. Is it truly and only a past event that prompted the evil path, or was it more mental, such as a psychopath?
Amy Dunne, Gone Girl — You’ll see a theme with the seven deadly sins here (think of Seven). After she slits Desi’s throat during coitus (I’ve always wanted to use that word), she heads back home with his blood all over her body. She forces Nick to undress and join her as she showers away the blood of the man she has killed. She is effectively washing away the gruesome evidence and wants to make sure her husband watches every stage in the process. In other words, Amy Dunne was a psychopath. (Learn more about Amy Dunne here.)
2. Determine the Villain’s Trigger
In most cases, it takes time for an individual or character to cross the line. It involves escalation. Little by little, a transformation happens, and then there’s a trigger. They are pushed to their limit; they snap. Here are some different triggers you might see in villains:
- Bullying
Tyler Down, 13 Reasons Why — Tyler Down was bullied his whole life. Thrown against lockers, called a fag, never invited to anything, etc. Eventually, things escalated and his jock bullies would beat him up. No matter what he did to get the school involved or to tell the truth, he would never find justice. [SEASON 2 SPOILERS!] Finally, after weeks of committing to rehab from a mental breakdown, he goes back to school, only to come face-to-face with his bullies again. This time, he is raped with a mop. That night, he arms himself with guns and heads to the spring fling to shoot everything in the gym. His trigger was being raped, but Tyler was bullied for years before he snapped. - Betrayal
Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty — There are many different versions of Maleficent’s origin story, which you can see here, but we’re going to focus on the 2014 film Maleficent. Maleficent was a powerful, kind fairy who protected other fairies. At a young age, she met a boy named Philip — but not any boy—an actual human boy. Their friendship grew into love and they became inseparable. Eventually, a war was waged on the fairies by the king, and Maleficent had to protect everyone — nearly killing the king. She hadn’t seen Philip in years, until one day he showed up to see her again. Their romance blossomed literally overnight, but Philip had an ulterior motive. If he were to bring Maleficent’s wings to the king, then he would be crowned king. When Maleficent woke up the next morning, she writhed in pain as she realized her wings had been cut off her body. That was her trigger. - Obsession
Annie Wilkes, Misery — Annie is Paul Sheldon’s number-one fan. Paul writes romance novels, and Annie has read every single one. Imagine her luck when Paul drives his car off a snowy road and she’s there to save him. Both of Paul’s legs are broken, and lucky again — Annie is a nurse. But Annie has no desire to rush Paul to the hospital. Eventually, Annie’s mental instability and obsession with Paul’s books take a creepy turn: she abuses him, makes him burn his only hardcopy of his finished novel, and berates him. You can think of this situation as a, “If I can’t have him, no one can.” Paul must rewrite the novel so that it has an Annie-approved ending. Upon presenting it to her, he lights it on fire and she tries to kill him. Destroying the book was her trigger to kill him, but we may never know what her initial trigger was to murder other people (as seen in her scrapbook). - Money
Hector Barbossa, Pirates of the Caribbean — Longing to escape a life of poverty, he ran away from home aged 13 to pursue life as a sailor. At first, Barbossa wanted to be an honest sailor with the merchant marine, but seeing the grandeur of the captains’ cabins on the ships on which he served, he realized that a man from his station could never afford a lifestyle like that whilst remaining an honest sailor, choosing a life of piracy instead. What are pirates obsessed with? Money: gold, jewels, pearls, etc. Your antagonist can do what he does solely for money. Trigger: if I can’t earn my money, I’ll just take the money. - Love
Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd — In 1846, Benjamin Barker, a barber, arrives in London, accompanied by sailor Anthony Hope. Fifteen years earlier, he was falsely convicted and exiled by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who lusted after Barker’s wife Lucy. Barker adopts the alias “Sweeney Todd” and returns to his old Fleet Street shop, situated above Mrs. Nellie Lovett’s meat pie shop, where she sells the “worst pies in London”. Lovett tells him that Turpin raped Lucy, who then poisoned herself with arsenic. The couple’s daughter, Johanna, is now Turpin’s ward. Todd vows revenge, and re-opens his barber shop after Mrs. Lovett, who loves him unrequitedly, presents him with his old straight razors. (Learn more about the film here.) - Religion
Margaret White, Mom in Carrie — In every adaptation and portrayal of the character, she is the domineering and fanatically religious mother of Carrie White, who has the power of telekinesis, and thinks almost everything, especially related to the female body and sex, is sinful. Whenever Margaret believed that Carrie had sinned, or every time she went to school secretly, she’d throw her in a specially decorated closet to pray for forgiveness. While waiting for Carrie to come home from the prom, Margaret loses all contact with reality, hiding a butcher knife beneath the folds of her dress. Once Carrie arrives home, both are surprised to find out that they each intend to kill the other. Margaret attempts to stab Carrie in her shoulder. Carrie kills her mother by telekinetically slowing down her heart to a stop while Margaret recites the Lord’s Prayer. If a deity says do it, and the villain is a firm believer, they’ll do anything because God or a god/goddess said so. Look how many wars alone started over religion. (Learn more about the book here.) - Racism/Bigotry
Hilly Holbrook, The Help — Hilly clearly sees herself as a morally upstanding righteous member of Jackson, Mississippi; an area widely regarded for its civil rights issues in the 1960s. While Skeeter is out there trying to change the world for the better, Hilly is keeping Jackson in the dark ages by introducing her “Home Health Sanitation Initiative,” a program that would forbid the “colored help” from using the pristine toilets of their white employers. Hilly will not sit still until she has persuaded all of Jackson to submit to the idea of separate but equal living with the black and white people. What was the trigger for her to snap? Two words: poop pie. - No motive (this is tricky)
The Joker, The Dark Knight — “Some people just want to see the world burn.” A murderous, psychopathic criminal mastermind with a dark sense of humor who portrays himself as an “agent of chaos” and rises to power by terrorizing Gotham and plunging it into anarchy. Using “no motive” is hard to do. I would recommend having your antagonist have some control. Joker didn’t technically have a trigger—he just wanted to cause a lot of trouble. Didn’t care about money (he burned it), didn’t care about morality (blew up a hospital, made people want to blow each other up for laughs). It would be hard to keep a plotline steady with a chaotic character like the joker as a primary antagonist unless you’re really good.
3. Know Your Villain’s Truth
Fact: Villains don’t actually think they’re evil. A good antagonist thinks he is the hero.
They are real people with real problems. They have family and friends and needs and fears and wants just like we do.
Remember: Opposites are highly effective. If your hero is an alcoholic, make your villain a proponent of clean living. If your hero is a rational intellectual, make your antagonist an emotional zealot.
Evil is boring. Human motivations can make us empathize (but not like) with a character. Thanos (Marvel) truly believed he was saving people by reducing the population—it would allow civilizations to prosper with unstrained resources.
Empathy is powerful. Empathy is powerful. Empathy is powerful.
All villains are antagonists. But not all antagonists are villains. Rambo is the protagonist, Sheriff Teasle is the antagonist, but he’s not a bad guy. In Fugitive, Doctor Kimble is the protagonist, the Marshal is the antagonist, but not a villain.
Overpowered is lame. Give them a weakness, make them believable, but god-like is dull. They must have an advantage over the hero to drive conflict, but don’t be boring.
4. Root for the Villain
- Dracula — He’s a monster, but he had charisma and charm.
- Wile E. Coyote — He was just hungry.
- Loki—Seriously, everyone loves the God of Mischief.
- The Grinch — His small heart was not his fault.
- Frankenstein’s monster — He turns to his creator, Dr. Frankenstein, and tells him he never wanted to be born. He also desires to love someone and asks for a mate, which Dr. Frankenstein doesn’t do. Also, the monster is highly intelligent and even tried to rescue a girl who was drowning. Ultimately, Dr. Frankenstein is the true monster, but the reader is originally led to believe, through journals, that the creation is the monster.
- Hannibal Lecter — Enormously charming and charismatic. He has style and people find themselves rooting for him, despite knowing just how utterly evil he really is. The last line in Silence of the Lambs is, “I’m having an old friend for dinner.” You can’t help but chuckle and kind of hate yourself for it.
5. Interview the Antagonist
- How old is she? And how old is she mentally?
- Did she have a happy childhood? Why/why not?
- Past/present relationships? How did they affect her?
- What does she care about?
- What is she obsessed with?
- Biggest fear?
- What is the best thing that ever happened to her? The worst?
- Most embarrassing thing that ever happened to her?
- Biggest secret?
- What is the one word you would use to define her?
- Her house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving her loved ones/pets, she has time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why?
- Would she like to be famous? In what way?
- What is her most treasured memory?
- What is her idea of perfect happiness?
- What is the trait she most deplores in herself?
- What does she consider her greatest achievement?
- What was her trigger that led her down a bad path?
[This article was originally used to teach the members of the Yukon Writers’ Society. Oren Patterson has contributed to this article.]
An expert editor, seasoned writer, and author-centric marketer, Shayla Raquel works one-on-one with authors and business owners every day. A lifelong lover of books, she has edited over 300 books and has launched several Amazon bestsellers for her clients.
Her award-winning blog teaches new and established authors how to write, publish, and market their books.
She is the author of the Pre-Publishing Checklist, The Rotting (in Shivers in the Night), and her novel-in-progress, The Suicide Tree. She lives in Oklahoma with her two dogs, Chanel and Wednesday.
Excellent Sources:
https://blog.reedsy.com/character-development-exercises/
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/write-better-villains-5-ways-get-mind-psychopath
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/6-ways-to-write-better-bad-guys
