by Joan Swan, @joanswan
Villains are people too.
Memorable, compelling characters—that’s what good fiction boils down to. And, yes, this includes your villains.
Your villain was an innocent child once. What changed? Why did it change? And most importantly, most revealing…how did he change in reaction to those events?
The challenges we face throughout life and how we respond to them shape the internal landscapes of each of us–in both good and bad ways. Which means your villain has both good and bad qualities.
No one is bad all the time. Villains need positive traits, too. Traits that make him sympathetic to the reader. Traits that allow the reader to empathize, maybe even identify with the villain in a small way. Understand how he became what he had become, because if a reader can’t relate to your villain in any way, they will be disconnect and less invested in your story’s outcome.
For the sake of example, let’s say your villain’s father was oppressive.
That one element could create a variety of negative issues for your villain:
- Maybe…the lack of all control made him crave it once he broke out on his own
- Maybe…he developed a hatred of certain types of men
- Maybe…he developed a hatred for women who allow men to dominate…or maybe he developed a preference for passive women…or maybe he prefers the dominatrix
- Maybe…he developed a hatred for women who allow their children to be mentally abused
- Maybe…he developed a fetish, something that gave him pleasure or allowed him to escape the domination
- Maybe…he mirrored his father’s negative trait with his peers—became a bully, a gang leader…or maybe the opposite. Maybe he feared control and became a follower (note: this isn’t a strong villainous trait, but might be a tendency he has, which would create great inner conflict.)
To illustrate how the same situation could produce positive qualities depending on the person, let’s take the examples above and turn them around.
The same villain, the same oppressive father. How did that affect your villain in a positive way?
- Maybe…the lack of control made him empathetic to others who lack control
- Maybe…he learned the right and wrong way to wield control
- Maybe…he learned to empathize with women who’d been in a controlling relationship
- Maybe…that fetish he developed was writing about controlling fathers who always die a horrible death. (We all know writing is a fetish. :-)).
Your villain’s unique personality—why will your readers remember him?
Like all characters, your villain’s distinctive qualities should evolve organically. In other words, his uniqueness should stem from the way he reacted and internalized lifetime events (as shown above.)
There are as many reactions to a particular hardship as there are people on earth. We all know or have heard of a family—same parents, same home, same school, equal treatment—where two of the kids turn out successful, compassionate, well-adjusted, and one who turns out a repeat failure, selfish, a social reject.
Every living person is unique—thoughts, behaviors, preferences, dispositions, wants, dreams.
Apply that concept to your villain and watch him puff from a cardboard cutout into a living, breathing bad guy.
How do you add dimension to your villains? What author do you feel does a stellar job of crafting villains?
Giveaway:
· A print copy of FEVER, US/Canada shipping.
· All comments are eligible for tour grand prize of either a COLOR NOOK or KINDLE FIRE. Enter: http://joanswan.com/giveaways/blog-tour-ereader/
Joan Swan is a triple RWA® Golden Heart finalist and writes sexy romantic suspense with a paranormal twist. Her debut novel with Kensington Brava, FEVER, released February 28, 2012. Her second novel, BLAZE, follows in October,2012.
In her day job, she works as a sonographer for one of the top ten medical facilities in the nation and lives on the California central coast in beautiful wine country with her husband and two daughters.
I love this! I just had a great idea for a personified version of my villian. I’m working with the idea of change being the antagonist, and my character is really fighting against that, but I had a great idea of how one of the male characters can represent that as well. I’m in my first draft of my first WIP so who knows! Thanks for the great article!
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Joan.
Joan – Thanks for the helpful insights about turning villains into interesting characters. As you say, they are people. Readers will find a novel much more interesting if they can understand the villain’s character as well as that of the “good guy.”
Hi Joan,
I really enjoyed this post. Thank you! I think author Tana French is skilled in creating compelling “villains.” In her book The Likeness, you find yourself feeling sorry for her “bad guys.” She also does a good job with her heroes – they have their own share of flaws and past shadows.
Thank you to Elizabeth for hosting this post. :)
Thanks so much for guest blogging for me today, Joan! I love your tips for bringing our villains to life instead of having them be sort of comic book cut-outs. Nice tips!
In children’s writing, J.K. Rowling crafts fantastic villains (actually she’s an all-around master character developer). Dolores Umbridge is one of the best villains and of course Voldemort. Book 6 is terrific in delving into Voldemort’s past and how he came to be so evil.
Roald Dahl is another children’s author who knows how to craft a nasty villain.
In adult literature Stephen King is great at crafting villains (Flagg from The Eyes of the Dragon is one of my favorites). And I’d have to say, though the Stephanie Plum series is light and fun and fluff, Janet Evanovich creates some scary villains in that series. Many are silly, but a few stand out as being especially creepy.
Great post, Joan! Considering a villain’s past is so important. Have a great weekend, Joan and Elizabeth!
This is the stuff I love – giving detailed backgrounds to characters to show what went wrong when. My books don’t have villains, but I do have a couple really damaged characters and their actions reflect that.
Usually on my second pass of a story I have to take a hard look at the villain in my story and ask myself some of the questions you have in your post to make him more believable. It’s all to easy to leave them 2-dimensional in a first draft but subsequent ones I’m trying to figure out those human qualities that are so important.
Hi Candace! How fun! I love the power and twist an outside element can create for characters. If you were to mirror that within another character it could be very powerful and interesting. Good luck!
Thanks for having me Elizabeth! Villains have been challenging for me from day one, so I’ve had to work extra hard to develop worthy adversaries for my heroes and heroines.
Hi Margot! So true. I like to see heroes and heroines on a positive character arc and villains on a negative character arc. I’ve known people like this – hellbent on spiraling downward in their lives as if this was a good thing. This is how I see villains, on their own downward spiral as if the negative was their goal.
Laura,
Great examples! Rowling’s villains are absolutely fabulous! And I agree that Evanovich’s characters are very creepy. What they do is sometimes portrayed as silly, but in a very villainous way, which makes them so realistic because real criminals are soooo stupid — mostly.
Hi Tracy!
I started the Likeness, love Tana writing. I am entranced with stories that bring the heroes closer to the villain with their past shadows and/or indiscretions and the villains closer to the heroes with their motivation for misdeeds. It creates conflict not only within the story, but within the reader — which makes the reader that much more invested and ensures they must read on. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Keeping your reader, reading?
Hi Diane,
I just read a recent tip from Donald Maass — he gives writing tips on twitter under @DonMaass if you’re interested — but one was (paraphrased) ~ Think of a side of human nature that is ugly and difficult to acknowledge. ~ Now give your character that trait.
It’s difficult to give characters unpleasant traits, but it makes them real.
I recently caught (and continue to catch) flack for this in one of my very real antagonists in FEVER. But as Maass (and my CP) so astutely point out — it’s hard to get anywhere writing safe.
Push the envelop by writing real characters.
Hi Bluestocking! I agree, it’s so very easy to leave villains flat because it’s HARD to get into the mind of a villain for the normal good person. It’s uncomfortable. It’s ugly.
On the flip side, when you do it well, it also elicits the same emotions in the reader. That can be good and…challenging.
In the end, the author has to be the one to decide what comfort level they’re ready for.
Still flushing out the villian in my WIP * Pauses to chase a pup with her broom. *
Authors who done a stellar job with villians. Mercedes Lackey! The villian in her Arrow’s books really gets one involved. What he had done to Talia and then Kris. I bawled and wanted to burn him myself.
Sherrilyn Kenyon does too.
No need to enter me for Fever
<3 <3 Joan
I loved this post. It is often hard to imagine that some villains were once innocent children. Thinking about that I can now see how you can get such depth out of them. I’ve always just thought of them as nasty being but now I’ll look at them with more open eyes. Thanks.
vsloboda(at)gmail(dot0)com
In my first stories, my villains were plastic – no fun at all. Now, they’re getting more complex, more real. I’m still working at it :) Fever looks like a lot of fun!
I’ve never written a villain. Since this is the second post I’ve read in the last five minutes about villains, I’m taking the hint.
Ooo, Rachel – now there’s one *I* haven’t read! You can start torturing me!!
Hi Victoria,
Glad you liked the post! It does give you a whole different view of them doesn’t it? I sometimes look at perfect cherub babies and wonder…who will grow up to be a serial killer? Cause…well…someone has to, right? yeah, I’ll admit to being … a little off.
LOL, Alex…the universe is telling you something!
Loved your guest post about villains Joan. I love how Stephen King portrays his villains. His villains can be truly terrifying which, to me, is the mark of a brilliant writer. Any author who can elicit emotions from their readers, in my opinion, is a PHENOMENAL writer.
skyla11377(At)AOL(Dot)Com
Don’t tell anybody, but I think I’m a closet villain. I inwardly (if I’m with others) cheer for the villains in movies and (if am with others) do it with a gleem in my eye. I care. :)
Great article, Joan. I need to work on making my characters more rounded, more um–people like.
Thanks, Elizabeth, for hosting.
Hi Skyla!!
Wow, in light of the emotional comments over one of FEVER’s antagonists, that is an awesome thing to hear. I absolutely agree, but as a writer, I understand the reasoning behind it. I love hearing from a reader who truly understands that concept!
Kudos girlie!!
Hi Jemi,
Mine were the same. It’s taken me a very long time and a lot of work to get my villains to pop, and I still don’t feel they’re as good as they could be.
It’s always good to strive for growth.
**gasp** Journaling Woman…
A closet villain — I’m so totally intrigued!! *whispering* I think there’s a book in there somewhere!
I don’t usually like villains, but I think your post helped understand how the author can get a reader to relate to them. Their behavior and actions definitely are somewhat acceptable to the reader if they can empathize with them. The author that I think does a good job at villains is Kresley Cole. Most recently, I read Lothaire and from reading about him here and there in previous books, he was NOT a like able character at all. But somehow, she made him seem like a man instead of an unfeeling, uncaring vampire. I agree with Skyla! When the villain makes me feel scared or worried for the characters, it is the work of a great writer! Thanks.
Great points Tina! I haven’t read Krelsey, but this definitely interests me!!
Tanks so much for the post, Joan. It was very insightful. I think, as a reader, it is very easy to overlook all of the thought that goes into creating a book and what a long, well-planned process it actually is. I actually commented on the “villains” in Fever when I reviewed it. This is part of it:
“But I also wonder what occurred that made Jocelyn such a cold-hearted bitch. She clearly has an ax to grind. The question remains whether the ax is hers personally, or simply her carrying out the best interests of the Senator.”
While I didn’t have enough information to be able to identify with this character, I was extremely curious about her. I hope we find out more about her in the following book(s).
Please do not enter me as I already have a copy of the book. Best of luck to those entering. This book is wonderful!
Kendra
Great post! Looking forward to reading more.