“Unlock the Dark Psyche: 7 Secrets to Crafting Your Most Captivating Villain Yet!”
- Choose a model for your villain: an ordinary person, a celebrity, or a notorious criminal from the news; 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?
Most importantly, have fun! That’s what fiction writing is all about. Villains are the characters we love to hate because they are the harbingers of obstacles and challenges through which the heroes of our stories prove themselves. Whether you write absolute villains like Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter fame or more subtle, complex nemeses like Catwoman from the Batman comics, give your villains plenty of color, character, and complexity.
