How To Write A Villain

Having a real, believable, villain in your story can make a huge difference. Readers are no longer satisfied by the dull ‘bad guys’ who wanted to kill everyone because they felt like it.

Readers want memorable antagonists, full of character and believable reasons to their choices.

In this post I will go through what a villain is and the points you need to think about in order to write one.

What is a Villain?

A villain is the opposite of a hero. They are the antagonist of your story, and their actions and motivations oppose the protagonist which drives the plot of your story.

Motivation

This is one of the main things that can turn your villain from bland to amazing!

Everyone has their own motivations to why they do something. Such as: success, money, power, revenge, etc. Your villain is no different, and they should have very strong motivations behind what they are doing.

If someone was to ask them “why?” they need an answer, and a good one.

When thinking of their motivation, take into consideration their backstory, traits, flaws and desires. It will all link together to make motivation.

Proactivity

Villains always start the story ahead of the game. They have power and control, and do everything to keep and strengthen it.

Protagonists start the story just trying to keep up with what is going on. But antagonists are actively doing everything they can to achieve their goals.

Villains are always on the move and doing something to further their success. Keep this in mind when writing your villain.

Power

Power can be anything: physical strength, intelligence, political capital, magical abilities, social pull, money, etc.

Villains crave power, but they will have a fair bit already from the start of the story.

When choosing the power, it should be directly suited to hurt your protagonists or prevent them from reaching their goal.

Keep in mind that the amount of power your villain has will have an effect on the length of your story and how realistic it is for your hero to go against them.

Even in fantasy novels, these things must be realistic. For example, a teenager with no talents or training can’t take down the greatest warlock ever known. They would need time to train, learn and grow.

When writing your villain keep it realistic to how powerful they are and how long you want your story to be.

Morality

Everyone has different levels of morals, knowing what is good and bad, and to what degree. Such as seeing murder as very bad, and helping an old lady cross the road as good. But some people will have very different views.

Give your villain their own set of skewed morals that differ to the ones of the reader. But make their morals clear.

Also remember, to the villain, they will often see themselves as the hero.

Tragedy

Think about what drove your villain to this point. Tragedy is one of the biggest things that can push someone to become a villain. What caused them to snap? These are the moments that make someone a hero or a villain.

Tragedy is a great way to humanise your villain, so we can see why they do what they do and even sometimes feel sorry for them.

Empathy

This one is optional as adding empathy doesn’t always work for a villain.

However, adding empathy can make readers start rooting for the villain.

To make this work they need a really compelling backstory. The readers need to know what happened to them, and why they chose to be a villain rather than a hero. Was it a realistic choice? Do they have any redeeming qualities?

Sacrifice, determination, conviction, and pain make it easy for us to empathise with a villain.

Conclusion

Consider all of these points when writing your villain, as they will help you to write a more convincing and realistic antagonist, and make sure you include why your villain does what they do.

If you have any other ways to write a villain do leave them in the comments below.

Thank you for reading!