Week 4: Creating Useful Bad Guys and Villains
Chapter 13 and 14
Villains are so much fun to write. One of my favorite characters in my
writing to date is an evil mother in law. Writing any scene with her is
fun. Hearing readers reactions to her are fun. She brings out strong
emotions: hate, loathing, dislike etc.
Villains must be handled and developed properly. There are a number of
different types of villains, and the worksheet below will help you
develop your villain more completely. You need to make your villain
interesting, not just mean or bad. Villain should not be stereotypical.
If they are, he or she won’t have the impact you want. A villain which
is too weird or too far out in left field may create laughter instead of
fear or dread. Your first step is to understand the types of villains.
You Don’t Have to Have a Villain At All
Your conflict will come from another source, such as:
- wrongheadedness
- moral dilemmas
- human confusion
- incompatible goals of normal characters
A villain is “a character who from motives of selfish gain knowingly
seeks to injure, kill or loot another person (or character)
The Five Types of Villains
- The Accidental Villain
 | he doesn’t set out to be a villain or do anything wrong
| | uncontrollable weaknesses cause him to do wrong things
| | he may regret his actions and it may or may not destroy him
| | How you must set this up
- set up the fatal flaw early
- don’t let the flaw be the only thing about the character that stands
out
- keep his reactions to his deeds consistent, don’t let him flim flam
about his guilt
- if stupidity led him to this point, he must continue to act stupid
| | Keep your villain consistent |
- The Examined Villain
- he intends to be a villain and plans his actions
- make the reader see who his is and why he acts this way
- How to Set this up
 | Make the villain the POV character
| | If he is stereotypical, you’ll have to work twice as hard to create
him, make him stand out
| | Find traits that will withstand scrutiny from the reader
| | Make the detailed realistic in your story
| | Give a justification of why the villain acted this way |
- The Surprise Villain
- the reader didn’t see his evil deeds until further into the story
- How to set this up
| the surprise villain cannot be the POV character
| | Make subtle hints within the story but don’t come right out and tell
us
| | There must be a positive and negative side to this and they have to
be plausible |
- Standard Villain
- he is an unrepentant, bad guy who deliberately makes life hard for the
good guys
- these can easily be over the top characters – dressed all in black,
big powerful weapons,
and the most colorful personalities – he needs to be unique in some way
- He does not need a detailed background etc, he’s a sideshow
- How to set this up
| stretch your imagination
| | use factual details around your villain
| | have fun with your villain |
- Standard Villains – Part 2
| they are mundane and they can ruin lives without being interesting or
colorful
| | apply all the guidelines listed except over the top to create this
villain |
A successful antagonist requires just as much work as a successful
protagonist. So put a lot of thought and effort into your bad guys. The
more effort, the more your reader will appreciate it. Create the details
of their appearance, dialogue, attitudes, hopes, fears, mannerisms,
background and so on. Do you know him well enough to write his side of
the story? You will need to be able to. The more you understand the
villain, the more realistic he will be.
Assignment (Pick either this assignment or the one listed below.)
Pick one type of villain and show him or her to the class. See if they
can pick out which type and why. If the responses do not match your
goals, re-evaluate and see where the description may have fallen short.
There have been people who don’t want a villain or bad guy in their
story. Keep in mind that conflict is necessary to keep an editor or
reader interested. Bad guys add a wonderful sense of conflict. What is
you have a person who happens to be self centered or unintentionally
thoughtless? They may not mean to be this way, but they can be your bad
guy. Play around with the possibilities and have fun. Your assignment
should be around 500 words.
Chapter 14 – An Unsympathetic Protagonist
Unsympathetic protagonists can be very hard to manage. He will usually
require more fleshing out and this can include different techniques. You
have to ask yourself if you want to create a protagonist that your
reader will NOT like.
He may be tedious, but not evil. The readers will react differently and
many won’t want to read about someone they don’t like. Others will be
intrigued by the character. Either way, you will most likely limit your
audience. Many readers want to identify in some way with your
protagonist and this is more difficult with this type of character.
You must figure out what type of audience you are writing for. The
literary market is more accepting of an unsympathetic protagonist. On
the other hand, the commercial market is not. So, if you are writing a
commercial book, you would probably do well to avoid the unsympathetic
protagonist.
One way to make this more acceptable is to make another person you POV
character. This way the reader is seeing the unsympathetic character
through someone else’s eyes. This will also keep your reader out of this
character’s mind, which will work in your favor.
You must be sure your character isn’t too bad or nasty to be believed.
If so, it’s a good idea to show why the character is this way. Make them
more believable.
Do you plan to make your character sympathetic by the end of the book?
If so, you must build up to it and make it plausible. A sudden
personality change for no reason will not sit well with the reader.
Maybe you plan to make this a story where the bad person gets what they
deserve. Again, you need to set this up. Otherwise it could seem
unrealistic or preachy. You want to avoid both options. This goes along
with not trying to beat your reader over the head with a moral.
Overall, you must be very careful how you handle an unsympathetic
protagonist. If you are thinking seriously about using this type of
character, please read chapter 14 carefully in its entirety.
Assignment
Create an unsympathetic protagonist and see how your classmates respond.
If the response is extremely negative, ask them to explain why. This
feedback will be invaluable in helping you create the character
properly. Keep your post to about 500 words.
**** NOTE: You only need to do one of the assignments. Pick either the
villain or protagonist exercise.
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