Villains For Your Story

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

952

Abstract

animal goes around eating people.For the purposes of this article, let’s stick with your villain being a person. The weather has no emotions, it simply is what it is.First off, don’t create a one-dimensional villain — no twirling of the moustache or maniacal laughter. To be a truly great villain, they can’t be bad simply for the sake of being bad. Each villain is the hero of his or her own story and believes that he or she is the good guy/girl.Ask yourself, why does the villain do what they do? They would have some means of justifying what they do. To borrow from the Dale Carnegie book, How To Win Friends And Influence People, “nobody ever blames themselves.”The back story for your character could be that he was bullied as a kid throughout school and wants to bully back, possibly sees that the only way to survive is to be the strong one who takes from the weaker p

Options

eople around.Another aspect of creating your villain is they must be at least as, if not more so (actually that’s preferable because it makes for a more engaging story) powerful than your hero. If you look at the original Star Wars movies, Darth Vader was far more powerful, at the beginning, than Luke Skywalker was. It would create a very boring story if your hero can defeat the villain as though it was nothing more than stomping on an ant.As in Star Wars, where Luke had to undergo training and work incredibly hard to eventually defeat Vader, make your hero go through hell in order to come out the winner.For more in-depth work into villainy, check out Sacha Black’s book on 13 Steps To Evil — <a href="https://amzn.to/3rZUm2T">https://amzn.to/3rZUm2T</a>. This link is an affiliate link and I will receive a small compensation should you purchase through it.</article></body>

Villains For Your Story

Some fiction writing tips

An earlier version of this article was posted on my website, ianworrallauthor.com

Another one of the most important parts of writing a great story is that you have to have a great villain. Someone or something that challenges the hero of your story and someone who has the power to defeat the hero. The villain doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. It could be the weather like in the movies, Twister or The Day After Tomorrow. Or an animal like in Jaws or any other movie or story where an animal goes around eating people.

For the purposes of this article, let’s stick with your villain being a person. The weather has no emotions, it simply is what it is.

First off, don’t create a one-dimensional villain — no twirling of the moustache or maniacal laughter. To be a truly great villain, they can’t be bad simply for the sake of being bad. Each villain is the hero of his or her own story and believes that he or she is the good guy/girl.

Ask yourself, why does the villain do what they do? They would have some means of justifying what they do. To borrow from the Dale Carnegie book, How To Win Friends And Influence People, “nobody ever blames themselves.”

The back story for your character could be that he was bullied as a kid throughout school and wants to bully back, possibly sees that the only way to survive is to be the strong one who takes from the weaker people around.

Another aspect of creating your villain is they must be at least as, if not more so (actually that’s preferable because it makes for a more engaging story) powerful than your hero. If you look at the original Star Wars movies, Darth Vader was far more powerful, at the beginning, than Luke Skywalker was. It would create a very boring story if your hero can defeat the villain as though it was nothing more than stomping on an ant.

As in Star Wars, where Luke had to undergo training and work incredibly hard to eventually defeat Vader, make your hero go through hell in order to come out the winner.

For more in-depth work into villainy, check out Sacha Black’s book on 13 Steps To Evil — https://amzn.to/3rZUm2T. This link is an affiliate link and I will receive a small compensation should you purchase through it.