{"id":488699,"date":"2022-03-15T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?p=488699"},"modified":"2023-01-13T12:05:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T12:05:23","slug":"traits-of-a-well-written-villain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/traits-of-a-well-written-villain\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write The Perfect Villain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Literary villains<\/a> are characters that readers love to hate. In fact, in many cases, well-written villains are so compelling that they can even overshadow the hero or heroine<\/a> of the story, with personality types that are much more memorable than the detective or superhero<\/a> that hunts them down and eventually brings them to justice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a think about the following well-known villains: Darth Vader, Voldemort, Hannibal Lecter and Count Dracula.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is it that makes all these characters<\/a> stand out?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is that makes readers almost root for their victory? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well in this article I\u2019m going to discuss the key character traits of a villain, explore a handful of literary villains that have gone down in history and finally, give you some tips to bring your villain to life on the page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Makes A Good Villain? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most important thing to note is that villains should not be created any differently to the other protagonists in your novel. They may have done the unthinkable. Their crimes may be highly unrelatable. But they are still multi-faceted, complex people with vulnerabilities, motivations and needs, no different to anyone else.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reader\u2019s enjoyment of a novel very much depends on whether they can relate to, sympathise with and even root for all the characters<\/a> in the novel. This is easy to do when a character is immediately likeable, courageous or an underdog (because everybody loves an underdog!), but even a villain needs to be relatable in some way, and sometimes even likeable \u2013 whether the reader will want to admit it or not!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to writing a good villain is backstory, vulnerability and motivation<\/a>. There is nothing worse than reading about a villain carrying out a series of heinous crimes with no explanation as to why they acted that way. Every villain will have suffered at some point in their past. Every villain will have been a victim. This is essential backstory to garnering sympathy<\/a> from the reader and ultimately enhancing your story.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another key to writing a good villain is character. Your villain is not just the crimes they commit. They will need their own set of idiosyncrasies and personality traits, completely independent of their crimes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s explore some of the characteristics of believable villains.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Characteristics Of Believable Villains<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are five key characteristics of believable villains that you can use as a checklist while creating your own.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backstory. <\/strong>As we\u2019ve explored briefly above, every villain needs a backstory that provides an explanation<\/a> for their villainous behaviour. Think about the backstory of the most well-known villains. Darth Vader. Count Dracula. Most of them started out as relatively good people. But it was something in their past, some sort of suffering that led them down a dark path.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complexity of character. <\/strong>A villain who is nothing but their crimes, is not a villain your reader will care about. In creating your villain think about who they are as a person. Their likes and dislikes. Their wide range of emotions. Their body language. Their motivations<\/a>. Some villains may be sarcastic and self-deprecating, with a limited sense of empathy, whereas others may possess a notable sense of humour (though a deeply twisted one).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capacity for evil. <\/strong>This may not be the case for all villains. Some may carry out horrific actions because they have no choice. Others may experience regret or guilt. But some villains are created as pure evil, with the willingness to do bad things and feel nothing. Think of Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones<\/em>, who is effectively a serial killer who showed no remorse for his actions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justification. <\/strong>As mentioned above, some villains are not pure evil. They may carry out evil but only do so from a perspective of personal righteousness. These villains are otherwise known as the anti-hero<\/a> of their story, a sympathetic villain who garners immediate sympathy from the reader as their story is told wholly from their own point of view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special skill that sets them apart. <\/strong>This is another key trait that your villain may or may not possess. There are a few examples that immediately come to mind. Jason Bateman\u2019s character in Ozark <\/em>with his defining feature as a mathematical genius and Hannibal Lecter, who as well being a cannibal, is also a brilliant psychologist, which is largely what makes him so compelling.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other common characteristics that you can play with to make your villain an authentic, relatable, three-dimensional person, such as:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n