How to write villains!

This is a topic I had a lot of fun looking into!

To start off, there's a difference between a villain and an antagonist. An antagonist is simply the one who stops the forward progress of your lead character.

Now a villain can be your protagonist or your antagonist. A villain is simply the one the book paints as having bad morals or bad methods to achieve said morals that are seen as evil. So a villain is always an antagonist, but an antagonist isn't always a villain.

Today we're talking about how you can make a memorable villain for your story! So lets jump right in!

Your villain is a character too

A lot of times, writers will have the villain as just being evil and nothing else. They need to have more substance. And I don't just mean giving them motivation. Even though that's a very important part of it, they still have to be a character. Your villain can be evil for sure, but they should have quirks and an image outside of just being evil. A few examples I'd like to use here are from two shows that I've seen.

Toffee from "Star vs the forces of evil"

Now toffee is a well written villain. His main point in the story is revenge, but he's written as a very proper calm and collected character as well. Having such a calm demeanor and showing how intensively he makes plans shows how much more intelligent he is than the protagonist. He's always nicely dressed and carries himself in a businesslike manner. We know he likes to have everything organized and doesn't like cushions on his seat because he's an adult. He doesn't like his clothes to be dirty or have too many wrinkles so he keeps a mannequin for his suit in his office. We also know he carries around business cards and has a low tolerance for others that don't listen to him. These small parts of his character is what makes him so well received.

He didn't even harm other characters unless they refused to get out of his way. His plans get so close to working each time, the fans keep watching to see when he'll finally win. What's more, only a part of his history is fully revealed. But it's just enough where you know his motivations, yet he's still mysterious and threatening.

Monokuma from "Dangan Ronpa (Trigger happy despair)"

Now monokuma is probably on the completely opposite spectrum from toffee. He's just as evil and ten times more sadistic, but I love this villain. The reason why? He's hilarious. This deranged teddy bear has trapped all these kids in a school and is forcing them to kill each other, but he still has time to make innuendo jokes and have a happy go lucky personality during the whole thing. He constantly teases the characters into thinking they have a chance. Just when they think they have a one up on him, he dangles victory in front of their faces just to pull the rug from under them when they get close. It's a GAME to him. And that's expressed though his personality and actions. (Making you kind of have fun with the whole thing yourself.)

We know he enjoys the things they do for TV ratings and even encourages motives for the students to kill one another. He even encourages romance for the sake of making the deaths more devastating, because deep down he's an entertainer. He also likes sweets and likes the occasional martini when addressing the students. But despite all of this, he is extremely strict on his rules. He still carries himself as a principle and will even go so far as to kill anyone who doesn't follow the rules himself to ensure that everything has a hierarchy of order in the academy.

There are other great examples out there, but these villains feel so genuine because of the fact you still see them as characters with personality and voice, not just bad guys.

Avoid "pure evil"

If your book isn't horror, you should avoid any villains that are pure evil. Because making a villain pure evil is the easy way out. You'll never have readers rooting for a black hearted fully vile villain. (Unless your main character is insufferable.) Now I'm not saying they have to have a cat named Fluffles or do charity work on weekends, but you should give them their own set of morals. If your villain is human, they will more than likely have a code they live by or certain standards they hold themselves to in order to achieve their evil scheme.

For example: Let's say your villain wants to take over the world. That's a good start, but why do they want to do that? They could want to make the world anew because they believe people don't appreciate it. But you should go a bit further than that. You can try to have you villain think people take the world for granted because their family died after a plague swept their country. Then later find out the sickness was caused by a big wig company of resources cut corners and letting toxic waste get dumped in drinking water so they could save money.

Now that's PLENTY of reason to want to take power away from people in charge. It makes your character a bit more sympathetic. It doesn't make what your villain is doing right, but it makes the readers think: "well I understand where they're coming from."

This is important for the final confrontation of the main character and the main villain where their morals and ideals collide. It makes it harder for the reader to pick a side. And when the reader is conflicted, that means they care and your story is more likely to be memorable. Wether the motivation is greed, hatred or fear, your villain has a reason behind their scheme.

Hidden villains

A lot of villains in fiction are only talked about for most of the story but are never actually seen until you get close to the end. Now there's nothing wrong with doing this. But one thing you have to do if this is the case, is give them henchmen. Make sure their presence is known through their minions so that the villain still has an active role in interfering with your protagonist.

For example: If the identity of the main villain is a big plot twist reveal, they still need to actively affect the story. Let's say the villain is trying to kill your protagonist and they send assassins after them each time. Each assassin more deadly then the last. It'll make your characters and readers think: " what kind of person has the kind of influence and power to hire these types of people?" If your villains minions are super weak and the protagonist can beat them super easily, then your villain won't be taken very seriously and will just be a joke.

Now this isn't as hard as it might sound. But the villain has to feel like a threat and demonstrate their influence as a bad guy. A big trap many writers fall into, is only describing how bad the villain is without the villain ever actually taking any action towards the plot. This is what makes henchmen important, but they also shouldn't be used as a crutch. Especially if the goons are bad at their job. If your villains henchmen keep failing, why does the villain keep them around? Your villain could have new goons attack your protagonist each time because the ones that go back empty handed the villain gets rid of. Or maybe the goons get more and more desperate because they know if they go back empty handed they WILL die and their plans get more and more extreme. And it doesn't have to just be with people. Your main characters could be hiding out in a building from the villain. When the villain finds out where they stay, they don't just burn the building down. They burn down the WHOLE town as punishment for the civilians hiding them. Show how ruthless your bad guy is through their henchmen and what happens to them, as well as the setting around the characters when they interfere with the plot.

Overall, the presence of the villain should still be in the story even if your big bad guy isn't in a lot of scenes. Just be sure that when they are in a scene, they do something and the effects of what they do can be seen later on when they aren't around. Having that looming feeling over the readers and characters makes your villains all the more malicious and intimidating.

That concludes the post on writing villains! I hope you found it helpful! Did you like it? Not like it? Have things to add? Leave a comment below!