Villain: 1. A person guilty or capable of a crime or wickedness. 2. The person or thing responsible for specified trouble, harm, or damage: "the industrialized nations are the real villains".
As long as I was writing about heroes and heroines, I figured I should add in another very important aspect of many stories-- the villain. Villains or the book's enemy provide an important psychological element to the story, but do not have to be a person. Life itself can be the enemy, or as the definition above states-- the collective nature of one cultural element. What I am writing about here though is-- the villain.
As long as I was writing about heroes and heroines, I figured I should add in another very important aspect of many stories-- the villain. Villains or the book's enemy provide an important psychological element to the story, but do not have to be a person. Life itself can be the enemy, or as the definition above states-- the collective nature of one cultural element. What I am writing about here though is-- the villain.
There was a time in books and entertainment when a villain would immediately look like a villain. This kind of thing has proven very handy for real villains-- as real villains do not come in identifiable packages. Not only are looks not a dependable criteria for who is a villain, but sometimes neither, in the beginning, is behavior-- hence was born the anti-hero. Sounds like villain but in the end is heroic.
Where it comes to the real deal for villains (fictionally anyway), I find them a lot of fun to write. The story can have more than one. When there is a human enemy, it is important that he or she be convincing, a worthy opponent, with reasons for what they do-- even if the reason is pathological or psychotic. The victory cannot be forced; so the hero must have the tools in his persona to succeed.
I don't think a writer should ever insert a hero just for drama or to let the hero/heroine be heroic. A good villain is not inserted just for manipulation. Think of that villain as a real person and it gets easier to think why they might do despicable things. That does not mean the reader should sympathize with them. They might but it's not important. What is important is genuine motivation. Villains are not place holders. They are an important part of the drama of a story.
In some stories, the enemy is within the main protagonists and it's that which it must overcome. One way or another a struggle is a part of most interesting books.
When I got into the stock images, I began looking for possible human type villains as a part of doing trailers-- these people are unlikely to ever appear on a cover but they are excellent in a trailer.
When I found photos that fit my book descriptions, I would generally feel a bit apologetic for buying them for this purpose. I am sure these are very nice people. They don't really look like someone I'd identify as a villain in real life. That's the key advantage in a villain, of course. They don't look like one.
Think of some of the most despicable serial killers-- the one that comes to my mind immediately is Ted Bundy. He was handsome. His ruthlessness was hidden until he had a victim helpless. The fact that we think a villain will look like one is part of what enables some of the most vicious of humans to be successful. They are the ones who the neighbors say they had no idea. Or they undermine families using emotional violence while getting sympathy for themselves. Someone in real life who looked like a villain would be easy to identify and avoid. It's when they don't that their risks to us all increase.
In writing a book generally I use two points of view-- hero and heroine. In one book I used only the heroine's perspective because I wanted the reader to wonder about the hero. If they had known his thinking, they'd have been certain of his nature sooner than I intended. To carry some parts of that plot, where the heroine would not be going, I used the villain's point of view. I have also done that now and again because I enjoyed writing these bad guys.
Dialogue between that hero and villain in Evening Star was a lot of fun to write and revealed more about the hero, things the heroine would not be able to observe. That villain was a crime boss, not psychotic. He was sane but a user of people for his own ends, and totally amoral in every area of life.
For one of my trailers with a villain, check out Desert Inferno. This was a guy I enjoyed writing for some of his quirks. The hero is someone I enjoyed for other reasons. I don't have favorites really because each is a favorite when writing the story-- but this guy, I really loved.
