Donald Trump! Boris Johnson! Jeremy Corbyn! Bolsonaro! Erdogan! Putin! The modern day baddies, at least to half the world. But to the other half? To their mothers? In this tutorial, we will explore how to develop a convincing villain in fiction, who is at least as believable as the real ones.

EXERCISE 1

Marie has run away from home, and is in hiding in a barn. She is 15 years old, has just discovered she is pregnant from the only time she has ever had sex. Her parents are religious fundamentalists.

Who is the villain?

Several possibilities.

The man who made her pregnant? Let’s think about him. Which is more believable:

1. A fifteen-year old boy who is in love with her;
2. Her 30 year-old teacher who seduced her in the classroom
3. Her father.

WHY ARE YOU ASSUMING THAT THE MAN WHO MADE HER PREGNANT IS A VILLAIN?

Levels of Hatred

Which of these would the reader hate most? Obviously we all have a Romeo-and Juliet- induced sympathy, if it’s 1. Aww, young lovers. How sweet.

If it’s 2, our ire is  immediately aroused. The shit. He took advantage of his position of power to seduce a young girl. Under age!

If it’s 3, another layer is added to our fury. Not only did he take advantage of his position of power, he used love as a weapon to fulfil his incestuous desires.

Now, what do we want to happen to each one of these?

Your answers please.

Do you realise that we, the readers, want revenge? The level and type of revenge escalates from 1 – 3, yes? Although as an ex teacher I would devise special tortures for number 2. Plot lines!

What if the villain is the girl? Why should we immediately assume she needs protection? Could you develop the scenario? Suggestion: She’s utterly without conscience or morals, hates her loving, religious parents, seduces a young man to get revenge and drive them crazy…runs away to give them nightmares…

Is there any way you could find a scenario which would excuse number 2 and number 3? Maybe number 2, if combined with the girl-as villain scenario above, but nothing could excuse number 3, right?

Personally, I will always see the girl in this situation as the victim – whether of her parents, upbringing or the men who prey on her. I have no sympathy with them.

PSYCHOPATHS, NARCISSISTS AND SOCIOPATHS

Welcome to the most popular trope of the 90’s all the way to the nownies.  A XPD villain operates  entirely without conscience, is incapable of empathy, is immensely calculating and therefore terrifying to those of us who are part of the approximately 80% of people who are not P, or N, or SPD. (Some experts put the number of people with PPD – Psychopathic Personality Disorder – at 25% of the population. They say that all the captains of industry, education, medicine and of course government are undiagnosed PPDs. I think they have conflated NPDs with PPDs. NPD – Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Or SPD – Sociopathic Personality Disorder…for detail, see https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/mindmelding/201301/what-is-psychopath-0

So yes, of course your villain could be totally BAD. BAD through and through, owing to a personality disorder which you, the writer have thoroughly researched – and used as a basis for the character’s actions and an excuse for not really thinking about emotional motivations. Obviously you do not go into any exposition or explanations, and certainly do not (unless called for in the plot) use any of the technical psychological terms. This gives you licence to have the villain commit utterly horrible acts without having to really explain them, except in purely mechanistic technical terms. The villain then becomes a mere plot device to allow you to fully explore your protagonist’s responses to the obstacles and the journey the villain has imposed on him or her.

EXERCISE 2

a) Which of the FOUR villains (if you accept that in Marie’s story, any of the 4 could be a villain) is most likely to be a psychopath, sociopath or narcissist? Why? (One paragraph)

b) Pick a villain in Game of Thrones who is a member of one of the tribes described above. Explain why you have made your diagnosis. See?

The lazy writer’s Paint your own Villain by Numbers. Or rather, letters.

EXERCISE 3

Study the stereotypical villain above, (which I photographed at the recent brilliant Van Gogh exhibition at the Tate. I forget if it’s by Van Gogh or a contemporary – anyone know?). Explain: WHY did he become a villain? IF he did?

THE UNLETTERED VILLAIN – MOTIVATION!

If your villain is not PPD NPD or SPD, you’re going to really have to explore MOTIVES. In the screenwriting game (I am writing a screenplay at the moment, so I am a little obsessed with film) your villain has to be a 360 degree character, whose physical appearance either complements or entirely contradicts his/her character. Marvel villains are usually sheer black-and white, although the X-Men series has far more subtle tones. The villains in the DC Universe are much, much more obvious. See my previous blog: Character. http://jonelkon.com/part-5-who-creating-believable-characters/

Here’s a very good blog on movie villains https://filmschoolrejects.com/villain-motivations/ and their motivations.

As a novelist, you have a very different job. You have a fantastic advantage over the writer of a villain depicted on screen – you can, should you wish, share  his or her thoughts with your reader. Yes I know, movies have v/o – voice over. But it’s really terribly unfashionable these days. and in the old cliche, adapted for this purpose, the pictures in the mind of the reader are so much better than the pictures on a screen.

So what sort of motives turn a person bad?  Here’s a partial list:

Let’s start with the seven deadly sins! (Links to Wiki)    pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth,

But there are more, of course!

A nasty childhood

Injury, mental or physical

Perceived injury mental or physical

Emotional instability

until we reach the most common: Revenge.

EXERCISE 4:

Pick one of the characters in our saga. Can you ascribe one or more of the motivations above to that character? Write a paragraph saying which, and why!

SAVE THE CAT

As I explained in a previous blog, every human character has to be human! So always show that even a villain has a human side – unless he or she is XPD! (Do you know why people whose partners are XPD stay with them? Despite being controlled, stalked, maybe even beaten? Listen as they say, tears in their eyes – “Only I know the REAL – insert name here – I’ve seen his/her weaker side!”) So always give your villain a soft side; or a reason for being nasty. Not an excuse! Because otherwise you haven’t created a villain, you’ve made a cardboard cutout. See the excellent https://www.amazon.co.uk/Save-Cat-Only-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009 Gary Snyder’s Save the Cat.

That’s the secret, right there. A villain who could not be admired and loved by someone, if only his or her mother, is not a believable character. Your reader has to have either a trace of sympathy, our complete contempt. The most powerful villains (Heathcliff!) have a side one can sympathise with, or even love.

In my books Umfaan’s Heroes and Laszlo’s Millions, the Brigadier is a perfect example! My latest novel (in progress. Working title: Ragazzo!) has a hero who is a villain. It’s not his fault!

If you’ve got it, you may as well just go ahead and write your book or story or film…

SUMMARY and CHECKLIST

1. Decide: PD or No PD? If no –
2. Motive/s: Pick from list above
3. Human side: Find soft side
4. Decide on final fate!
5. Fit into plot….

FINAL EXERCISE

Using the Marie story above, write a Short Story of around 2,000 words based on all the elements you’ve developed so far.

There will be a SET OF THREE OF MY SIGNED AND DEDICATED NOVELS for the best one submitted to jonelkon3@gmail.com – use subject Marie

NEXT TIME

How to write SEX! The next blog in my monthly series will adequate explain why I’ve never quite succeeded at writing good sex! ….could it be because I never had any good sex? Naaaaaah!

Remember: I am always happy to give advice and help, especially to new writers. Free, natch!