4 Tantalizing Tips for Creating a Compelling Villain

   

Villain, adversary, or antagonist. Call them what you will, but your story will most likely have a bad guy. If it doesn't, does anyone want to read it...? This is the primary opposition for the protagonist. Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker. Goldfinger to James Bond. You know them, you love to hate them. No good story is complete without them. In some cases, they are even more popular than the protagonist.

It can be noted here that antagonist might not be a sentient being. It can be a political entity (socialism), a force of nature (hurricane, genetically engineered dinosaurs), and even a personality trait (narcissism).

Getting the antagonist right is a big part of making a story successful with the readers. These tips are just the tip of the iceberg in building a compelling villain. I'll probably do another related list soon because there are so many more. 

TIP 1: Stick the Entrance Landing

The entrance or introduction of your big bad must be impactful. It has to convey to the readers that this is the antagonist and establish their malice or motivations. Think Darth Vader in Star Wars a New Hope or Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark. When Vader lifts the rebel trooper up and chokes him with one arm, you just know. Belloq is more of a cerebral villain, a competitor of Indy's that they establish as someone who seems to always get one up on him.

TIP 2: Bad Guys Based on Reality

Modelling a villain based on someone from reality can be the best way to bring them to life in the reader's mind. Everyone knows Hitler, and apparently everyone who says something people disagree with is like Hitler these days. SO, making a villain with imperialistic, dictator-ish tendencies is easily understood. 

You could base your villain on your high school bully. Someone a large portion of us can identify with. That prick rich kid who thought he was better than everyone else, was in the cool preppy club, played all the sports, etc. Fuck that guy. Write him as the villain and then kill them off in a gruesome and horrific way at the end. 

TIP 3: Walk a Mile in Their Shoes 

What is the best way to get to know someone? Walk a mile in their shoes. Get into your villains' shoes and find out which life events caused them to be "bad". What is their motivation to compete with the protagonist? What emotional life event makes them bad? Were they abused by an alcoholic father and want revenge against the world? Maybe the protagonist beat them up on the playground and are want petty vengeance. Maybe not the best example, but I think you get it. Their motivations, much like those of the protagonist, must be something the reader can understand and relate to.

TIP 4: Unbearably Unbeatable

Your villain must be seemingly unbeatable from the start. The villain should present insurmountable odds against which the hero must overcome. For the first three quarters of the novel, the protagonist will be on the losing end in the battle against evil. The Lord of Rings series (the books by Tolkien, not the absolute trash Amazon tried to pass off) demonstrates the hero's battle against insurmountable odds. A little fellah has to carry the magic ring into the fires of hell with no great hero or powerful army at his back. Sauron is seemingly all powerful with a massive army attacking on all fronts and the Ringwraiths running about sewing chaos. The Fellowship climbs a mountain only to be forced back, Gandalf dies, Boromir dies, Frodo loses the fellowship and goes it alone (though Sam follows), Merry and Pippin are captured, etc. Loss after loss, danger after danger, the bad guy wins until Frodo dumps the ring into Mt. Doom at the end of all hope. Amazing. Do that. 

For more on villainy, check out I am the Villain. Sometimes the character youu base on yourself is not the hero.