A Guide To Writing Villains

What Is A Villain?

"Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human." - V.E. Schwab

Simply put, a villain is someone (or something) that is willing to do harm to others in order to reach their goals. 

Now, as with most things, there's depth to that-- your heroes are willing to harm people as well, sometimes, and not all villains will kill at the drop of a hat. But we'll stick to this for now, because if there's one thing that pretty much all villains have in common, it's that they will hurt others or allow them to be hurt if it helps them achieve their goals.

In most cases, your villain is also your antagonist, the force opposing your protagonist. It doesn't necessarily have to be that way-- Light from Death Note and Walter White from Breaking Bad are examples of villain protagonists, and there are certainly villainous characters that are neither your protagonist or your antagonist. But since they usually are one and the same, most of this guide will focus on that.

That said, welcome to A Guide To Writing Villains, where we hope to turn your character into someone that will haunt your characters' and your readers' dreams...

Note: I'll leave prompts in the headers; use them if you'd like.