The 5 Most Important Things You Ought to Consider When Writing Villains

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We're talking about bad guys because someone's gotta mess crap up in your novel, am I right? I'm always down to talk about villains they're my kind of people.

by Jenna Moreci

Antagonist: someone who antagonizes the protagonist; they oppose the protagonist's goal; they inhibit their plan; they create conflict

Villain: someone who also creates conflict, but there is a little something extra added to the mix; they're evil.

The villain of the story is also the antagonist, but the antagonist isn't necessarily a villain.

1. Make them a worthy rival.

2. Give them a believable motivation.

3. Remember your villain is human, unless they're not human, but the advice still applies. They should be a complicated being. This person may be a total piece of dump, but even dump has layers.

4. If the villains got a surprise reveal, give them henchmen. If you can't reveal your villain for a major chunk of the story, you gotta do the next best thing, and have their associates do the work for them.

5. Validate their crappiness.

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