How a hard look in the mirror will help you write a better villain

I am fully awake, alert and ready. A villain looms nearby, wraithlike in form, it skulks in the darkness. And I’m scared. Not because it will harm me, rather, because I struggle like mad to coax it out of the shadows.

Why would I?

Because I am a writer of stories. And stories need villains. Much has been written about what makes a good villain, but little is said about where to find the inspiration necessary to shape one. And the stakes are high too! Writing your villain poorly sets your novel’s foundation on shaky sand.  To shore it up on solid ground, you must tap into a part of you that you’re intimately aware of, but one that you’re loathe to embrace.

Your dark side.

This weekend, I aim to make meaningful progress start on the sequel to my debut novel, The 13^th Vote, and though I have a villain in mind, I need to get him right. But why so much fuss?

Simply put, the villain creates the conflict, and through it, our hero is tested along her journey and through it, we come to identify with her. This process of identification starts with our ability to understand and share her feelings. If we understand our hero’s reluctance to push past the slings and arrows that assault her, then we tend to empathize and like her, and when the hero ultimately pushes past them, we admire her. We prefer our heroes flawed and likeable, because they seem just like ourselves. But we don’t have to like or even admire our villains, but they’re more real and colorful when there are elements of them that we do. In other words, better villains are defined by something more than our hatred of them. So, how do we paint them in these greater hues?

Look inward, into our own dark spaces.

Think about someone who you dislike (maybe not despise for this exercise), someone who wronged you in your childhood. Maybe this person called you a name, stole something or perhaps shoved you harshly. And now, firmly in adulthood, you seethe when you think about this person, after all you’ve held onto this feeling all these years.  But step back and ask yourself. As a child, didn’t I steal things too? Punched my brother? Casually hurled a curse at someone? And can I find at least one time when the fault was my own? A time where I let my – insert word here – anger, ego, ignorance – get in the way? If you’ve answered no, then thank you Jesus for reading my blog upon your return to Earth, as we acknowledge your words ‘let those without sin, cast the first stone.’

For the second part of our exercise, imagine that you found out that our cruel abuser had a deadbeat dad who beat him regularly? And a sister who tickled him mercilessly, and worse yet, made him watch reruns of The Waltons? So now, we have cause to look upon that dastardly thug with empathy. Though we may not forgive him, or even come to like him, we at least understand him, and also, realize that we might, given the right circumstances, become him.

The best villains magnify the basest elements of ourselves, and are powered by the same motivations –jealousy – when a lover spurns us; vengeance – for when a business partner cheats us out of what is rightfully ours, and rage – for when a rude motorist cuts us off on the highway. We recognize and can even empathize with our villain, not for her deeds, but for her motivations, for we’ve all experienced moments like these, where our own dark passenger rides shotgun, and we, if we’re honest with ourselves, can glance over the center console and see our own ugliness, recognizing that we’re not always virtuous, not all that good, and when it comes down to it, come to understand that we are more like those we hold in disdain than we care to admit.

Burrow inwardly, take some introspective time when animating your villain, dig deep to understand that part of you, and humanity as a whole, that’s hidden behind a civilized veneer and, perhaps for lack of circumstance, lying in wait to be unleashed.  It’s there that you will find the origins to your villain’s bad behavior, and there you’ll discover the motivations to exercise them upon an unsuspecting world.

In reality, the path to your villain is closer than you think.

Just embrace your inner demon.