Young Writers Society

What do you think makes a villain realistic? Someone that's a real character, a believable, 3-dimensional person, not just someone who enjoys killing for fun.

I've read so many books that have great heroes, but when it comes to the villain- it all just seems fake.
What do you think good motives are, and how can I write about them realistically?

It's very easy for us to undimensionalise people, especially when we don't like them very much. How many times do we meet someone and make our presumptions, try our best to fit them into boxes, and then when we get to know them we find out all the interesting stuff that makes them real?

And how many times do we fall out with someone, and suddenly they're not a person with background information and emotions and lives, but instead we turn them into antagonists that exist only to torment us?

It's easy enough for us to see some kids causing trouble in the street and label them as trouble-makers, but it takes more effort to really look at them and see the life that is behind it.

To make a good bad guy I think you need to get to know the real bad guys. Detective tv shows like Criminal Minds is one I like. Also watching prison documentaries, hearing testimonies of reformed criminals, even getting to know the school bully, will help you learn to form better antagonists.

We're all born the same. A lot of stuff happens between the time when a baby is born helpless and screaming behind the bars of a crib and the time when they're worthless and screaming from behind prison bars. You need some sense of empathy and even compassion to take the time to understand what makes someone turn bad.

I find that the problem in a lot of books is that the author views the antagonist as they view the everyday antagonists in their own lives; as cold, rude people who care nothing for others, and unintentionally creates as bland and unrealistic a perception of the antagonists they create as they do in their real lives.

Villains don't always have to be justified, psychopaths and sociopaths exist in our world, but when they have a reason they become much more relatable to the reader. However, this isn't always good; perhaps the writer's intention is to make the antagonist completely evil and deserve no sympathy.

There are no specific criteria for a good villain, but it is essential that you understand them just as well as you do your hero, otherwise they will lack substance and will be predominantly boring. In my opinion, the worst villains are the ones that act spontaneously without reason, for example: changing morality after something minuscule or abstaining to specific acts without known reason.
Evil to the core is very cliche, but that can be effective, depending on the storyline and genre. Personally, I like the man-on-a-mission approach, where the actions and methods of the antagonist are inhumane and cruel, but their target goal is justifiable.

What makes a realistic villain? Not making them like Haseo- their girlfriend fell into a coma, so they're going on a rampage.

One thing I always remember: Villains are the heroes of their own stories.

In their minds, they're in the right. They might know that exactly what they're doing is wrong, but they very often see themselves as the hero. Even villains like the Joker: make people laugh (through gas and Glasgow smiles), show that everything burns.

Try flipping the story's perspective. The villain is trying to enact some sort of benefit for themselves or the world, either loosening everyone up (spirit of chaos), making everybody follow the law (dictatorship) or putting themselves at the top of what will be a much better world order (if only because they're on top of it). And the hero is a pest who keeps trying to stop them.

That's how I try to balance my own stories. I flip the perspective. Imagine why the villain sees themselves in the right, determine the lengths they'll go to for their cause. The old "they deserved it" mentality. What makes the villain think others deserved it?

You can get some good perspective flips out there. Grendel by John Gardner is a perspective flip on Beowolf. Wicked (I'd recommend the musical over the book) is a perspective flip on the Wizard of Oz. Flat villains gain a whole new life when you see them from their own perspective.