Making Bad Guys part 1

There are many type of antagonist, but the kind I wish to focus on are the villains. If you have villains in your story, this is one of the most important things you must focus on, because without a good villain you lack conflict. Without conflict you lack a plot.

So first lets list some types of villains

1.The Puppet Master- These villains sit in the background and let their minions do the job for them. In some cases, said villain never even appears in the actual story, but sit in the back as a dark omen. These villains are at the top and have no equals, because of this they tend to be vain.

Positives: With one over all villain you can suspend the reader with more fear. The reader will often question, how the protagonist will ever defeat such a foe. This also creates a building affect of tension as the end fight comes closer.

Negatives: These types can easily be overpowered and when the end comes their defeat may seem unrealistic. These characters also tend to be less developed.

Examples: Voldemort, Sauron,Galbatorix

2. The Collective- This is a group of villains in which no one has any more power then the other. This group comes together to achieve some greater purpose. This may have a few leaders, or none at all.

Positives: The reader doesn't know how or when the protagonist is going to take this collective down.

Examples: (sorry most of my examples for this are from manga) Akatsuki, Espada, Voulturi

3.The Lone Wolf- This is any villain that works on their own. They may have a few people under them, but nothing like the armies under the Puppet Masters control. This type tend to lean more to the psychotic side.

Positives: This is a way of sticking with one villain, without having some all powerful super villain.

Negatives: This type tends to have a high body count. They also may get annoying after a time.

Examples: The Joker, Any killer from a mystery

Now these are the very basic models so pick one and move on the next part. Which is to give your villain a reason for doing what they do. There are two basic models to this.

1.The sad story- The sad story is someone that has had a bad history, that latter effects the character. There are may sub categories to this.

2.The psycho. The Psycho does things for the fun of it. As Alfred put it, "Some people just want to see the world burn,"

Now pick one of these and develop a history or a psychoses.

Part two coming soon

Nicely done. Very good job explaining the different types so far.

I did find this helpful. But, are there no negatives to the Collective Villian type? The fact that you have so many more antagonists to characterize would be one, I think, and it would be more work on your part to make sure each villain is unique in their evil-ness. Otherwise, though, nicely done! Looking forward to part two.