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Tips on creating Villains?



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Sat Dec 12, 2015 5:39 pm
Charm says...



Hi! I'm Rachel but some people call me Mad :smt003

I am in the middle of writing a novel called New Haven. In the next couple chapters I will be introducing the "villain" of the story. She is similar to Draco Malfoy in many ways. She is a bully and is human. She still feels emotion and all, like your average human.

Do you have any tips for creating villains?

Here is the outline for her:

Character Name: Amelia Childs
Character Nickname: Lily
Hair color: Strawberry Blonde
Eye color: Blue
Height: Tall
Build: Average/Curvy
Age: 15
Born: February 27
Death: Alive
Clothing: leather tights, blouse, high heel boots
Personal Item(s): doll
Likes: Designer things, beach, power
Dislikes: humiliation, smarter people, mother
Family: A Mother, father, older brother
Mother: Evelyn Childs
Father: Gregory Childs
Siblings: Damian Childs
Ethnical Background: English
Educational Background In High School
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Haven
Personality Type: ENTP
Brief Life History: Mother is addicted to plastic surgery. Brother is addicted to drugs and alcohol. Father is never home because he is on "business trips".
Character's story: She bullies and challenges Eloise and her posse
Personal Goals: She wants to get praise from her family.
Quirks: Good at dance
Personality Details: Ambitious, determined, confident, self-reliant.
Future: Undiscovered
  





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Sun Dec 13, 2015 4:08 pm
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Lightsong says...



Yeah, my main advice is to make the villain not just a human, but feels as one. Here, you've pretty much laid out a basic profile of her, complete with her personal goals (which are important to develop her character). You've mentioned about Amelia bullying Eloise but you didn't state how, and based on her personality details - ambitious, determined, confident, self-reliant, she doesn't come out as someone with malicious/harmful intent, and more like a normal high-achiever.

Secondly, you need to display her strengths and weaknesses. In a story sets around teenagers, I don't think you would label Amelia as a "villain" as that would mean bad people doing crimes against innocent people. It's better to see her as the "antagonist" who has some objections with the protagonist and how the latter thinks and acts. She has a messed up family, so showing us how it affects her would be excellent to show her vulnerability. The same goes when she's in school - how she acts around people would be great to show her strength.

Thirdly, make her relatable, and complex. We don't want a 2D antagonist. She might be bullying Eloise, but that doesn't mean she's completely ruthless. Perhaps she has a certain belief on how humans should be divided by hierarchy. Perhaps she has a soft spot on animals, cats especially. Maybe she questions her actions. Maybe she's jealous of how Eloise keeps her moral compass intact, and able to go through challenges and difficulties. These things can be pondered to make a fully-fleshed antagonist with many layers to explore. Don't be restrained by the profile you've made.

And that's all. Good luck! :D
"Writing, though, belongs first to the writer, and then to the reader, to the world.

The subject is a catalyst, a character, but our responsibility is, has to be, to the work."

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Sun Dec 13, 2015 6:05 pm
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Pompadour says...



The thing about complex villains is that they have redeeming qualities just as they have their bad ones. You can have a brave villain, for example, just as you can have a cowardly good guy--what sets a villain apart from a hero is where their motives lie. For example, I could say that a particular villain works towards a self-interest, or perhaps they are guided by what they see as the 'greater good'--their objectives might seem reasonable to them, but not to everybody else. Your villain can be capable of good things, like looking after people they love, but they can also be equally capable of inflicting pain. From your sketch of Amelia so far, she doesn't strike me as a villain at all--she's more like a petty schoolgirl. When I think of bullies, I think of people like James Potter (to draw an example from Harry Potter), who are, essentially, good people who sometimes do bad things. Then you have people like Miss Trunchbull and Umbridge, people whom you can't help but hate because they have such little humanity.

Since you've compared Amelia to Draco Malfoy, I'll (endeavour to) briefly evaluate his character. Malfoy was, in essence, a kid who'd been brought up to think that discrimination on the basis of blood-status--which is a parallel to racism in the real world--was not a bad thing. Kind of ethnocentric, right? But he was also protective of his mother, his father, and what made me feel sorry for him was that he was a weak character. He strikes me as a very watered-down version of Regulus Black, who did what he did because he'd been brought up to believe that it was the right thing to do. But while Regulus was able to become the hero, Draco wasn't.

'Feeling emotion' doesn't really encapsulate a complex character. One of the key things that every character needs is a motive-compass, just like a moral-compass, but when a variety of situations is presented to a character, their choices reflect who they are. These choices also allow them to develop, based on the consequences and their reactions to said consequences. What makes a villain a villain is when their flaws outweigh their good qualities, but I think 'villain' is too narrow a term. Lord Voldemort is a villain. Bellatrix is a villain. Malfoy is an antagonist, as is Snape (who, believe it or not, is guided by self-interest more than an interest in 'the greater good').

You've got the surface-level details down. All you need now is to do a little bit of digging.
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