Blog: How to Write A Villian

Villians are what really push the story foward and are the ones who make your story interesting. After doing so many reviews of T.V. shows and books (most of which have been on books/shows that were poorly written), I have realized that having a strong villian is one of the most crucial elements of your story, and in some ways is just as important as having a strong main protagonist. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn how to write a good villian for your next book.

Firstly, a villian in your book can be anything. The villian could be nature, the protagonist himself, a series of unfortunate circumstances, another person, anything. Basically, the villian is anything that proves to be the main obstacle for the protagonist. When figuring out how to write your villian, you need to narrow down which category (or categories) the villian falls into. I’m going to be mostly focusing on the person vs. person, person vs. self, and person vs. society categories for today’s post.

Now that you’ve narrowed down your main villian, your next job is going to be to find what type of character your villian is. There are four types of characters that your villian could be: Dynamic, Static, Round, or Flat.

Dynamic villians are ones that change throughout the story. If you’re writing a villian’s backstory, you could write their character arc from good to bad, or if you’re writing them within a story other than their own, you could write them as going from mentally superior than everyone else to becoming borderline senile in their quest for power. Going this route is good for a person vs. person or person vs. self type villian. An example of a dynamic villian would be Melkor from Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and History of Middle-Earth. Melkor started off as the most powerful and brightest of the Ainur, but as he became more prideful, he started on the path of his downfall. Over time, he went from being the most powerful Vala in Arda to becoming one of the weakest as he dispersed so much of his innate power into the physical realm in the form of orcs, balrogs, dragons, etc. that without his armies, he could barely defend himself.

On the flip side, a dynamic villian could also be one who is evil for most of the book or series, but turns to the light at the end. Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender is an example of this. For two and a half seasons, Zuko is hunting for the Avatar (Aang) to regain his honor. Over time, however, he realizes that he is only trying to appease someone who can never be appeased and he doesn’t need to regain his honor because he never really had it. It was instead his travels and learning how to be more humble from his circumstances that really gave him his honor. It’s this realization that causes him to join the Gaang and help defeat his father. (Fun fact, his first line in the show – “Set a course towards the light!” – actually sets up his entire character arc throughout the series.)

Static villians are villians that remain largely the same for most of the story, but are still realistic enough that you feel like you could run into them on the street. These are the most common types of villians. We don’t really get any sort of interesting backstory for them and they are only really good for person vs. person or person vs. society. An example of a static villian is the Witch King from Lord of the Rings or Maeglin from The Fall of Gondolin (yes, I’m going to be using a lot of examples from Tolkien’s work). Both of them seem to have been twisted in someway from their begining – Maeglin having come from an abusive family where his mother was abused by his father; the Witch King possibly being a powerful sorcerer who was swayed by Sauron into taking a ring of power. They remain evil (or at least very twisted) throughout the story until their fall.

Round villians are very similar to dynamic villians and can be used for person vs. person, person vs. self, and person vs. society. They are changing and have varying personality traits. They often do unexpected things and can be somewhat relatable to the reader. The thing that sets them apart from dynamic villians, however, is dynamic villians change due to circumstances; round villians change due to internal changes (such as feeling hurt by someone). Round villians are emotion driven and change because they have realized their flaws or have been hurt. Gollum from Lord of the Rings could be considered a round villian. He turns evil because of the Ring, but over time starts realizing that he can be good again. He realizes for a short time that Frodo and Sam aren’t as bad as the evil side of his personality says they are, and Gollum starts acting as Smeagol. He’s likeable and – for the most part – trustworthy. It is only when the Rangers of Ithilien capture Gollum that he reverts back to his old ways, feeling betrayed by Frodo and hating him. It’s only at that point that he goes back to his original mission of stealing the Ring and killing the Ringbearer. It’s this representation of how mentally tortured and betrayed Gollum feels that makes him relatable to reader (since we’ve all felt betrayed before by someone) and makes us feel bad for him when he finally meets his end in the Crags of Doom.

Lastly, flat villians are villians who are based off some sort of stereotype. Think your average cartoon villian. They are the perfect example of a flat villian. Flat villians are only there to cause problems and sometimes serve as comedic relief when the hero defeats them. Harry and Marv from Home Alone are flat villians. They are the steroetypical image of a duo of burglers and their wacky shenanigans finally culminate in the climax of the movie in which each of them would realistically have been killed at least twelve times over.

With this knowledge, you’ve chosen what type of villian your book will center around, you now have the problem of making them believable. While flat villians don’t have to be believable all the time, static, round and dynamic villians need to be believable otherwise they won’t be very good. You need to write them as though they are someone that your readers might run into. You need to make it feel as though the villian is a real life threat that the hero is working to eliminate. You also need to make the villian relatable to the reader so they can see why people would be attracted to the villian’s cause. To use one last example, Sauron from The Silmarillion, History of Middle-Earth, Lord of the Rings, Unfinished Tales, Fall of Numenor and The Hobbit, is the perfect example of a good villian. If you’ve only ever read Lord of the Rings, let me give you an idea of Sauron’s backstory.

Sauron was originally a Maia named Mairon the Admirable. He was the greatest craftsman of the smith, Aule, and his goal was to try to turn Arda to his own idea of perfection (unlike Melkor who just wanted to destroy or pervert everything). He was attracted to Melkor’s cause because he saw that Melkor could turn things quickly and effectively to his will, a power that Sauron wanted. While he would go on to do many horrible things in Melkor’s name and later in his own, the reader can understand what his motives were because, deep down, we all wish the world would be as we want it to be. We all wish we had the power to make things go our way. When Sauron goes as Annatar to Eregion in the Second Age and later to Numenor as Tar-Mairon, we see how he can prey upon peoples’ wishes for immortality or power to secretly manipulate them to his will. Even though we might not be the people in the story, it often feels like we are because the insecurities that Sauron uses are ones we often have in real life, making his character all the more terrifying.

Finally, now that you have a good idea of how to write a villian, I encourage you to pick up a piece of paper and a pen and start drafting your villian. Take as much time as you would like. It may take a long time before you get a good character sketch of your villian that you like. Remember, that your villian is just as important as you main protagonist, someone I’ll talk about tomorrow.

Until next time,

M.J.