On Villains: How I Create Bad Guys (featuring way too many Inkheart references can you tell that I'm obsessed)
Happy Friday, everyone! Today I'm back with another post on writing, this time one about my personal philosophy as regards villains. I touched on this a bit a while back in my "Faith's Favorite Tropes" post, but this time, we're going ALL in and talking about my favorite villains and how I write them.
Types of Villains
In my books, I typically have villains who fall into one of three categories:
I. The anti-hero leaning villainous
II. The flawed human who turned dark
III. The sort-of-caricature who really doesn't even try to be human. He is just Evil.
This is, of course, only true for my novels that have actual villains. Looking at my list of six main works (Pentegreens, Watched, Sweat and Gold, the Super Secret Project, and two other stories that have not yet come into being as full ideas and are still brainstorms), I have found that two of them have some sort of impersonal villain (the government, in both cases). Sweat and Gold and the Pentegreens will be my main points of reference within this post xD Also, if you've read the Inkheart Trilogy, I'll be mentioning which of the villains from that trilogy I believe fall under each category.
(I may or may not think that the villains of the Inkworld are some of the all-time best, but that's beside the point. Heh.)
(I may or may not think that the villains of the Inkworld are some of the all-time best, but that's beside the point. Heh.)
I. The villainous anti-hero
There's three of these in the Pentegreen series. Basically, I define this as anyone who is out for their own goals entirely and stands in the protagonists' way. Dustfinger in the first Inkheart book is an example that comes to mind.
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| Dustfinger, credit to Inkheart Wiki |
My favorite thing about this sort of villain is that you can do so much with their character arcs. For example, much of the plot of The King's Daughter is driven by the character arc of that novel's antihero. Book 2, The General's Children, is slightly less influenced by the second antihero, but the climax takes a lot of its twists from that character's decisions.
The character arcs add another layer to the story, and also helps me to really experiment with my characters' personalities. There's a fundamental difference between Esma's realization that she will do whatever it takes to fight for and free her people, and a different character's big moment of revelation where she realizes that she doesn't care who dies as long as SHE gets to live. Antiheroes can be good in either direction (good antiheroes or bad antiheroes), but as villains, they're particularly fun.
In Inkheart, an example of this would be Violante, or Her Ugliness. She works toward her own ends and cares only about particular individuals, but her decisions vastly contribute to the plot and she's just plain awesome.
II. The flawed human who turned dark
This is what most of my main villains end up being. Lord Dauthang falls under this category when he begins to grace the page with his presence. But the main villain of mine I can think of for this category would be Aaliyah from my sort-of-a-Snow-White retelling, Sweat and Gold.
Aaliyah is a girl in a massive predicament. She's a girl who was once wealthy, but whose life has taken a turn that sends her down dark paths. But her pride is her fatal flaw. And she does dark, dark things to try and get out of it. (I'm way overdescribing this, but...yeah. xD)
In Inkheart, this would be a little harder to find, too. I might, maybe, put Mortola under this category, and probably even Orpheus, the fanfiction author whose writings kind of ruin everything. Better examples from popular fiction might include Darth Vader or Saruman.
These are probably my least favorite villains to write. I don't like having to make my characters human, but still entirely evil without wiffle-waffling. It's annoying. But it's what happens. Because unfortunately, not all my villains can be...
Aaliyah is a girl in a massive predicament. She's a girl who was once wealthy, but whose life has taken a turn that sends her down dark paths. But her pride is her fatal flaw. And she does dark, dark things to try and get out of it. (I'm way overdescribing this, but...yeah. xD)
In Inkheart, this would be a little harder to find, too. I might, maybe, put Mortola under this category, and probably even Orpheus, the fanfiction author whose writings kind of ruin everything. Better examples from popular fiction might include Darth Vader or Saruman.
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| Mortola (I kinda hate her more than anyone else in this series, but Orpheus wasn't in the movie so I don't have a pic of him), from Inkheart Wiki |
These are probably my least favorite villains to write. I don't like having to make my characters human, but still entirely evil without wiffle-waffling. It's annoying. But it's what happens. Because unfortunately, not all my villains can be...
III. The sort-of caricature who doesn't even try to be human. He is just Evil.
Look, I've tried, okay? I have tried and tried and tried to humanize my main two villains, Burashna Woods and Elensha Rinaldi. But...I CAN'T. I've given them sob stories, I've given them backstories, I've given them weaknesses, I've given them wants. And yet they insist on just being BAD.
I'm actually really refreshed by this sort of baddie. I mean, having a good villain with MOTIVATION is amazing, but I enjoy the villain who's just plain bad.
Because there's real evil out there! And when you love the light/dark contrast the way I do, you want to frame both of them as starkly as possible. I make flawed heroes and antiheroes, which means I have to make my villains the worst of the worst in contrast.
This is actually one of the main reasons I love the Inkheart series so very much--MOST of its villains fall under this category. Capricorn in book 1, the main villain; Basta, Capricorn's trigger-happy second-in-command; and the Adderhead, the BIG BAD in the Inkworld itself who wants the secret to immortality. I love these guys, okay. They're so deliciously evil. Funke never even attempts to make them human; she just makes them BAD and lets them revel in their badness. And WHAT a contrast it sets to characters like Mo, Meggie, Resa, and the Black Prince.
I'm actually really refreshed by this sort of baddie. I mean, having a good villain with MOTIVATION is amazing, but I enjoy the villain who's just plain bad.
Because there's real evil out there! And when you love the light/dark contrast the way I do, you want to frame both of them as starkly as possible. I make flawed heroes and antiheroes, which means I have to make my villains the worst of the worst in contrast.
This is actually one of the main reasons I love the Inkheart series so very much--MOST of its villains fall under this category. Capricorn in book 1, the main villain; Basta, Capricorn's trigger-happy second-in-command; and the Adderhead, the BIG BAD in the Inkworld itself who wants the secret to immortality. I love these guys, okay. They're so deliciously evil. Funke never even attempts to make them human; she just makes them BAD and lets them revel in their badness. And WHAT a contrast it sets to characters like Mo, Meggie, Resa, and the Black Prince.
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| Capricorn, credit to Inkheart Wiki |
How to Use These Categories
You usually want to pick what sort of villain you're writing at the beginning of your story, because we all know it's important to give even bad guys an arc. Honestly, I haven't tried to give Burashna any sort of an arc, nor my BIG bad, Dauthang. However, my two main antiheroes and two of my supporting villains have arcs of some nature. (I mean, I guess Burashna gets the arc of spiraling into complete and utter insanity? But hey that doesn't count xD)
I love all three sorts of villains, and I always want to see as much variance in villains as I possibly can. I'm sharing these categories as a possible tool to help you think through your villains as you write them. After all, a hero is easy enough to write, and a caricatured hero, even if boring, doesn't ruin a story.
But if your villain is memorable? Your book will be too.
Who are some of your favorite bookish villains? Do you have a favorite sort of villain from this list? Chat with me in the comments!
30 comments
I should really read Inkheart one of these days, eh XD
ReplyDeleteI love your villains. Actually I hate them. But I love Clark XD XD
Now I need to use this classification system on my villains do thanks for that 😼
Yes you should xD It's fantastic.
DeleteI hate them too believe me *grimaces*
Your villains don't deserve to be classified, they're worse than mine xD
I love this! And you definitely know what you're talking about because you are SO GOOD at villains. *shudders to think of them*
ReplyDeleteI miss Sweat and Gold, so it's really cool and nostalgic to hear a little bit about that again! <3 And I NEED to read Inkheart sometime, geez.
I love exploring the tragic (and often creepy) backstories of my own villains. And I LOVE to read a good villain from each of these categories!! Awesome post!
Yay! Oh, goodness, thank you xD I hate them alllllllll.
DeleteI miss it too! I'm thinking there might be more to it soon *smirks* Yes, you must read Inkheart, you MUST. It's so GOOD.
Your villains are so cool, to be honest. I love them. Thank you!
Super interesting to hear about the different types of villains you write! Your villains always sound really cool and well-thought out and creepy as heck. XD
ReplyDelete(also, yessss, Dustfinger is great!)
My villains creep ME to death so...yeah xD Thank you!!!!!
Delete(He's the actual best ;))
Inkheart YES!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure an evil writer such as yourself is very skilled at writing villains. ;)
YASSSSSSSS
DeleteEh, I don't know about that, but thanks xD
*pops up* Oh, we're talking about the super secret person you never talk about? Dauthang is a flawed person who turned dark? *starts coming up with theories* TELL ME MORE! Yes, girl, you are villain writing machine!
ReplyDeleteTheorize all you want--no answers right now, not until you read book 3 ;) You'll know all soon enough.
DeleteINKHEART. <33
ReplyDeleteYessss, different types of villains. One of my favorite topics. XP
IT IS THE BEST. <3
DeleteIt's so fun to look at for some reason xD
/YES/
DeleteIkr. X'D
Btw, I tagged you! https://musicmysterymiddlearthandmitochondria.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-sunshine-blogger-award-tag.html
Awww, thanks! No idea when I'll get to that but I'll do my best haha xD
DeleteMmm yesssss! You always have such great villains! And all these types are fascinating. I mean, you KNOW I love me some antiheroes.
ReplyDeleteI find it funny you don't like writing the flawed human who turns dark type because...that's one of my favorites. *hides in shame* I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME. Obviously I HATE when this happens in actual life. I mean, NO. I just find it fascinating watching a CHARACTER spiral out of control. (SERIOUSLY. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???)
Ahem. Aaaanyways. This was really great! I love discussing villains. (The more I type, the more I worry about myself...) ACTUALLY. I was thinking about doing a villain theme post next month! In honor of spoopy October and all. ;D Not sure if I have time but I want to. I think it'll be fun. Hehehehe.
Yessssss xD I love antiheroes too! They're just FUN to write.
DeleteI love READING that kind of villain! Just not, ya know, writing them. And don't worry, we'll all weird like that when it comes to villains. We're all scary. There's something wrong with all of us. Don't sweat it xD
YESSSSS DO THE VILLAIN POST I NEEDS IT! It would be amazing
There's some great categories here! I am now terrified for your poor protagonists. xD
ReplyDeleteThanks! And as well you should be ;) ;'(
DeleteThe Inkheart villains are just...phenomenal. Which is a good thing, imo, as I strongly dislike almost ALL the protagonists.... One of the few books where I'm reading because of plot and not characters...
ReplyDeleteI personally hate writing villains. I just...want to get them all redemption arcs...*sobs* But that can't always be the case...
Oh, man, I feel that. The villains in that series are AMAZING. I really love the adults and the band of outlaws and such! But not Meggie and Farid *grimaces*
DeleteYeah...it's so tough to deal with those ones *sobs* I wish we could redeem them all too but NOPE doesn't happen far too often.
Those are definitely good ways to go when creating villians. I definitely do the anti-hero a lot hehehe I also tend to add the "psychotic villain" to that list.
ReplyDeleteAlso the Inkheart references were great uwu
Thanks!!! I like the psychotic villain too ;)
Delete:D
Loved this post! Super helpful and perfectly timed as I'm fleshing out my villain's backstory right now. I think I'd put him under type 2. I love identifying that fatal flaw in a villain and mirroring it in my protagonist (although obviously the protagonist deals with this flaw in a more productive way *glares reproachfully at my villain *).
ReplyDelete(And I reeeallly need to read the Inkheart Trilogy--I keep hearing amazing things about it!)
Thanks!!!! I'm so glad it was able to help you. And using the villain as a foil for your hero is ALWAYS a great idea--your story sounds AWESOME!!!!!!
Delete(It's fantastic. I absolutely recommend it as one of my favorite series.)
Love the villainous antihero! Like you said, there's so much you can do with them because they cross lines so much, and sometimes they can be unpredictable. I love wildcard characters!
ReplyDeleteI know most people don't go for the villain who's evil just because, but really we've always been fascinated with those sort of villains too. Like Iago in Othello. There's a way to do villains who are just plain evil, and readers love to hate them. XD
Yes!!! Antiheroes in general are so much fun, but throw in villainy and, well. It's just too much fun to play.
DeleteYESSS!!!!! You know what's creepy...I was actively reading Othello for the first time when you posted this comment xD But Iago is SUCH a creepy and enjoyable villain. Give me more like that!!!!
Always love a post that features Inkheart, lol
ReplyDeleteThis is a great reference post for villains!!! I have a particular soft spot for antiheroes. They always hold so many of the cards in the story and their decisions often turn PIVOTAL moments. They're just so much fun, and they have endless possibilities.
And Orpheus, UGH. Possibly one of my least favorite characters in fiction.
Alexa
thessalexa.blogspot.com
verbosityrevies.com
Inkheart is like my favorite series ngl
DeleteThank you!!!! Antiheroes are such fun and I enjoy them more than I can say. <3
HE IS SO EVIL.
I love all of these types of villains! The Inkheart Trilogy is soo good! I loved all the villains in it.
ReplyDeleteSometimes being evil is the only motivation some of them need. XD
Inkheart is the BEST and I love when authors are brave enough to write villains who are evil just because ;)
DeleteHello, friends! Do make yourselves comfortable and stay for a while--I'd love to chat with you! I simply ask that you keep it clean. :)