lets talk writing a villain

As a reader we always love to read about villains in our favourite fictional tales who we just hate but in some instances secretly love. I'm going to share with you my top 3 tips on how to write a good villain.

What makes a good villain? 

1.Villain's need a reason to be bad! it's what makes them the antagonist and they are undoubtedly even more important than the protagonist because if you dont have a good villain that is just evil enough the protagonist in the book wont look as good. They need to have a clear reason as to why they need to be evil. The readers need to be able to make the connection that the antagonist is bad but they have reasons for doing that.  A villain who is evil for no apparent reason, well its not just a bad antagonist, it is harder for the reader to connect with that character. Giving the reader details, a backstory and developing them is arguably just as important as developing the main protagonist. 

2. Villain’ s are still people and still deserve some good traits. Depending on the genre of course, but Villain's either: fae, werewolf, vampire or witch still have feelings and the most important thing about making your book more likeable is readers need to connect with your characters, villains included! Writing about Villains that have small mercies for innocent beings, not only makes them more relatable and likeable and gives them more positive traits. Even when they do the most hideous things to other characters in the book, the reader will remember the small mercies that they did. The bad actions of a Villains aren't justified in the readers mind by no means, but it adds an element of humanisation to the character and justifies why they are the way they are. No one is perfect, even fictional characters.

3. I like Villains that are intriguing, either with their own personal story, banker, quirks or sense of style. A good villains need to be remembered, they need to go for shock and awe, something unexpected that makes the readers just want to completely hate them or have a slight soft spot for them. A villain that plays both sides; good and bad, is often more memorable than one that is just plain bad to the bone. Those villains are also ones that people just hate and authors usually kill off.

As a reader we love for authors to throw giant curve balls its almost like they are talking to us saying, 'What you didnt expect this to happen mwahahahah', and all of a sudden people cant get enough and they will continue to read any book written by that author.  

One of my favourite authors who write incredible villains is Sarah J Maas. I love the way she makes her villains play both sides.