Villainy is in the eye of the beholder

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

My tables - meet it is I set it down

That one may smile and smile and be a villain.

Without a doubt the best villains are the ones that are such fully-formed complex characters, it's not hard to imagine them as the protagonist in their own story. Motivation is a big factor in this: is the villain evil just for the sake of being evil, or is there something more interesting going on underneath the surface? Something that makes you understand why the villain is doing all these villainous things, even if you don't agree with their actions.

Here's a kind of sideways example:

Laertes is a young man who sees his family destroyed. His sister Ophelia is treated horribly by her suitor, a man who seems to toy with her affections before ultimately rejecting her. Then that same man murders their father Polonius. It's a case of mistaken identity, but the killer shows no remorse. Worst of all, Ophelia is driven mad by grief and heartbreak from these events, taking her own life. When offered a chance at revenge, Laertes of course accepts. In the end, though, both Laertes and the man who destroyed his family, a prince named Hamlet, die by a poisoned sword.

But the play's not called Laertes, is it? I called this a sideways example because while Laertes wasn’t a villain in Shakespeare's play, I do think it's a good example of how one person's protagonist is another person's villain. Meaning Hamlet, of course. I used to have kind of a thing for Hamlet. Not a literary crush, exactly, more like a mild obsession. I saw him as this punk slacker who couldn’t live up to his destiny, and consequently was relieved to greet death. This eventually transformed into a mild obsession with Kurt Cobain, but that's a different topic. It's been a number of years since I read the entire play instead of leafing through the pages that mark my favorite quotes. My favorite line will always be this:

In my heart there was a kind of fighting that would not let me sleep.

There's another one that I have found myself looking at frequently. It fits with the sideways view of the melancholy prince as a mad villain.

Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out

Contagion to this world. Now I could drink hot blood

And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on.

Dare I say it - Vampire Hamlet?

A little bit of history, a little bit of mystery

For you writers out there, how well do you know your characters before you write them?

For you readers, how much of the character's past do you really want to know?

I get the idea that authors need to know their characters.  Unfortunately, I have a tendency to want to share all that I know!  So how much history do readers want?  Do you want to know what makes my antagonist do what he or she does?  What makes them into murderers and such?  Or is it enough to know why my protagonist feels the need to help bring the killer to justice?

To be honest, I don't always know what motivates my characters.  Maybe that's why I want to share the things I do know.  As a writer, it's enough for me to know what makes my antagonist act at the moment.  As a reader, I am usually OK with that, as well.  I want to know how and why the crime was  committed, but I don't necessarily need to know everything that led the "perp" to that moment.

Its almost like a balancing on a tightrope, this fine line between what to give a reader and what I need to know as the author.  Give the reader enough information to care -- to show that even the "bad guy" isn't all bad, and the "good guy" has some issues to work out -- but not so much information that the story lags.  

And I know most of it before I start.  Maybe its because I write mysteries, but I feel like I need to at least know who the antagonist is before I write the first words of the story.  I couldn't imagine having my characters decide they needed to change their past on me!  YIKES!

But I do want to know.  Do you, as a reader, want to know their whole pasts?  Or just enough to make the story flow?  

Blessings!

Nichole

The Well Crafted Villian

Well my laptop is finally operational. I lost the old one though, for now, but I was able to save the hard drive. Ugh. Don’t you hate computer malfunction?
Okay, bad guys.

Your villain is half the story. Even if the reader doesn’t know who it is until the end, as in a mystery, he needs to be a worthy opponent for your protagonist. He needs to be able to match wits, strength, and psyches. He needs to be as stealth at being a bad guy as your protagonist is at being the good guy. It’s like a well choreographed dance, if done right, will keep the reader guessing until the very end who will win. Like Batman vs. the Joker- Batman is quick, crafty, and smart. The Joker is clever, ruthless and cunning. It’s the most basic good against evil fight.

As others have said, he has to be human. Multi-dimensional. He needs to have traits just like any other character even if he’s a serial killer. Remember this, even Hitler loved dogs.

He needs his own reasoning, no matter how warped, for doing the things he does. Give him a backstory. Was he abused? By who? How did he cope? How does that drive his actions today? Give him his own fears, interests, goals. What motivates him? What does he want out of this story? How will he get it? Make it personal. Because a psycho, just because, is boring.

Remember the movie Psycho? That worked so well because Norman Bates had an over-bearing, controlling mother, that he all at once hated and loved, and that shaped him from childhood. Everything she drilled into his head hit home and stuck with him, creating the twisted man with the sweet face who no one would suspect was a murderer.

And a lot of psychology goes into creating a good bad guy. Try reading up on the subject. Jung, Adler, Freud. You might be surprised by the inspiration and ideas that spring from delving into the human mind. Then, get into his head on the page. Try writing from the killer’s POV, if not for the story, then at least to better understand him. Dig around a little. Remember Hannibal Lector? He was a great villain. Watch Silence of the Lambs to see an incredibly scary, yet well fleshed out antagonist.

Barbra Annino