Looking for suggestions on how my villain's weakness can be used against him.

Okay thanks. It's in a modern day American type city.

I have been thinking about, the ending I want, I want the leader to have a revelation. He must realize that the crimes he has committed have been wrong, and he must come to a revelation. However, instead of just feeling bad about what he has done, is their something he can do to try to make up for it? Something that will drive the story in a different direction, rather than just feeling bad only, but not doing anything about it?

What can he do to redeem himself, action wise? This will also help determine what method the MC would use in order to cause him to have this revelation, if that makes sense.

 

This is just the top of my head which probably isn't a good idea, but then again, maybe my brainstorming notes will spark your own ideas:

• Maybe somehow in his regular day he meets a girl that starts to show interest in him. Maybe she's a new coworker, so a store clerk or something and she starts a conversation with him, and she is very friendly at first and that messes with him because he's wondering why she's so nice. Anyway, maybe after he gets to know her better, and starts to have these strange feelings for her, which turns into love, he later finds out he raped her sister.
• Maybe he accidentally witnesses another man raping a woman, in an alley or something, (I was going to say party, but I don't think your MC would ever attend one). Maybe it's a date rape in a car. Anyway, he witnesses one and sees how scared the victim actually looks (not what he pictures in his head when he does it). He looks at the rapist as this crazy monster, and realizes that he is too.

I'm not sure if you're writing an outline right now, or if you're writing your actual story, but I hope you're writing an outline. I think you should plan out your story first, with the twists and then start writing the actual story. This will help you not get stuck. But if you're asking these questions to work on your outlinee, then that's excellent!

 

Okay thanks. Actually earlier in the story, the villain is forced to kill someone he cared about because that person was a liability to him, once the person discovered who the villain was and did not agree with what he was doing. So after killing that person he cared about to shut him up, he did not handle it well and feels he has gone to far. Is that a good enough reason? Plot wise, him killing off that particular character sets off events in other sections of the plot. So it works plot wise, but is that enough to motivate the character? I feel that the murder needs to function not only for motivating the villain, but for getting the plot to go in certain directions as well. So it's killing two birds with one stone, but is that particular murder enough to motivate the villain to start changing?

I wrote an original outline, but have been told that my original ending does not make sense. Ever since then, I have been trying to come up with an ending that works, and have branched out in several directions. I still decided to keep the first half of the outline, since it seems to hold together. The first half up to the midpoint climax, when the villain gets away with his crimes. All is lost and the MC has to think of something else to get him, or a new development has to happen. So I wrote the first half of the story in drafts, but still need to come up with an outline for the second half, to attach onto the first. So I am asking a question to work on the second half outline, where the MC has to start to turn the tables on the villain and use his weakness against him.

 

Aaah, now this is a fun one. I just finished reading, Deadline, by Sandra Brown. This is an excellent book about the villain's flaw being turned against him. You will have fun with developing this characteristic once you read Sandra's book. I read it in one night. I couldn't put it down.

Here's the long and short of it. I'll make up an example so I don't spoil the details of the book.

If Johnny Segal is a ruthless murderer by night, but a family man by day, you can easily have those who want retribution to attack his family. The trick is this: make darn sure you "show" Johnny loves and cares for his family. And he places no one above them. Show how he protects them to the point of arrogance--feeling like no one can touch them. Ever. Until, one fateful night, a price is finally paid for his sins. You'll have to make sure that Johnny crossed all his T's and dotted all his I's. The weak link will need to be hinted at very subtly early, early on. Real early, so the reader has forgotten about it. Until, the weakness is discovered too late. Then BAM! Everybody's dead.

 

Okay thanks. The reveal of the weakness early on, is not my problem though. My problem is, is that how do you use the villains weakness against him, when it comes to busting him, police wise? The police usually get people on evidence and sting operations, but they hardly ever use a villain's weakness against him to bust him, so that's where it gets tricky, cause I have to write it in a way, where it makes logical sense, when normally using a weakness in that situation does not.