He has an eluded belief in his own supremacy and his his race. I have based him on Adolf Hitler who had the same believes as my character. My character sees the humans has interlopers who have no right to be living on 'his' earth because they have striped the earth of its most natural resources and have wiped out whole species. Basically he believes they deserve the same treatment.
I'm writing a full backstory for my villain as a reference guide to how he thinks, and what his motives are, and it helps me alot. Is your villain an alien, or is he from Earth? If he's an Alien then he may see the way humans harm their planet as similar to another species that did the same thing and devastated solar systems and wants to stop them before it's too late. If he's from Earth then perhaps he sees humans like a pest species, that needs population control the same way we control deer populations, or insects. He has to have a good motive driving his way of thinking. Just set aside an hour or two and write about your villain. None of it has to be in the story, but you'll understand him more when you're finished.
Then take that information, see what his Achilles heel is. What thoughts push him into directions that are mistakes? For a protagonist to mix well, interact properly, and win if that's in your story, then the villain's strengths and weaknesses must be displayed. As said in the previous sentences, if the 'good guy' wins a lot of times it's due to the weakness, or actions that both blind and weaken the 'bad guy.' Grand Moff Tarken in Star Wars. What was his Achilles heel? His false belief in his arrogant superiority and that of the Death Star. Combined, they lead to his death-and that of the Death Star's also. That's just one example.
If a story is a reference guide to a character, why not use the actual story you are writing? After all, you didn't need to first write a back story for your back story. Write story, not back story.
The process described is a common one used by many working screenwriters that I know to help develop details that impact the character's behaviour within the story. It helps establish guidelines so that the writer doesn't deviate unwittingly. They find it a useful way of planning and preparing, and while the story itself isn't relevant to be put on the page, it impacts the flavour of the character. Like making beef stock. I think it's fine to write a backstory not incorporated as complete text in a novel or script, if it helps the writer form a better idea of the character's point of reference to their behaviours and motivation.
It's basically just a history of my Characters so I get a feel for the way they would think. If I have trouble I just review their profile.
I'd say make him seem menacing, how he talks, looks, and his mood. Make him not show feeling towards anything. Good luck!
as far as making characters 'evil,' for me, it's all about past experiences and motivation. everyone does things for a reason. as for actually -seeming- evil? as in, you can sense the character is a bad guy? it really depends on the story you're trying to tell. If it were me, though, and i wanted everyone to know that a character screams "HATE ME, I'M A VILLAIN!" intolerance, manipulation, and violence are how i tend to get the message across, manipulation being my favorite.
Hi Cazanne, Snap! I just wrote an evil character, an elf named Y'aris, who was based on Hitler's policies and wanted to wipe out the entire human race, along with the dwarves, sprites, gnomes and trolls of course. The evil part of him was easy, I just created a back story for him hating outsiders based on his mother wedding a human after his father ran away, thus disgracing him. But the fun part was making him flawed. I made him a high commander of the elven armies, a position he reached by a mixture of poisoning and demon magic. And then I made him incompetent and completely unable to see his own mistakes. He won the war for the good guys by being a complete failure at military strategy and getting his demon master's armies killed. And at the end, after he was dying a suitably horrible death, I even removed his ability to understand that he'd done evil, so he didn't understand why they were slaughtering him. It was so much fun. Cheers, Greg.
To be fair depends on the readers as well, some might agree more with the antagonist lol. Who hasn't watched a slasher flick full of annoying teens and rooted for the psycho with the machete. I would say just write him as a guy who does things that we would not agree with to get his agenda done. Readers will figure out if he is 'Evil'. Although I agree that real life evil is subjective, in fiction we should be able to underline it just a bit for dramatic effect (so a little push wouldn't hurt). Treat him normally (as you can for a bad guy) and people wont think of him as the mustache twirling evil mad gentleman. Mmmm hahaha
As for evil and the black and white thinking goes: sometimes the villain just needs to be over-the-top evil if you understand what I mean. And for those people , evil "sounding" names help readers empathize easily:for example Randall the next door neighbour doesn't sound as menacing as Ungod the Decayed. Also, if you want to really make a character deadly, make him/her ordinary.... for example: people would look out for Ungod the killer but not for Jason the drifter.... This gives the story a raw edge IMO...
When you think about 'evil' try to avoid the mindset that they are evil, always have and always will be. No one is born evil it is the events in our life that shape someone to be 'evil' and how we deal with the experiences. Break your character down to when they were newborn and write their life story and how they got to where they are. Soon you may realize that maybe your character isn't actually evil, hes a nice guy who does bad things ect. Only you will know how he got to where he is but getting to know your character will help you place him in your story and write more realistically on how he would react, say and do.
those that say their is no such thing as evil never met my ex. ok but in all seriousness their are some people that are so depraved and horrible i dont think their is really a discription for them other then evil. we see these people change history ( the Stalin of the world) and on the street ( serial killers, religious terrorists). unfortunet as it is, sometimes we meet evil and have to face it. lets hope that if any of us do we triumph over it
Morality is relative. An author can write evil into a character if he or she has an understanding of the audience and their essential, shared moral precepts; they will necessarily be different for people raised into different cultural and social mores. We regard cannibalism as depraved; until recently, some aboriginal New Guinean societies regarded it as a ritual custom. The closer an action is to being existentially decisive, the more likely it is to be regarded as good or evil: stealing food from a fellow inmate in a death camp has a different moral value than stealing clothes from a department store; pushing a stroller out of the path of an oncoming car has a different moral value than giving a dollar to the children's fund. These scales of values vary with cultures, and are internalized by most members of those societies; and when those members view their values being wantonly abrogated, they regard the violator as "evil". It need not have a religious underpinning at all. If you're aiming to write realistically, the trick is to include enough of what the audience considers "good" in order to make the evil character seem plausible. To have dimension, your evil character should have some redeeming features, because very few people are purely of one bent or another. Even Hitler loved his dog. Indeed, that sort of internal contradiction in a character often throws the evil into sharp relief, thereby making it more striking. If you're writing fantasy, of course, this post doesn't mean much, because absolutes can exist comfortably there.
Another idea would be to give him an interesting motif. I prefer to use a particular weapon (maybe a cast iron revolver or a nasty switchblade) or an item of significance left with his victims which is traditionally a rose or a business card with an ominous phrase on it. Or just make him a messed bastard that readers love to hate.
Your readers still have to relate to the evil character in some fashion. If he's a super evil (S)he needs to prey on a common subconscious fear. If he is just a very bad person you need to let your readers see he is a bad guy, just don't tell them. Also it's good if you give them a moment where they can empathize with him/her. If he appears to be a victim or even a good guy when you first see him and then he turns on the trust you're reader's have already developed they not only know he's a baddy, the feel that way too.
I´m having some bad guys in my story as well. The thing I did was search for "gang member" pics online and then try describing tattoes, evil features, scars according to that. I once had a good advice that it´s important to have a "picture" of the characters, houses, places you have in the book so it´s easier to describe them and make it belivable. This of course means you can draw and imagine them yourselves but if this is hard then use magazines, internet, tv, whatever sources you have and make it something of your own. It can help to visually see something on front of you. I hope this helps you with the evil character.
I don't have a problem with the "evil" term. Being unable to see the black and the white is a lot more of a narrow view, IMO. There's black, white, and shades of gray and I am of the view that a writer has to be able to see and understand all of them. So I have no problem with a character of mine being evil. If that is what the character is, I honor that and I think that's being more true to the character than trying to cling to some modern "everything's gray" treatment of him. Granted, there are many characters who warrant such a treatment, and when that happens, I do that. But I think evil is a real and unavoidable presence in life and therefore it should be in writing as well. So yes, that's been my approach. I've had villains who I have no problem classifying as "evil." They are not JUST evil. They have motivation like everything else. But I don't avoid calling them evil if that's what they are. Likewise, I've had villains who I don't consider evil even if they do horrible things. As to how to avoid making them cartoons, there's really no one way to do it. It just takes practice of spending time with characters and understanding who they are. It's not about making characters good, evil, or whatever label you want to slap on it. It's about knowing who your characters truly are and writing them as such.
Give him a reason for why he is the way he is. I believe this holds true to reality. We are not born evil or good. We are all dealt cards, some may be more harsh, but it's whether we overcome these things or not. Some have had just too much tragedy to have any good left inside of them, because they dealt differently than another person has. if that makes sense....give them a background, events, stories, reasons why they are what evil being they are now. They may have once been a good person, they may have always leaned towards the darker side of things. You may not ever tell any of their background in the story, but creating one for yourself will help a lot. Think about people and the way people react and are in this world.
The best villains are very believable and seem almost justified. The more character and depth you can give them the better. Often times I will read a book and a villain will be so believable that I will find myself thinking "Wow, that sounds like something that I would do if I had psychological problems". A motive and a reason are absolutely essential. Another route to go, but is much harder is just a brutally evil person without any back story or much of a motive. I am talking about a "joker-like" character, as in a villain similar to the joker from the dark knight. He was never given any sort of motive other than wanting to create disorder and chaos. This type of villain is a lot hard to create without it seeming stupid. The thing with those type of villains is to give them some kind of quirk or edge to make them likable, or better put, enjoyable. For example, the joker was silly and humorous in a very dark way. It's some sort of edge that distinguishes and impossible pure evil character, from a believable evil character with human characteristic.
I recommend you to develop your character in order for him to "come naturally". You could think about these things: - What are his motivations to do what he is doing? - What was his childhood like? Did something happen that made him turn evil? - What are his hobbies? What does he like to do when he is not busy "being evil"? I myself am having some problems with my villain. I am scared that he will turn into "a man isolating himself from the world inside his dark, cobweb-covered living room". I am wondering if I should replace him, as I have someone else in mind. Or.......... I think my villain needs a lot of development!
I think if you read a story with my MC Talia, you'd think otherwise. She's not a boring, staid type of 'good girl' character but one who's actions and moral decisions affect everything she does. And, like Dr. Who, they tend to change depending on the situation and what's going on.
I started this thread and I found the above rather amusing. My EVIL character has no hobbies! Unless you want to call PLOTTING to kill the entire human race, a hobby. The childhood part might be worth using though. My character did have a childhood. Perhaps I can make it a hard one were he was constantly compared to 'others' (humans - he is not human) and he would resent this and through the years plot his revenge - its something for me to think about. Thanks for the suggestion.
