How do you write a great villain? A memorable villain. A believable villain. Even a supervillain. What if your villain is the protagonist in the story? ( He is in one of mine.) What character traits make a great villain? Can you make a villain lovable or likable?

Villain tropes are boring. You need to add nuance and layers to your villain, bad guy, or antagonist.

In this episode, I share 14 ways you can add, nuance, complexity, and depth to the villain in your novel and story.

✅ My article on how I made, super villain Vlad Dracula a romantic lead in The Impaler’s Wife can be found at: https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/newswire/2019/05/29/character-study-how-vlad-the-impaler-became-a-romantic-lead

? Find all my books, social media, and/or get new episodes sent to your inbox at https://linktr.ee/AutumnBardot depth and complexity to your villain. Give them some endearing traits.   

 

 

1. Give the villain an endearing nickname.

2. Make the villain intelligent, clever, and analytical. A thinker.

3. Make villain a good father/mother/pet owner/ etc

4. Have the villain be a kind lover.

5. Make the villain’s love interest be genuinely good.

6. Have the villain be reliable…mostly.

7. Make the villain spiritual.

8. Make the villain’s doing bad things about business. He’s just doing his job.

9. Give the villain hardships. Even better, trauma.

10. Make the villain be understanding or sympathetic.

11. Give the villain a tough childhood.

12. Make the villain’s quest be about returning home.

13. Give the villain the traits of a Homeric hero. The traits are: having/maintaining their honor; physical prowess; having minions; caring about the wellbeing of those minions, and being the best at something.

14. Make Good Person try to kill the villain first.

Mix & Match!

#writeagreatvillain #greatantagonist #villaincharacteristics