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Your villain is one of the most important characters in your story—and one of the

hardest to write well.

You need to give your hero a worthy opponent. A strong villain raises the stakes,

increases the tension, and challenges the hero. A weak villain will only weaken

your story.

Villains are actually fascinating characters and can be some of the most fun to

write! In this e-book we will cover:

 the different degrees of evilness in villains

 exploring your villain’s past

learned not only how to develop epic villains, but also how to love them.

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Well hey there! It’s lovely to meet you! My

name is Kaitlin, and I’m a story addict

(Wow, that totally sounded like one of

those addiction recovery meeting

introductions).

I’ve been studying and practicing the art of writing for years, and I’ve learned loads

about what works in a story and what doesn’t. Especially when it comes to writing

villains. You should have seen some of my first villains—they were definitely cringe

worthy!

I’m going to give you the details on how to write epic, evil villains that will inspire

fear and loathing in your readers. The kinds of villains that twist your stomach, give

you chills, and make you lie awake at night.

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One of the first things you will need to decide is just how evil is your villain

anyway? Is he pure evil, or does he have more grey areas? Was he born this way or

did something happen to mold him into a villain?

When done right, this sort of villain can be terrifying. However, many readers also

like more grey villains who have good and evil qualities. Yet another type of villain

you could use is one who is mentally unstable, psychotic, or a sociopath.

Consider what genre you are writing. If you are writing fantasy or a fairytale, it is

more traditionally accepted in those genres for the villain to be pure evil (though

he definitely doesn’t have to be!). If you’re writing something contemporary or

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People don’t wake up one morning and decide to be evil—villains act the way they

do for a reason. In every story there is a moment when the hero decides to

become a hero. What was the moment when your villain decided to become a

Something had to happen to make your villain the way he is now. For example, in

Disney’s Malificent, we find out that Malificent turns evil because she was

betrayed by the man she loved.

Also, consider what your villain was like before he became evil. In Star Wars,

Anakin was a loyal and talented Jedi with a loving wife before he became Darth

Vader. Has your villain always been susceptible or drawn to evil, or was he once

respectable and honorable? What caused his downfall?

Our past shapes who we become. Take the time to learn as much about your

villain’s past as you can in order to understand him, even if you don’t include all of

the information in your novel.

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Villains are human, just like your hero. Sometimes we tend to forget that because

a villain’s terrible actions can make him seem inhuman. Some villains are ruthless

and cold-hearted and will kill and torture without the slightest twinge of guilt.

human, not a robot, and therefore not immune to emotion.

It’s important to humanize your villain by giving him hopes, dreams, fears,

weaknesses, and even positive traits or a sympathetic quality. People are a mix of

good and bad, and writing a villain this way makes him more realistic and

frightening because he could be anyone—even us!

You should develop your villain with as much depth as you give your hero. You

should know everything about him—his childhood, his regrets, his best memories,

his family, his talents, what he loves, what he hates, how he views himself, his

perception of the world, what made him become a villain…don’t be afraid to dig

deep!

You may not include all of this information about your villain in your story, but

getting to know him will help you to write him with confidence. It will also bring

him to life for the reader. And when he feels real that makes him frightening—no

one is afraid of a cookie-cutter, cardboard villain!

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Everyone wants something, whether it’s a new phone, to recover from an illness,

to graduate college, or to get the job. Do you know what it is your villain wants?

What is his specific goal that is driving his actions? Does he want power? A girl?

to get what he wants—and that is where he comes into conflict with your hero.

You will also need to consider why your villain wants what he wants. What is his

motivation? Why is he willing to go to such lengths and commit such atrocities?

Your villain needs a reason that he thinks is a good one—even if it’s really a

terrible justification.

For example, consider Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars. He wanted more power than

the Jedi could give him, so he turned to the dark side. But why? People just don’t

turn evil without reason. His motivation was his love for Padme—he was trying to

gain enough power to save her from dying as he had seen in his vision. Even

though he had good intentions, he went about it the wrong way.

Another example is Harry Osborne in the original Spider-Man films. He wanted to

kill Spider-Man. Why? He was motivated by revenge—he believed Spider-Man

murdered his father. Whatever cause you give your villain to fight for, make sure

he has a personal stake in it!

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Your villain should give readers the chills and fill them with loathing. We should be

afraid of what he’s capable of and what he might do to the hero. But how do you

make your villain scary and despicable? Well, there are better ways than to have

inflicting pain (and maybe even enjoys it), abuses whatever power he holds over

the hero (for example, blackmail or threatening loved ones), and insanity (insane

people are unpredictable; think of the Joker, or Ramsay in Game of Thrones).

All of those things will make readers hate as well as fear your villain, but there are

Consider creating a villain who is a hypocrite—you know, the kind of baddie who

does all their dirty deeds in secret but wears a halo in public and pretends to be

righteous and innocent (for example, Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter). You could

also make your villain a traitor like Hans in Frozen. Seeing a character we thought

was a good guy turn on the hero we love makes us furious. Why? Because we too

feel betrayed: “We believed in you! We were rooting for you! How could you?”

Now it’s personal. We demand to see their butt kicked.

Finally, any time your villain harms (physically or emotionally) your hero or kills a

beloved character, this will also increase your reader’s fear and hatred toward

him.

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You know what kind of villain isn’t scary? The one who goes around talking big and

threatening the hero but never actually acts on these threats and can’t seem to

put a scratch on him. And we’re supposed to be afraid of his guy? The last thing

You know what this means? You hero can’t always win. He needs to lose some

battles. He can’t save everyone and everything from the villain—in order for us to

fear the villain we need to see that he is capable of succeeding in his plans. If your

villain makes a threat he needs to follow through on it! If he says he’s going to

burn a city, have him burn the city. If he says he’s going to kill someone, have him

kill them. If he says he’s going to make the hero pay, make the hero pay.

Your villain needs to back up his reputation with his actions. Think of Voldemort in

Harry Potter. You know why he was so scary? Because if he said he was going to do

something awful, he did it. We knew Voldemort meant business—he didn’t make

idle threats!

Don’t let your hero always escape unscathed by the villain. Every time your hero

encounters your villain there should be consequence for your hero, whether it’s

physical or emotional. Your reader will wonder how in the world your hero can

defeat your villain, and they’ll stick around to find out!