It's Good to be Bad

 So, again it has been an inordinately long time since my last blog post. But I have a good reason this time. I have been busy plotting various nefarious and otherwise evil schemes to "Take over the World". Seriously, I have been scheming day and night in order to get into the proper headspace to write about villainy

  There is nothing I like more as an amateur actor, and game master than playing a villain. There is just something so exciting and liberating about being able to "break the rules" and be "above the law". Unfortunately, in most cases I get cast as the the stolid confidant of the lead or as plucky comic relief. So when I have a chance to create a villain for my writing I savor those opportunities. Let's dig into a process you can use to make really nasty, but still multi-dimensional villains. Remember this is "A method" not "The method". Pick and choose what you find useful, as always, and trash or recycle the rest.

  Sure, the mustache twisting, ego maniacal villains that populate cartoons and James Bond films of the 60s and 70s are fun, but I find them shallow. Often they have only just one motivation, one goal and one method of achieving them. Think about real life for us; the heroes of our own stories. Many of us have side hustles or second jobs to meet the goals of food, space and mates as outlined by Maslov in his famous hierarchy of needs to say nothing about methods we might try to reach the higher parts of that hierarchy of self esteem needs and self actualization. So is it fair for a villain to have only one mode of operating, one plan or just one goal? Definitely not.  They need to be at least as complicated as your average person on the street.

   Actors often espouse the idea of needing motivation for their characters, that is just as true for villains. A villain wants something or someone. Ok, let's choose which. Are they obsessed with a object of power or a secret formulae for immortality. Is it the experience they crave. Do they covet the adoration that heroes get for being goody goody all the time or is it more sinister, like the feel of life draining from a victim's body as they crush their larynx. Is it the One Ring sort of thing or is it fame, or in the most common trope, is it love? 

    Yeah, villains want love, too. Some of the most compelling and enduring villains started their journeys to evil because of love lost. Darth Vader, for one, started his fall to the dark side due to overwhelming grief over Padme's death and his inability, even with all his power, to save her. That is another theme in villainy. Impotence. 

    There is usually something in their history that they have not been able to do. Maybe it is strictly consummating a relationship in the dictionary definition of impotence. But it could be any other lack of power, too. Lack of control over their environment or upbringing often brings out the devil in our favorite villains. In real life there is a psychological correlation in some cases of spousal abuse or assault in general, that the perpetrator was once abused in their past. It is not a sure thing that an abuse child will grow into an abuser themselves, but it is certainly possible in your story if you decide your villain acts this way because it gives them a feeling of power that they were denied in their youth.

    So let's go back to that for a moment, why do they want what they want? Some would consider western expansion in the United States in the 1800's as "evil" and there certainly were some crimes perpetrated on Native peoples. I will never minimize that, but let's get inside the head of that perpetrator. or any colonialist. Many believe what they are doing is justified because without expansion and additional resources (i.e. space- per Maslow) they will suffer or die. They must expand because space is one of the most basic of needs. Maybe your villain is swindling people out of their land because they want to resell it to the railroad that is coming through. They are only doing that because they owe a debt to the railroad baron and then will get out from under that if they can provide cheap land to lay down steel. 

       The long and short of it is this, villains are really only as good as what drives them. They need to feel a reason to get up in the morning and put on the black hat and cause pain, hate and destruction just like a hero needs inspiration to fight back. Motivation is at the core of all memorable characters. It is also the fundament question asked in your philosophy and psychology classes and is taught in detective school. Why? If you understand the why the villain's actions become comprehensible. Even if you disagree with the motives at least if they have them you can see the logic in their crimes. 

    So so close out, think about your villain like a clay sculpture. this motivation is at their very core, it is the bundle of sticks you put together to make a rough shape before you add any clay. The clay is all the descriptors and mannerisms you'll use to differentiate your villain from all the other mustache twisters that have ever existed. We'll talk about quirks, foibles and other oddities next time. 

Now get back to creating!