Bad guys are fun. A lot of the time, the baddies end up being the best-loved characters from a franchise! (There are certainly a lot of very, er, steamy fanfics out there about a lot of villains.)
For me, though, making sure my antagonists are compelling isn’t always the easiest thing. I often have a sense of who I want them to be, but not so much what I want them to do. For some reason, I find it tricky to have my antagonists present, motivated, and actually achieving things as a real force for evil and source of conflict.
If you don’t have this problem, brilliant! But if you do, maybe one of these three tips might help.
1. Know Their Plan
This is something I’ve picked up from role-playing games, funnily enough. See, in RPGs, the heroes are often free to just faff about as much as they like. Just seen the Big Bad Evil Guy claim the artifact he needs to destroy the world? No problem: chilling in this village doing sidequests and shopping for a few weeks should be fine. He’ll still be waiting when we get there, right?
Well, no. An effective villain wouldn’t sit around waiting to be interrupted. They’d be working to complete their plan independently, and if they’re left to their own devices long enough… well, you’ve got to imagine they’ll manage to finish it. (Such as in one of the great villain monologues, ‘I did it thirty-five minutes ago’. I won’t spoil who says that or in what story, but if you know, you know!)
So this is tip number one: map out what your villain’s steps to success are. On the road to achieving their goals, what are their key milestones and objectives? If there were no barriers to completing their plan and they were just left to get on with it, what would the ideal sequence of events look like for them?
You can then situate that in your overall narrative by having your heroes become those barriers, interrupting their plan at critical moments. This way, it feels as if your villain is actively working to destroy the world (or whatever) rather than passively sitting back and waiting to come into conflict with your protagonist(s).
2. Let Them Win
A lot of tried-and-true story structures feature a low point: a moment where the hero seems to have lost everything. Failure seems inevitable, morale is at an all-time rock bottom, and the quest just seems impossible.
A simple way of introducing that low point is to have the villain (probably only temporarily) win. Let them succeed at one key stage of their plan, forcing the heroes to get active to undo whatever horrible things have happened. Maybe they kill off a beloved good guy.
I think this only really works if the consequences feel significant and earned. It’s not just a Worf effect thing where you have the villain come in and beat up someone strong to show they’re stronger. It’s about really changing the status quo, causing lasting effects that the rest of the story will have to work to resolve.
3. Understand What Motivates Them
OK, so understanding motivations is character work 101, but I think it’s key for effective villains. Why do they want to complete their evil plan? What makes it so very important that they succeed, and so terrible when the heroes throw a spanner in the works?
These days, people sort of expect antagonists to be a bit more complex than the archetypical Supervillain Who Wants To Blow Up The World Just Because. I mean, there’s still a place for those. Heck, there’s also a very valid place for stories with no real concrete bad guy, or totally non-traditional approaches to conflict and antagonism. For now, though, let’s assume we do in fact have a defined villain. They’re probably not just trying to rule the world for funsies. There’s some reason for it. Maybe it’s a psychological complex, maybe they’re under orders from an extradimensional ultra-powerful being, maybe they’re trying to fulfil their dead sibling’s dream, I don’t know.
The point is that knowing why your antagonist wants to carry out whatever evil plan they have helps remind you that they’re going to be active at all points in your story. They’re going to be thinking about how to guard against threats to their plan, they’re going to be taking steps to further their goals, they’re going to be actively trying to achieve something.
I think it’s actually not so much that they want to do a thing as that they have some reason they need to not fail at doing the thing. Keep that in mind, and you might find your antagonist becomes more active, stepping out of a background role and into the glorious limelight.
Try it out!
Let me know if any of these tips work for you – if not, that’s totally fine! Write how you want to write. Christ knows I’m not qualified to give advice, I’m just parroting tricks I’ve picked up from other people that worked for me.
For more such parroted tricks, check out my tips and resources page.
Chris Durston 