Fascinating. I've been trying to wrap my head around a villain character I want in one of my books. Back stories are important, and until I can think of a compelling reason that he turned to a life of crime and built a small army, I've got to keep him nameless. It's a shame really, because he'd be the perfect foil for my Reve Character.
Not,necessarily germane (OK maybe successful villain germane depending on which side of politics you feel the villainy lies.) but I'm dropping back by here to post from Don Surber's substack; ITEM 2: Rob Henderson tweeted, "Hillbilly Elegy is now #1 on Amazon. The lengths some authors will go to sell books is truly incredible.”
Thanks for sharing this. Creating a believable, 3-D villain is hard! I found the book "The Sociopath Next Door", by Martha Stout, to be super helpful when I was developing a villain.
Fascinating. I've been trying to wrap my head around a villain character I want in one of my books. Back stories are important, and until I can think of a compelling reason that he turned to a life of crime and built a small army, I've got to keep him nameless. It's a shame really, because he'd be the perfect foil for my Reve Character.
Not,necessarily germane (OK maybe successful villain germane depending on which side of politics you feel the villainy lies.) but I'm dropping back by here to post from Don Surber's substack; ITEM 2: Rob Henderson tweeted, "Hillbilly Elegy is now #1 on Amazon. The lengths some authors will go to sell books is truly incredible.”
;-)
Thanks for sharing this. Creating a believable, 3-D villain is hard! I found the book "The Sociopath Next Door", by Martha Stout, to be super helpful when I was developing a villain.
My first thought was "Successful Villain, but I want his schemes to fail!" [Crazy Grin]
Seriously, very good post.
Yes! We want him to be believable, but not *too* good!
Give him a weak point based on his villainy. The envious fairy tale villain who can not make allies because his envy makes him too suspicious.
Based on his villainy or perhaps an O. Henry twist(ed) one.
Lactose intolerant villain; "Foiled again, the dastards put milk in my beer!"