Villains a la Carte

“Up to no good, I love plottin',
'Cause I'm so good when I'm rotten.
No more Mr. Nice Guy, wait and see.

I'll become that nasty, naughty, very spiteful,
Wicked, wayward, way delightful,
Bad guy I was born to be.

Lying, loathsame, never tender,
Indiscreet repeat offender.
No more Mr. Nice Guy, that's not me.”

~Rothbart

The Swan Princess

Let's talk about bad guys.

I have written and completed four novel length stories. I use the word completed a bit loosely, but, hey, it counts as far as I'm concerned. Lately, I've been working out a new story idea in my head, and I feel really good about it. This one's going to get written and finished, too! I can feel it! But there are aspects of it that are tripping me up, and one of them is, well, the bad guy. See, I have no idea why, but from one story to the next, I can have a well-rounded bad guy that I love to write about and then have a villain who's absolutely flat. You know, the kind of bad guy that you could replace with a cardboard cutout labeled “Evil” and none of the other characters would notice anything was amiss. I really don't understand it. This new villain of mine is trying really hard to fall into the "Flat" category, even though I keep telling him not to. It's gotten me thinking lately about just what it is that makes a good bad guy. There's got to be some kind of formula out there. If I could just figure out what it is, I could use it to help out Mr. New Villain.

Well, after much thought, observation, and study, I have come up with the following.

Sarah's Recipe for Villains a la Carte

(Produces 1 serving of Main Antagonist. Results may vary.)

Step 1) Combine 1 Cup Early Entry, with 2 Cups Evil Deeds.

I used to be, back in the day, hooked on a book series called "Redwall" by Brian Jacques (pronounced "Jakes"). Now, good ol' Brian definitely had a formula for his novels. In fact, after a while, some of his fans began to complain that they were reading the same novel over and over again. But, hey, the formula was serving him well, and if it's not broke, don't fix it. Part of his formula that I grew to love was that the very first chapter of every book featured the villain. The heroes entered on Chapter Two. But that first chapter would always show the bad guy and show him doing something particularly despicable. This was a good method for a story because the reader knew from the very beginning that there was definitely a problem in the Redwall world, and they knew just how big and bad the problem was.

          Now, I'm certainly not saying the bad guy has to be there in Chapter One, but get him in there early. We want to know what the hero is up against. There are exceptions to this, of course. In fact, in mysteries, revealing the baddy at the very end is the entire point (but I tried writing a mystery once and it didn't go so well). There are also times when it's part of the story line that the heroes have to figure out who the bad guy is and then there's a plot twist when the true identity of the villain is revealed. This is okay, too, but I prefer if the author would please leave room after the big reveal for more conflict between the heroes and villain before the climax. Just please don't show the villain's face for the first time just in time for the finale. (Trigun, I'm totally looking at you.)

Step 2) Slowly stir in Character Development.

Make the bad guy someone interesting. There are a lot of different seasonings you can use to do this. Pick one, or more than one. It's all to taste in this part of the recipe. (Also, seasoning can be added whenever you like in a story. It doesn't have to happen at a certain time.)

           Seasoning Option 1) Give the villain something that makes them attractive, impressive, or even admirable. Make us like them. Some bad guys are just plain good looking guys (and can be charming to boot). That'll win them a lot of fan(girl)s. Some bad guys don't have good looks as their selling point, but instead are incredibly talented. Perhaps they're of the evil genius/mad scientist category. Perhaps they're a prodigy of some kind. Or maybe the villain's selling point is that, if they didn't have the whole evil thing going on, they would be someone a person would find rather admirable. Maybe they're charismatic and friendly and able to win people over. Maybe they're hardworking and patient. Maybe they honestly think what they're doing is right and, even though they're obviously confused, you have to hand it to them for trying to be good. Whatever the strong point of the villain ends up being, it's going to win us over, or, at least, gain them a little grudging respect. And they're definitely going to end up using their strong points to further their evil plans.

           Seasoning Option 2) Give the villain something a little pitiful. Make us feel for them. There are a lot of ways this one can be done as well. Some villains are unlucky in love. Poor guy. He'll never get the girl. Some villains just want to be loved in any way, shape, or form. What they're doing is trying to take over the world, but this is actually a desperate cry for attention. Some villains are after revenge and actually have pretty good reason to be. They've been terribly mistreated in the past. Whatever it is that makes them pitiful, it's almost always linked directly to their motivation for their evil deeds.

           Seasoning Option 3) Give the villain a history. Make us understand why they are the way they are. Sometimes the events at hand aren't directly responsible for the villain's evilness. Sometimes it's something that has happened in the past that's gotten their little brains all twisted up and evil. Whatever it is, it's usually something bad... actually, it's usually downright traumatic. (This seasoning is usually used along side the “Pity” seasoning.)

           Seasoning Option 4) Give the villain some humor. This is sort of a tricky one to use. There are a lot of variables. For one, some villains are meant to be liked and some villains are meant to be hated. If the villain is funny, they're going to be liked, so decide beforehand just how much you want the readers to like the villain. Also, making your villain your comic relief character will give a certain atmosphere to the story. If you're going for something light-hearted and even a little silly, it can work wonderfully. If you want something serious, then the villain needs to be serious. The exception is making the villain occasionally witty in a serious story. This works really well when combined with the seasoning labeled “Attractive.”

Step 3) Allow to simmer, stirring frequently.

Now that we've got a bad guy, don't leave him on the back burner. Keep showing him and keep him interesting.

           Throughout the course of the story the readers are going to be following the heroes. But once in a while, it's nice to see that, yes, the bad guy is still there, and, yes, the bad guy is still evil, and, yes, the bad guy is still sexy or ingenious or crying himself to sleep or whatever it is he's good at, and, yes, he is still actively working toward his master plan.

Step 4) Serve hot for climax.

Here he is, our completed villain. The climax is his opportunity to shine. This is where the bad guy's plans are about to see fruition and he's determined to see them happen. He's taking the gloves off for this one. The hero's really going to be looking for a fight, so don't disappoint him.

Well, there you have it! The recipe for a villain! Now let's see if I can follow my own recipe as I work on my latest baddy. Maybe this recipe will help some of my fellow writers as well.

And what about you guys? Who are some of your favorite villains and what makes them so good?