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Forward
Villains. The dark shadows
that hover in the backgrounds of rich worlds, woven words, and silent
nightmares. Often as a writer starting
out on a new venture we pour our hearts and souls into the layers of depth
needed to build a teeming background and vibrant heroes, but in all the rush,
the villain of our little tale is forgotten and left until the last.
What we forget is
that without the dark, we would have no story at all. He gives the heroes something to fight, he
creates the decisions that define how they grow and change, his evil plots and
scurrying minions are the forge that turn our unlikely stars into knights and
ladies of legend. But this evil too, in
all its varied forms, had a beginning.
The key to making an antagonist that brings your story to life is in
understanding him every bit as well as you do your hero. If you were asked to turn about and write a
scene from his perspective, you should be able to do so, and in doing so make
your readers feel as passionately for him as they do when they turn the pages
for the good guys. Love him, hate him,
fear him, or pity him, his dynamic will define your book.
I recommend that
you approach this workshop with some concept of your story or your world in
mind. It does not need to be fully
formed- concrete details are often the last things to fall into place for
me. To start in a complete void,
however, can be overwhelming. The
process of character creation, whether mastermind or mouse, requires details
that can only be pulled from the tapestry of your world itself. If you start with nothing, you may well find
that by the time you have made one character, half a world and almost a whole
story have come along with it. That
said, never fear a good tangent. If any
question or answer about your character sparks further exploration, then follow
the web it spins with excitement and passion.
No one questionnaire, workshop, or guide is going to have all the right
answers. The best we can hope for is to
produce something that helps to awaken your own inspiration. These are not character creators, these are
characters scavenger hunts. All we can
do is give you the map and the key, and set you free. Go, write, trade words for new life.
So, that said, let’s
get down to the business of creating this monster, this madman, the boogeyman
of your choice. It is my hope that this
workshop will help you think a little more deeply about the man or woman behind
the shroud.
~L.A Erickson
The Mind Behind the Mask: a psychological approach to creating villains
Building Blocks: Before we
get too deeply into the mind and motivations of your next great mastermind, let’s
build a base upon which to lay our creation. These are the questions that give
us something solid to work with, while beginning to set the stage for our
creation.
Gender: This greatly colors how we
see the world. No matter how much we may
want to believe that we are free of such distinction, it will always play a
part. Men tend towards decisions made through logic. Women tend towards decisions made through
emotion. Of course there are exceptions,
men can be just as emotional, and women just as logical, but there are
innate tendencies.
·
Is your
character male or female?
·
How strongly do
they identify with their gender?
·
Have they ever
been persecuted/exulted because of gender?
·
How do they
perceive/stereotype the opposite gender?
·
Will they treat
men/women differently when making decisions?
For example execution/reward/assignment.
Race/species: Whether you are writing historical
fantasy, steampunk, or high Fantasy, there is a good chance you have lines and
barriers drawn by race, species, or cultural boundary. If you are working in world where there is no
real separation of race or species, move on to the next section.
What is your
character’s race/species?
Are they a
minority or a majority?
What is the
most prominent stereotype about their race/species?
How do they
identify with their race/species? Love? Hate?
Have they ever
been persecuted because of their race/species?
Skills: Mage, soldier, king or spy.
The skill set that a person wields defines what they may think they are
capable of. A soldier won’t feel he can
call down rain, a mage may not like to use weapons. This category may not have much to do with
the way your villain consciously thinks, but it will greatly affect how he
subconsciously deals with matters.
§ What is your Villain’s job?
§ How did he obtain this job?
Hard work/bribes/birthright?
§ What is his strongest skill? Fighting/magic/strategy?
§ Is his strongest skill the same as what he perceives his
strongest skill to be?
Into the Mind: moving more
deeply into what it is that makes your Big Bad tick, let’s look at the things
that prowl deep in his motives. The
motivation that drives the good villain to do what he does may be a delightful
combination of the conscious and subconscious, known and unknown desires. Moving through several categories of motives and
questions to help you explore those motives, let your villain speak to you,
discovering what blend of these moves him forward day after day.
I will define motivations in two ways. Positive motivation, and negative
motivation. Positive is defined by gain. You receive something. Positive motivation would be the desire to obtain
power/gold/magical items/love, etc.
Negative is defined by loss. The
taking away of something. Negative
motivation would be the fear of losing power/gold/magical items/love etc.
Each of the categories below should be developed and utilized if
you feel this is an accurate motivation for your character, and only skimmed or
passed over if you find that it is not relevant for him or her.
I often find that the characters who are the most fully realized
are unaware of their Fear, or at least unwilling to consciously admit to
it. The excuse they then use is in the
Control category, their active response to their passive Fear. Fear and Control are therefore two halves to
a coin, something to keep in mind as you plan your world domination.
Fear: Fear can be one of the
most powerful driving forces behind what we choose to do and not do. Generally a negative motivation, many fears
are subconscious, and compensated for by actions. A deep-seated fear that your villain may not
be willing to face can define his desperate behavior, his need to succeed, and
many forms of violence and anger.
What intangible
thing does your villain fear losing the most? (power/control/attention/etc)
How did he gain
this in the first place?
(fear/birthright/etc)
What first made
him realize that it could be lost?
Here is some more detailed expansion on those questions you may
want to pursue if you find that your Big Bad is responding to your questions
favorably.
v The Fear of Losing Control
o
What is it that
your character currently feels that he has control of? Is it political, like trade routes, the
creation/enforcement of laws, or the entire government itself? Is it a business, a world, or even just one
family?
o
What has made
him think that his control is slipping?
Did minion #463 defect? Stand up
to him? mutiny?
o
Why does he
feel that his control is necessary? If
this is the one thing he just can’t let slip through his fingers, why?
v The Fear of Losing Love
o
Has your
villain been left already or does he just think he will be?
o
Is he losing
something/someone he loves(death, kidnapping etc), or does he perceive that
someone who loves him is going to stop doing so?(betrayal, an affair, etc)
o
What or who is
he losing?
v The Fear of Losing Attention
o
Is he
worshipped, either as a god or a king?
o
Does he panic
when he’s not the center of attention, feel his power and control slipping
away?
v The Fear of Losing Wealth
o
How did he come
by his money in the first place?
o
Why doesn’t he
feel safe without it?
o
What else will
he lose as a direct result of his plunging fortunes?
v The Fear for his Life
o
Why does he
feel personal danger? Is someone after
him? What gave him this impression
o
Does he
perceive himself as to weak to protect himself as he is now?
o
Did real or
imagined danger trigger this response?
o
What was the
trigger?
Control: Maybe your villain isn’t
motivated by anything in the fear category, maybe it’s hubris or good ol’
fashioned dementia. Or maybe the Big Bad
is now a terrified little child cowering in your mind looking for the monsters
under the bed. How does he get from
there to the towering dark master of evil?
Through the actions he takes to gain control of his fears, or to inflate
his ballooning pride. These are the
positive motivations. The motivation to
gain, to possess, not the fear of loss. Let’s
look at your various options in depth.
ü Control over Self
o
Do his own
actions sometimes betray and unnerve him, leading him to want greater control?
o
Does he do
things that even he doesn’t understand?
o
Has he lost
control in the past, perhaps with disastrous results?
§ If so, what happened?
o
Does he have
powers/abilities/etc that he wants to gain control over?
ü Control over Situations/Knowledge
o
Does he
panic/get angry if things don’t go exactly his way?
o
Does he have
trouble adapting quickly to changes in plan/environment/situation?
o
Has he felt
helpless in the past in some situation where he had no control?
§ Does he think this could happen again, and is he preparing for it?
ü Control over Love
o
Does he love
something (real or imagined) that he perceives as out of reach?
o
Does he feel
that his love takes priority, giving him a right to do as he pleases, makes
decisions arbitrarily?
ü Control over Others
o
Does he need to
be the center of attention, admired?
Why?
o
What does he
think others should see in him?
o
What traits
does he think are his best, that should be recognized by all? His benevolence? His altruism?
His eye for art?
Family
o
Did he know his
parents/siblings?
o
Are they still
living, or dead?
o
How did they
die?
o
About which
family member does your villain feel most strongly? (love or hate)
o
Do they
recognize or avoid the strength of these emotions?
o
How were they
treated by their family members?
o
If they were to
achieve their ultimate goals without interference from the protagonist, how
would they then include/treat/reward/punish their family?
Friends
o
Do they inspire
loyalty in others?
o
How do they
accomplish this? (fear/charisma/love)
o
Are they loyal
in return to those who are loyal to them?
o
Do they have
any friends who see things the same way they do?
o
Do they plan to
include anyone else in their plans? (Ex: deposing a monarch for a sibling’s
sake, sharing ultimate power with a cohort, etc)
o
How does that
other person feel about this? Approval? Disapproval?
o
Have they ever
cared about or thought they cared about someone?
o
How did they
lose the person closest to them?
Views
o
What does he
see as his greatest accomplishment?
o
What does he
see as his worst failure?
o
How has that
made him pursue his current goals?
o
Does he blame
others for the failure or himself?
o
Is he
optimistic or pessimistic? How does this affect the way he sees his goal?
o
Does he think
he’s making the world a better place?
How?
o
If not, how
does he expect to gain from a worse world?
The protagonist
o
Is he aware of
the protagonist initially?
o
Is his conflict
with the protagonist personal, or incidental?
o
Personal: He is
in direct opposition from the start. The
goal has to do with the prot.
§ Revenge? If so, for
what? Is the insult perceived or real?
§ Competition? Are their goals
similar? The same throne/woman/item.
§ Were they once friends?
Family?
·
Was the event
that cause their falling out about the story goal, or something unrelated?
§ Needs something the prot. Has.
Power/skills/item
o
Incidental: The opposition occurred later. The goal was separate from the prot.
o
How does he
react when he is ignored or disregarded
Among all these options and ways of looking at your character, I
hope that you also consider that he may just plain enjoy the game. It thrills him, it pleases him. But ask yourself why? Hopefully he is more than just a sadistic
bastard from birth. He has loved. He has feared. He has hated.
He has felt passion and loss, regret and joy. I hope you know have a better idea of why and
how.
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