[Note from Frolic: We’re so excited to have author Sara B. Larson guest posting on the site today. She’s talking all things villains…and why we love to hate them. Take it away, Sara!]
In all of the best stories—the ones that stick with us, that linger in our memories and entice us to want to revisit them again and again—there are a few commonalities. Perhaps a tightly woven, exciting plot, or settings that drip with decadent detail. Most definitely dynamic characters that are interesting and relatable. Yes, all of the characters. Even the villain.
It has been said your hero can only be as strong as they are in correlation to the strength of their opponent. Hence, if your villain is weak, your protagonist will be as well. And I’m not talking about needing to make your mean girl or bad boy go do some more bicep curls at the gym. (Or throw a few more axes if it’s fantasy and gyms are few and far between.) I’m talking about strength in their character development.
I’m sure most aspiring or published authors have heard the adage “everyone is the hero of their own story” by now, but it’s shared often because it’s true. When you are creating your antagonist, you need to know their backstory, their motives, their dreams and goals, just as well as you know your protagonist’s. To make a villain strong, dynamic and truly fascinating, you have to be able to understand why they think what they’re doing is right—why their actions are justified in their minds. It might take a lot of time for the reasons to be brought to light, or you may not ever show all of it in your books, but you—as the author—must know them, and use that knowledge to shape your villain’s choices and actions so that they are not only believable (at least on some level), but also cohesive throughout your story.