Week 12 Lab - Rules for Creating a Villain

·      7 Deadly Rules for Creating a Villain - Link

o   Every story has a villain – they help add conflict to the story

o   A villain needs to be credible, logical, and believable

§  Does not need to be likeable

o   The reader should understand why the antagonist is doing “bad” things, and why they believe that their actions are justified and rational

o   1. Find a compelling reason to be bad

§  They should have a reason for their bad behavior

o   2. Find the Good in the Bad

§  No one is bad to the bone. Dig deeper and find the small bit of humanity left inside them

o   3. Write Against a Stereotype

§  Balance the villain’s internal darkness with their outer demeanor and behavior

·      Ex: a witch that wears pink cardigans and is polite

o   4. Nurse that Grudge!

§   Feed your villain’s obsession if they’ve been cheated out of something by the hero

o   5. Imagine You’re the Hero’s Evil Twin

§  Imagine the villain as a shadow of the hero

·      Ex: give him the opposite traits to your main character

o   6. Show Your Villain Up

§  Make subtle changes to a villain’s appearance like a club foot

o   7. Relish the Fantasy

§  This is the only chance you get to be bad – have fun with it! 

 Villain

Story Laboratory: TVTropes

I can’t believe that I never tried to use TVTropes as a resource for my stories before! I found several tropes that I have thought of before, but I would really like to expand on in my stories. I like learning the “official” names of these ideas.

·      Heroic Second Wind

o   Generally involves a climactic battle between the hero/heroine and the final boss

o   The hero/heroine may be severely injured in the battle and may appear to be on the verge of death or defeat

o   Sometimes the hero/heroine’s family is there to witness their devastating defeat, which contributes to the hero/heroine’s despair

o   Something contributes to the hero/heroine’s power up and there is no doubt that he/she will defeat the bad guy despite severe injuries

o   Another way to do this trope:

§  Your cause is so important that you have no choice to refuse

·      An example of a cause is that a loved one is in danger

o   I would like to try to write a story involving a hero/heroine that is battling a formidable adversary that he/she knows she has no chance of defeating just to protect a loved one. There would probably be a plot twist that the hero/heroine has some hidden power that allows them to defeat the adversary, but such a power would come at a price, which leads to another trope

·      Super-Powered Evil Side

o   In this trope, the fight is not in favor of the hero/heroine

o   There is something that triggers the activation of a massive hidden power that allows him/her the strength/power to fight back again, except this time he/she is stronger

o   The power, however, changes the hero/heroine  

o   I would like to play around with this trope by having a hero/heroine tap into that power, which would ultimately cause him/her lose control and just go berserk and decimate the enemy

·      Unstoppable Rage

o   An alternative idea I have for the super-powered evil side is unstoppable rage that powers the hero/heroine and grants him/her the power to defeat the enemy

o   Once you make the hero/heroine furious, the rage will generally make them unstoppable

 Television. Source: Pixabay.

Those are just a couple of my favorite tropes!