Genre Writing: Horror – Crafting the Villain

Oh yes my favourite part of writing horror. The villain. The antagonist. The creature of the dark who stalks their prey with nothing more than malice and a sick, twisted mind. *cue scary music

Okay no that’s not at all what I will be doing. Instead, think of a villain you hate and ask yourself why your hate them. Is it because of what they do? Who they are?

Do you understand why they do what they do?

If you take a look at a lot of villains, from the Joker to the Wicked Witch of the West to Megatron, there is more to their villainy than just pure evil. Each one has some sort of goal, and the only real difference between them and the hero, is that they don’t mind doing the dirty work to achieve that goal. (except you Captain Jack Sparrow – damn pirates). Like an athlete who is willing to trip their competitor (or break their ankle) beforehand in order to win the race.

Also, it’s important to humanize the villain. It makes them relatable and likable, which means you’ll hate/love them more for it. So, how do we do that?

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Creating the Perfect Villain

Last week’s post “Genre Writing: Crafting a Character” can be applied to creating the perfect villain. Individuality, motivation, conflict, character flaws and strengths. You must know who they are before they became a villain. Who they are during their villainy, and who they become afterwards.

Multidimensional Villains

No one likes a boring character, let alone a boring villain. So how do you make them interesting? Well, you make them complicated. Consider your own personality, life, character traits, faults and successes. Are they all simple? I hardly think so.

• Mentally-Multidimensional

Here you consider the intellect of your villain. Are they simple-minded with focus on a single goal and nothing else. Or are they highly intelligent and able to manipulate, and figure out ways to reach their goals. Nothing bores me more than a villain who doesn’t seem to have thought things through and keeps getting foiled (unless its for comedic effect, though even that has limits).

At the same time, when you compare a zombie to a vampire, you can see how both these undead entities vary in intelligence and yet both those attributes are scary in their own way.

• Emotionally-Multidimensional

Is your villain angry all the time? Why? Can someone be perpetually angry? Or sad. Or bitter. Or paranoid. Etc. You should know how your villain will react when they receive they favourite thing or when they lose it. You should know if your villain could fall in love and what would happen if they were abandoned by the love of their life.

Remember, they do not have villainous thoughts 24/7 after all, even Professor Moriarty spent time reading and drinking tea.

• Chronologically-Multidimensional

Has your villain been the same as a child or did they grow up to become the Great-Big-Bad? Some, like Dexter (the serial killer cos the other Dexter is still a child sooooo) were born that way, and we see him killing neighbourhood animals as a child. Compared to Anakin Skywalker who was good and his fears drove him to the dark side, leading to him becoming Darth Vader (spoiler?). Was it the old battle of “Nature vs Nurture”? Was it a natural path for them to take? What has happened from their formative years to drive them into villainy?

 

 My Antagonist

As it stands, my antagonist is just a concept. A creature who feeds on the regrets and past failings of your every day Jane/John Doe. I only realised later how close this creature is to a Dementor except Dementors can’t time travel. And they are blind. And they suck the soul out. And float about in dark cloaks. It’s the whole

“they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them.”

That part. That’s very similar to my antagonist.

Of course there is a slight twist to the tale and to tell you what that twist is, is to ruin the coming novel so I’ll leave it there. Nonetheless it will incorporate the multidimensional aspects of character building, which means this won’t be no regular demon of the night.  It will be something worse. Something… terrifying.

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How’s your’s NaNo prep going? Did you find my advice useful? Do you have a villain in your story? What are they like in one sentence?

Thanks for dropping by!

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Ke!th – No villains here, just people hurting

Deadshot #1

 

I recently bought myself a couple of DC comic books, specifically focusing on an assortment of villains we have come to know and hate – and some I met for the first time. Generally villains’ ideals, or rather the process by which they attain their ideals, is not what we would consider “good” or “of good morals” however sometimes villains are villains because someone somewhere turned them into one. Would Edward Enigma be the Riddler if not for Batman’s intellect and ability to solve every riddle? Would the Joker not tire of his antics if not for the Batman continuously foiling his plans? Would Carnage and Venom exist in the form they do had Spiderman not existed? Would Magneto have become Magneto if not for the evil that caused him to turn?

The comics I purchased look at the history of Killer Frost, the ice cold femme fatale who becomes the heat-seeking, vengeful ice queen, the iconic anti-hero, Deadshot, and his rise (or fall) into paid villainy, protector and champion of the people with an anger to boot Black Adam, and the overly-paranoid spy who wears a symbiotic membrane like skin Shadow Thief (DC’s version of Venom?).

Ke!th: Rise of a Villain #1

The last thing he remembered seeing, was the laughable piece of wood the man had swung toward his face. It should have been an easy maneuver to dodge the plank and counter, leave the man bleeding on the floor but his hands were full and his mind was focused on the score; an imprint of an exclamation mark etched into the wood and now etched into his mind; the moment he lost it all.

 

It was already a low point for Alan Hill, another day picking pockets, swindling kids on the train and mugging ladies in alleys. Frankenstein hated late payments and Alan was already late and now he had nothing to show but a rectangular bruise across his left eye. He looked down at the chess pieces before him and blinked liquid out of his swollen eye,

“Can’t see a damn thing,” he uttered in frustration, wiping the running tear off his cheek

“All I hear is excuses Al.” replied his opponent, a young man dressed in jeans and a plain black rounded t-shirt hidden below a white coat. They sat opposite one another on hard wooden stools with no backrest. The furnishing they were utilizing as a table was a make-shift wooden object that was neither table nor box.

“Do you see this swollen eye on my face?”

“Can you?”

JHB Writers – JaNoWriMo? JaNoMo?

 

This is a public declaration that by the end of January, I will have written 20 000 words.

~ Nthato Morakabi

A brave quote from a brave man, who once attempted a 50 000 word feat and achieved half, though talking to him you would have understood that time was neither friend nor foe to this aspiring author. He however, continued onward with his dream of publishing his writing and growing as a writer, which spurred his rather bold (and foolishly impulsive) public declaration. 20 000 words for the JanoWriMo January Writing Month (not official NaNo) which was started by a forum member on the Jozi Writers forum. See links below for info.

“Heroes don’t exist. And if they did, I wouldn’t be one of them.”

― Brodi Ashton, Everneath

It’s ‘mah Job

http://sid.deviantart.com/art/The-Villain-6354074

The man entered the cold bright room clutching at his arm and limping terribly. A bruised face blotched in purple and blue was barely recognizable beyond the old scar dragging along the man’s puffed cheeks; his slick black hair seemed to be the only thing ok with him.
“Peter you look like hell.” The doctor puffed out the corner of his mouth, the words intermingling with the smoke escaping from his pursed lips holding the thin white cigarette. He was an old man with hair that was more grey than black or white. A few scars lined his face, the most famous one down over his eye where a greenish-grey marbled eye glared back.

Villainous Villainy – What madness is this!?

Villain.

Defined as a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.  A knave, rascal, rapscallion, rogue, scamp.

 

When I played Dead Rising 3 this past weekend, and came face to face with this crazy psychopath, injecting hallucinogens into people, setting them loose and then running around with a surgical saw blade,  grinding into their abdomens for their liver while they were in a frenzy… I can understand why one would be described as a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness. But a knave, rascal, rapscallion, rogue, scamp? Not even close.

That sicko is a psycho. I mean, its not just the fact that it’s a freakin zombie apocalypse and he’s collecting living people’s livers instead of saving them, but the depravity in giving them hallucinogens and letting them roam so he can kill them; and he has the audacity to say “You must make use of the opportunities when they present themselves!” That is a despairing atrocity.