Backstory is the Past. It’s all the events and time that are
behind your characters and readers. It’s intricate and complex and sometimes a
little vague and quite often you don’t have enough or else far too much.
The equilibrium of backstory can be hard to achieve. There is such a thing as too much backstory detail.
But I’m not here to talk about that, I’m here to talk about
villains (I mean, look at the title). Last week, I talked about a specific type
of backstory, the kind that creates the motivation and humanity of your
villain.
In the attempt to find a strong villain, we’ve examined the
Past. Today, I’d like to examine the Present
Darkness in Turmoil
Does your villain ever wonder why? Why they chose the “dark side”? Why they do what they do? It’s
often found in novels that the main character and the ally will have to examine
what they’re doing, affirm their faith in what is right.
Why should it be any different for the villain?
At every point in our lives, we will all question our
actions. Those actions may be far more… innocent, than those of the villain,
but we question them nonetheless.
It’s perfectly normal and natural to question one’s actions.
It keeps us alive and less likely to do stupid things. Our instinct to question keeps us safe.
And it also happens to make characters real.
When your main character questions the righteous side, we
perceive them as human. It makes us cheer all the louder when they decide to
stick with what we know is right.
The villain needs to
doubt themselves. It’s a natural thing to do, so why don’t our villains do
it? Even the Dark Lord of All Evil has to wonder: “am I doing the right thing?”
Of course, to be a real villain, he has to decide “yes”, but
your reader needs and wants to see the struggle given to that decision. We have to see the questions asked and
answered, even if we disagree with the answer. In fact, we should disagree with the answer. That’s
how you know their a villain.
Well-placed Doubt
Sure, your villain needs to doubt their own motives, but
which ones? Every character has a dozen actions they perform, a dozen ways in
which they choose to change and be changed. Which ones do they doubt?
Turns out, it’s different for every villain, because every
villain is different. They won’t all have the same situation and questions that
need to be addressed and struggled with.
But there are a few things that can create good tension and
struggle through the villain’s doubt:
-Have them question
the hero’s ‘wrong’. According the story (and the ideas of right and wrong),
the hero is right, but according to the villain, the hero is wrong. But is he
really? When the villain wonders about
the hero’s relative ‘wrongness’, you’ll show a realistic character. Just as
the hero should question his righteousness, so the villain should question
their belief in he hero’s unrighteousness.
-Let the villain
question their abilities. Many villains are powerful and influential
people. Even if they’re poor, they hold some kind of power over the main
character. Whether this power is political, religious, familial, magical, or
something else, it makes them thirst for more, it’s what drives them to press
on.
But what if that
power isn’t enough?
Heroes always get the heavy hand of doubt placed on their
shoulder. They’re always doubting their abilities to fight, to win, to endure. So should the villain. As the saying
goes, “every villain is the hero of their own story”.
Now, the villain should be powerful and they should know it.
They can accept their massive amount of power while still doubting it. They can
wonder if it’s enough and it can drive your reader to a new level of empathy.
A good example of this comes from J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (mild spoilers
ahead… skip to next bullet if you wish to avoid them). See,
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was scared of Dumbledore. HWMNBN – as I like to call
him – knew more of the Dark Arts than any wizard, he was second to none and
held power and influence. He nearly took over the entire wizarding world…
twice. Yet… he feared that Dumbledore could finish him. Even after HWMNBN
achieved near-immortality he was wary of facing the man who taught him.
He doubted his strength against the mentor of our young
hero, and that is a powerful way to make us pity HWMNBN even as we hate him.
-Let the villain
doubt his own motivation. You know that thing I talked about last week? The
failed attempt of the villain to put themselves together? Usually, the villain
doesn’t think of it as failed. They don’t fully realize how much they managed
to break and bend and twist in their recreation of their lives. Sometimes,
however, let them wonder if they did
something wrong. This moment of
“what if all I’m thinking is wrong?” will shake your villain and the readers to
their core. And when the villain shakes off the feeling and denies the idea of
their wrongness, then the reader will cringe and the villain will become that
much more real.
When the Conscience Stops By
All this doubt and turmoil has to come into your story
somehow, if you want those elements to make a difference, right? If so, when?
The villain needs to doubt, but they can’t just doubt at any random time when
your novel has a spare moment.
Take a moment and look at your novel from the POV of the
villain. If you have an outline, take it out and examine it from their viewpoint. Oftentimes, the hero
has an “inciting incident” when they’re thrust forward into the story after the
goal.
When is your villain’s inciting incident?
That is a time for
doubt. It’s when the villain should look at their power and their abilities
and wonder “can I do this”. When your hero starts his journey, he has similar
thoughts. He thinks “I’m just a normal guy, I’m nothing special”. She wonders
“how can I make a difference when I’m just… me?”
Let your villain do the same.
Now, I realize that your villain may not have an inciting
incident within the pages of your novel. It’s common for villains to start
working toward their goals long before the hero even comes into the story.
That’s okay. It just means you won’t be able to show this doubt in your story
directly. You’ll have to hint at it over time.
Next comes the idea of the “Total Acceptance”, the part of
the novel in which the main character chooses to dive in headfirst, regardless
of the consequence. There’s no backing out at this point. When does this happen
for the villain?
After all, everyone
has a chance to say no. They can decide to back down. The villain doesn’t have to become a murderer, a thief, to allow
corruption, to allow darkness to seep into their soul. But they choose to
embrace it, and that’s what makes them the villain.
At this time, however, is when you should flood your villain
with doubt. They should doubt their own power, their abilities, they should
doubt their motivation.
Just as the heroine stops to wonder at the usefulness of her
involvement, so should the villain.
Finally, there is the Black Moment, the Dark Night of the
Soul, the Pit of Despair. When your character is at their weakest. For your
villain, this is often reflected by your main character’s victory. It’s often
found during the climax of the story (whereas the main character’s comes before the climax, for the most part).
The villain is certain of victory and then the hero somehow manages to yank it
from their grasp.
The villain is devastated. They’re angry and confused and
fearful and then the doubt begins to edge at the back of their mind: “what if
the hero is right?”
It will make the villain shiver and it will drive them to
say “No. I’m still right… I can do this.” It leads to the act impulsively, in
many cases, and leads to their ultimate defeat.
Weaving Doubt into Daring
This post might make it seem like I want you to make your
villain a scared little coward, but that’s not what I mean at all. You can show
doubt and have worries without being fearful or cowardly. Even the bravest and
most powerful people in the world have doubts, at times.
Now, all the examples I’ve given of times for you to let
your villain experience doubt are exactly that: examples. You can insert this
doubt wherever it fits best into your story, where it feels most natural. I
just point out the places where the doubt is often most obvious and comes as a
direct result from common story threads.
It will be different for every story.
Thing is, villains that feel doubt, that feel any emotion at
all, are often far stronger than the villains that are shown with nothing but
power and strength.
It’s a paradox.
A wonderful, beautiful paradox.
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