The believable villain...

Either could be a villian. Anybody could be a villian. Explore your villian. They have to have an impetus for meanness. Go back to where they snapped. Write from there to discover their inner thoughts. They'll tell you why they are the way they are. They are holding either a lot of pain or a lot of hostility. Your's is to find out why.

Who says a dirty cop can't be female? And said female could happen to be a nasty mother-in-law...

I agree that anyone can be a villain. Just don't make him/her 100% evil, because that just doesn't exist. Even the most vile people have some redeeming qualities, and this becomes especially obvious if you ever work from the antagonist's pov...which I LOVE doing. My antagonist is my favorite char to write as. Thing you have to be careful about with that...make sure he/she remains the antagonist.

I don't think its so much about who your villain is as it is about WHO your villain is. A well written villain is more than a type. He's the other side of your hero. If things had been different they would be your hero.

Don't make your villain evil at all....that is, whilst you're in his head. No believable villain does anything he considers evil. It's all justified to the hilt in some twisted, crazed way. IN fact...a truly believable villain will portray himself the victim.

Getting the twisted logic right I always find the hardest part. If you want an object lesson in how to do this extremely well, read Thomas Harris's Red Dragon.

Here's something that I read somewhere, but I cant remember where, that I think will help you create the best villain ever.

Every villain thinks he is the hero of his own story.

Not every villian. Occasionally, I like to write a villian who enjoys BEING the villain. That is, he fully knows that he's the thorn in everyone's paw, and is confident and happy in his evilness.

What I really love is finding out WHY this villian has the thoughts/ideas/actions that he/she has. What brought this person to this point, was it something major? Was it a gradual thing? Did a once-happy, regular person just suddenly snap - and if so, what happened to cause that?

I realize you may not want too much of that backstory involved IN your story, but that's what makes me enjoy writing the villian's part so much - knowing that, even if it's not necessary for me to show that to the reader. Even more fun if it is, though

I agree that sometimes, it's fun to write a villain who's just plain nasty.

My villan-y protags don't exactly consider themselves heroes...they're pretty screwed up because of what they've done. Not quite a hero, just somebody out to fix things for themself.

How about a mother-in-law who is a dirty cop?

jk

If you want a believable villain you will need to understand him/her as well as or better than your MC. The villain can be more fun to write than the hero, especially if you really dive into what drives them to do what they do.

To be honest I enjoy some villains more than some heroes. But if you just pick a type and don't flesh them out they won't be believable.

The only kind of crazed evil villain who is believable, is the the mentally broken kind. Someone who is psychopathic or schizophrenic, someone who can't tell right from wrong, can't empathise with others at all, or has no grasp of reality. I think of these people as ill rather than evil. I'm not sure how well they would work as the main antagonist of the story.

Silence of the Lambs and The Cell employed such villains. I found those movies ok, but not great. But I find it more disturbing and compelling if I can empathise with the villain in some way.

nevada said:

Here's something that I read somewhere, but I cant remember where, that I think will help you create the best villain ever.

Every villain thinks he is the hero of his own story.

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That reminds me of acting technique. Actors who play villains understand that they must play their characters as if they are good, at least in their own minds. These characters believe in themselves, no matter how the rest of us may judge them. If they see themselves as evil, they come across like the mustachioed villains from the old melodramas who tied the heroine to the railroad tracks.

I don't think that a villain must believe he is the good guy or doing the right thing, although it is compelling when you can do this. But I think you can have a villain aware that he is doing the wrong thing as long as you have a convincing reason why he is doing this. There are people who will kill for money, and not always to get their child a dialysis machine or whatever. Well, if you create a vivid character and explain why this person can value money more than anything else in life, that will work.

The utterly brilliant Ruth Rendell novel, A Judgment in Stone, begins by explaining -- in its first sentence! -- who the killer is, who was killed, and the motive. But the motive seems so incredibly unlikely that you go, what? And immediately you dive in to see how this could possibly be true. Rendell goes on to build a very full portrait of her murderer, a sociopathic woman who not only doesn't think she's doing the right thing but is probably completely numb to the very notion of there ever being a "right thing" to do. But her actions are believable, and ultimately, so is her motive. Meanwhile, Rendell also coaxes the readers to care deeply about the victims, and as the plot moves inexorably toward the horror you know is coming, it becomes impossible to look away.

Sorry, I was gushing a bit! But it's a phenomenal, very powerful novel -- and it goes to show that you can have interesting, believable villains without a sense of their own righteousness. As long as you have a three-dimensional character as your villain, and that person has motives beyond adjusting his red cape and twirling his mustache, you are well on your way.

7-foot tall space alien who masquerades as a mother-in-law to lure armed humans into close combat so he can take trophies of their skulls and spines.

Being the hero of your own story doesnt mean believing you're the good guy. It means believing that you are the most important and that the story is really about you. That what you do is the right thing and that everyone else is wrong. Right does not equate good.

Remember also that in the beginning of your story, the villain must be smarter than your protagonist. If the protag and the villain were to meet in the climactic showdown in the beginning of your book, the villain should win. It is the progat's journey that gives him the skills and knowledge to defeat the villain.(Antagonist) If the protag could beat teh antag right from the start, he would just do it and the book would be less than one chapter long.

they also need to work for the government and speak german. jk.

villains tend to be self-righteous regardless of their mental state. some 'villainy' is even justifiable depending on what perspective you're looking from. and some villainy is necessary, as in 'the ends justify the means' philosophy (a moral qualm for the hero, not so much for the bad guy). some people are completely unaware of the villainy they do, such as your average wal*mart shopper or MDA telethon donor.

for more research about pure evil, i can provide a photo of my sister-in-law.

OK, if I have to vote on one or the other...I would say the mother in law.
Dirty cops are a dime a dozen in the media.

But its the author who makes the villain believable.

I would offer this advice: Look at both suspects and decide on which one would be more fun for you to write about...and thats the one to go with.

good advice: go with the one you're most interested in.

dirty cops are cliche? say it ain't so, joe! hm, now that i think about it, most villains are pretty cliche, no?

religious fanatics what hate chicks....

nazis who think they're the master race and all else should die....

CEOs who kill for the privilege of laying off a thousand workers....

the clerk who just can't bear to service another customer....

the hooker who kills her johns (see the religious fanatic. there's a real 'war of the roses' angle to be played out here)....

the stalker who 'just likes to watch'... until his 'girlfriend's' b/f pulls up in a camaro....

the evil baron von ravenscroft who taxes the poor and rapes their animals....

it would be an endless list....

How abour a deranged author who snaps because she can't get published.