Comments on: Creating a Moral Villain

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 14:35:01 +0000

In reply to Karen. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Karen!

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 26 Feb 2023 03:41:24 +0000

That backstory for the villian is so important! Great article!

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 18:46:55 +0000

In reply to Jennifer Pierce. Family always complicates things :)

By: Jennifer Pierce

Jennifer Pierce — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:53:35 +0000

My book features a MC and antagonist from the same family. They share a common backstory. One chose the path of virtue, the other chose the path of vice. It is a common scenario, but it has been fun developing these characters. It is easy for the antagonist to push buttons and cause tons of havoc in the protagonist’s life.

By: Raymond Walker

Raymond Walker — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 18:59:05 +0000

I like things to be ambiguous, where you are unsure of who is the villain and who is the hero. This comes from writing too many mysteries back in the day, but I find it difficult to pull myself away. Anyway, I do like the format where each character could be obvious or….
Of course, this leads to difficult writing, telling the tale whilst giving nothing away. Not even the true characters. Yet they must be likeable/ Difficult/so many other traits (lol- choose) and all the things a normal character would be without giving anything away at all whilst the story goes on around them. All leading up to a reveal in the concluding chapter. I know this idea is not for everyone but it has served me well over the years.

By: V.M. Sang

V.M. Sang — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:08:19 +0000

A fabulous post, Becca. In my Wolves of Vimar series, I know, and have from the inception of the series, the backstory of my antagonist. Yes, he was a normal little boy, but circumstances in his life made him what he became. He is also charming.

By: MINDY ALYSE WEISS

MINDY ALYSE WEISS — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 20:05:34 +0000

In reply to Jan Sikes.

Hi Jan. If done well, readers will enjoy a story where the antagonist is the MC! Alex Flinn does an amazing job of this. Beastly, which was turned into a movie, is told from the Beast’s point of view.

Alex Flinn’s book, Breathing Underwater….which has been extremely popular, is told from the abusive boyfriend’s point of view. I’ve seen it on tons of school reading lists through the years.

Becca’s amazing post shows why books like these can work well. I think you should write that story!

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 20:02:01 +0000

In reply to Mike Van. Sounds like you've got a good cast of antagonists to make life difficult for your hero. And you've illustrated a great point: that not all antagonists are villains. There are so many different kinds of adversaries you can use to block your character—so many, that we devoted a chapter to this in the 1st volume of The Conflict Thesaurus. :)

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 19:59:15 +0000

In reply to Jan Sikes. Jan, so many people really like anti-hero stories, where the hero is kind of a bad guy. So I wouldn't shy away from telling this kind of story if you're passionate about the project. There are lots of resources online (we even have a few posts here) on how to write antiheroes well. I say go for it ;).

By: Mike Van

Mike Van — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 19:35:58 +0000

In my sci fi trilogy, I have several antagonists. I hesitate to call them villlains:
– An Army general who’s pushy in going after what he wants, skirts the law, threatens my protagonist. But he’s just doing what his job requires. No violence, just nastiness and harassment.
– An astrophysicist hired by the government to wheedle and threaten secrets from the protagonist about the alien spaceship she has hidden. But he’s torn. He takes her to the desert to see a concealed alien artifact. And he loves her music, and secretly records bootleg copies of her performances. At the end, he begs forgiveness.
– Other governments try to destroy the alien spaceship with her in it. They want its technology; but if they can’t have it, nobody can. Her spaceship outsmarts them.
– On the alien world, she is confronted by the massive Elder, who is threatening and intimidating her allies. It has a horrible reputation, but when it finally sees her, it stands up to its full height, loses balance, and tips over. It fears she has an alien horde to come invade their planet.
Her allies are equally diverse.

By: Jan Sikes

Jan Sikes — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 14:06:38 +0000

This is SO good, Becca. I backed away from writing a series because the MC was a villain, and I needed a hero. But I saw the antagonist perfectly and have to wonder if readers would read a story where the antoginist was the MC. Thank you for sharing this and I totally agree that the most terrifying villains are the ones who were once normal like me and you but life twisted them. Thanks for sharing!