The Freezer Bunny Club - A Reading Circle

"Duvelina;c-17555559" wrote:
Misc.

I also have a discussion question for the group. How would you write a nuanced morally grey villain, a villain with a soft side? You don't want people to dislike them outright. You want to create some likability so it's hard to hold on to a grudge even though you really want to. He/she does some evil stuff one moment, but shows a vulnerability you can't ignore the next. How do you write someone like this in a subtle way so it doesn't seem wildly out of character?

Great question! I have several villains in my stories. I actually attended a writer's conference back in February this year and took a class on villainy! I'll share some of my notes...

Villains must...

• be an opposing force
  
• have their own code
  
• be more powerful than the protagonist
  
• be unsympathetic
  
• have bad motivations
  
• make it personal
  

Not my list... from my notes by an author named Jason Henry Evans. He also shared a quote from C.S. Lewis

People do evil as a shortcut to a good end.

Jason shared how pain drives all villainy.

Now my thoughts... villains need to be an opposing force... otherwise, there isn't much of a story. A villain and an antagonist are not the same thing. An antagonist acts as a foil. But a villain is an opposing force who acts as a catalyst for change (whether good or bad). The hero must overcome a true obstacle when facing the villain.

Villains need to be more powerful than the protagonist, otherwise, it's too easy for the protagonist.

Unsympathetic and bad motivations are pretty straightforward and self-explanatory.

Making it personal is important too. In terms of writing a good story, it's the villain's job to make us dislike, even hate them, and there's no better way than to not play fair, cross the boundaries, and make it personal.

I'll spend some time talking about the "villain code." Because you have a one-dimensional villain if the villain doesn't believe they are doing the right thing. Something, somewhere motivates them to act the way that they do and make the choices they do. It may not be for the right reasons. It could be for terrible reasons. Unjustifiable reasons. But they believe they are doing the right thing for them. And they have their own standards.

A code gives a villain depth and meaning and purpose. It helps them distinguish themselves from the "real" bad guys... or the person/people they think are "really bad." It's wrong, but it's how they view the world. The code is what gives the villain three dimensions.

This is why I always try and figure out what is motivating my villain. What their backstory is (and it's almost always tragic). Somewhere in their history someone wronged/hurt them (the pain motivator) and it influences how they view themselves and the world around them. It helps them justify their actions and choices.

Now a sympathetic villain, morally grey villain, or a villain with a soft side is when a character gets really interesting to me. Mostly because we, as the readers, can find ourselves relating to them. Had our lives turned out differently, had situations been more difficult, we, ourselves, may find ourselves sliding down a similar path. I think that's why the character that starts out a hero and slips into villainy over time is the most intriguing character in my opinion and it's fascinating to watch the descent. You almost don't blame the character for doing what they're doing. At the end of the day, is their villainous behavior justified? No. Absolutely not. But it's the morally dubious choice isn't so far-fetched.

That's why pain is always at the root.

Is your villain angry about something that was done to them? Anger manifests because it was painful. It was wrong. It deeply hurt the villain. And they choose to act out of that pain.

Is your villain heartless? Someone was probably heartless to them, or a situation was so painful, they chose to close themselves off and become cold to protect themselves from further pain.

Do they want others to suffer? Probably because they, themselves, suffered at one point or another.

Pain is a great motivator.

Your hero feels pain and you, the reader, want justice. You want them to not feel pain again. You want them to triumph over the pain.

But pain for a villain? It can increase sympathy, and deepen understanding. A villain who overcomes/triumphs over pain and makes the "right" decision at the end of the day might become a tragic hero. But more often than not, the villain...
a) comes face to face with their pain again, essentially being "broken" by the hero and may even feel remorse, but they still believe they made the right choice,
or b) chooses to bury the pain even more so, inspiring more hateful and disturbing acts as a twisted way of coping and feeling better about themselves.

A morally grey villain might experience A, making them more sympathetic, or they may manifest as B. The difference between a truly dark villain and a morally grey one is we, the readers, would need to see the villain continue to be victimized in some way so that we continue to feel sympathetic and understanding, even if we can't justify their actions.

In reality, a truly dark villain is rare where evil is their only motivator and we, the readers, don't get to see it any other way. Like Sauron in Lord of the Rings. It's almost too far-fetched and unbelievable - the embodiment of evil is pretty distant from the way us humans function.

Say a villain continues to kill magical beings on the orders of the state. A morally grey villain might wrestle with their orders and feel sympathetic toward their victims, but ultimately carry out their duty because they are afraid of the state - perhaps they are afraid of the pain they might experience if they defy the state (i.e. perhaps having to leave a spouse and family behind and flee, or perhaps they will be tortured and killed, or their family will be tortured and killed with them).

You might call the morally grey villain a pawn in some respects, a tool used by an even greater or even institutional villain. But something about them makes them really detestable and unsympathetic at the end of the day, and that's the point they always take too far. Perhaps they decide to prove themselves to the institution (the state), they will go above and beyond their duties and begin hunting down and killing even more people, or stoop to killing the families of their intended victims (the nasty things that we always cringe at as readers and feel that horrible pit in our stomachs).

I have so many more notes from this conference and class I attended. I'm happy to share more, but this has already grown quite long.