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A good villain is an important part of the story. Where is Sherlock Holmes without Moriarty, or Superman without Lex Luthor? In many stories, but especially in genre fiction, without the villain the story doesn’t even start.
And yet. What was Sauron’s motivation? Can anyone who hasn’t read the Silmarillion answer that? Why did he set out to conquer Middle Earth?
Even if your villain’s motivation isn’t revealed to the reader, his actions and his methods are defined and shaped by why he does what he does. This means that the author has to be aware of the motivations of the villain. It helps the reader, too, if they can see who the villains are and what they’re doing.
One of my personal favorite sets of villains is the People’s Republic of Haven from the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. From the very beginning, the reader has insight into what their plans are (start a war with and conquer Manticore) and why (to provide a jump-start to a totalitarian faux-communist society on the edge of failure). Understanding why they take the actions they take makes much of the action in that series believable.
The individual characters vary from honorable men trapped in the system to the revolutionary who overthrows the existing government but finds himself unable to reform the underlying issues that drove him to revolution. We are given insight into the People’s Republic of Haven throughout the entire series, we understand that they are the enemy without question, and yet we are left wondering if, in their position, we would have done any differently.
As a writer, I find it necessary to get into my villain’s heads as much as my protagonists. The motivations of the man behind most of the opposition in Starship’s Mage are actually very simple: his son was killed by one of the main characters, and he wants vengeance. His motiviation twists and turns over the novella sequence, but that desire for vengeance shapes many of the events of the story.
Understanding the motivation of your villains allows you to keep their actions and methods consistent across the length of a story. Knowing what resources your villains have is also necessary – they shouldn’t be using a cell-based semi-terrorist organization in part two, and throwing battle fleets around in part three (I’m looking at you, Mass Effect!). Motivation and resources have to either remain the same, or change in ways that make sense.
That last is also important – motivations change. The villain of Starship’s Mage changes his goals as the story progresses and he learns about the main character’s actions – but he still wants his revenge!
Remember, your villains are people, not just plot devices. The more you think of them that way, the more real they’ll seem to your readers – and the more real the challenges they put in front of your heroes will seem too!
Happy writing!
Glynn Stewart
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